Starting an Online Business – Deciding What To Do

March 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So you want to make money online but have no idea what you can do? This post is for you. We shall look at a number of ways through which real (Kenyan) people make money online.

This is Part 2 of How To Start a Simple Online Business in Kenya.

Last year we published a report on the most common ways of making money online. If you haven’t read it, here is the link: How to make money online in Kenya, 2010. The good thing about that report, in my view, is that it not only discusses how to make money but it gives examples of Kenyans who are using those methods.

So, how do other Kenyan make money online?

  1. Selling adverts on your site – basically, you set up a website and make it popular, and then sell advertisements.
  2. Consulting – whereby you work to be seen as an ‘expert’ in some field. People then pay you for consultancy.
  3. Selling other people’s stuff (affiliate marketing) – where you sell goods on behalf of other people and get paid a commission.
  4. E-commerce (selling your own things) – simple put, find some things to sell, and sell them online.
  5. Freelancing – also known as ‘getting an online job’. You basically get paid to do something for other people.

What you choose to do is up to you but you have to realise that “making money online” is not something that will take a short time. When thinking about making money online, you should think long term. You know those stories of people making millions online? Yeah, it usually takes years and extremely hard work. be prepared.

The purpose of this series of articles is to learn how to start an online business and therefore we’re going to pick “e-commerce” as the example that we will use for the rest of the series. Why?

  1. We believe it is very easy to understand for people with no prior experience online – it is very much like starting a little shop anywhere else.
  2. We believe it is relatively easy to start and straight-forward to run
  3. We can set up a sample e-commerce business as an example to go with this series of articles

In the next article in this series, we shall be taking a closer look at how to plan for, and start your own online shop. Subscribe to Like Chapaa today, or sign up to receive free email updates so that you do not miss any updates on this!

Filed Under: Make Money, Small Business

Online Business Vs Offline Business

March 15, 2011 By 1 Comment

So, basically in this post we’re going to think about what makes an online business different from an offline business. This is Part 3 of How To Start an Online Business in Kenya.

Business is business everywhere you go, even “online”. You are basically selling something that people want. However, I would strongly argue that doing business “online” is better than doing it anywhere else. Why?

  1. It is relatively cheaper to start and run an online business. You can get started for as little as $25 (about Kshs 3,000/-) and your monthly costs could be even lower.
  2. It is also generally less difficult and easier to get people to visit your business premises – your website.
  3. It is generally easier to scale. You can have very many customers without investing in infrastructure to support them. While an “offline business” may need to get new offices to serve more people, you can just use your one website to serve more people. You can even serve all of them at the same time.
  4. You can do absolutely anything under the sun. There are endless options when choosing your business online. You can sell bananas, have a service based business, sell affiliate products or create websites that make money through the hundreds of different monetization options. What you can do is limited only by your ingenuity.

Unfortunately, this makes the idea of starting an online business so attractive that people think it is easy. This could not be more far away from the truth. I would strongly argue that doing business online is harder than doing it anywhere else because:

  1. While it is easy to get people to visit your website, it is quite difficult to convert these visitors into paying customers. In most cases, people find it easier to spend money “offline” than “online”.
  2. You are competing with the whole world. While a Nairobi-based business may have a few competitors in town, an online business probably has hundreds of competitors from all over the world.
  3. It is extremely easy to get distracted. There are so many options that many online business people simply get lost in trying to do everything.

I know you’ve read those stories – you know, those stories of people becoming millionaires overnight online. Exciting, eh? And to think that you could be next… it is indeed true that you can make millions online in a very short period of time. However, if you look closely at anyone who made millions online, you will discover:

  • That they are very smart and/or talented
  • That they followed a very strategic and focused plan
  • They work (or worked) VERY hard

As you think of doing online business, be prepared for the extremely hard work that you will have to do to see real success.

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Filed Under: Internet Culture, Make Money, Small Business

How Does a Business Work?

March 14, 2011 By 2 Comments

The secret to a successful business is the law of supply and demand. Never, ever, forget that.

