The number of people using the Internet in almost every aspect of their daily lives is growing at an increasingly rapid rate. It is no longer just available for the younger generation, wealth entrepreneur or people who are techno savvy. With the Internet now being available in almost every house hold and every smart phone it is no surprise the home business model has moved to the online realm.
The major difference between a home business and online home business is that the majority of sales, service and transactions is conducted online. With the Internet being so flexible many people have simply just moved the majority of their home business to the World Wide Web where it is much easier for a small business owner to get started and be successful.
1. Start-up and On-going Costs.
Cost is one of the major factors that stop many people from running their own business. Small offline businesses can easily cost anywhere between $10k to $250k to get started and for most people this is a significant risk, especially if the home is being used as collateral to fund the loan. The great news is that online business can usually be run from free to an average of $1k to $2k with ongoing costs as low as $30 a month thereby reducing the risk to a great extent.
2. Time to Launch.
Offline business can easily take weeks if not months to launch opening day. Launching a fast food franchise can take a few weeks to set up all the equipment and train the staff even though is it systemized. Nowadays many network marketing or multi level marketing businesses are run online with the majority having a plug and play nature. Once you buy the start-up package you are usually given your own website and squeeze page to start promoting straight away.
3. Risk and Flexibility.
With an online home business your target demographic can essentially be anywhere in the world. You are not restricted by location unlike a small business in a shopping centre or town. You have the flexibility to target different countries in your advertising campaign and even completely change your business to another niche or industry without having to fork out big dollars.
4. Leverage and Marketing.
Marketing through the newspaper, radio or television can significantly increase the overheads of your offline business. Even then there is no guarantee that customers will visit your store or restaurant. You could essentially be running an ineffective advertising campaign and wasting thousands of dollars. In the online world advertising can be done on a performance basis, where you only get charged for advertising based on the amount of potential customers that actually visit your website or online store.
With those four differences mentioned it is no surprise that people as young as 12 years of age or people as mature as 70 years of age can be running their very own business from home. With online shopping still being in its infancy stage it is a great time to get started at home with your very own small business online.
