In this video, I'm gonna share with you seven
things to help you come up with an idea for
starting a business online.
Hey, you're watching Ask Carrie, where I answer
your business questions.
And today I'm answering a question that someone
asked me on, "How do I come up with an idea to
start an online business?"
And now is an amazing time to start an online
business. More than ever, people are starting
online businesses, especially given the
pandemic and working from home, people are actually
taking their passions and their hobbies and turning
them into profitable businesses.
There are tonnes of things you can do. So
let's get into it. Here are my seven tips for
actually starting an online business.
So the first is this: if you don't know what
business to start, or how to come up with an idea,
I want you to start by thinking about what
you're passionate about, what you absolutely love.
So literally, sit down with a pen and a piece of
paper, and just make a list of what you're
passionate about, and what you love. What
lights you up. Do you actually have any
hobbies? It doesn't have to be things that you
would actually turn into a business, you just want
to get your creativity flowing. So that's step
number one.
Step number two is to sit and make a list of the
things that you are skilled at. What are you
good at? What is your skill set? And think of
at least, if you can, 10 things that you are
skilled at.
So if you can play an instrument, great. Think
of a degree that you've got, or education that
you've had, or a job that you've got, and a
skillset that you've learned from a job, or
just something that you've developed in your
own spare time. What skill sets do you have?
What things are you good at? Make a list and write
it all down.
So the third thing is to think about your
experiences: what have you experienced? Is there
anything you've experienced, that has
been really transformational? A
challenge that you've overcome, something that
you've been through, and you've come out the other
side, and through going through that journey,
you've learned so much that would help other
people?
Is there anything that you have experienced that
you know would impact others if you shared how
you got through that experience and how it
helped you?
So for example, a friend of mine, Michelle Rohr, a
long time ago, she realised she'd lived the
same year twice. And she realised that she wants
to take 100% responsibility for her
life, so that she could live her best life. And
so in her pursuit to figure that out, and to
do that, she did a bunch of different things.
She looked at goal setting and listened to
personal development, and then ended up creating
something she called her Ultimate Life Binder, and
then realised that that could be helpful for the
people, and that could help other people to
transform their lives because it helped her to
transform her own life.
So then she ended up selling on Etsy. And last
time I spoke to her about this particular topic,
she had like over $100,000 in sales, which
is incredible! From a digital product.
So think about experiences that you've
had, transformations that you've had. It doesn't
have to be some huge, profound thing either, it
can be something small. Small things can still
make a big difference to people. So think about
the experiences you've had and write them down
too.
Okay, so once you've got all that on paper, I want
you to ask yourself, what do you feel drawn to?
When you look at the paper and you look at
your skillset, your passions, what you love,
your hobbies, your transformations and
experiences, what do you feel drawn to? What would
you love to start a business about? What is
exciting? Go with what feels exciting, follow
your heart, it will lead you in the right
direction. Just really look at, "What am I drawn
to? Intuitively, what do I feel is the right thing
for me to focus on?"
Okay, so once you've thought of that, and
you've kind of got an idea in your head as to
what you think would be fun to share, what you
would love to create a business around, go and
do some research. Research what's out
there. Go and research people who are building
businesses similar to the idea that you have. Go
look on social media. If you want to create an
online course of some kind, go and look on
Udemy, go and look on Etsy. Just go and look on
different marketplaces. Look on Pinterest, search
on Google, what comes up when you search on
Google? What comes up when you search on
Pinterest? What comes up when you search on
Instagram? Go and search, and find people doing
what you want to do, and just see: what are they
doing? What do you like? What do you not like?
What would you do differently? And just
really explore the idea.
You could also go and look at, do they sell
anything? And are people buying from them? How
popular are they? How successful are they?
Because again, you can start to validate it and
be like, "Okay, people actually really like this
concept. It's working, people buy it. You know,
when I go on Google and I type this keyword in for
my idea, there's things that people can buy",
great. That's a really good sign that you are
onto something here, and it's a really good idea
and that you would actually be able to turn
this idea into a successful business.
So do that research. And again, it's a really good
way to get creativity flowing, by seeing what's
out there, what's available and what you
could come and do differently. So really
have a think about that.
Okay, so the sixth thing is, what do you actually
want to share? This is going to be your
business, your baby. So what do you want it to be
about? What do you want to get up every day and
work on? What do you want to share? So really have
a think about that. And even if it takes you a
few days, or a few weeks of just thinking about it
and playing around with it. But what would be fun
for you?
I think, so often, we have these good ideas,
but we just think, "Oh, no, that could never be a
business. I don't know how I could make money
from doing that." But actually, you can make
money doing so many different types of
things. And sometimes we limit ourselves to what
we think is possible, when actually so much
more is possible. So what do you want to share?
What's the message you have to speak up and
share? What do you want to say? So really have a
think about that.
So then, once you have thought about this, you
can look at turning your knowledge, your ideas,
your passions, your expertise, your
experiences, into something that you can
create and sell. You can, especially with an online
business, look at how you can take what's already
inside of you, that genius inside of you,
that knowledge, that amazingness that you
have, how could you turn that into an online
offering? Whether it's a product.
So for example, a friend of mine, Kate, she runs a
shop called The Little Jones, and she creates
amazing wall prints for children's nurseries for
children's bedrooms. And she started it when she
was on maternity leave, and her first son was six
months old. And she just had this idea, she wanted
to be creative, and she liked doodling, she liked
playing around. And so she just started to
design these prints.
And at first, she just sold them digitally on
Etsy. And she used Instagram to start to
build up an audience. And as she's got going, she's
to kind of learned, "Okay, this is how I can
build my audience on Instagram", she's since
created her own website and has her own online
shop.
She now has three children, over 50,000
followers on Instagram, and she sold 1000s and
1000s of prints. And it's incredible. All from this
idea of like, "Well, okay, I'm pretty good at
being creative, I'm pretty good at creating
things. Maybe I could do this."
Like I told you about Michelle earlier, who
took her Ultimate Life Binder idea and turned it
into a digital printable, a PDF that people could
download, or people could buy and download from
Etsy. Once you figured out how to do that really
successfully, she then took that knowledge and
turned it into a course to teach other people how
to do it.
So there's so many opportunities for you to
take your knowledge and expertise and turn it
into something successful online. You could take
your knowledge and turn it into an online course,
you could create a mini course to get started
with, you could take your knowledge and expertise
and passions and create a membership site with it.
There are so many opportunities, it is so
exciting.
So it's really just getting your ideas
flowing. Don't limit yourself to what you
think is possible, because there's so much
more possible than what we think. So really have
a think about that, play around with it. And just
get working on turning your ideas into a
successful online business.
And I am here to help you with that. The Female
Entrepreneur Association is here to help you with
that. We've got so many resources, so much to
help you with. The best place to get started is
our quiz. The quiz it's going to help you, it's
going to give you an action plan. So
definitely take some time to check that out at
fea.link/quiz.
So go to the quiz, and I will see you next week
for another episode of Ask Carrie.