Most Profitable Online Business – With so many people strapped for money these days, while trying to make ends meet, it’s no wonder that so many are asking:
How do I Build a Profitable Online Business Cheaply
Here’s the harsh truth – Most people who decide to start an online business are either broke, on a tight budget… or in a job they hate with a boss/colleagues whom they detest even more.
There’s no point denying this because the truth will set us free – but more importantly, it highlights a very important fact…
We can’t rely on the adage, “Money makes money.”
No, we can’t. When resources are limited, we must rely on our resourcefulness. In this article, you’ll discover how to build a thriving and profitable business even if you’re on a very tight budget.
We’ll show you the pitfalls to avoid and the errors in judgement that you should steer clear of, if you wish to succeed in this business without losing the shirt off your back. Let’s begin!
1. Do NOT Quit Your Day Job Just Yet
All too often, ‘make money online’ products are sold with persuasive sales copy using terms such as ‘day job killer’, etc. There’s a lot of focus on making quick and easy money without any work.
This is not congruent with building the Most Profitable Online Business
Many a clueless newbie has quit their job because they believed the hype on the sales page and expected some push-button software to put millions into their PayPal account.
After a while, they realize the illusion is not going to manifest into reality – and now they’re stuck with a credit card bill and no job.
To build a successful business takes time. Keep your day job and use it to fund your side hustle.
Once you have saved up enough money to cover 6 months of expenses AND your online business is making 2X what you’re making at your day job – you’re ready to tell your unreasonable boss to take a hike and you can quit your job.
But until then, you’re not ready yet.
2. You Need ONE Income Generating Skill That’s in Demand!
- Animation
- Content writing
- Copywriting
- Data entry
- Graphic design
- Illustration
- Logo design
- Marketing strategy
- Proofreading and editing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media management
- Software development
- Technical writing
- Translation services
- Video editing
- Voiceover services
- Web design
- WordPress customization
- Writing product descriptions
- YouTube video optimization
All These Skills Are in High Demand
Spend time learning one or two skills until you’re exceptionally good at them. These skills will be the currency used to fund your online business.
So learn one or two skills and master them.
3. Freelancing
Since you’re on a shoestring budget, your salary at your day job will barely cover your daily expenses. This means you need to do some freelance work online to generate funds for your online business.
Now that you have a skill or two under your belt, you may set up a few gigs on marketplaces such as Fiverr, Legiit, or Upwork.
Generally, it’ll take you time to gain traction on these marketplaces because they’re insanely competitive.
However, sooner or later the orders will trickle in. If you do a good job in a speedy fashion and your rates are reasonable, you’ll build a list of repeat clients.
Over time, your stats on the platform will improve and more people will hire you for your services.
Congratulations! You’re making an income online.
4. Choosing an Online Business Model
If you’re on a tight budget, the fastest way to generate an income will be to create products and sell them.
You have an income-generating skill now… and the only logical thing to do will be to create a product teaching others how to do it.
Should you manage to get the right affiliate support on board, your product launch will be a success and could rake in 4 to 5 figures. Of course, you’ll need to spend time creating the product and the sales pages and so on.
But what you’re really doing here is building the foundations of a business.
Another good business model for the budget conscious would be affiliate marketing. You could generate free traffic with YouTube or social media… and point people to your affiliate links. With enough reach, you could make sales.
Business models such as building niche sites, domaining, Kindle publishing, etc. take a lot of time to gain traction. Most beginners to online marketing want to see an income faster. So these models are best avoided.
You’ll also want to avoid any online business with high costs. Dropshipping requires you to have funds for paid ads. Amazon FBA requires you to stock inventory… and so on.
If money is tight, you definitely want to steer clear of revenue models that require you to spend money to make money.
5. Focus on One Business Model when Creating the Most Profitable Online Business
We recommended product creation and affiliate marketing. It’s best to stick with our recommendations. Choose one… focus on it… and go deep.
AVOID spending money on courses you don’t need. Weird info products with hyped up names such as “Push-button Money Cow!” or “Viral App Profit Alchemy” … are best avoided at all cost.
Everything you need to learn is on Google and YouTube. Do most of your learning there. The less money you spend on unnecessary products, the more you’ll have to invest in your own business.
6. Pay As You Go
This is a common mistake made by most newbies. Let’s assume you need to purchase web hosting… and you’re thinking of signing up with A2 Shared Hosting…
If you look at the image above, it’s only $2.99 a month. However, you’ll need to pay the annual sum – NOT monthly. Which means, you’ll need to fork out $35.88.
