Summary: So you think you want to start an online business? This begs the obvious question: why start an online business in the first place? There are lots of reasons that you might consider to start an online business. The most commonly cited reason is that you can get started with very little capital. In fact, you can start a legitimate web-based business for well lest than $100. The problem is that too many people associate that low barrier to entry with "easy money". I discuss this and my other favorite reason for starting an online business in this the second episode of the Late Night Internet Marketing Minute. You’re listening to Mark Mason, and this is the Late Night Internet Marketing Minute Episode 2. Today I want to tackle the simple topic of why you would even want to start an online business. What’s the big deal? Why do that? There are a couple of reasons that people always point to and there’s one myth that I want to dispel here. The reason that people always point to starting an online business is that you can get started with almost no capital. It’s really fantastic. Usually to start an online business you need some sort of web presence; that can be had for just a few dollars a month. Then you need to build a website and create content and do other kinds of marketing; most of that can be done simply with sweat equity. So there’s not a lot of investment required. Now, contrast that to starting up a McDonalds or some other kind of franchise business. Certainly you’d be talking about tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. In some cases, you might need millions of dollars in capital to start a significant sort of brick and mortar business. That’s not so on the internet. All you need is a good idea and the will to survive with some knowledge about how to do it, and you can start an internet business right now today. In fact, if you’re within the sound of my voice, that means you have access to the internet and you could actually be up and running with some kind of internet business in a matter of hours, depending on your skill level and what it is that you’re trying to do. So that’s the reason that everybody talks about. The other reason that people like online business is that it’s the kind of thing that you can do part time. That’s a lot of what I talk about at LateNightInternetMarketing.com. In fact, that’s the reason for the branding “Late Night Internet Marketing,” because I myself am a part time internet entrepreneur. I have a day job and I work my internet business part time and I love it, and that’s why I do it. Those are reasons, but let me dispel a myth about internet business. A lot of people believe or associate the fact that low start up costs must mean that there’s easy money, because if I don’t have to invest $50,000 and I can make money it must mean that with an internet business I can make some easy quick cash online. Let me tell you that my experience has been that internet marketing, while it can be incredibly lucrative and it is very attractive for lots of reasons, it’s not really an easy money thing. Sure, there are people who hit it big accidentally, there are all kinds of stories. In fact, you’ll find stories like that in the brick and mortar world. But if you’re looking for quick easy money without a lot of work, I don’t recommend internet marketing for that. It’s just not been my experience that that’s really the way this rolls. So why start an internet business? Because you can do it today. It’s learnable. You can get in there with a limited amount of capital and get started. But be prepared to do some work, because what you get out of something certainly has to do with what you put in. You have to create value in an internet business if you want to extract value from customers. Thanks for listening.
