Do you think running an online business is expensive?

Worried about all the little apps, programs and tools that you might need?

OK. TIME. TO. DITCH. THAT. THOUGHT.

Why? Because if you've ever run a 'physical' business you'll know that the expenses of an online business are peanuts in comparison!

Think of it like this:

RENT = ONLINE PLATFORM (Think Kajabi for eg.)

STAFF WAGES = OTHER TOOLS LIKE Zapier, Calendly, GSuite, Dropbox, Canva etc

PHONE LINE RENTAL AND COST OF OFFICE PHONE = ZOOM Meetings

Work out the costs of the above and you'll be amazed.

But what about if you've never run a physical business and you're just interested in costs comparisons between online businesses?

In particular an All-In-One-Course-Platform compared to say a group of programs stickytaped together to save some money.....

Let's break that one down and do an exercise on it.

ALL IN ONE PLATFORM VS STICKYTAPE JOB

Stickytape costs (approx):

- Wordpress (Free)
- Wordpress Plugin for Membership Site ($99/yr)
- WP Theme (like Divi) (approx $99/yr)
- WP Hosting of site ($6/mth)
- Learning Management System, like Learn Dash ($199/yr)
- Affiliate Program WP Plugin ($85/yr)
- Video hosting for all of your course videos, Vimeo ($200/yr)
- Email marketing program, like Convertkit ($29/mth)
- Lead magnet landing page software, Leadpages ($37/mth)
- Assessment/Quiz maker software, Interact ($29/mth)
TOTAL APPROX COSTS: Roughly $158/mth 

Kajabi All In One Platform costs: $149/mth

Hmmm - WAIT! There's not alot of difference is there.... except for all the time it's going to take you to learn 8-9 different programs and then get them all talking together nicely!

What about the extras? There's some programs you'll most likely need no matter which path you go down....

- Online Accounting Software, Xero or Quickbooks ($53/mth)
- Program that can automate processes between all of your software to make life easier, Zapier ($50/mth)
- Email for your business, Gmail ($11/mth)
- Online Storage for all of your course materials and business stuff, Gsuite and Google Drive (included with your Gmail/Gsuite account above - YAY!)
- Other online storage, Dropbox ($11/mth)
- Screen recording software, like iMovie, QuickTime, Camtasia, Screenflow - these range from free to $129 (one time payment)

Ok so that's another $125/mth approx.

PLUS you're going to need to put some $$$ away for paid ads, if you don't already have a following or audience.

It can start to add up, at the moment you're looking at approx $275/mth (plus advertising $$).... BUT as I mentioned above, it all depends on what you're comparing it to.

If you've never run a business before (of any kind) $275/mth can seem pretty daunting without knowing what sales you'll be bringing in.  

But if you've run a physical business before... well $275/mth is a dream!!!
Sure you still need to make sales to cover it, but you also had to do that with a physical business and there were a lot more costs to cover each month.

If you're concerned about costs in that getting started phase - here's what I recommend.

1. Get everything you need for your online business together first. ie sign up for you Gsuite account and start storing all your images, content, anything and everything you'll be needing. Get your business name sorted, buy your domain name, grab all your social media accounts under your business name (or as close to) - start doing posts regularly on your chosen topic.

$$$ spent so far - $11/month for gsuite, plus cost for biz name and domain purchase

2. Start writing and collating all the info you need for your freebies, webinars, small mini courses, larger courses - you'll need Canva at this point to help create some stuff... .
($$$ spent - possibly another $14/month for Canva, depending on your needs)

3. Spend some time mapping out what your business is about, what you'd like on a website, how you help people, how a sales page might look selling in your course. Start getting some headlines and copy together, PLUS your pricing strategy,  and sign up for your payment processor eg. Stripe and/or Paypal

4. Sign up for an all-in-one program like Kajabi on a 28 day trial. First create a landing page, or multiple landing pages.... this is where you'll offer your Freebie, or small mini course... and start collecting leads (which you can then put into an email sequence and start nurturing them towards one of your higher ticket items).  The idea being that by the end of your trial period (even better...in the first couple of days), you'll have a page that is able to sell stuff...... and you'll have been so organized that you've found the time to start building out your course inside Kajabi...and maybe even have started on your website.

Think about how much you could possibly do in 28 days to move your online business forward...without having to pay the $149 Kajabi cost.  

How many courses would you have to sell to cover that $275+ a month?

Let's say your starting off small with a mini tutorial.... for $27. You'd need to sell 11 of them each month to cover your costs.

A course for $97... you'd need 3.

A course for $297... just 1 and you're already in profit (depending on advertising $$)

A course for $497... you can see where this is going.....

A course for $997... oh come on, you're killing it!

Now think about scaling the whole thing, bring on a virtual team of experts to help you grow, up your advertising spend, start pumping out those webinars, email sequences, and creating helpful content that your audience will love, another signature course, etc.....

Can you see how the online course guru's (my faves) like Amy Porterfield and Marie Forleo have made incredible businesses out of doing something they love, and genuinely helping people?

BOTTOM LINE:

🤩Online businesses can be extremely profitable, even with all the little apps, programs and tools you need to help run them! 

The hardest part is finding your one thing... the niche, the industry, the problem that only you can solve in that special unique way that's YOU.....

via Geek & Sundry on GIPHY

.....and then making sure that one idea is something the world (a small corner of it) wants (not needs - there's a difference.... you may know they need it... but they may not!)!!!!!

Rant over for now, lol.... enjoy your day wherever you are in the world! 😎