Start A Business From Your Phone
New technology trends have provided an enormous newfound ability for people to earn extra income or even to create a whole new world of becoming an entrepreneur and run their business from home that wasn’t even imagined as little as ten years ago. Mobile phones have introduced consumers to a new way of living, including ways to communicate, play, drive, search and believe it or not, earn money. There are multiple businesses that can function from your cell phone, giving you the ability to transform the way you live, work and earn a living in this demand generation. This new economy is out there waiting for you.
Here are some up and coming examples of business opportunities that can easily be started as a business from your smartphone:
- Flipping Items on Craigslist
- Becoming a “Ride Share” Driver
- Blogging
- Freelance on Fiverr – do what you do for $5
- Online Tutoring
- Selling Stock Photography
- Dropshipping on Amazon or Shopify
Here’s how you can start your business from your smartphone:
Write Your Business Plan
No matter how you’re starting your business, having a business plan is a key factor to running your business successfully. You have a few options for doing this when you’re limited to mobile phones or mobile devices. First, you can type it as a note on your smartphone, which may be a little time-consuming, but possible nonetheless. Second, you can put pen to paper and write out your business plan by hand – a great option if you’ve got a lot of ideas or want to have a hard copy of your plan to reference. Lastly, you can use a business plan template, like the Business Plan Builder from Canada StartUps. There is a fee to access their tools and resources, but it is essentially a business plan fill-in-the-blank that helps save time and makes putting your plan together quick and easy. Creating an extensive business plan is key for any new business and its future. It provides insight and clear direction for business development.
Do Your Research
Market research is essential if you want to find out who your target market is, how you can reach them, and if there’s actually any interest in what you want to sell them. The internet is the biggest resource library available to us. Think about the general demographic of your target, such as women who love cycling, then see if there are any Facebook groups dedicated to that crowd that you can join. Interact with the group members by posing questions, look at comments from different posts and see what the reactions are to different subjects. If these are going to be your customers, you will want to listen to what they have to say.
You can also find other brands or influencers that are in the same realm as you and interact with their followers in comments to get more insight. Take a look at what these other business owners are charging for similar products or services to give you an idea of where you might expect to price yours.
Google is a great resource library for getting insight into market research and marketing strategies. Think with Google allows you to identify and connect with your audience by creating audience profiles based on interests, habits, and a number of other factors. Google Ads helps maximize your reach through targeted ads based on what people are searching for. The Government of Canada even provides support through guides to help you conduct market research and, upon request, will even send you research based on your area and industry.
Get Your Business Registered
Even your business registration or incorporation can all be done on your phone. Save time and get everything done today with the help of Ontario Business Central and have your completed documents sent right to your inbox. If you don’t have a separate location for your business, you can use your home address to register. There are some differences between registering and incorporating, so you might want to review these differences to see which is best for you. Then, when you’re ready, Ontario Business Central can help do the rest! Registration and incorporation are offered in the following jurisdictions:
REGISTER A BUSINESS
INCORPORATE A BUSINESS
BRITISH COLUMBIA INCORPORATION
Get Your Products
In general, there are three types of products you can offer – Services, digital products, or physical products. Only using mobile devices to start a business doesn’t limit you from offering any of these, it just means you might have to do things a little differently. Technology trends are gearing towards online markets. With this shift, there are also more opportunities to run a business entirely through your smartphone. There are also additional business apps allowing business owners to more easily run a business from their mobile devices.
If you’re planning on offering services, such as consulting or customer service, you can easily connect with your clients by phone calls – yes, we often forget that a phone can still be used to call people! You can also email them or set up a video conference instead of the traditional in-person meeting. When you want to get started right away, you can actually shop for ready-to-go businesses or get help building your online business using a service like Pure Ecommerce.
Digital products, such as ebooks, first need to be created before offering them for sale. If creating these on your phone is too difficult, you can always hire someone to put them together for you. Freelancers on sites like Upwork and Splice can get your project done on an a la carte basis. Then, once you have got that product, it’s simple enough to send by phone.
When you’re looking to offer physical products, it’s still very possible to do this straight from your phone. If you have a product you want to develop and create yourself, you can seek out a company to design and manufacture your products. Otherwise, you can start selling already produced products through a drop shipping, or fulfillment company, so you don’t have to deal with inventory, shipping or returns. Starting a shop through Shopify provides the ability to run your small business entirely through your phone. It lets you set up quickly and choose from a number of available products to add to your offerings.
