Heads up! This post may contain compensated links which means I get a small tip for telling you about awesome stuff I love!🤘
Here’s everything you need to know to start an online business (from my 16 years of personal experience…)
So you’re ready to start an online business, but you’re not sure how to get started…
How do you sell on Etsy?
Or on Shopify?
What software should you use for your shop, blog, or email newsletter?
Why is it so fn hard to come up with a business name that isn’t already TAKEN?! 🤬
It’s easy to get super overwhelmed and tap out right away…
So if you’re mad-Googling whatever you can think up on how to start an online business, but what you’re finding is too DULL and full of jargon that your brain switches off, then this is for you.
I’m going to share with you everything you NEED to know to start an online business THAT ACTUALLY MAKES YOU MONEY- and how to build it in the RIGHT way. FROM THE START.
The gotta-know ESSENTIALS you won’t find on conventional business blogs.
The rarely talked about things that I know from 16 years of experience that’ll save you days, if not MONTHS of your time.
And if you follow my advice, it may also save you thousands of dollars in lost revenue! 🪄💸
I ran my first business in e-commerce on Etsy, eBay, and Shopify shops for 8 years.
Then, I spent 9 years behind the scenes of successful online businesses as a freelance social media manager.
I crafted thousands of pieces of magnetic content for their high-converting 6 and 7-figure social media sales funnels.
So, let’s just say… I know what works when it comes to starting an online business.
These days, I prefer to call myself a pro-‘Marketician’. 🪄🌪️💫💸
Someone highly experienced in the witchcraft of copy and automations that convert scrollers into buyers.
And I’m also a marketing mentor on a mission to transform unconventional women and gender diverse, neurospicy creatives who struggle with ‘ugly duckling‘ imposter syndrome into self-reliant AF online business owners.
As well as transforming them into money-making ‘Marketicians’!
Able to earn more than just ”enough” to enjoy time, location, and financial freedom on their own terms.
In their own unconventional way. To successfully enjoy an alternative lifestyle, free from working’ 9 to 5 for The Man.
So if that sounds as DELICIOUS as a spicy HOT LAKSA to you, then this is for YOU, cygnet. 🐣
You’re about to get the least boring business advice you’ll ever find online. 😉
The shit neurotypical girlboss influencers don’t tell you.
And that you’d never learn in business school!
Too busy running errands, dodging deadlines, or procrasti-cleaning your house? Listen to the podcast version while you conquer the mundane! 🪄 🎧💫
OR, if you prefer watching instead of reading or listening, click here to watch the YouTube version (yes, that’s me pretending I’m NOT wearing pajama bottoms!😉).🪄 📺💫
Bust Through The Business Bullsh*t – Here’s What Not to Do
So let’s start by going through all the sh*t you do NOT need to be doing from the start.
This is the stuff I see business noobs waste the most amount of time over.
You don’t need a fancy website or sales page. ❌
The day you land a client or make a sale is the day you are officially in business.🪄💸
And the fastest way to do THAT is through the people who already know and trust you.
So instead of wasting time creating online assets, get out to your local networking groups. Or post on your own personal Facebook profile.
Email everyone who is already on your email list.
Let people know what you are selling, and aim to get your first few sales from those who already know you.
Then, take their referrals, feedback, reviews, or testimonials, and use that to attract people who don’t know you.
That is the fastest track to making money online OR offline.
Your relationships are the most valuable asset you currently own. 🗝️
Now on to another thing you shouldn’t do – trying to FIND a conventional business name.
You will NOT find an unused business name, period. Make one up to save your sanity!
That conventional business name that you wanted is going to be taken, trust me. Someone else will have already bought ”Sally’s Handmade Soaps” or ”Healing Hands Massage.”
I have lost DAYS trying to come up with new online business names for clients in the past.
Unless you have a weird, clever, or unique made-up name, you will NOT find what you want.
It’s just not possible these days with so many new online businesses popping up every minute.
What I recommend instead is CREATING a totally unique name.
How to CREATE a business name that NOBODY will have taken – and how to make sure they never do!
Use two words that have connotations that resonate with the brand you want to start.
”Hexotica”, for example, is a name that did not exist on the internet when I started my first handmade gothic burlesque jewelry business back in 2003. EXCEPT as an 8-legged science project at MIT, as I found out after I’d decided to use it.
I had one of my best friends and fellow wordwitches come up with it when I told her I wanted something that sounded ”witchy, occult, and bewitching” which is how I described my jewelry.
She connected the words, ”Hex” and ”Exotic” and HEXOTICA was born. I LOVED it and I still love it (thank you, Kama!😘)
I have since trademarked HEXOTICA to try to stop more people from using it for their gamer handles, games, music albums, etc. There was even someone on Pinterest who named their horse Hexotica. 😂
So, I do strongly recommend that you trademark the name as soon as you come up with a word you like. You should also secure every single social media platform with your new name asap. Even if you have no intention of ever using it.
