What online business can ”I” start is a different question to what business ”to” start. The key difference is what value you can bring to the market. After reading Kyles post you’ll know that chasing the next ”hot” thing will lead to a crap business. And let’s face it, one you won’t be passionate about building.

So In today’s post, I will talk about how you can start an online business that you’re passionate about. That you can do. And just as importantly provide a product or service your customers will be passionate about buying.

Beaking that paragraph down we can see three distinct points which can help us narrow down – what online business you can start:

• Identifying what you’re good at (what you can do)
• Working out what you love doing (What you’re passionate about)
• Discovering what there’s a market for (Your customers will be passionate about buying what you have to offer)

Let’s explore each one so you can start thinking about whats the right online business for you.

What you love doing

Building an online business isn’t easy. At the extreme it can feel like this:

STARTING A COMPANY IS LIKE EATING GLASS AND STARING INTO THE ABYSS. – ELON MUSK

I can tell you from personal experience, that when you love the work behind whatever online business you’re building. The difficulties, challenges and glass eating seem so insignificant. Because the fun you’re having washes all those other feelings away.

I’ve also done the opposite. Started an online business that I’ve had zero interest in. Would you like to hazard a guess what happened with them? That’s right they failed miserably. Not because they were bad ideas or there weren’t people who wanted to buy what I had to offer. It was because I felt every shard of glass as I built it so gave up. (OK I’ll stop with this analogy, its so brutal).

The point is, to give yourself a fighting chance – do what you love.

Whilst it’s top of mind – Take the opportunity to list down a bunch of things you love doing.

If you struggle with knowing what you love doing because maybe its been a while since you’ve thought about it. The two questions to help prompt you are:

• What part of your job or personal life would you do even if you didn’t have to? Even if you didn’t get paid for it?
• Flip the question on its head. What do you hate doing? (This is often why most successful online businesses are started by two or more people. Everyone fills in each others ‘things I don’t like doing’ gap).

What you’re good at

The purpose of identifying what your good at bring a bit of realism to the table. A reality check if you like. Here’s an example of what I mean. I love to play football, I’m just not that good at it. So Liverpool FC will be inviting me to come to join their ranks. So even though I love playing football, its a hobby.

A hobby is fine. It’s fun. But it’s not economically sustainable. Just like a business you love. If you’re not good at it. It won’t be economically sustainable.

Again like the last section, here is a question to prompt you:

• In your workplace or personal life, what do people often to come you for?

List down the answers.

If your following along and can see where I’m going with this. You’ll begin building a picture in your mind. And have started two lists.

Once you have your two lists look for something that overlaps.

That ‘thing’ that overlaps is your product or service. (That’s an oversimplification, but its certainly the seed of what will grow into your product or service).

What online business there’s a market for

We’ve actually answered the key question: What online business can I start?

It’s the online business you’re both – good at and will enjoy (love) doing.

By the way, if you nail this you’ll be one up on your competition. Here’s why. Say your competition is also building their online business around the same time. And say, for example, they hit their first (second, third) hurdle. There’s a big chance they’ll give up. This is because they’re good at what they’re doing but they’re not enjoying the process (including the bad days).

Whilst you’ll happily be plugging away. Because you’re loving it!

Before you begin celebrating that you’ve nailed your product and you’ll crush the competition through love!

There’s a final piece of the puzzle to consider. One that’ll lead to failure before you even get a chance to meet your competition.

And that’s – is there a market for what your good at and what you love doing. In other words your product or service.

There is no point in wasting time producing something, building something or presenting something if there isn’t a market for it.

Without stating the obvious. If no one wants to buy what your offering. You won’t make any money. Thus you won’t have a business.

And you’ll be back at square one.

So in the spirit of saving you money and time. You’ve got to have a market to sell your product to service to.

This is such an important topic that we commit time to teach it in detail in the first stage of our BATON framework. The ”B” meaning Business! And it’s at the start of the acronym for a reason.

We focus on the components of Business first because we want to set you up for success from the start. If you’re eager to get started we’ve got a free course where we run through identifying your market and much more.

In summary: What online business can I start?

The short answer. The one you’re both good at and will enjoy doing.

The long answer takes into consideration the third element – is there a market for your product?

If you get all three right you’ll have struck online business gold.

The great news is, you can apply this principle to any online business. So if you’re motivated to start an online business in 2021.

Then completing the steps in today’s post is a good place to start.