Deciding what business to go into as an entrepreneur is tough. There are now so many types of online enterprises nowadays that businessmen have just too many options to choose from. Nevertheless, it’s important to narrow down the options to just a few of the best that fit your needs, priorities, and goals.
Here are some suggestions on how to choose the right online business for you.
Let a Business Coach Guide You
Getting advice from others is not a bad idea, but it has some caveats. When talking with friends and family, be aware of their motives. Some may not like taking risks and be opposed to all but the most risk-averse ideas. Others will be okay if it doesn’t look like you’ll beat them in the success stakes; their advice is likely to reflect this inherent bias.
To get a balanced approach to business enterprise and startups, taking on some business coaching is helpful to get a useful, business-oriented perspective. The ideas and thoughts of a business coach are likely to be aligned with your goal and will make more sense. When they have relevant business experience that matches what you’re planning to do, even better.
Active, Passive, or Partly Passive?
Do you want the business to be active, passive, or partly passive?
An actively-managed business is one where you’re the CEO and will remain so. You’re actively involved, at least at the strategic level, and at the beginning will likely cover most positions and perform the majority of tasks yourself.
A passive business is one designed, usually from the start, to be passive at some point. It most likely won’t be passive right away unless you have the funds to outsource almost all business tasks to others from the get-go. However, there’s a benefit to having performed at least some of the tasks yourself first to know how long they take and how well they can be performed, before outsourcing them. Outsourcing the least time-sensitive or quality-sensitive tasks first makes sense, subject to money availability.
Limited Growth or Maximum Growth?
Some business ideas have a theoretical ceiling on their potential growth. An affiliate site focused around a single niche with a limited number of products to review, questions to answer with informational articles, and a maximum number of monthly searches in Google puts a cap on total income.
Other business ideas offer the possibility to expand to the moon – think Amazon.com where the brand is extendable from books to music to virtually any other product you can think of. For new entrepreneurs with limited capital availability and/or a limited workforce, it may be necessary to choose business projects where it’s possible to remain competitive at a certain size, and no more than that.
Exit Strategy Necessary?
Is there a planned exit strategy? Do you wish to sell the business to move onto other things or to retire when you’re older? Does there need to be an exit strategy at all? Is there a ready market to sell the type of business you’re considering, or will it be too tied to your own identity making it tough to sell? These things are worth mulling over before starting down a path that’s difficult to backtrack from.
Choosing the right type of business for you is often just as important as choosing the right business, period. If it’s not a good fit for the entrepreneur, it won’t matter how much money it generates because it will never feel right.
