Things You Must Keep In Mind Before Starting An Online Business In The Second Innings

Planning to start an online business? These tips can help you give start and plan it well.

A latest survey report has shown that about 25 percent of Indians would want a second innings post-retirement in a career they love and another 25 percent expressed their desire to start a business on their own once they retire. Not a surprise, given the changing concept of retirement and several people using their post-retirement years to explore different ventures and career options. Snehil Verma, the co-founder of Deeveo Beauty, a sustainable skincare brand, shares some valuable inputs on turning your passion into purpose and starting your own online business from home.  

How do you define a small online business?

A small online business is made up of your passion, creativity, hard work, and time management, aiming toward customer and seller satisfaction and slow and steady growth. Your business will fetch you happiness when you cook your passion with creativity and put in the effort to make a mark. You need to manage your time wisely and properly so that the business does not become a burden for you. You also have to make sure that your business gives both you and your customers a sense of satisfaction and grows slowly and steadily.

Why online?

Why do we focus on online business so much rather than opening a shop next to our house? Verma has an intelligent analysis about going online with your business as she showcases before you the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of an online business.

Online business and its strength

• Helps you to save on multiple purposes. You do not have to bear additional charges for rent, water, electricity and that helps you reduce your product cost and draw in more customers.
• Can be managed from home
• Can be a fulfilling source of income
• Emergencies and crises like pandemic do not affect it much. It is a safe option as you don’t have to have direct contact with your customers and you can continue doing it from home.

Opportunities that it creates

• You can talk about it on multiple social media platforms and tap an infinite number of customers online. You just need to bring your product before them.
• You can make it more unique to draw in more and more customers. The more unique your brand is, the more you can become the fast mover and more scope you can create.

Online business and its weakness

• It is time-taking – you need to put in quite some effort.
• Requires constant multi-tasking – you are doing things all alone.
• Lacks resources that a standard business has – you need to invest your own money, time and resources.

Possible threats

• Multi-National Companies (MNCs)
• Well-established small businesses
• Dispute between partners

Processing your online business in a smarter way

The formula for making a small online business a hit, according to Verma, is UP BUILTER – understanding, planning, building, testing, and refining it.

Understanding your business: You can do it by thorough research, creating your own ideas, realizing and meeting the legal needs, having a keen knowledge on profitability, difficulty, and competition, and set your expectations out of it and that of the customers. Also, you will have to personalize your ideas.

Planning it: Chalk out your objectives, frame a structure, go for a dry run and check; build up your strategies, have your timeline and finance fixed and get prepared for product development.

Building it: Mark your target audience and strategize marketing, work on product placement on multiple platforms, focus on the photography and presentation of your product, and engage in regular interaction via stories, polls, posts, videos, and more to make some noise about your product and get feedback, promote and advertise for your product/service. Platforms like Instagram have great advertising features that can mark your customers and can show your ad specifically to them.

Testing it: It is essential to test and find out the customer preferences, analyze the demand for the product/service and focus more on that. Collect data and keep a record of whatever is happening in your business.

Refining it: Improvise business module, aesthetic, product design, packaging, time periods, and more, come to terms with what is working and what is not, and keep generating new ideas constantly. Some apps that may make your journey a cakewalk

• CANVA for making posts/marketing
• INSHOT for video editing
• TELYPORT/SHIPROCKET for delivery
• EXCEL/SHEETS for bookkeeping
• VYAPAR for bills and receipts
• SHOPMATIC for e-commerce services (website)

Tips on dealing with consumers

• Interact with followers
• Provide quick response to inquiries and be patient with their responses
• Go for swift order taking and assistance and always do a follow-up
• Keep the creativity flowing, give them something new
• Keep promises and deliver on time
• Provide seasonal offers, discounts, ask for subscriptions

Tips on social media marketing

• Raise awareness around your product/service and get people interested
• Focus on brand loyalty and get people convinced
• Build a community and get people engaged

Verma believes that living through pandemics like COVID-19 and sustaining an online business requires some hacks. “Acknowledging the pandemic, showing your methods of adaptation, keeping COVID-19 in mind while forming new ideas and marketing tactics can help your online business tackle the impact of the pandemic,” says Verma who recently conducted a workshop for Silver Talkies Social Members, guiding them towards a successful online business and encouraging them to become entrepreneurs in their second innings.

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