I still remember the first time I was able to get online and browse the internet. I was 13 years old.

“There are so many things we can do with this,” I will say. “We can talk to people over the internet as opposed to talking over the phone.” In theory, this internet thing should allow us to fly planes remotely, or even allow us to computerize our homes. That’s what I thought in my young mind. I never thought that one day, I’ll be writing an article about starting a business online. Anyway, here are today.

There are a lot of ways you can benefit from starting an online business.

Independence
If you’re the kind of person that loves working on their own terms, without having a boss around to tell you how to and when to work on what, then this is gonna excite you. You see, when you start a business online, you’re totally in control. You can set your work hours, and decide what projects to work on, but more importantly, you can work on something you really love.

You can work on the things you love
Who would have thought that getting paid to travel will be a thing? Thanks to the internet, that’s a reality.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the internet is the possibility of working on things that you love. For the first time in human history, you can buy a camera and record your hobby, post it on youtube and actually make money from it.

You no longer have to be tied to a job that you hate, or to a boss whose face you don’t like seeing. Almost anything can be monetized on the internet, and because of that, it is now possible to pursue your passion.

You can work from anywhere in the world
I started making money online, and my first job was designing a flyer. The client was from France, and I live in Nigeria. The only way that would have been possible was because of the internet. Seven years later, I started a youtube channel and my viewers came from different countries around the world.


When you start a business online, you’re not limited to your locality. That limitation gets lifted the instant you decide to build a blog or start a youtube channel, or whatever business you decide to build online.

When you start a physical business, you’re limited to the customers you can get where you set up shop. That’s why it’s all about location, location, location. Even when your business expands to serve not just your locality. Let’s say the entire state or the entire country, you’ll have to worry about the logistics of delivering the products to the client, but businesses online don’t have that problem.

If I create a course on skillshare or even a self-hosted course, all I will have to worry about is marketing the product to my customers who will come from different parts of the world. Also, because most online businesses sell intellectual products, if that’s what you also decide to sell online, then that means that you just have to make sure that your customers are able to download the product after paying you.

You don’t need a huge capital to start
If I decide today that I want to set up shop and start a business, I will have to worry about many things. The cost of the shop for the starters. I will worry about the cost of producing my product, the cost of marketing, and if I will be delivering the products to my customers, I will also worry about the cost of logistics.

If I want to start a blog, I will need domain and hosting. The domain and hosting of this blog you’re reading costs about $50 a year. If I want to start a youtube channel, however, the cost is zero. I just need to create a youtube channel and start posting.

So, on average, online businesses cost very little money to start as opposed to their physical counterparts. You don’t have to break the bank to make an online business work. In theory, you can literally build a business online on a shoestring budget.

Huge Income
One great reason to start an online business is the chance of making an attractive income.


Khaby Lame is famous on tiktok, but when the pandemic started, he was one of the people affected negatively. He was laid off from his job, and with nothing to do, he decided to start posting videos on tiktok, and the rest is history. He has over 140 million followers on the app, and he is estimated to have a net worth of anywhere from $2 to $5 million.

The internet is filled with stories of people like Khaby. People who started with nothing and somehow managed to build businesses that bring home millions of dollars.



Get time for other things in your life
The fact that the internet offers you an opportunity to make huge amounts of money by doing things you already do; means that you can easily outsource things that won’t be affected much if you don’t do them, and create as much time as you want for yourself. The time you can spend doing other things besides working.

The internet offers what seems like an easy path to freedom. However, to get to the point where you will start earning, you will need to put in the work needed to get there.

Just because you can build a business where you get to have fun doing what you like doesn’t mean that it will happen without work. In fact, just like any other business, you will have to put in a lot of work in your early days. All while not seeing many results.

The secret is to stay focused and stay dedicated, because eventually, your blog, youtube channel, or whatever business you’re starting will pick up, and that’s when your life will turn around.

The conventional wisdom of working hard at another person’s business because it’s expensive to start yours is no longer true. You can start a business online with as little as $100 if you’re ready to start today. Hell, if you start a youtube channel, it will be free.

Just make sure you have something that people are looking for.

Click Here to check out my youtube channel. I post videos about money and productivity.

https://www.nairaland.com/7242687/nigerians-engage-unknown-bishop-challenge