What You Will Need to Start Your Online Business

Let’s talk about exactly what you will need to be successful in starting your online business. Therefore, completing this course with a completed website, that’s already growing in the world of Google, and even social media.

1. Laptop or Desktop Computer

You will need a laptop or desktop computer. Cell phones and mobile devices will not work as a supplement. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen in the past is people trying to work almost exclusively on their mobile device.

I’m sorry. A tablet won’t cut it either. There are some things you can do from a mobile device, but most tasks you should perform on a laptop, or desktop computer.

2. Two Screens – A Dual Monitor Setup

With that said, you should also have a second monitor. A dual screen monitor setup makes working much easier and will, over time, make you much more productive. Those of you that already do this already know.

Also, you can keep the course videos up on one monitor, and work on the other. It will make it much easier to follow along with me. If you look at my setup, you can see that I have a laptop with 2 additional monitors. That’s 3 screens total. Then I have another laptop as well.

You don’t need a setup this elaborate, but I prefer it to keep my productivity high, and make the best use of my time. Time is your most valuable asset. Remember that.

3. An Idea or Solution to a Problem – A Niche

You will also need an idea, or solution to a problem. Possibly an untapped niche. You need to have some idea of what you are planning.

Plain and simple, the online business I will be building alongside you will actually be competing in a very saturated market, with a lot of long-time players as competitors. This will be the first time I attempt to compete in such a large market.

Also, it will be an informative affiliate website. I’m simply going to try to get traffic to my website and recommend other websites, products, and services to people. It is going to be a pet blog.

I’m going to start off by focusing on the most popular pet in the United States… Dogs. And you know what? I’m excited about it because I love my dog and can’t wait to build good content.

Remember, you could be selling a course, own a local business, be an attorney… You could even be selling yourself as a consultant. That’s what I used to do in the beginning. 

If you are a graphic designer, feel free to do tutorials to help people figure out how you make such awesome work. If you own a restaurant in a local area, you could blog about the area you’re in, or create content about being in the restaurant business.

When I setup my content marketing, my content is focused toward my demographic that I’m selling to. Then I sell them my own product right on the page. Essentially, I monetize by advertising my own product instead of someone else’s. A restaurant could offer coupons on their website. An attorney or graphic artist could have a free consultation contact form.

You could also be trying to make an affiliate website, like I’m going to do in this course. The possibilities are endless. Think about your business idea, and the goals you want to achieve from having a successful website.

Many times, the goal is to “Grow Your Audience”. Once you grow your audience the demographic you need, you can put whatever you want in front of them over and over again. Continue to think about your business idea and your goals.

4. A Bit of Writing Skills – Or Willingness to Learn

The next thing you will need is a little bit of writing skills. If writing really isn’t your thing, if you just hate it or absolutely can’t do it, you will have to outsource your writing to someone else.

There’s actually a few really inexpensive options for this that we can talk about later. Either way, if you want to be on the web, you or someone working for you is going to have to write, at least a little bit. If you have any employees, maybe some of them like to write as well?

Now, there will be some tips and tricks to help you properly go through the writing process. Just follow along with me when the time comes to do some writing. Honestly, a common mistake I’ve seen over the years that ALWAYS holds people back, is that they never end up writing good content for their website. Or any at all for that matter. It can seriously cause your whole business to fail.

It means there’s nothing to read, and there’s nothing for Google to crawl to rank and index your website. That alone will destroy most of your ranking factors. If you don’t have content, you may as well not have a website.

So, there’s something that you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO  keep in mind during this process, and this is important.

“Once you put in the work, it’s done and it’s there forever.” I’m going to say it again to help you remember. “Once you put in the work, it’s done and it’s there forever.”

Once you put in the work, build the content, and put it online, it’s done and there forever. Don’t forget that! I’m going to keep reminding you throughout this course. But still, remember it!

5. A $500 Budget

You will also need about a $500 budget. Now, there are some really nice tools you could pickup along the way if you want to push $1000, but they aren’t necessary. Some of them are time-savers, and since time is my most valuable asset, I don’t mind investing a little extra to save time.

If you outsource your content writing, you could be spending a lot more. Again we will go over this later, but the amount it would cost really depends on your business, and how competitive or saturated it is.

However, I highly suggest that you just suck it up and do the writing yourself. At least at first. It’s a good learning experience and you have complete control over how both Google, and people view your online business.

Seriously, there’s so much out there that is easy to do for your business, if you just put in the work.

6. Some Time – 5 to 15 Hours per Week

You will need 5 to 15 hours per week to spend on this. Don’t get me wrong. You can take a week off here or there. You can go a little slower or faster if you like. You can spend more time on it as well. It’s not set in stone how much you work on it. But you should try to be consistent as much as possible.

So many people get started, then slack off after a couple of weeks. Next thing you know, they haven’t touched it in a year. Remember, once you build it, it’s there forever. So build it. Don’t lose sight of your goal.

7. Time, Dedication, and Consistency

This next item is so important. You will need to have some level of time, dedication, and consistency. If you don’t have these things, why are you trying to start or grow a business?

This is the factor that makes the difference between Successful and unsuccessful. If you want to have a successful online business, you need to have time, dedication, and consistency for it.

8. A Separate and Dedicated Gmail Account

Finally, you will need a separate and dedicated Gmail account for your online business.

There are many reasons for having a separate, dedicated Gmail account. First of all, Gmail is reliable and you can access it from any device. Additionally, you will need a Google account (which comes with Gmail) for some of the analytics, marketing, and other software we will be using to start our online business and website.

Furthermore, you will be getting a LOT of junk email. Why? That’s just how it works. But you definitely want all of this junk email, spam, advertising, and promotions going to a dedicated email account that isn’t your personal / most used account.

The bottom line is, you need a Gmail account. If you aren’t willing to setup a separate and dedicated Gmail account, online business might not be right for you. It’s really that important.