Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs

How Australia's Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses ... And How You Can Too

Bernadette Schwerdt

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780730320364
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Imprenditoria
• Index: Business

Discover the secrets of success behind Australia's top online businesses and maximise your own online potential

Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs is the ultimate 'how to' guide for creating, building, and selling an online business. Packed with inspiring stories of how some of Australia's most successful online entrepreneurs built their businesses, these internet mavericks will reveal the secrets of their success and provide valuable insights into how anyone with a hobby, passion, or innovative business idea can take advantage of the vast opportunities that a global market now offers.

Whether you want to build an online business from scratch or amplify your existing online presence, these hard-hitting interviews will give you the practical tools, tips, and strategies you need to fast-track your business idea and take it from concept to completion. You'll discover what industries are ready for disruption, how to spot a profitable niche, how to growth hack a database, why most online businesses fail, how to access a vast array of free tools to help you get your online idea off the ground, and much more. Most importantly, you'll discover why there's never been a better time to launch an online business.

• Discover the 7-step process for building an online business that will exponentially increase your likelihood of success
• Learn how to measure, test, and evaluate demand for an online product or service before you launch it
• Access the templates, cheat sheets, websites, and apps used by the entrepreneurs to build their businesses and learn how you can apply them to your business too.

Don't miss this next wave of industry disruption. Get on board the internet express and snare a slice of the pie for what promises to be one of the most transformational times in business history.

CHAPTER ONE
PURPOSE

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.

Sidney Howard

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What's your vision?

There was a boat docked in a tiny Greek village. A man in a business suit complimented the Greek fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

‘Not very long,' answered the fisherman.

‘But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?' asked the businessman.

The fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The businessman asked, ‘But what do you do with the rest of your time?'

‘I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children and take a nap with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few glasses of ouzo, sing a few songs and dance all night … I have a full life.'

The man interrupted, ‘Sir, I have an MBA and can help you. You should fish more, and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. In no time you could have several boats and eventually you would have a fleet. Then, instead of selling your catch to the middleman, you could sell directly to the consumers. You can then leave this little village and move to Athens, London or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge enterprise'.

‘How long would that take?' asked the fisherman.

‘Twenty, perhaps 25 years,' replied the man.

‘And after that?'

‘Afterwards? That's when it gets really interesting,' answered the businessman, laughing. ‘When your business gets really big, you can start selling online to an international audience, launch an IPO and make millions!'

‘Millions? Really? And after that?'

‘After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, fish a little, play with your children and take a nap with your wife. In the evenings, you can go into the village to see your friends, have a few glasses of ouzo, sing a few songs and dance all night … you can have a full life.'

What do you want? Easy to ask. Hard to answer.

Do you want a home-based business that fits in around the school pick-up hours, that delivers the income level you need and that gives you the freedom to do as you please, when you please, with whom you please?

Do you want a multimillion-dollar, publicly listed start-up that gets you on the cover of the BRW magazine Rich List edition, sees you jetsetting around the world and provides a glittering lifestyle to match?

Maybe you've already got a successful business and you just want to incorporate some smart online strategies that will increase your revenue without increasing your costs.

Whatever your vision for creating an online business, what's important is that you understand why you're doing it and what you want from it.

Make a decision: lifestyle vs equity

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

Henry David Thoreau

The Greek fisherman referenced in the opening story certainly knew what he wanted.

In online terms, he had what's known as a ‘lifestyle business'.

Conventionally speaking, lifestyle businesses typically have limited scalability and potential for growth because such growth would destroy the lifestyle for which their owner-managers set them up. But for those who want to live a certain lifestyle — one that fits in with their family, that enables them to live near the beach (and drink ouzo for lunch and have a siesta with their wives) — or who just want to create a part-time income while they work full time elsewhere, then a lifestyle business is a fantastic and not-to-be-scoffed-at objective.

This of course is in contrast to an equity or growth business, where the owner intends to build real assets with a tangible value that can be bought and sold either as shares or as the entire business. Success to a business owner of this nature would be defined as the increase in value of the business over time.

