The ultimate guide to launching and growing an online business
You’ve got a crazy idea, a hobby, a business or special expertise. You want to take it online, and you want to it be a money-making success. But what do you do next? Using a simple 5-step approach, best-selling author and digital marketing specialist Bernadette Schwerdt uncovers the inside tips and tricks that Australia’s most successful online entrepreneurs use to build their multi-million dollar businesses.
For those just starting out, this book will help you identify the best business idea to pursue, guide you on how to set it up and give you the strategies to grow it quickly using low-cost tools. For those with existing businesses, you’ll learn how to maximise your online impact and access the little-known but powerful tools and technologies the top disruptors use to create a global presence.
Featuring dozens of case studies of how Australia’s most successful disruptors have done it, Bernadette reveals the underlying patterns common to all successful online businesses – what they did right, what they did wrong, what they would do differently and the short cuts to building an online business that only the successful know. You’ll learn how to:
- Develop the entrepreneurial mindset needed to turn your passion, hobby or expertise into an online business
- Access free tools and technologies to help you build and test your online idea (before launching) to ensure a viable market exists
- Create a minimum viable product (MVP) that attracts attention and generates instant income
- Source web developers, designers and other important suppliers for a fraction of the usual cost
- Write, pitch, persuade and present like a professional to attract investors, customers and high-quality strategic partners
- Understand the basics of the Internet of Things, virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence and use these technologies to help your business create a point of difference
- Work from home and set up your online business in just a few hours a week
Table of Contents
About the author vii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface: What’s your ‘pinch of salt’? xi
Introduction: The state of play xvii
Step 1: Mindset 1
How to develop an entrepreneurial mindset
1 Mindset #1: Trust your crazy ideas 3
2 Mindset #2: Take action 15
3 Mindset #3: Look ahead 23
4 Mindset #4: Know what business you’re in 39
5 Mindset #5: Know what problem you’re solving 47
Step 2: Minimum viable product (MVP) 57
How to create an MVP to launch your startup
6 How to come up with a great business idea 59
7 What is a minimum viable product (MVP)? 69
8 Anatomy of a startup 81
9 How to bumble your way to success 87
Step 3: Momentum 97
How to harness the technical tools to build your online business
10 7 questions to ask before you build your online business 101
11 Open Access, Open Sesame! 115
12 Marketplaces: Disrupting legacy industries 121
13 Software hacks every startup should know about 127
14 How to build an information-based business 137
Step 4: Marketing 145
How to get found, get traffic and get sales
15 Content marketing 149
16 Social influencer marketing 161
17 How to write great headlines that get results 171
18 How to get on page one of Google 179
Step 5: Motivation 193
How to pitch, persuade and influence others to do business with you
19 How to source media coverage for your startup 195
20 How to pitch, present and persuade 203
21 How to prepare a great presentation 209
22 The art and science of business storytelling 229
In closing 245
References 249
Index 251