As a business person, your job is to supply something that is in demand. That is, your job is to find something that people want and to give it to them, and then take their money. This is the heart of every business, whether it is simple or complex.

Btw, this is Part 2 of How to Start An Online Business in Kenya.

Now, I know you can get generic business advice absolutely everywhere so since I do not want to just repeat stuff and because I cannot even begin to cover this topic in totality, I will keep this article short and simple. Basically, I want to speak to that person who is very new to business in an attempt to show the reality of things while not shattering your self belief.

So as I said, doing business means supplying people with something that they need or want and then charging them. I will be straight and point out what I consider to be your biggest weakness: you! The biggest challenge that a new business faces is its founders/owners. Most new business people that I encounter can’t even see how poor of an entrepreneur they are (if you can even begin calling them that – a person with just an idea and some attempt is hardly an entrepreneur). They don’t realize what they lack or that their internal biases and opinions are creating problems in why they can or can’t succeed. My advice to you as a new business owner is try and get the most knowledge possible about running a business and about your chosen industry. Do not be complacent. Keep in mind that most new businesses fail. From Day 1 it is a full out war to make sure that your business succeeds.

Secondly, a new business is usually very short on resources. You often do not have enough money or enough time. You need more money than you have – you see all the places your business can go and you want to try and go in all directions at the same time…

Which leads to focus. New businesses usually have more time constraints than any other business – the new business needs to get its products to the market to prove its worth after all. Unfortunately, new business owners typically fail to focus on what, exactly, they want to sell and thus they therefore take the business in many directions at once – which leads to more time constraints…

Do you know that focusing on a particular niche of an industry has been proven to be more successful, on average, than trying to attack the whole market all at once? The best advice I can give you is to focus on one small part of the industry you want to do business in. You can always grow to all the rest later. This has several advantages:

  • It is cheaper
  • It is easier
  • You face less competition from other businesses
  • You have higher chances of success

Remember how Facebook started? There were already many social networks back then, including the then giant MySpace. Facebook started by focusing only on university students – there was a time you simply could not get a Facebook account unless you were in university/college. By doing this they were able to craft an niche in a huge market while at the same time sowing the seeds that would later lead them to becoming the biggest social network on the Internet.

Think big. But Start small.

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Filed Under: Small Business

Social Media For Small Businesses

March 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I just came across a very interesting question on Quora:

Q. Social media is quite popular. However can a small business really make good use of it with limited time and resources?

Michael answers:

Having done business online as my sole occupation for over twenty years, never with more than three employees, I can speak to this subject with the advantage of a long-term perspective. Also, since my previous career was ten years as a Senior Vice President of a multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporation, I have witnessed the marketing realm from the opposite extreme. With this as backdrop I can say, with some certainty, that social media is the most important and powerful innovation in online business history.

Here’s why:

  • The key to success online is the ability to be both effective and efficient. That is to get the right job done and the job done right. With social media it is possible to target your market with rifle-shot accuracy, engage with potential customers on a mass scale, provide workable solutions, and to perform these tasks without the huge capital outlay normally required.
  • Large companies are like Battleships on the open ocean. To make a change in strategy or tactics requires a long and cumbersome mid-course correction. Being small allows you to be nimble. Instead of mounting an expensive marketing campaign in a vacuum and waiting for long-term results, social media gives instantaneous feedback. An entire strategy can be reconfigured at a moments notice, and appropriate changes can be made with little delay and minor expense.
  • The technology tools are in constant transition. Today’s best solution (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) can and will change tomorrow. As a dedicated and small entrepreneur, it is possible to remain at the vanguard of technology from one day to the next, without a large employee base or stodgy corporate culture in your wake like an anchor.

