Start a Business Online without Quitting Your Day Job

If you are interested in starting an online business but have no desire to give up your day job, you are not alone. There are many people who want to continue working outside of the home, but still have the desire to start a business online. The Internet is so flexible that it is entirely possible to establish an online business that compliments your day job and supplements your income to some degree.

start online business
Image by Ed Yourdon

There are three options for starting an online business that generates income consistently:

  1. Time Investment – Make the business your full-time job.
  2. Raise Prices – Charge more for every sale, so you do not have to make a large volume of sales.
  3. Automated Business Model – Start a business that is automated to a large degree, so your physical presence is not needed to generate income.

If you are working a full-time job, you probably do not have time to commit 40 or more hours a week to your online business. Raising prices will make your business less competitive in most fields today, and that will mean your business fails unless you invest more time in marketing and communicating with potential customers.

This leaves the third option for those interested in starting an online business as a second source of income. When you set up a business that can operate around the clock through the Internet, you can invest less time in the business while still supplementing your full-time job to some degree.

You do not have to be sitting at your computer in order to bring in a sale. You set-up a virtual storefront and then drive traffic to the storefront from a blog and social media accounts. You can manage your business-related social media through apps on your smart phone. You can write blog posts in advance and schedule them to automatically update your blog at the right time each day.

You still have to invest some time in an online storefront, but this type of business is more manageable for those with a busy lifestyle. Setting up a storefront online is incredibly easy if you use services that provide the template and allow you to design the site without any knowledge of HTML or CSS style sheets. You can choose one service to quickly establish a fully functional, visually pleasing storefront and provide long term hosting. All you have to do is add your products and start marketing.

If you do not have time to handle inventory while working your day job, you can sell products offered by a drop-ship company. If you have a creative hobby that you would like to turn into your business, then you simply take pictures of your handmade products and upload them into your store with descriptions and prices. The host takes care of the shopping cart and makes sure your customers can pay easily.

Anyone can start a business today if they are willing to take advantage of automated and time management services. If you were under the assumption that you needed a pile of money and 40 hours a week to make it work, it is time to rethink that assumption.