Steps for creating an online business:

STEP 1: CHOOSE A BUSINESS MODEL

Small online businesses come in basically three forms:

1) Find a physical product, market and sell the product online

2) Find / Create a digital product (eg, software, digital media), then market and sell this product online.

3) Create an entirely web based service or digital product that can be marketed and sold online for a subscription fee.

These are all good solid business models but my personal favorite is number 3: Subscriptions provide you with annuity income, and a service or digital product avoids the endless hassles associated with shipping and sourcing.

Second best is #2: A digital product or service still avoids the issues associated with inventory and shipping etc, although the income tends to be less steady than that of the subscription based service.

Selling a physical product is still a good business if you can find the right product. Look for something you don't need to inventory yourself, (ideally ship direct from the manufacturer). Find something high value and small in size to avoid having to deal with freight companies.

STEP 2: FIND A PRODUCT OR SERVICE TO SELL

1) Find something you are interested in

2) Try to pick a field that you have a familiarity with already

3) Think outside the box!!!

STEP 3: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Most people get this far in the conceptualization process and then get intimidated by the competition. Here are a few rules to help:

1) Look up how many people are 'searching for' your 'product' or service online. Use wordtracker or similar to research the actual number of serchers and competitors for your particular keyphrases.

2) DON'T PICK A PRODUCT THAT HAS NO MARKET UNLESS YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE PERSON TO CREATE THAT MARKET.

3) Its ok if there is competition in the market, you just have to be prepared to work harder & smarter than your competition to win your customers.

4) Look at different industries for business models that you like and then see if you can apply that model to your chosen industry.

5) It is likely that you will come up with dozens of ideas that won't work, before come up with one that will. Be kind to yourself, it takes perserverence and creativity to come up with a really great idea - and creativity doesn't flow well when you judge yourself harshly. So just keep on keeping on till it comes.

STEP 4: Learn the skills that you will require.

1) Break down the business into its respective tasks and skill sets, and then learn each one.

2) Web marketing is a unique skill. You will not pick it up along the way.. you have to make an effort to learn it and apply what you learn, or your web business will fail.

3) Its always best to learn to do all the basic sales and marketing stuff yourself.

Learn to create content - writting blog posts may well become your most valuable skills
Learn Search Engine Optimization
Learn to create a newsletter
Learn to network
Understand how to present yourself - your brand, your product, your message, your voice, your website etc

3) Investivate the legal issues surrounding your chosen industry. Its best to oriente your business with them in mind.

4) Work out how long each task is likely to take and calculate what you can handle yourself. You will need to hire one or more people to to the rest.

Once you have learned theses skills you will be much more qualified to hire someone else to do them.

STEP 5: Create sales projections and business plans

This is where most step by step guides begin.

1) Describe what the business will do

2) Descibe your goals for this business that you will run

3) Describe the market

4) Describe the competition

5) Summarize how you will differentiate yourself

6) Build a complete marketing plan

7) Describe how you will execute your plan: sourcing, hiring, sales, technology etc.

8) Layout your cost and revenue projections - time line and goles to timeline