More and more people are realizing the potential that having an online business gives them to increase their income or free them from their nine-to-five jobs. But the unfortunate truth is that most new e-businesses fail. One of the biggest reasons is that, all too often, eCommerce newcomers dive right in, without first learning how to start and run a business right. Many Baby Boomers have lost their life savings because they didn’t invest the time and effort into studying the ropes of selling online.
Get Guidance Before You Begin
If you’re an aspiring Internet entrepreneur, you need to seek out the advice of those who have already succeeded in E-Biz. Experience may be the best teacher, but learning from other people’s experience can spare you a lot of problems.
You may not know any wildly successful ‘Netrepreneurs well enough to ask them to mentor you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get their guidance. Many experienced entrepreneurs have put out training resources that share the knowledge they’ve gained and the sound practices they’ve developed through trial-and-error. Explains education specialist Les Cowie, of http://VisualLearningSystems.com, “It’s so important to take the time to understand what you need to do before you do it. There’s a lot of educational material out there that people don’t take advantage of.”
Don’t wait until you make a mistake or run into trouble to educate yourself. Whether it’s getting licensed, legally structuring your business, or choosing a search-engine friendly URL, doing things right the first time can save you time and money, and even keep you out of legal hot water. You can give your business a solid foundation by investing in training classes (such as eBay University e-courses or Visual Learning Systems’ interactive, internet-based classes), CDs, books, videos, or seminars.
Know Your Sources
Unfortunately, you may not know where to go to find the advice you seek