Here’s how:

  • Engage, don’t sell. I won’t belabor this point, as it has been said by experts for a while now. Be creative and forget what you think you know about marketing. View your potential customer as a collaborator not a sales target. Follow the lead of thought-leaders like Scott Monty at Ford Motor Company and engage your customers from the beginning of the product-development cycle. Ask their opinions on how best to serve them, gain their trust and eventually the sales will occur naturally with little motivation from you.
  • Spend time improving your service and expertise, and while you are building a future receptive audience make your expertise available at no cost. Cultivate a long view of the process. Demonstrate leadership, not salesmanship.
  • Do something that matters. Care as much about the quality of the relationships, and your place as a member of the human family, as you do about your product and profits. Who you are is more important than what you sell.
  • Work hard. Be prepared for a period of sustained effort. Social media is simple, but it isn’t easy.

Follow these simple guidelines and success will catch up with your efforts before you know it. And once it overtakes you, it will be sustainable.

See the rest on Quora.

Filed Under: Internet Culture, Small Business

What If They Steal My Idea?

March 8, 2011 By 4 Comments

I’ve come across a great number of people who have brilliant business ideas but they are afraid to share them because the ideas may be “stolen”. Do you know that feeling? When your idea is so “genius” that you have to keep it in, strategize, plan, and when the time is right, you will have it all built and then release it to the public.

Unfortunately, this is pretty naive. I find that people who have only began thinking of “business ideas” are the ones who fear that their ideas may be stolen.

Let me tell you a story. I once had what I thought as a brilliant, God-given, unique idea that would make me billions. Yes, billions. Naturally, I was very afraid that someone may steal my wonderful idea. I thus kept it to myself and just kept on building on it. Since I was not a programmer/web developer back then, when I had the idea fully fleshed out, I approached some techies seeking a partnership. What I found was astonishing.

As I started befriending programmers and web developers and began telling my idea to them, I realized that the developers I was interested in partnering with didn’t care too much about my “genius idea” but were much more interested in what I brought to the partnership. What kind of skills did I have? What kind of connections did I have? What was my reason for pursuing what I was doing? What did I know about my industry?

You are bigger than your ideas. It is always good to have “genius ideas” but you need to reach a level where YOU as a person are more valuable than your idea, a level where you are valuable independent of your idea. In other words, you need to get to the point where people realize that your “genius idea” cannot succeed unless you are part of the team.

Still, so what if they just steal the idea? The fact is, once you start marketing to the public, the whole world will know about your idea. if the idea is good enough then competitors will pop up and they will try to outdo you – and some of them will have very deep pockets. But, the thing is that anyone can try and copy you, but no one can actually be you.

They can steal your idea, but no one can steal your style, your creativity, and your drive to succeed. That is what should make your business different, and successful.

Filed Under: Small Business

Topless Meetings

February 23, 2011 By 1 Comment

I think this is a great idea, something that surely came from a smart business mind – topless meetings. What better way to be more productive and have meetings less – ban laptops. What did you think I meant?

Nothing grates me more than long, pointless meetings. I almost avoid them to a fault. Too often, they are someone’s forum to get their own work done and it doesn’t benefit me to help them with their work. So I do everything I can to keep meetings short.

If you’re working and meeting in a physical location, I strongly suggest this rule. It’ll guarantee people get to the point quickly and time isn’t wasted.

Japanese-Style Meetings
When I was still employed (a.k.a working for someone else and not me), there was one guy I used to work with who scheduled Japanese-style meetings. The meetings were held while everyone stood (usually in some common area). The idea was that people wouldn’t waste time if they were standing around. It worked great as we got a ton done in about 10 minutes. I don’t know if this is the real name for this type of meeting but I strongly suggest this type of meeting as well. Force those long-talkers to cut it short.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With:

How WooThemes Quietly Built A $2+ Million Per Year Online Business

February 21, 2011 By 1 Comment

The WooThemes story is an incredible story right from here in Africa! This is the story of how a young South African built an online business that makes USD 2 million plus a year. You do not need to be in the USA or Europe and get massive amounts of funding to build a wildly successful online business. You just need to believe in yourself, and go do it!

Click here to go see the video interview with WooThemes co-founder that details how, exactly, they built their online business.

Filed Under: Internet Culture, Make Money, Small Business