Things to know when starting an online business if you are here then it’s because you are interested in starting an online business and you’ve watched a couple videos here and there but you really want to get your hands on some more information to Enlighten you inspire you and educate you so in this video we’re going to go through a list of things you really really should know and things I wish I would have known before starting a business from a lawyer’s perspective here are the top things you need to know if you are starting a business.
Number 1
It Feels Natural thhis isn’t something that someone else has forced upon you you’re not starting a business because your mom or your dad did it or your friends are doing it or because it’s the trending thing you are starting a business because it feels innate and natural to you if you are thinking about starting a job for example when you leave your nine to five or if you’re dreaming about the kinds of products you’re going to sell while you’re at work sitting at your desk and starting a business might be the next natural step for you but if you are going to start a business because somebody has been nagging you to do something with your life then this probably is not the video for you starting a business should feel natural it should feel like yeah I can do this starting a business is not really the hurdle that I’m trying to overcome it’s all the other steps like what should I know what do I have to do how can I make it a success so if you feel really excited thinking about the products or the services that you can sell then starting a business could be for you but you should also watch the other things on my list to make sure that starting a business is right for you.
Number 2
if you are the type of person that is willing to embrace challenges and you are willing to accept roadblocks as they come then starting a business could also be for you well why starting a business is not going to be easy it doesn’t mean that you’re starting at the top and you’re winning every step forward you are going to encounter a lot of setbacks maybe you’re going to realize that you needed more money than you expected maybe you’re going to have to put in more hours than you thought you would are you going to have to pull an all-nighter if you start an online business or any kind of business not always but you are going to have to accept the challenges as they come you might have to go to banks credit unions your friends your family you might have have to take out a business loan if you’re selling products for example you might get scammed along the way you might realize that your future customers don’t like your product are you willing to accept that customers might leave you negative feedback other customers might leave you more constructive feedback but are you the type of person that is going to internalize this information are you going to have a victim mentality and think to yourself maybe this isn’t for me because entrepreneurs and business owners face hurdles all of the time in different ways shapes and forms but I want you to know that this is not the end of the road for you keep going use customer feedback as a sounding board to keep moving forward so what I’m trying to say is if you’re the Fearless type and you’re not really put off or scared by any potential challenges that may come in the future then starting a business could be for you
Number 3
if you want to start a business it is always wonderful if you can find a mentor and sometimes mentors don’t come in the form of people sometimes mentors come in the form of books podcasts Google searches anything you want to find out is pretty much on the internet right but if you can find some information provided by somebody who has already walked this path life will be a little bit easier for you because they’re going to tell you what to expect so kudos to you for watching this video because I’ve already started a business.
I’ve started this Law Firm I’m putting out content for you and have been doing it for a couple of years so I can tell you that mentorships are really really valuable now if you want to find a particular person who is where you want to be that is the best and ultimate form of advice but you want to be really careful in choosing the person that you are watching right because you want to make sure that that is the path you want to walk you want to make sure that is your ultimate goal and your ultimate destination early on in the beginning I made the mistake of watching a lot of business influencers and listening to their podcasts and I thought oh my gosh they really are imparting some amazing advice information that I still think about to this day the only problem is that they’ve built the kind of business that I’m not really interested in building I know that that’s not the path that I want to walk so if you’re thinking about choosing a particular person to watch and to emulate and to ask questions of you want to make sure that they are where you want to be so for example you don’t want to be watching somebody who’s built a multi-million dollar company who has thousands of employees if what you really want to do is start an online course and basically have a really small team of maybe three or four people each of those people is going to have amazing advice but of course you want to listen to the advice of the mentor who is walking the walk most similar to what you envision for yourself so if you’re watching this video you might already have a very definite idea of the walk you want to walk right do you want to strictly work online do you want to sell products do you want to sell services do you want to have a huge team now I’m not saying that you have to have a mentor right from the get-go right in the beginning it’s great to have a buffet of influencers or podcast books that you watch and you listen to Why as you go through your business Journey you’re going to start paying attention to what it is that you actually like and you might have a more narrow idea or a more narrow focus on where it is you want to go in the beginning it’s kind of hard to say this is exactly what I want to do because that idea might change as you start experimenting with more things for example you might go into this thinking.
