Starting an online business can be scary. There are lots of uncertainties that make us wonder whether it is worth the effort or not. I understand where you are coming from. I, too, had the same dilemma when I started to focus my resources on the internet several years ago. Who wants to spend time and money on something that will yield no return?
Yet today I can confidently say I made the right call in taking the plunge. Having an online business is one of the best things that has happened in my life. If you are on the fence about taking your efforts on the web, I hope you will find this post helpful.
Here are the reasons why starting an online business is totally worth it.
If you want to read the backstory on how I made the decision to go 100% online, check it out here: Assets and Liabilities Management: Our simple plan to financial freedom.
1. It greatly reduces overhead costs.
This alone made my transition from offline to online worth it. I saved about $5,000 on monthly expenses when I closed down our brick-and-mortar stores and started working at home. The move I made immediately gave me a return on investment.
Here is an overview of my savings each month:
| No more rent | – $700 |
| No more wages | – $1,140 |
| Less commute | – $152 |
| Kids can now be homeschooled | – $116 |
| Home and work share the same utilities | – $100 |
| Miscellaneous (Food, clothing, etc.) | – $792 |
Check out more financial benefits when working online: 8 Financial Benefits You Can Enjoy As A Stay-At-Home Dad.
2. It can earn income passively.
I dislike the phrase “passive income” because of how people use it to conduct deceptive schemes. I feel like throwing up every time I hear people say it. Yet, I cannot think of a better way to describe one of the main reasons why I invested in online businesses.
If you haven’t heard about passive income, it is a way of earning money without active participation. It is income that is not too much attached to time and effort. Some examples of passive income streams are rentals, dividends, royalties, interest, product sales, and more.
This is the first image I ever posted when I got into the internet business. It is special to me because this photo gave me earnings of about $9,600 in two years. — and it took me what, thirty minutes? To shoot, edit, write a caption and upload it online. Even today, I still get some inquiries about our bus rental service. Unfortunately, I have already pivoted to another business ever since Covid-19 obliterated it.
Starting an online business is worth it, especially for us dads. Many people wonder how my wife and I found the time to work while parenting two kids. Well, here is your answer. There are no other avenues right now where we can publish content for less than an hour and spend the rest of the day with our children — and still earn a decent income. I’m sorry for the little exaggeration with the time, but I hope you got my point.
Of course, having an online company does not imply we do not need to do anything. There is still a lot of work to do, but at least we are not paid based on our time. We are paid based on the quality of content we put online.
Read How Much Do Stay At Home Dads Make to know how much I have earned online since 2017.
3. Online businesses are always open.
Another reason why online businesses are worth investing in is that they have the potential to make sales 24/7. It needs a little technical know-how to work, but businesses on the web are generally always open.
Based on a study of 1,000 people, 60 percent say they have made online purchases from 12 am to 4 am. Unless you hire people or make yourself stay up during those hours, there is no other way of serving late-night shoppers than having a website.
With the right funnel system or workflow, websites can take care of our businesses automatically while we sleep. To give you a better idea, here is the simplified workflow of Chromebook Store PH:
| STEP 1: AWARENESS |
| Our workflow begins when a person visits our website or Facebook page. We generally use search engine marketing and Facebook ads to create awareness and drive traffic to our sites. |
| STEP 2: ENGAGEMENT |
| Once there’s a visitor, our website will serve them valuable content such as photos, videos, and articles relating to our products. There is also a chat button where they can get answers to frequently asked questions. |
| STEP 3: CONVERSION |
| After engaging our audience, the next step is to encourage them to act. Our two main calls to action are ‘chat with us’ and ‘buy now’. People who are ready to make purchases can use the buy now button to pay for their orders. As for those who have further inquiries, they can leave their questions via the chat button. We manually schedule deliveries and respond to queries during office hours. |
| STEP 4: RETARGET |
| After a successful transaction, our customers will receive a request to give us a review, sign up to our mailing list, or a referral. Rinse and repeat. |
It will take time to put an automation like this in place. But once it is up, you will be serving more customers around the clock.
Read the Stay-At-Home Dad Schedule if you want to know how I spend my day.
4. Online businesses are here to stay.
Confession time: I actually didn’t want to have an online business. I had a stigma about them not being real businesses. Can you seriously build a company with pictures, videos, and texts? I was skeptical. I did not think anyone can earn real money on the internet.
But we all know how wrong I was now.
Based on a report, even in the season of a pandemic, global e-commerce retail sales are projected to hit a new high of $4.9 trillion by the end of 2021. That’s a 256% growth rate from $1.3 trillion in 2014!
But here is a more interesting stat, e-commerce sales are consistently chomping on the worldwide retail market. Purchases made online are expected to take up 17.5% of the total global retail sales by the end of the year.
Our efforts on the web are worth it because online businesses are here to stay. They are not a fad. E-commerce is legit and it is growing every day.
Check out How To Become A Stay-At-Home Dad to get a step-by-step guide on how to transition to an online business.
Bonus: It’s fun.
Can there be more worth it than our ability to enjoy work?
According to a global poll conducted by Gallup, 85% of people hate their jobs. And one of the top reasons why they are unhappy with their career is because of meaningless work.
This is perhaps one of the most overlooked opportunities online: the freedom to create businesses around our passions.
Question: What are you doing right now that you were already doing ten years ago, and would like to continue doing ten years from now, regardless of the situation?
This is what we asked ourselves when my wife and I were brainstorming for our online businesses. My answer was writing and hers was working with diamonds. And that is the reason why I have this blog today, and she has an online jewelry store.
The internet is a place where work and play can co-exist.
What about you?
The World Wide Web is always changing. Despite the information presented above, no one can say for sure what will happen to the online industry in the next few years. We see its historical data, we see its potential. But aside from that, we cannot promise what future e-businesses will have. There is also no guarantee whether we will make good money or not.
But if we find joy and meaning in what we are doing every day, it is already worth it.
Check out our recommended tools to help you get started with your online business.
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Thank you for reading!