These are very different scenarios. ‘Equity' or ‘lifestyle' is a fundamental decision you need to make when you're starting out.

What's important is that you do it consciously. I built my online business unconsciously. I didn't have a plan and I wasn't working to a system that would guarantee an outcome. Reflecting on the interviews I conducted with the entrepreneurs for this book, I can see that some of them (but certainly not all) did not have a vision for their business at the outset either.

At some point, however, each entrepreneur had to make a decision: to invest in the business and grow — hire staff, seek investors, rent premises and dig in for the long haul — or to acknowledge it's a lifestyle business and be happy with the level of income that generates.

If you're contemplating going into business with a partner, determine whether you would both answer the same way. Neither is good or bad. It's just, which one is for you?

Like the Greek fisherman, know your outcome before you begin.

Key questions to consider before setting up your online business

Before you launch into creating an online business, or even amending an existing business to make it more online savvy, there are a number of questions you need to consider. By answering these in advance, you will save yourself a lot of time and effort.

• What's the best business model for you?
• Should you follow the passion or the profit?
• What will you sell?
• What problem are you solving?
• Should you start with the end in mind?
• What business are you in?
• What challenges should you expect?
• Should you give up your day job to get it started?

What's the best business model for you?

Do you want a lifestyle business or a growth business?

Paul Greenberg, co-founder of Deals Direct, Australia's first online department store, has this to say:

You must be very clear about what you are looking for from the business. Is it a lifestyle business, or do you want to develop world domination and take on Amazon? There is a view in this new economy that you need to get big or you need to get out. That you have two choices: go for growth or find a niche that's underserviced. What's most important, however, in my opinion, is ‘to thine own self be true'.

Kylie Bartlett, author of the best-selling book Friends with Benefits, has a very clear vision for her business.

I built a very successful corporate training business that had 25 staff and turned over millions, but now I know one thing: I don't want staff! I'm a gypsy. I want a lifestyle business that enables me to travel when and where I want, and work from a beach, a café or a car. I don't want the hassles of turning up to an office every day and managing people. My online business supports my lifestyle, not the other way around.

Matt Barrie, co-founder of the world's biggest outsourcing marketplace, Freelancer (www.freelancer.com), has a very different viewpoint.

Don't think about building a business that's going to be a lifestyle business. Think about a business that's going to be in a billion-dollar-plus market because if you miss then you've still got a good opportunity to do well. But if you aim for a niche market it's sometimes a struggle. And the internet is so scalable. There's two billion people on the internet so if you get some success, it can take off quite quickly. Like Pinterest, which is really just scrapbooking online and a pretty simple concept, which came out of nowhere to be the sixteenth biggest website on the internet in one year. So there is opportunity out there.

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Tip

Think big. If you fail, you've still got a chance of succeeding.

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Getting clear about the sort of business you want to run is one of the first steps towards creating a successful online business.

Passion or profit: what should you follow?

Now that you've thought about the scale of the business you want to build, it's time to consider what you'll sell.

Sell what people want: ‘go for the cash'

Booktopia (www.booktopia.com.au) co-founder Tony Nash recalls a formative experience at a business conference held by business motivator and author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki:

Robert instru...

Table of contents

• COVER
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• FOREWORD
• THE AUTHOR'S STORY
• PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER ONE PURPOSE
• CHAPTER TWO PEOPLE
• CHAPTER THREE PLANNING
• CHAPTER FOUR PROFIT
• CHAPTER FIVE POSITIONING
• CHAPTER SIX PROFILE
• CHAPTER SEVEN PROMOTION
• TAKE ACTION: THE SEVEN-STEP ACTION PLAN TO CREATING A WILDLY SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS
• APPENDIX 1 THE TOP FREE APPS EVERY ONLINE ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS WHEN STARTING OUT
• APPENDIX 2 THE COPYWRITER'S CREATIVE BRIEF
• INDEX
• ADVERT
• EULA