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Dreaming of being an online entrepreneur? Struggling to make ends meet? Here is how to start a microbusiness online, budget-style.  (If you want to learn more about setting up your first website, read this Leisurefreak guide).

Plan it all out & budget sensibly

Online markets can be volatile, and there are sneaky hidden costs out there for the unsuspecting online entrepreneur. Mitigate any chances of overspending by planning everything out in minute detail before taking the plunge. Budgeting is your friend, especially when margins are tight.

• Forecasting is really important – you can learn a lot from traditional forecasting models for startups, but remember to adjust this to the online model. You will be paying out for services, not traditional business overheads; and though there’s a lot of free stuff out there – you will be hit by mounting subscription fees if you want to grow fast.
• Map out all the different channels you are going to spend money on like web development, design, SEO, images etc. Make sure that you include timings as well as costs, as waiting around for a developer to finish when you have SEOs on standby can be expensive (and stressful). Plan extra breathing space into a development budget to allow for testing and tweaks.
• The SaaS model can quickly add up – evaluate whether you can make do with free trials, or whether you are going to eventually end up for going for pro packages.
• Don’t forget to include maintenance costs like hosting and content management in your plans.
• Read the small print of everything you’ve paid for – who actually owns the website? Where is your content hosted (their server, or yours)? What happens if you want to terminate a service? What image rights have you actually got? Paying less now may end up costing you WAY more in the future.
• Don’t try to grow too soon. The beauty of online work is that you can stay quite small as you build up funds.

Learn things for yourself

Don’t outsource if you can learn how to do things yourself.

There are loads of free courses out there that can help you top up your digital skillset and get more clued up on things like SEO, web design and PPC.

• The main things you will benefit from learning yourself are content management and social media management. Updating your website yourself is a great thing to do and means that you have 100% control over content. Most CMSs offer extensive training packages – use them wisely. Social media management is made way easier with social media tools like Hootsuite (who also offer a certification).
• Start learning with free online courses and certifications like HubSpot’s Inbound Certification to help you navigate the world of web promotion. There are so many free resources out there – use them to help you grow.
• Even if you don’t learn enough to implement all the tactics yourself, you will be better at vetting suppliers, spending less money and making better business decisions.
• Eventually, you might even be able to monetize all this learning and offer out your web services to others.

Sell things online

A great way to make money online is to take a cut of the growing ecommerce industry.

You don’t need a warehouse to be an ecommerce merchant; in fact, you don’t need much at all to become an ecommerce merchant (except a lot of common sense and time).

• Start small and sell products that will be easy and cheap to produce and ship. If you have a specific business idea you think will work (like upcycling vintage dressers), do your market research before investing in anything. Use search engine trends and searches to give you an idea of current competition.
• Take advantage of free trials and the digital ‘try before you buy’ mentality when choosing an ecommerce platform (like this online store free trial). Use the professional themes you get with the platform, and customize with a logo and your own imagery.
• You can dropship products if you don’t fancy getting involved in the logistics of shipping products yourself. This essentially means re-selling other retailers’ products on and can be very lucrative if you get into the right niche.
• Sell digital products like ebooks, webinars and worksheets from your website to cut down on production costs.

Leverage advertising & affiliate income

Use the power of advertising and affiliate marketing to earn passive income online, reinvesting it back into your microbusiness.

• The beauty of running an online business (or even just a website), is that you can monetize it with ads or affiliate links.
• Though these methods are totally legitimate, it’s important you do them in a ‘non-spammy’ way and that you always disclose any affiliate links. Make sure you aren’t negatively impacting your website’s look and feel.
• Running a product review series is a great way to get steady affiliate income. Just remember to optimize for keywords and promote your content through social media and search engines.

Local SEO

Not all SEO is fancy with bells and whistles on.

Whether your business is all online, or has an offline arm, use Google maps, local listings and reviews to appear higher in search results. (Moz has some great posts on local SEO and where it’s going right now).

• As a small business, take advantage of free online promotional tools like Google MyBusiness. Takes minutes to set up and has instant results.
• List yourself on free online directories – just make sure that you keep your business and contact details consistent.
• Register for a business address and tell Google where you are – local searches with maps attract loads of clicks (especially on mobile).
• Ask customers for reviews and encourage them to leave them with an email or a phone call – they are a brilliant form of free online marketing that people trust.

We hope you’ve got some good ideas on how to manage budgets smarter when starting your online business. What online business tips have you got to share? Let us know!

This is a guest post by Content Marketer & Startup Specialist Kayleigh Alexandra.

Passionate about writing for the startup and entrepreneurial audience, I have recently been part of setting up an exciting project at MicroStartups.org. We donate all our website profits to charities that help people reach their full potential. Find out more on Twitter.