Create Your Website
You need somewhere to actually sell your products, so whether that’s through your own website or another platform, this will need to be created before anything else can happen. This is one step in launching your business where it’s much easier to use a computer, so if you can get access to one it would simplify this step – although it’s not impossible to do this directly on your phone. There are a number of websites, such as Wix and Ionos, that offer pre-designed templates, depending on the type of business you are starting – or you can start from scratch and create your own! Most of these options are quite affordable – some are even free – making creating a website so easy, even for a novice computer user. And, the domain name registration can be included with your business registration or incorporation through Ontario Business Central. If included, we will first search both the domain name and business name to ensure that both are available, and send you the results to confirm to proceed. If either the domain name or business name is not available, you will be notified and given the opportunity to search using different names for either.
Market Yourself
Now that you’ve got your products ready and your website is live, you need to start marketing yourself and getting the word out about how great your products and services are. Go back to those same connections you made when you were doing your market research and see if you can generate any interest. Depending on who your customer base is and how you are reaching them will dictate how and where you are marketing yourself.
There are endless online marketing possibilities, from free opportunities like creating a Google My Business profile or Facebook business page to paid advertising options like pay-per-click Google ads.
Stay at the forefront of your customer’s minds through targeted email campaigns, where you can showcase new products and promotions. A recent study actually shows that customers are highly likely to respond to emails sent to them, resulting in purchases 3 times faster than social media campaigns.
A great way to save time, but still effectively market yourself, is by using scheduling software tools, like Sendible or Hootsuite. These desktop or mobile apps let you easily manage all of your social media platforms in one place, making things much more streamlined and simplified.
Create Your Content
A huge component of creating your online presence – that is all too often overlooked – is offering valuable content to your customers. Not only does adding new content regularly help boost your status with customers, but Google also loves seeing fresh new content and bumps you up the ladder in search results.
You do not have to be a graphic designer or have any expertise in design to create content for emails, social media, or other marketing campaigns. You can choose to either outsource the work to a freelancer with this expertise or use a helpful design tool like Canva or PicMonkey to save time and easily create your designs. Each of these design and editing apps has a mobile app that you can add to your smartphone, so you can create content anywhere at any time.
If you are working with a team, having clear communication is essential to starting and running a business, especially if you are using mobile devices to get tasks done. A project manager platform like Asana can help you and your team stay on top of tasks, delegate, and keep track of upcoming deadlines. Editing apps, like Google Docs, make it easy to work remotely and in real-time with others, allowing you to share comments, edit and collaborate on content.
Your content can come in a variety of forms, from written blog content to YouTube videos. And, you can provide everything from helpful tips, product demonstrations, and other related information.
Easy Business Ideas To Start From Your Phone
There are so many businesses you can start from your phone – some will be more challenging than others to get launched – but there are some that are quite easy to begin. Here are just a few of the easiest business opportunities to start from your phone:
Social Media Manager
Many businesses rely heavily on social media to reach out to and connect with their customers. But, it can be time-consuming to stay on top of multiple social media accounts and keep them updated. This is where you can step in and offer your services as a social media manager and help businesses stay organized, promote themselves, and interact with customers. Most people are using their mobile devices and using a mobile app to access social media, so these platforms all make it easy to do things right there on your phone.
Customer Service
If you’re a people person, starting a business on your phone to provide customer service and support for companies may just be the perfect business from home opportunity for you. Some businesses are working with limited staff and just don’t have the time or manpower to dedicate to providing quality customer service, even though this is a vital part of any business. Whether it’s providing support over the phone or answering inquiries by email, you can be an essential component in helping that business grow.
Drop-Shipping
With a drop shipping business, you’re essentially acting as a middle man between the manufacturers of products and the people that want them. There’s no need to develop your own products, keep a stock of inventory, or deal with shipping anything. All you have to do to run your small business is set up your online store, either through a site like Shopify or your own website, and present the products you’re offering.
Consulting Agency for Business DE
Businesses are always looking for expertise and guidance with any number of different things, from marketing to management consulting. Think about what you’re good at, whether it’s something you’re naturally good at or something you’ve got a lot of experience with. Connect with your clients by phone or arrange virtual or in-person meetings. If you’re a fountain of knowledge, you can share that knowledge to help others run their business, while creating a successful business of your own.
Don’t let the lack of a computer keep you from launching your business idea. There’s plenty of business opportunities right at your fingertips, so work with what you’ve got right now to get started and slowly build up as you grow your business.
At Ontario Business Central, our commitment is to assisting entrepreneurs, as they embark on their undertaking to build and grow business from their mobile. If you have any questions about getting started, please reach out to our helpful and knowledgeable staff.
inquiries@ontariobusinesscentral.ca
Toll-Free: 1-800-280-1913
Local: 1-416-599-9009
Fax: 1-866-294-4363
Office Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Monday – Friday E.S.T.
Ontario Business Central Inc. is not a law firm and cannot provide a legal opinion or advice. This information is to assist you in understanding the requirements of registration within the chosen jurisdiction. It is always recommended, when you have legal or accounting questions that you speak to a qualified professional.
