Building an online business brings many advantages. Thanks to digitalisation, you can not only completely automate all your business processes online, but also develop a special lifestyle that 15 years ago was reserved for the richest elite.

If you automate your online business well, you are no longer geographically bound to one spot on earth. You become a digital nomad and are able to work from anywhere. This gives you the opportunity to explore the whole world and run your business simultaneously from your hotel room, Airbnb flat or café.

In addition to automation and location independence, scalability and optimisability are other advantages of an online business. Scalability gives you the opportunity to grow and expand your business, while optimisation allows you to improve your processes, spend less money and target your customers more precisely.

Please remember that you can also build a digital business on the side by taking advantage of the revolution in digital trends.

The internet has levelled the playing field for small business owners around the world in every way. Online businesses are relatively easy to start without having to invest large amounts of money to set up, which is common for a brick-and-mortar business.

With an online business, for example, you only need:

• A computer, which you probably already have,

• a domain name you can get for less than 10 €/year

• and a website builder that costs you just €29.90 per month to get started with certain providers.

In other words, it's possible to start an online business with as little as €100. And the more start-up capital you invest, the more online business ideas you can pursue.

But the point is that you don't have to risk all your savings to become a successful online entrepreneur.

With a brick-and-mortar business, on the other hand, you have to deal with the constraints of the "real world". Renting in prime locations is expensive, there may not be enough foot traffic on some days and the local population may not be in constant need of new products or services.

Guess what it looks like in terms of accessibility to potential customers with an online business? Exactly, with an online business none of the above-mentioned restrictions apply. You can sell to any internet user, no matter where they are on the planet.

And year after year, your pool of potential customers expands enormously as more and more people embrace the idea of online shopping.

By 2023, for example, e-commerce will account for 22% of global retail sales.

In addition, the global internet population is also growing. The number of internet users in North America alone grew by 73.3 million people between 2009 and 2020. But that's nothing compared to the regions that are still developing!

The number of internet users in Asia increased from 764.4 million to 2.5 billion, which means that another 1.76 billion people started using the internet.

More and more people are online, which increases the potential exposure of your brand. Especially if you don't mind scaling your online business globally.

Another advantage that online businesses have over brick-and-mortar businesses is that they can stay open 24/7, even during curfews, as in the case of the Corona pandemic and other disruptions.

Once your online business website is live, you are able to make a sale around the clock. Buyers can order from you at any time.

Since you don't need to be physically present and don't need staff, your business can generate more revenue with less daily effort than a brick-and-mortar business.

Summary of all the advantages of an online business:

• Automation of all business processes

• Location independence and flexibility

• Scalability and optimisability

• No start-up capital required

• Accessibility of internet users on a global level

• Sales around the clock 24/7

• Rapid growth in the number of internet users & online purchases worldwide

Examples of an online business that you can start right away

With so many business opportunities and countless ultimate guides, it can be difficult to choose one. To help you choose, I've done some research and narrowed it down to the three best online business ideas.

1. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an online fulfilment method that allows you to sell physical goods without carrying inventory yourself.

The whole thing works like this:

• The customer orders a product on your e-commerce website,

• the order is automatically forwarded to the manufacturer

• and the manufacturer then ships the product directly to the customer and the intermediary then receives the commission.

Dropshipping is an attractive option for those who want to get into e-commerce without taking the financial risk that comes with stock. No wonder then that the dropshipping market is growing! The sales forecast for the year 2025 is 557.9 billion US dollars.

Although dropshipping is attractive, it also has some disadvantages. These include low profit margins compared to affiliate marketing and online coaching, slow shipping speed and lack of control over the supply chain.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Similar to dropshipping, affiliate marketing is also worth considering if you want to start an online business but are not interested in producing your own products.

This is how affiliate marketing works:

• You first register for an affiliate programme,

• then you select someone else's product to promote to a certain audience. This can be any digital product such as an e-book, online course or app, but also any physical goods. Affiliate products can be promoted via your blog, for example, by creating SEO content around relevant keywords and then optimising them to get organic traffic from Google. Alternatively, you can promote them through your social networks. In case you have an email list, you also have the option to allow your affiliates to send webinar invitations to your audience.

• Finally, you will then receive a commission for each sale made through the generated referral link.

It's a great business model with extremely low start-up costs. And when done right, it can be extremely lucrative.

There are people who generate an annual passive income of over €1 million. All you need at the beginning is a domain name, web hosting and email marketing software, for which you don't even have to pay €100 per month.

It's a popular way to make money online. According to Statista, annual affiliate marketing spend by brands is estimated at $12 billion. The figure is expected to increase by 10 % in the next few years.

3. Online Coaching

As an online coach, you offer your knowledge and expertise on a very specific topic in a niche, depending on how you want it, either via digital video courses, via 1:1 sessions, live webinars or blog posts.

There are really endless niches in which you can operate. From healthy eating and fitness to mindset, business, finances, relationships, dating and so on.

With courses that are recorded once, can be accessed and updated online, and masterminds where up to thousands can attend your live coaching sessions, you can scale your business exponentially.

Conclusion: All the amazing benefits of an online business don't mean you should just jump headlong into it.

As with any business, you should create a solid foundation for your online business. But more on this in the second part of the article (Part II), which will follow soon.

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