virtual business start-up Archives

I’m in the process of editing my first ever VBL-related product, and I have to say, its been a massive learning experience for me.

The fact is that I could have released this thing months ago. But, I have changed things around, procrastinated a certain amount, and quite frankly, put it on the back-burner a lot because of other, more pressing business opportunities and commitments. However, I now have a goal in place to launch this sucker by the time I fly to LA to speak at BlogWorld at the beginning of November.

So, today I’d like follow on from last weeks fantastic discussion on this subject – and present the first part, in a two-part post series with my quick fire tips to getting a virtual business up and running, from scratch, possibly even, for the first time ever…

Lets start…

1. Start a Blog

If you haven’t already got a blog up and running, start one. People like to do business (and spend money) with people. Not businesses, or websites – as far as I’m concerned, anyway. Since starting this blog, my business empire has grown and grown, and even my core business, the Live2Sell Group has expanded – I’ve even had new clients come to me from this blog, who now have 10-15 full-time employees sitting under my company’s roof. Love it!

2. Build Your Brand

Get onto YouTube – now. Again, the personal branding side of doing business virtually, or online, comes into play again. Talking into your webcam is all you need to start off with. Keep your videos short and sweet, provide value, stay on target and include a call to action, such as ‘visit my blog for more free info’, for example.

3. Engage Your Tribe

As the weeks and months go by you’ll start to build a following. FACT – your following online doesnt have to be huge to make good money. I know some marketers online with lists as small as 800-1,000 subscribers who are making $5,000+ each month. Engage your tribe and make them feel welcome. Thank them for commenting on your posts and retweeting your links. Doing things proves you’re real, appreciative and most of all starts conversation – conversation leads to relationships. And relationships are EVERYTHING in business.

4. Ask Your Audience

Before you start putting ideas in place to create a product or service, ask your audience what they need help with. Solving a problem for someone is the oldest sales shooting-star in the book! People will pay good money for things that solve a problem, or make their life easier, or help acheive their dreams… You get where I’m coming from, right? Collating information from the people that follow you will enable you to create a product or service that will knock ’em off their feet and put their hand in their pocket!

5. Start Planning Your Offering

Whether you are anticipating putting together a product (either downloadable, or physical), or a service related offering, start planning sooner, rather than later. The worst case scenario is that you have to change a few things in the future, before launching. I have been planning my upcoming eCourse ‘Virtual Business for Virgins!’ for over a year. I have tweaked its message several times, but the overall ‘guts’ of the product have remained the same – show people how to create and launch a virtual business in 30 days or less!

Having a solid marketing plan in place is also extremely important when planning and launching a new business – whether it be virtual, or not. In the second part of this two-part series, I will go over how you should ‘think in the now’ when producing a solid marketing and launch plan, instead of copying what people were doing years ago – just because it worked for them.

Real time marketing is upon us, ladies and gents. Jump on board, or be left behind. Plain and simple.

Anyone got any comments, insights, feedback and ideas on these first five points? Please jot them down below so we can ALL benefit from them – plus, feel free to include ideas for the second part of this series, too!

UPDATE: Part Two of this series is now LIVE and available HERE!

In the last year I have started two virtual businesses. I’ve been heavily involved with both of them for a certain period of time, and then, once things seem to level out, and starting running on their own (and after I’ve hired people to run the businesses for me!), I step away, manage from a distance, and move on to the next project / start-up.

I love doing this…!

The First

The first was Virtual Staff Finder. This is a service that I started up purely to fill a gap that I saw in the outsourcing market, where my team of qualified sourcing experts match busy entrepreneurs with experienced, home-based virtual assistants here in the Philippines.

When I start it, I said I’d be happy with servicing 10 clients a month. We are currently serving an average of four times that amount, and it continues to become more and more popular!

The Second

This one has been in beta mode for around 4 months now. I am literally 4-6 weeks away from a full-blown launch of this new company, that I feel will revolutionize the way people outsource project-based work. I mean, its gonna be in a class of its own.

We’ve been testing our products and services with existing clients and a few newbies, and so far everyone has nothing but awesome things to say about the quality of the work, the speed at which its completed and the service in general.

More info on this soon, peeps.

What IS a Virtual Business?

This might differ from one person to another. However, my definition of a virtual business is that of a business entity that does not require YOU, as the owner of the business, to be present on a regular basis at any one location, in order for the business to function properly and ultimately make you money.

It doesn’t need to be ‘online’ (ie. an e-commerce store). It can even require office facilities. However, if as the head-honcho you have the freedom to come and go as you please, work from anywhere you want and fundamentally run the business at an arms length – THAT’S a virtual business.

Coming Soon: Virtual Business for Virgins!

I’m around a month or so away from finishing my first ‘real’ online product. I had actually wanted to get this out months ago, but, as you can tell from the first few paragraphs of this post – I’ve been busy building my virtual business empire!

This is going to be an eBook, Audio and Video content based product, and will talk you through how I’ve set-up my virtual businesses, and the steps you need to complete to be able to do it easily, and quickly (under 30 days, actually!) for yourself.

To help me finish things off and come up with a couple of hypothetical case studies to include, I’d like to ask you this question today, and engage in another one of our, always-popular, VBL Discussions.

If you were to start-up, or even just start PLANNING the start-up of a virtual business tomorrow, what would it be?

Over to you…