Popular businesses that have created unique names this way are: ”Instagram,” ”Facebook, ”ManyChat,”, ”Clickfunnels,” and ”Microsoft.” Combining two words to create a new word is the ONLY way to create a unique name for your business in today’s crowded online space.
And you want a unique name when you start learning Search Engine Optimization, or ”SEO.”
SEO is how to get your webpages found online when people search for you.
So just get creative!
Maybe use Chat GPT to help you.
So take this advice to make money FASTER and save yourself hours of useless fn toil.
No fancy website. ❌
No trying to FIND a business name.❌
So let’s move on to what you do NEED TO DO now.
The Essentials You Need to Start a Business Without Wasting Your Future Time or Money 🪄⏰
I learned these essentials the hard way, so you don’t have to! 😅
Invest in the JAGUARS of available online software. 💅🏻
Save your FUTURE self time and headaches by investing in the top-of-the-line software from the start.
Do NOT try to skimp or save money on ”FREE” software. They will cost your future self the time of having to switch to software that has the features you’ll need. ❌
If money is an issue, what you want to find is software that has a good affiliate program so that you can SELL it as you use it. That’ll offset its high costs.
For example, many all-in-one marketing software brands like Go High Level and Systeme have an excellent reputation and great affiliate programs.
You may not think you’re in the business of recommending software, but all it takes is telling a few business friends and acquaintances about what you are using.
Offer to help them get set up, share what you know, and voila! Affiliate sale made. Cha-ching!
Your software can pay for itself. How cool is that?
Next, avoid all ”start-up” software companies. They are too risky. ❌
I made this mistake, and it ruined 3 separate product launches. 🙄
Now, for another essential you should definitely NOT skimp or skip out on…hiring professional help!
Hire a mentor to help show you everything that you need to know to start an online business.
Whether you hire me to mentor you or you hire anyone else, this single step will get you from broke to making bank FASTER than anything else.
Faster than reading a book or taking a course and trying to figure it all out by yourself.
A business coach or marketing mentor is going to help you set up the business to suit your lifestyle.
If you do it alone, you may end up creating a business that your lifestyle is forced to fit.
That’s what most people do, and they end up fn miserable. Even when they are making BANK.
If you want to know why running after a business idea BEFORE you work on your lifestyle of freedom plan is the ass-backwards way of doing things, go read this post.
I did an in-depth analysis of why that approach will f*ck you up down the road. It’ll lead to LESS time to live your life.
And, you’ll earn LESS money in the long term. You can go read that here.
A marketing mentor can spare your future self the agony of creating a money-making monster on your back.
So let me share a bit about what a professional mentor can help you do if you’re keen to not waste any time or money on scrappy DIY bullsh*t.
How to Design a New Business That’ll Make You Money While Perfectly Suiting Your DREAM LIFESTYLE 🪄💸💫
A business coach or marketing mentor is going to help you build the business your way. To suit YOU.
Not the hustle-bro way. Not the neurotypical, pretty-faced influencer way.
But your way.
So I’ll describe what that would look like, step-by-step. As well as how each step is a part of my SWAN mentoring program, FYI.😉
Start by getting radically clear on what you want
Most people skip this part, but it is everything.
Your business needs to fit your current lifestyle while also allowing you to grow into the lifestyle that you are manifesting.
Figure out what lights you up, what kind of life you want to live, and how your big idea can get you there.
Even if you have ten ideas, that’s more than OK. Allowing yourself to simply write down what your most delusional-level dreams are can be wildly empowering.
Those huge fantasy ideas are like a light that can shine on your current life and show you the way forward. Whether they ever come true or not is NOT THE POINT. ❌
The point is that clarity provides a direction for you to follow.
Goals are just lighthouses. Good habits are what sail the ship there. And bad habits are what crash the ship before it even pulls out of the bay!
Anyway.
Developing what I call the ‘Marketician’s Mindset’ is a critical phase of starting an online business.
In my free SWAN Transformation Marketing Strategy Guidebook, this is what the first section is all about.
It’s packed full of all the questions that you need to ask yourself and answer in-depth before you start any business.
Once you’ve workshopped your brain to get it to align with your truest desires, the next phase is setting up your business systems.
Build strong ”Signature Systems” and all 5 essential marketing foundations 🪄
”Signature Systems” is what the ”S” stands for in SWAN. It’s for the foundational business requirements that would be included in a formal business plan.
This can be a lengthy process, but the more work you do on it, the easier the next stages of building your business will be. And the faster you’ll make money!
Signature Systems are all your brand assets, from your website colors, the tone of voice you use in your copy, to the style of font you are using.
It includes drilling down on your dream customer or client, your industry, and the viability of your product or service idea.
Don’t duct-tape a brand together from Canva templates and TikTok trends. Or assume just a logo is ‘branding.”
Hire a professional graphic designer to create a brand guide or learn how to put together one yourself.
