Hi This is Kate Wilber “The Marketing Momma” again for Tip # 2 in the 5 tips to starting an online store series here at the work at home success blog.  I wanted to Thank Leslie again for inviting me to visit this week.  If you missed yesterdays tip you can check it out here.

Today’s Tip is

3 Important Things You Need To Know First

When you are first starting an online business or actually any business there are 3 key things you need to know first before you set up your business structure.

1. First you need to know who your target market is.
2. Second you need to know what your target market is interested in and are they interested enough in it to pay money for it. And is there enough of your target market willing to pay money for it to build a sustainable business around it.
3. Third how are you going to get in front of your target market.

For the first of the three, there are a lot of ways to choose who your target market is and alot of thoughts on how to go about choosing a good market.  My first recommendation is to choose a niche that you either know alot about or you want to learn alot about.  You need to become an expert in that niche to be able to build a business around it.  If you don’t like a niche or you don’t have any interest in it you aren’t going to be able to stay motivated to keep things moving forward with it over a long period of time.  Plus the whole point of working from home and owning your own business is to enjoy what you do.  So pick something you are going to enjoy!!

Second–Once you have picked a niche next you need to do some research to see if that niche has other people interested in it to and if those people are willing to spend money on it.  Just because you love water ballet doesn’t mean that there are enough other people out there that love it too.  So do some research and see if there is an interest in it.  One easy way to research is to do a search for it on google–then look to see if there are any other companies doing paid advertising around that niche.  Normally if other companies are paying for advertising then that means somebody is buying.  You also would need to use the google keyword tool to see exactly how many people are searching for that product or niche on a daily basis.

For the third importance,  figure out how to get your product or service in front of your target customer.  You can have the best product in the world but if you don’t know how to get that product in front of the people who want or need it then nobody is going to buy it.  So find where your target customer hangs out and get in front of them.  One great way to do this is to search online for forums and blogs that are related to your niche–then make a presence there for you and your business.

If you know someone who would benefit from these tips to start an online store please send them to this post.

For more step by step guidance to building a successful online store

visit www.startanonlinestore.com

To Your Success!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma