Brainstorming how to Make Money from Your Business

Everyone likes to make money. That’s likely at least part of your reason for wanting to start a business. It better not be your only reason or you are going to get tired of your business really quick. I can’t overemphasize the importance that you are passionate about your business. And if you don’t love it in the beginning, it’s certainly not going to get better later when all of the real work comes in. By the way, your reason to start a business also better not be because you want to work less hours, because that’s not going to happen either—at least not if you also want to make money.

How do you make money from this business idea about which you are passionate? There are two main ways to make money—products and advertising. So, to have a product based business, you’ll have to decide what your products will be. Will they be unique? Will you have to manufacture them? Or, will you buy them from someone else? Where will you store them? How much will you mark it up for the sell to customers? I hope what I am getting across is that there are many things to think about and it makes sense to think about all of them BEFORE you decide whether or not to start your business. If it’s not going to be profitable, it doesn’t really matter how much fun you’ll have—unless you have money to throw around. I don’t.

How about making money from advertisers? Basically you are making money off of getting eyes. In order to do well at this, you need a way to attract eyes to your site. The easiest way to do this is to offer free content, ideally tailored to a specific audience. Because, not only do you want eyes, you want the eyes of a specific audience. You can get a lot more from advertisers if you can convince them that your audience is more likely that the average bunch of people to buy their product. Keep in mind that it will take time to build the number of eyes looking at your site—maybe a lot of time. It’s likely to take at least 6 months to do this, including getting the content that will attract your eyes and to start getting the word out about your site. It will also take a little time to find the right advertisers for your site. However, if you can manage to do all of this and are OK with making no money for the first 6-12 months, the rewards can be large. You have no manufacturing to worry about, no inventory, perhaps not even an office space for rent. Theoretically, it can all be done at home.

You can always do both. If your product based site is getting a good amount of traffic, make some extra cash from advertising. Be careful what ads you put on your site. Having a bunch of annoying ads will just annoy your customers.

I will discuss a lot more about how to draw traffic to your site, the best ads, and the options for getting startup capital in future posts. For now, just take a little time to consider whether you can actually make any money from your business. Also consider how long it will take before you start making that money and if you can afford to wait that long. You don’t need to be an expert to figure out whether your business idea has merit. A little estimation will go a long way.