商务类英语文章
随着入世及全球化程序的发展,中国的商务旅行活动日趋频繁。下面是我带来的，欢迎阅读!
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How to Find a Profitable Niche for Your Online Business
Do you struggle with knowing what to do when it es to building an online business?
Most people struggle, a lot.
The truth of the matter is that if you do not pick the right niche, or focus on serving people who are willing to pay you, chances are that you will fail. But this doesn’t mean you have to figure it all out right away: when I started my online business, I didn’t know what I wanted to focus on.
I knew I was passionate about personal development. I also knew that the personal development market was extremely saturated, but I didn’t know what else to do, so I jumped in anyway. I started building an audience, and as I started getting feedback, I started to discover my niche.
You see, it’s not about perfection—it’s about constant improvement. If you have a vague idea of what you want to do, but aren’t sure, the best thing you can do is to jump in and see what happens. If you can’t figure it out, you just have to take action, otherwise you’ll stay stuck for a long time.
Why Most People Fail
One of the main reasons people fail is because they are unrealistic. They may follow their passion, but they never stop to think if people would be willing to pay for what they want to do, so always stay focused on what problems people have, and if they would be willing to pay you to solve those problems.
When I started, I dove into the personal development market. My odds of success were low, but I knew there was demand. I knew the market was viable, because there was petition; I could find books, courses, workshops, and coaches. If I could just build an audience, I could succeed. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I took things one step at a time, and here I am today, getting paid to do what I love.
How to Find a Profitable Niche for Your Online Business
There are three main steps—or areas—you need to think about when you’re determining what you want to build an online business about. Let’s dive into the first and most important one.
Step 1: Passion
The first area is passion.
Yes, there are people who have businesses in markets they aren’t passionate about, but are they happy? They may be making a lot of money, but money alone won’t bring you fulfillment in life. It is when you are passionate about something that you excel. You have a drive to learn more because you love it.
And I was passionate about personal development when I started: I was willing to work hard, and be open to constantly learning new things. This drive allowed me to build an audience of thousands of people, and it later helped me uncover my niche, which was to help people turn their passion into a thriving lifestyle business.
Action step: Look at what you’re passionate about. Brainstorm a list of topics. Don’t censor yourself, and don’t worry about if it’s profitable or not.
Step 2: Skill
The next area is skill. What are you good at? Or, what do you want to bee good at? People pay for skill; they pay for a job well done. This doesn’t mean you have to be an all-knowing expert—it just means you have to have skills that are needed by the people you’re helping.
For example: when I started, I certainly couldn’t hold up to some of the personal development experts like Tony Robbins or Wayne Dyer, but I had my own experiences to share. People enjoyed my unique, fresh perspective. Don’t underestimate how much you already know—you don’t have to know everything, you just have to know enough.
Action step: Write down a list of things you’re good at, or want to bee good at. Again, let it flow and you’ll be surprised at what es out.
Step 3: Demand
Demand is what makes it all work.
What are people willing to pay for? What already exists out there? Look at books, programs, courses, workshops, retreats, and anything where people are paying money for a solution. Also look at successful coaches: What problems are they solving? How are they helping people? How much are they charging?
When I dove into the personal development market, I knew there was demand there. People were paying thousands to attend retreats, workshops and take online courses because they wanted to be fulfilled, live their purpose, and to find their passion. Uncovering the demand doesn’t have to be plicated—just look at what people are spending money on.
Action step: Do some research. Use Amazon, Google, and just plain surfing around, to see what people are paying for. Then look at what you’ve written down in step 1 and 2. Try to find the intersection.
Finding the Intersection, Finding Your Niche
So, how do you find a profitable niche for your online business? Look at the three steps we’ve gone through above. Write down what you’re interested in, write down what you’re good at, and then look at what the petition is doing. If there is petition in a market, it means there is opportunity there. Once you’ve done your research, try to find the intersection between these three areas.
For example, my passion is personal growth and business: that’s my intersection. I’m passionate about it, I’m good at it, and there’s demand for it. In the end, there are no guarantees, so you have to be willing to start before you feel ready. Most entrepreneurs fail many, many times before they find something that works.
The Bottom Line
To find a profitable niche for your online business, you have to find the intersection between what people want, what you’re good at, and what you’re passionate about.
It’s not easy—that’s why most people give up—but if you keep going, you will succeed. That’s what I’ve discovered, and that’s what I’ve found to be true.
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How to Find New Revenue Sources for Your Online Business
Not only is your online business up and running, you’re doing a good job of selling what you have to offer and—most importantly—you’re actually turning a profit doing it. Kudos to you, and that’s not a reference to the delicious cereal bar. Making money with a startup is no easy feat, so that’s really something to celebrate.
You’ve probably learned a lot in the early going, like how to fgure out who your core audience is and why it’s more important to have a website that’s easy to use than one with all the bells and whistles unless you sell bells and whistles, of course. Maybe you’ve even discovered that the Pareto Principle applies to your business, with 20 percent of your products or services accounting for 80 percent of your sales, and used this knowledge to focus on your strengths.
While your business was still in its infancy, these were all important things to learn but now it seems like you’ve plateaued. Growth is stagnant and you might even be feeling a financial pinch from trying to expand before your revenue streams were ready for it. What do you do to get more money and keep growing?
Easy: find new revenue streams.
Okay, okay. Admittedly, “easy” probably isn’t the best word to use, but there are a number of ways that online businesses can do to add revenue sources, such as…
Add products or services.
Maybe your online tea business is selling hand-crafted tea cozies like crazy, but people don’t seem to be as interested in the tea kettles or the tea itself. You rightly focused more on the cozies because they were working but it’s not enough. Ever thought that perhaps you don’t have a tea business, but a cozy business? Try new products like coffee cozies, beer cozies, or toaster cozies and see how they do. A service pany like a junk removal business could think about offering a separate moving service because it still involves hauling things.
Expand your customer base.
If could be that you’ve hit your revenue ceiling with your current customers because they don’t have any more money, or they’ve already bought everything you have. Get new customers i.e. revenue sources by marketing yourself to a wider audience using new SEO terms, guest posting on different sites, joining more social networks, using PPC advertising, and more. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can stop appealing to your core audience; you just have to find ways to reach out to others without alienating them.
Join an affiliate ad network.
Most businesses don’t like the idea of putting up ads for other panies, and especially fear driving visitors away with banners and pop-ups that are intrusive and annoying, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Amazon’s Associates Program lets you link to anything on their site in a contextual way and make money doing it, while Yahoo Publisher Network, Google Adsense, and others pay surprisingly well for ads that do little to disrupt your site. Perhaps the best part is that you can typically choose the kinds of ads that you want to display. In this way, you ensure that they reflect products and services that interest your customers. Some people have had amazing success using affiliate marketing.
Get outside investments.
This one works best with panies that are “big ideas” but don’t have a plan on how to monetize the business. Business ideas like Facebook and Twitter, or even panies that want to create something like a video game and sell it but don’t have the necessary money to create the game themselves. Kickstarter and websites like it provide you with one option but you can also utilize your own network to find people willing to invest money now for a piece of the profits later.
These suggestions are only the tip of the iceberg when it es to finding new revenue sources for your business. You just have to be creative—some panies even make money by outsourcing their employees to other businesses when things are slow. The key is to keep the money ing in while you work on growing the pany.
