You're here because you're interested in starting an online business.
And you're not alone.
Interest in starting online businesses has steadily increased over the last decade but has absolutely exploded over the last two years. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that there's opportunities abound in the ecommerce/online business space.
Many six and seven figure earners have been made over the last 2 years because you can literally start a business online one day and be living a completely different lifestyle within just a few short months.
Of course that's not the norm, but it's definitely possible.
While some people seem to be born with a very clear idea of what type of online business to start, others - who want to start an online business - struggle figuring out what to sell.
So in this post, I'm going to break down what I think is the absolute best online business to start in 2022.
This will be based on a few criteria:
First, let's run through your choices of the types of online business you can start.
One piece of advice I want to give you as you're reading this is, before you ever start any business, really think about the type of lifestyle you want in the future and build a business that can give you exactly that.
Just a little background on me to really help frame this conversation. I've started multiple businesses online. My relationship with starting online businesses started around 14 years ago - even though those early attempts were failures.
Obviously, I kept trying, and eventually I got it right.
I've tried a lot, from selling dog food online and then delivering it to my customers myself, to starting a subscription box service where I had to buy inventory for the boxes and ship the boxes to my customers, to dropshipping where I sold a tangible product with no inventory, to creating and selling digital products - which is what I do now with BYOB School.
So I guess you can say I've done it all.
And this is where that bit of advice I gave you earlier comes in. The dog food and subscription box service businesses were both failures. And there's a really good chance that I failed at those businesses because I wasn't a fan of actually running those businesses. So I didn't give them my full effort and I didn't stay the course when things weren't moving as fast as I would've liked them to.
Both of those businesses required me to buy inventory, hold it until it sold, and then spend time getting it to my customers - one way or another.
That brings us to dropshipping. Although I've made good money dropshipping and it doesn't require buying inventory or ever handling a physical product, it was stressful af!
Most dropshipping is done through suppliers from China, so that means long shipping times and lots of competition. In addition to that, most dropshipped products have a very short retail lifespan, so you're in a constant loop of looking for the next hot product.
That brings me to creating and selling digital products. Based on what I've said about the other options, you can probably guess that creating and selling digital products is my absolute favorite and therefore, my top pick for the type of online business you should start in 2022.
So let's talk about why.
Ease of Getting Started
Creating and selling digital products is really easy to start doing, because your product is you and your life experience - your knowledge. So you don't need to spend time researching or developing a product, and you don't need to do the extensive legwork of finding a reliable manufacturer or wholesaler who can supply you with that product.
All you need to do is find a subset of the population with a specific problem you can help them solve through your knowledge, expertise, or life experience. It's really that simple.
Since the barrier of entry is so low though, there's a lot of competition. But competition is a sign of a demand. Competition means people are buying. So all you need to do is carve out a small piece of that market and make it your own.
Costs Associated with Starting and Running the Business
Creating and selling digital products is one of very few businesses you can legitimately start with no money. I always tell people to try to start with a small budget - at least a couple hundred dollars - because it just makes life as an entrepreneur easier. But if you happen to be in a position where you have absolutely no money to spare, you can still create and sell digital products.
Side note: Just know that in any situation where you're starting a business with no money, you'll have to make up for your lack of money with your time and hustle - and that won't be easy.
One of the biggest draws to having an online business, for me, was the fact that I didn't need a brick and mortar location in order to run it. That cuts start up costs drastically.
You also don't need any particularly expensive equipment to create and deliver your product - no fancy editing software, no fancy production studio equipment, no flashy websites, nothing. You really don't need any expensive setups at all. As long as you have a laptop and the internet, you can create and sell digital products.
Business Growth Potential
Online businesses are great because their growth potential is exponential. You can go from having $0 sales one month to having a few hundred dollars in sales the next month, to having $10K, $20K, and $30K sales months really, really fast.
That's because, with an online business, you're not limited to any one geographical location like you are with a brick and mortar business. It's much easier to reach your target audience with your message and convert them into customers no matter where they are in the world.
When you create and sell digital products, you also open the door for other business opportunities - like speaking engagements, book deals, selling merch, and so on. So you have the ability to grow your business far beyond your initial digital product offering.
Desirable Lifestyle
For me, time and location freedom, a sense of personal fulfillment, and financial independence from ever working for someone else are all requirements that any business I start must have. Creating and selling digital products provides these things for me.
When you create and sell digital products, you won't likely need to be in any specific location at all times. If your product is location specific, you would only potentially need to be in that location for the initial creation of your product, but after that, you can sell the product no matter where you are in the world.
Once you've established certain business processes that work, you can set up systems within your business so that as much of your business is automated as possible. That means that eventually, your business can run on auto-pilot, giving you more free time to spend however you want.
It's also much easier to feel a deep passion and sense of fulfillment for your work because you're drawing from personal experiences and personal knowledge to provide a product that helps people improve their lives. You get to witness your customers transform their lives using the information you give them. That means you literally get to wake up every day and do something you love for a living.
Financially speaking, creating and selling digital products can be extremely lucrative. Find the right audience who has a problem you can help them solve and you can earn a lot of money in a fairly short amount of time. Just as an example, it only took me 10 months to break the six figure mark in my digital products business.
The Recap
Here's what I love about creating and selling digital products…
In my opinion, starting a business creating and selling digital products is a no-brainer. My advice to anyone looking to start an online business in 2022 is to take the knowledge and experience you already have, package that into a digital product and help people change their lives for the better.
You'll feel good about the business you do, make great money, and be able to truly create a lifestyle you love that gives you the freedom to live life on your terms.
To get help starting your digital products business, click here.
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