Your Online Business Won’t Succeed Without These 7 Things
Ask those who are already succeeding and they’ll confirm
Building a successful online business is not only about colours and aesthetics. It’s not about how attractive your Instagram feed looks and it’s certainly not about dancing on TikTok.
Not that those things are not necessary, they eventually add to your business’s bottom line, especially in the aspect of reaching more customers, but you cannot afford to build a business that is aesthetically pleasing on the outside but on shaky legs on the inside.
A Client Management System (CMS)
A CMS or Customer Relationship Management CRM is the most underrated tool in the small business owner’s toolbox today.
This simple tool is what ensures that the back-end of your business is simplified and organized. You can use a CMS to manage and keep track of your customers. You can keep track of your past and current customers, and manage their to-dos.
When you use a CMS, you’ll be able to keep track of your leads and set up links, landing pages, brochures, contracts, and invoices. You’ll also be able to set up automation for your platforms. You will also be able to track the stages each of your customers is at.
When you use a CMS, keeping quality relationships with customers will be seamless. Examples of commonly used ones include Hubspot CRM, Airtable, Sales force, etc.
A Course-Hosting Platform
If you are a coach or a course creator you’d need to have a platform to host your courses. I’m not really keen on hosting courses on my website because it makes my website load slowly and because there are better platforms created for that purpose.
Some of them are Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi and even YouTube is a good place to host your video courses if you set your videos to ‘Unlisted’ or you can create a separate website for it, using a content management system like WordPress.
A Website
A website for your online business is like air to your lungs, you can’t survive without it.
That’s where people will see your work samples, your offerings, and your price points and learn more about you.
It makes your business credible, it’s a 24-hour marketing tool for you. No need for story, you need one.
A Community
One thing about having a thriving online business is to have an audience who really needs what you offer. The best way to get your audience engaged is to build a community.
Communities can turn your followers into engaged evangelists, drive traffic to your website, help you retain customers, and increase your revenue. The key to having a thriving community is to get people to communicate with each other on the platform.
For example, if you have a Facebook group, you should make sure that other people are posting and engaging with content from others. Don’t be the only one posting.
You can set up rules of engagement and have moderators who will review and approve posts. Other community-based platforms you can use are Whatsapp groups, Slack, Mighty networks, etc.
An Email Marketing Platform
Having an email system is one of the best things you can ever do for your business. When people join your email list, they’ve been prequalified as potential customers and you can continue to build trust by sending emails.
Create a system that allows you to reach out to them regularly, either once or twice a week. Provide valuable content first before selling. Some of the best email marketing platforms are Flodesk, Mailchimp, Convertkit, Mailerlite, etc.
A Cloud-Based Platform
No need to even overthink it, Google workspace is your best bet. Great thing is, it’s for free until you’ve reached 15gb. Goole cloud storage is the best there is, alongside their apps.
You get Slides for your presentations, Sheets for your spreadsheets, Docs for your documents and so much more. It’s an online business powerhouse.
Having your data stored in the cloud ensures it is backed up and protected in a secure and safe location. In case of a disaster, it ensures business continuity because all your stuff is in the cloud.
An Accounting System
If you decide to manage your business finances in-house, you’ll need reliable accounting software like Quickbooks, Wave or Freshbooks.
Write simple reports like balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements manually.
That’s all about all. Start now before it’s too late.