I want to have a work from anywhere like I really don’t want to be tied to an office or to a particular location and while that is all possible you might realize that as you as you continue to grow your business you might want to have a base office where you staff that office with a couple of employees maybe you realize that you want to have a warehouse full of products and you’re going to have to hire employees to help you ship those products what I’m trying to say is that your vision might change and you might be open to these changes but you really won’t know what those changes are going to look like until you experiment a little bit with your ideas and where you want to go so all in all want you to be open to the many possibilities of starting a business because there are a variety of options and you can always make something work for you if starting a business is what you want to do.
Number 4
number four consider how you will start your business so how do you start a business where do you start with step number one well you have to have customers right you need people to buy something from you whatever it is that you’re selling think about businesses that you frequent if you’re somebody who likes to get your nails done how in the world did you find your favorite nail salon how did you find your Barber how did you find your grocery store if you have an accountant how did you find your accountant how did you find the person who does your taxes was it Word of Mouth did you see an ad where did you see the ad how did you find out about your favorite restaurant were you doing a Google search think about how you find businesses generally and then take it a step further and say how do people find the type of thing that you want to sell for a trademark lawyer for example if you’re looking for a trademark lawyer you might have Googled that and then my videos popped up so if you’re the kind of person that’s going to be offering Services ask yourself are people mostly Googling my type of service are they asking friends what are they doing and then you have to find a way to insert yourself into that process so let’s say you’re selling products well where do you go when you’re looking for bed sheets where do you go when you’re looking for a rug for a computer lots of people go on to Amazon nowadays some people still might Google it so how can you insert yourself into that process do you need to put your product on Amazon do you need to put your product into Google somehow think about that process and what the consumer what the customer is thinking how are they finding that person and it all starts with just putting it out there did you find somebody just because you were scrolling on Facebook and scrolling on Instagram well then maybe you need to start producing content then you can dive a little bit deeper and say where exactly did I see that content was it on LinkedIn was it on Facebook was it on Instagram where are people searching for your product or your service where is it more likely that they’re going to come across your product or your service so sit down and do some brainstorming just think about it whenever you’re scrolling Instagram now think like a business owner and an entrepreneur and marketer now this last tip is actually pretty exciting for me to share with you and that is that you are inevitably go going to have weaknesses because you have to wear many many hats when you’re just starting you have to be the person who maybe posts on social media so you have to be a marketer you might have to be an Advertiser you’re the person who actually performs the service if that’s what you’re offering if you’re shipping a product you might have to be the person who also packs and ships and takes it over to the UPS USPS or FedEx or whatever service you use so you’re going to have to perform lots of different functions so as you wear these many different hats you’re going to figure out which one you absolutely love doing them which one you absolutely hate doing because maybe you’re not that good at it so if you’re not that good at it the exciting news is that as your business grows you can figure out which of these hats you’re going to delegate to somebody else you have learned how to wear these many hats you have learned how to be the marketer the influencer the customer relations representative so when you delegate that test to someone else you’re going to have to know what exactly it is that you’re delegating and when you hire someone hopefully they can complement what you already know so you shouldn’t just be delegating every single thing you know but they should complement.
What You Know by bringing in their knowledge or expertise which should be more than what you are delegating to them does that make sense so they’re going to bring their skills and coupled with your skills you’re going to have your first team member who surely will bring a lot of value to your business and here’s a bonus tip that I just couldn’t leave it I also want to think about whether you’re going to need some kind of intellectual property for your business lots of business owners may think oh my gosh I really love this logo
I’ve spent so much time on it it means so much to me well if you know that you’re not going to be changing your logo then that is what you might want to protect because you don’t want anybody else to copy it and then rip you off so you need to think about a trademark in that instance if you’re somebody who is going to be selling a product and perhaps you are the creator of the product you might want to think about patenting now if you’re a designer for example and you come up with illustrations and that’s what you’re selling or if you’re somebody who writes lyrics or paints paintings you might think about a copyright so if any of those are applicable to you then make sure to scroll down into the description you can contact me and I’d be more than happy to help you with IP Services trademark infringement is a real thing so before landing in hot water I want to make sure that your name and logo are good to go catch this video right here where I talk about more on that topic see you in the next video.