Discover what brand archetypes suit your brand’s personality, and how your brand will express that archetype.
Craft your ”shining star” transformative message and understand how to weave it in all 5 essential foundations of marketing. These 5 are: The Awareness Foundation, the Interest Foundation, followed by Conversion, Advocacy, and Loyalty.
You can learn more about each of them here.
Also, know want you want to be known for: your niche.
A niche will help you get noticed if you use it like a flashing neon ”OPEN” on the front end of your marketing.
Then, on your backend (in email), you can do or sell whatever you want outside of that niche.
These are a few of the considerations to workshop in the Signature Systems, foundational stage of your new business set-up.
Next, you’ll want to start creating what I call Walkaway Workflows. The ”W” in SWAN.
Create simple, sustainable workflows you can stick to and eventually outsource. 🪄
You’ll want to simplify your daily business activities into a mini-action plans that won’t do your head in and that you can ENJOY.
A good workflow is designed to your strengths.
And naturally, it allows you to walkaway from the work of having to repeat it too often.
So, for example, you can walkaway when your repeat marketing activities like weekly emailing get automated.
Or when you can hire a virtual assistant to take over one or more of your workflows.
After operational workflows, another area of business you’ll need to learn how to start is Analytical Amplification. The ”A” in SWAN.
Set up systems that help you amplify what’s working so that you can grow, based on data. 🪄
Business and marketing skills are part creativity, part SCIENCE.
So it’s essential to learn how to read all the numbers in your business to be able to assess the health of its many parts.
We’re talking KPI’s and metrics here, and how to use them to AMPLIFY what’s working. And cut out or do less of what isn’t working.
When you get skilled in Analytical Amplification, you’ll get better results from your marketing at lower and lower costs.
These skills will help you attract your perfect customers and have them lining up for your products and services without you having to chase after them.
For example, learning how to read a Google Analytics dashboard on a weekly or monthly basis will help you see what pieces of content are growing your audience. It’ll show you how people are finding you and what they like the most.
You can then prioritize placing affiliate links or sales offers in that piece of content.
Or, you’ll learn how to increase the number of people who click through on your Facebook Ads to get to the sales or landing page of your free or paid offer.
Understanding HOW to read marketing metrics helps you know how to test and achieve things like this.
Knowing what small tests and tweaks are necessary is what separates the noobs who just give up, saying, ”it’s not working” and the Marketicians who say, ”let’s get tweaking!”
Marketicians can work without emotion like a scientist. They test and tweak until they get an offer selling well.
The best thing about this part of marketing, which I know SOUNDS boring and mathy, is that it’s actually a lot of fun.
When you know what you’re doing, it becomes like a big game.
If you’re neurodivergent like I am, you can get really hooked on it, as with SEO. Some of the best SEO and conversion optimization marketers I know are neurodivergent!
Finally, after learning how to analyze and amplify business metric results, there’s the PEOPLEING.
Knowing how to NETWORK like a NINJA is a key factor that’ll determine how much money you’re business will make!
Learn how to network in a way that doesn’t make you cringe
‘Ninja Networking’ is for the ”N” in SWAN because your relationships are your most valuable asset.
Especially nowadays with AI-generated slop and so many fn BOTS online, creating REAL connections with people has even MORE value.
But learning HOW to engage with your audience and build your tribe is a skill.
DMing people on Facebook or reaching out to total strangers just because they commented on your Instagram photo does NOT come naturally to most people (so don’t feel bad if it scares you!).
Yet learning how to do it well in order to create a genuine connection is a critical money-making business skill.
So, cultivate a community that vibes with your values.
Practice reaching out to people who inspire you.
And learn what a ”lead pipeline” is and how to sell in the DMs.
But not ”sell” as in ”buy my sh*t, yo!” that makes you cringe and that NOBODY likes…
Selling in the form of genuinely giving people the support and help they are seeking. The stuff they want to buy.
And you can only do that by getting to know and respect people first.
By being a Networking Ninja! 🥷
Ready to Start Your Online Business Your Way? Here’s How to Begin
So if you’re thinking, “Damn, all this is exactly what I need…”
Well—that’s exactly what I help you do inside my SWAN Academy.🪄🦢
It’s my 4-week mentoring program for business noobs that makes building your business actually feel doable. Even fun!
Contact me and I’ll tell you more about how it can help you set-up your new online business the right way from the start. To suit YOU.
But if you’re not ready to contact me just yet, you can start by downloading my FREE SWAN Transformation Marketing Strategy Guidebook.
It walks you through the same 5-step framework I use with my students that I’ve just described here.
It’s a FREE 30-page PDF printable resource guide of everything you need to know to start, grow, and run an online business – in order!
Start changing your life TODAY by building an online side hustle or business and mastering marketing to become a Marketician.
Download the FREE complete step-by-step guidebook by signing up for the form below! 👇