This may not seem like a big sum, but when money is tight, you’ll want to hold on to as much of it as you can. You’re better off paying monthly even if it’s $11.99 a month.
After 3 months, if your online business is profitable, you can contact A2 support and ask for a yearly plan.
What’s important here is that you’re not creating financial pressure for yourself. You do not want to put large bills on your credit card just to enjoy cost savings when your business hasn’t even taken off yet.
This applies to any purchase related to business costs – autoresponders, page builders, software tools and so on. Take on as little burden as you can. Once you’re in profit, you can pay more and enjoy the bulk savings.
7. Take the Less Expensive Route
When purchasing tools/services online, paying for more doesn’t necessarily equate to better quality. Sometimes, you may be paying more for features you don’t need.
For example, if you need a page builder to build a landing page, you’re better off going with OptimizePress of Thrive Architect – rather than ClickFunnels.
The first 2 have a one-time fee whereas ClickFunnels has a monthly fee of $97. This fee alone will make many newbies break into a cold sweat.
So only get tools that do the job you need without paying unnecessarily. You may see many marketers recommending ClickFunnels, but almost always, they’ll be affiliates for it and are looking out for their own interests – and not yours.
You need to exercise due diligence here. After all your goal is to build the Most Profitable Online Business without going into massive debt.
Another rule of thumb is to choose less expensive options but NOT free or ridiculously cheap (too good to be true) options.
For example, if you need an autoresponder, you may choose GetResponse and go with their ‘Email Marketing’ plan which costs $15.58 a month.
That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
If you said, “It’s good.”
BEEP! Wrong answer!
That’s the annual plan. If you’re paying monthly, it’ll be $19 a month.
Be alert… but that’s not the point here. $19 a month is awesome because GetResponse is a proven, reliable autoresponder.
However, if some dodgy marketer is trying to sell you a self-hosted autoresponder for a one-time fee of $47, it may seem like an excellent deal.
After all, why pay $19 monthly if you only need to pay $47 once, right?
Well, here’s what usually happens – the one-time fee software stops working after a month. The emails don’t get sent out or end up in spam.
The software becomes clunky and doesn’t work… and you can’t find the vendor to support it because he has run off to promote his newest product which is also rubbish. So you’ve wasted $47 on a tool that doesn’t work.
To reiterate our earlier point – purchase only what you need and avoid paying for more. And only buy products that are supported by ethical vendors/companies.
8. Be Strategic
If you saw the earlier image, you’d notice that GetResponse has a free plan up to 500 contacts. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to build a list for free.
Once you have a few hundred people on your list, you’ll be able to promote affiliate products and your commissions will cover the cost of the autoresponder.
However, if you go with ConvertKit’s free plan, you only get 300 subscribers.
That’s 200 subscribers less. So you’ll need to be strategic here.
Will you build your list with GetResponse or ConvertKit?
Some tools such as SemRush give you a 7-day free trial. Don’t immediately sign up if you’re not ready to use the tool.
Get all your ducks lined up in a row and when you’re ready to do your keyword research, you’ll want to leverage their free trial. If you sign up too early, you may miss out a few days because you’re not ready yet.
Strategy is everything when money is tight. So plan well.
9. Use Coupon Codes
Before buying anything, do a Google search for the ‘product + coupon’. For example, if you wish to register a domain with Namecheap, a search for “Namecheap + coupon” would return pages like this…
See that?
Coupons you can use to get a lower price during purchase.
You’d be amazed to find that there are coupons for so many products that will knock a few dollars off the price. You just need to search for them. Every cent counts, when you’re set on building the Most Profitable Online Business.
10. Be Mindful of Your Expenses
It’s easy to go down the slippery slope of spending more money than you have just to accelerate the growth of your online business. Yet, most successful marketers will tell you that it can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months to build a business that’s profitable.
Your credit card bills, however, come every month like clockwork. You do not want to be in a predicament where your business costs on your bill far exceeds what you’re making online.
This is why it’s important to start off as a freelancer and only spend money that you’ve earned there on your online business. Be mindful of where your money is going at all times.
This bootstrapping approach of building a business will take you slightly longer and require more work, but you’ll avoid the curse of credit card debt… and you’ll learn a lot more about online marketing if you do it this way.
Adhere to the 10 pointers in this guide, and in time to come, you can say that you built a successful business from scratch without going into massive debt.
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” – Benjamin Franklin
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