I often get this question: What is the best online business model for beginners? The answer is not straightforward. This is because numerous factors must be considered.
In today’s post, I will share my opinion on what I think is the best way to choose the right online business model for you.
How To Choose The Right Online Business Model For You
I have observed that many individuals tend to purchase popular online courses or imitate successful gurus without critically evaluating the business model.
Eventually, they realize that their chosen model is not a suitable fit for them, leading them to pursue alternative opportunities.
They look at the rubbish promoted in emails or the top-selling products in marketplaces, quickly buying unrelated and untested items, which leads to losing money.
As I said, there are many factors to consider here, but for clarity, I think most people fall into two critical factors: money and time.
Inspired by the 4 Quadrants of Cash Flow book by Robert Kiyosaki, I created a simple Quadrant to help you assess your current situation, allowing you to choose the most suitable online business model.
It’s time to wake up. Before even buying a product, you need to assess your current situation, and you will fall into one of the four quadrants below:
There’s no escaping these four quadrants. Assess yourself, and be honest (no one will ever know in which quadrant you are in, so no worries). You have to be in one of them. Decide which one you’re in.
Quadrant #1: You have no time & no money
This is the worst situation to be in. I have been there many times in my life. I see you have three jobs, but you can’t afford a domain name or hosting.
No money
I know you don’t have money, so the trick is to cut costs in some areas. This can include not eating out, canceling your Netflix subscription, or selling some of your belongings.
This money will allow you to get a domain, hosting, autoresponder, page builder, and other essential tools for your business.
If you can’t pay for hosting and an autoresponder, it’s not the end. You can start using free tools, and when you make some money, upgrade and get premium tools.
No time
We only have 24 hours, and you cannot get more time, but we must do something here. You need to find at least one hour for your online business.
The solution can be going to bed 30 to 60 minutes late, waking up one hour earlier, or cutting the television or game time. You need to think hard and find time to dedicate to your business.
I know such actions might be uncomfortable for many people, but being broke all the time is far worse. You can do this for six months, changing your life forever.
If all you have is 20 minutes, use it wisely. Your efforts, compounded over time, will yield rewards and allow you to quit the day job.
What business model do you need to choose in this situation?
The business model you choose MUST be low-cost.
For example, freelancing, affiliate marketing, Kindle publishing, selling PLR, video marketing, etc.
Anything that doesn’t strain your finances is within your reach. Free traffic is all you need. Focus on one and work on it. You’ll be doing almost ALL the work yourself.
Forget outsourcing unless necessary.
Quadrant 2: You have time but no cash
I have been in this situation many times, too. You lost your miserable day job due to COVID-19, inflation, or other reasons.
You see, suddenly, you have a lot of time, but no money is coming in. Here, you are in the same situation as in the first scenario. The only difference is that you have time to pick the business model you like and work hard.
What business model do you need to choose in this situation?
But that comes later, not before. Once again, the business model you choose must be low-cost.
For example, freelancing, affiliate marketing, Kindle publishing, selling PLR, video marketing, etc.
You can use free traffic methods like Twitter, blogging, or Pinterest to drive traffic to affiliate products, or you can do freelancing.
Quadrant 3: You have no time, but you have money
This is a better position to be in than the first two. In this quadrant, you can identify people who have a good job and make a lot of money from it, but they have to travel or be in the office most of the time, and they do not have time to spend with their families or do what they love the most.
The best business model in this situation
Guess what? If you have cash, things become much easier, and you have more options. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.
While you can choose the low-cost business models, when you have cash, you can also select business models like flipping websites, Amazon FBA, dropshipping, affiliate marketing with paid ads, etc.
Here’s where most people get it wrong: they are in Quadrant #1 but buy courses on dropshipping and Facebook ads.
Alternatively, they may purchase an Amazon FBA course that requires a $5,000 investment to stock products in Amazon warehouses.
Learn how to generate $1,000 per day or more online using this simple 3-step system starting now.
How to get time
You pay someone in quadrant 2 to do things for you.
If you’re in Quadrant #3, you must choose and study a business model well.
Then, once you start applying it, outsource whatever you can (since you don’t have time).
For those creating niche sites, that may mean hiring writers to create content. For those in e-commerce, it might mean hiring someone to build your Shopify store, etc.
Whatever can be outsourced should be outsourced without going above budget. That’s how you leverage your money while saving time.
Quadrant #4: You have cash & time
This is the best place to be if you read this post and are in quadrant 1. I hope to achieve this in about 6 months. You can reach this quadrant.
While you could scale up with the more profitable business models in Quadrant #3, such as e-commerce, you have many more options.
Besides having a couple of profitable businesses online, you’ll also want to look at investing in real estate, stocks, crypto, etc. Proceed cautiously and invest wisely.
Having real estate properties that yield rental income is fantastic. This is passive income (to a large degree).
Final words
The key point here is to assess your situation. Once you have assessed your situation, choose a business model that suits you. Then, go all out to make it work.
As previously mentioned, I have personally experienced being in Quadrant One, and I can attest to its unfavorable atmosphere. I would prefer for my adversary to be in Quadrant 4, albeit distant from me.
Today, you could be in Quadrant #1, broke and strapped for time, and still make enough money over a couple of years to end up in Quadrant #4.
Time is your ally, but you must start learning and doing it today.
