Everyone wants to start an online business, but no one wants to pay the price and go through the sacrifice that it takes to succeed. Fortunately enough, the internet is a huge place and it’s filled with plenty of opportunities for getting started on a shoestring budget.
So how much is it going to cost to start an online business? Be sure to keep reading on as we discuss all of the important prices that you’ll need to be familiar with.
How Much Does It Cost To Start An Online Business?
It’s unfortunate that there is no one and clear-cut answer to this question. As when it comes to the many online business-related questions, the answer is going to depend on a few factors. Fortunately enough, I’m going to talk about a few of those factors and then bring up the prices that are associated with each.
And before continuing on, keep in mind that you can, in fact, start an online business on a shoe-string budget.
Let’s talk about that first.
The Shoestring Online Business
This is quite a popular business model when it comes to just getting started online. If you’ve visited many of the trending Facebook groups for online marketers, then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
This type of online business is mostly built through the use of organic traffic. A few big organic traffic sources include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and so on and so forth. Since these online businesses rely on free traffic, the initial costs are very minimal.
Here is a quick list of some of the essentials for this type of online business.
- Hosting can be as low as $2.95 per month.
- A domain for your website can be as low as $1 for your first year.
If you take a look at the numbers above, you’re not exactly going to be breaking the bank here, and that’s a good thing. This online business method is great for those who don’t have a lot of money to initially invest but also want to take massive action. That’s why you’ll see a lot of beginners gravitate towards this type of model.
The Online Business Essentials
This next model is going to require a little bit more money to get started, but you can certainly make it pay off if you take the right actions. Whether you want to use free or paid traffic is going to be up to you, but the tools are going to change slightly.
First and foremost, you’re going to want to utilize your hosting and website, which’s still needed. It’s the best spot for writing articles, generating organic traffic, and even making more sales. Aside from that, here are more helpful tools that you’ll want to look into.
- Complete sales funnel software.
- Click tracking and analytics tool.
- Email marketing software.
- Event/webinar platform.
Let’s talk a little bit about some of these essential tools so that you can get a good idea of how much you’d be looking to invest.
Complete Sales Funnel Software
First on the list is a complete sales funnel builder, and it was added first for a big reason. Sales funnel builders tend to come along with every single tool that you need for building an online business.
When looking at the typical cost of a sales funnel builder, many are priced around $99 per month. If you were to compare Kartra vs Kajabi, you’ll notice that the cost can be either $99 per month or $149 per month. That’s a difference of $50 every single month, which can certainly add up over the years.
What’s great about complete sales funnel builders, is that you won’t need to get many of the other tools that I’ll be mentioning in the next paragraph. So all in all, you can start building your online business for around $99 per month. Not too shabby, right?
Click Tracking And Analytics Tools
If you happened to be looking at investing in more tools separately, next would be the click tracking and analytics tool. This type of software is beneficial because it allows you to get a good look at your numbers. In other words, you’ll be able to know how much you’re spending per click, how much your average cost per click, and most importantly, if you’re making any profit.
Fortunately enough, these software tools are relatively cheap. An example like ClickMagick costs only $27 per month to get started. That’s not a lot of money considering how much value it can bring towards you and your online business.
Email Marketing Software
Email marketing is imperative when it comes to sending messages to your leads and following up with them as well. The best part about email marketing software is that these tools have now become more affordable than ever now.
For example, quite a few companies have gone with the freemium model. This means that you can use most of their platform for a specific amount of time for free before needing to upgrade and pay money. So normally, you won’t be charged until you acquire 500 or even 1,000 email subscribers.
Just make sure that you actually email your leads after acquiring them. After all, that’s only one of the many email marketing mistakes that you can make when getting your new email marketing software.
Event/Webinar Platform
Last on the list of essential tools is going to be any type of webinar or event platform. These types of tools have become even more and more popular with so many people doing Zoom calls while being stuck at home.
This is good news for you, simply because there will be many more people who are interested in viewing your webinar presentation at home. Once again though, there are many sales funnel platforms that also come along with a webinar feature.
So depending on how you want to invest your money, you might not even need a separate webinar platform to begin with. Either way, you’re looking at spending around $499 a year to be able to use a webinar platform. That’s not a lot of money when you consider that you can make a return on your investment with only one webinar sale.
Conclusion
Aside from creating your own brand or searching for a route planning software like Route4Me Route Planner to aid in the timely delivery of your products, the ideas mentioned above are also essential in getting your online business started. The best thing is, they don’t even cost a whole lot of money! In terms of getting started on a shoestring budget, you’re looking at paying around $5 a month. When it comes to building and growing with more tools, you’re looking at around $99 per month.
You have to aware of various technological tools every forward-thinking business must adopt to remain competent and ahead of competition in the ecosystem.
Compare these costs to trying to build a brick and mortar offline business, and the difference is like night and day. Anyway, I hope that this article inspired you to get started because it’s usually never the price that holds people back, but more so the lack of knowledge and action.
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