Internet Babel

1. Start up Costs

Starting a business online doesn’t require anywhere near as much money as a real life business. Obviously it’s all circumstantial as some business ventures on the Internet would require more but generally speaking, it’s much cheaper for you to get off the ground fully on the Internet than it is to even get started in the real world.

Smaller start up costs means smaller risk. The less you have to spend, the less you could potentially lose. In the real world, it’s either make or break it. You could waste literally hundreds of thousands on one business venture that could totally flop then you’d be 100% out of pocket.

On the Internet, it’s different, you could spend say $2,000 on a project which could cover development, structure and marketing costs and even if it flops. You haven’t wasted a huge amount of money and your not completely… f’d!

2. Risk vs Reward

Potential gain from Internet business is so huge that any amount of start up cost, providing the idea is good far out-ways the potential risk for me. You could say the same about the real world but problem is, offline, it takes so much more effort to actually get noticed. You could spend thousands on local advertising and barely make a dent on your target market. Whereas the Internet is so much more viral.

All it takes is a good idea and solid marketing. Once an idea spreads online, it really spreads! Again, depends a lot on your target audience and niche as in some topics things spread better and quicker. For example notice the most Dugg topics on… Digg are usually always to do with Gaming, Politics or Business.

The risk on the Internet is so much smaller than the real world but the potential gain can happen so much quicker. So for me, it only makes sense to do business online.

3. It’s Just Plain Easier

Making money online isn’t necessarily easy but generally speaking, it is. Complete contradiction of my own statement there, let me explain

What I mean is, although making money online is only easy if you put the work in. Like with anything. Most of the stepping stones are already there for you online. It’s a lot easier to get things done.

For example; take setting up an online store in comparison to setting up a real life store.

You could start a e-commerce store today and with enough marketing cash it could be the next Play.com within 6months. Not to say that’s easy but the initial task of getting the store up and running is 10 times easier than the real world.

Offline vs Online Store – Mini Case Study

Real World Store

1. Find a building – First you need to find the actual building for your store. Now just picture your local high-street, how many buildings are not in use and open for rental, ready to let a new store take a stab at it? Exactly.

2. Stock – If you own a real life store, you need physical stock which means you need to buy the stock, have somewhere to store it, shift enough of it to stop yourself from clogging up and keep things up and running.

3. Opening times – Remember, as a physical store, you can only stay open so long. When you’re starting out you probably won’t have any money to hire anyone so will have to run the store all by yourself. Besides which, there’s only so many people you can sell to at any time of day in one place.

Online Store

1. Find a building – No need, how about use some nicely developed free software. All conveniently structured for your online shop to run as professional as any.

2. Stock - As an online store you don’t have to store your stock anywhere. You can always find some good wholesalers then have everything delivered to customers via drop shipping. Now this is where making the good money gets tricky as a lot of middle men tend to find their way in between you and your money. This is where you need to learn about middle men, drop shipping etc. But already you can see, it’s less hassle.

3. Opening times – Pass! how about you never close? it’s the Internet. You’ve got international exposure 24/7 if you wish to exploit it. You never need to close which means you never miss an opportunity to make money. If you owned a physical store locally, how easy would be to get customers from every stretch of the globe non-stop? I rest my case!

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, a mini-case study of online vs offline business. Using e-commerce as a prime example. There are no limitations to what can be achieved online, only how far you choose to push it as well as how creatively you exploit things.

The Internet is a global goldmine of streamlined cash just asking to be snatched at. Start an Internet business today and progress until you hit the big time. Don’t let anyone stop you, don’t doubt yourself, don’t be afraid of failure.

It’s all easy compared to the real world