How to Start a Skill- or Knowledge-Based Online Business

Do you have a skill or some special knowledge that you’d love to be able to monetize and turn into a real online business? Or do you love the idea of starting your own skill- or knowledge-based business, but could use a little help uncovering what that money-making skill or knowledge actually is?

This article is the first in a 5-part series in which I’ll show you how you can build a thriving skill- or knowledge-based online business using my 4-step framework.  

Learn more by watching the video or reading below.

Let’s get started!

(This post contains affiliate links, which means—at zero cost to you—I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for your support!)

Why Start An Online Business?

We all crave the freedom, autonomy, and financial possibilities that being your own boss has to offer. Learning how to monetize a skill or some knowledge that you already have is one of the best ways to achieve those dreams.

Additionally, we ALL have skills and knowledge to share with the world, and there are people out there right now who NEED the knowledge you already have and WANT to pay you for it!

Whether you’re a:

• piano teacher
• crocheter
• writer
• painter
• coach
• yoga instructor
• search engine optimization specialist
• virtual assistant
• personal trainer
• financial expert
• social media marketing pro
• computer nerd
• spiritualist
• art
• design
• chess player

…or whatever your skill or knowledge set is, there are people out there looking to learn them!

Don’t have a clue what you’re good at? That’s OK! The bottom line is, you do have some skill or knowledge that someone else doesn’t have and you can turn it into a profitable business.

My Success Story

Back in 2019 I took my own existing knowledge of how to create and sell low-content books on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and created an entirely new online business showing people how I did it. Simply put, I monetized an existing skill set.

Over the last 3 years I’ve learned to:

• start and build a growing YouTube channel of 49,000+ subscribers
• start and build an engaged email list of 20,000 subscribers
• create 3 brand new income streams — a digital course, YouTube Adsense, and affiliate marketing sales — that have added multiple six figures to my annual revenue

YOU CAN DO THIS, TOO! I want to show you how to take your existing skills and knowledge and create your own success story!

What You Don’t Need to Start an Online Business

Before I discuss what you need to start an online business, let’s talk about what you don’t need.

You don’t need:

• a fancy website
• a logo
• business cards
• a formal legal entity
• a “brand”
• social media followers
• a huge email list

These things themselves do not bring in money, and focusing on them can result in busywork that actually prevents you from making money. Working on these items easily becomes a way to procrastinate doing the things that will actually move the needle and bring money through the door.

Even though I now have a multi-6-figure digital course business, I still don’t have a fancy website, a proper logo, business cards, more than a couple thousand social media followers, or a fully fleshed-out visual brand.

This has not made a difference to my bottom line; conversely, my business has thrived because I tend to focus on what will actually move the income needle rather than on tasks that keep me busy but don’t actually bring in money.

In the very beginning you should focus on how you can bring money in the door and that’s it.

What You Need to Start An Online Business

Starting a new business can feel overwhelming, with lots of things to consider, but people often make things much more complex than they need to be. They allow themselves to get bogged down in the busywork of starting a business rather than zeroing in on what will actually start bringing in money, which is the real objective of any business.

You actually only need 4 things to start an online business:

• an offer (a physical or digital product or service)
• a potential market (a group of people who are likely to be interested in your offer)
• a marketing method (a way to promote your offer to your potential market)
• a transaction method (the method you will use to deliver your product or service and the method you will use to receive and record payments for your product or service)

Here are a couple of  examples:

• offer: 1-on-1 coaching, a simple ebook, or a virtual workshop
• potential market: family, friends, and acquaintances in your personal network
• marketing method: a simple email sent to your personal network through your email account
• transaction infrastructure:
  • product delivery: Zoom (for coaching or a digital workshop); landing page (for an ebook)
  • payment method: e-transfer, Venmo, or PayPal
  • recording transactions: an Excel spreadsheet

Here’s a more complex example which is almost identical to my own business model:

• offer: 12-week digital course
• potential market: a 20,000 person email list full of qualified leads
• marketing method: an evergreen funnel consisting of an online landing page that encourages potential customers to download a free guide and attend a pre-recorded webinar, which then leads to a 5-email sequence of marketing emails
• transaction infrastructure:
  • product delivery: digital course hosting platform
  • payment method: Stripe and PayPal
  • Recording transactions: bookkeeping software such as Quickbooks

Over time the components of this checklist will become more complex, but the underlying framework will remain the same.

Once you have an offer that is bringing money in the door, you have a business!

Is It Hard To Start An Online Business?

Making money online isn’t very difficult, but I often hear from people that they’re concerned with wasting valuable time and money on a business that ultimately fails. While this is a legitimate concern, one way to avoid this outcome is to focus on validating your idea through real sales and avoid the distracting “busywork” that can eat up your time and money.

I have my own example of wasting months of time and hundreds of dollars on a business idea that went exactly nowhere.

In 2013 I had an idea for a gluten-free meal planning service. I came up with a business name, went through the entire process of registering my business (at a cost of several hundred dollars), designed a logo, built a website, started a blog, created a few blog articles, and set up a bank account.

I ended up scrapping the whole thing before I pulled the trigger after realizing that I had no idea who my market was or if they’d even be interested in such a service. My mistake was that I hadn’t thought about how I was going to effectively market my idea.

I’d literally spent months working on this idea only for it to fail because I didn’t think it through.

This was a HUGE lesson for me but I’m happy to share it if it helps you avoid the same thing.

The 4-Step Framework for Launching Your Successful Online Business

I’m now going to share with you a 4-step framework for launching your own successful online business. This is the simple framework that I used to build my own online business and it can work for you as well.

1. Uncover your profitable idea

First, you’ll choose your broader business idea. You might already have one, but if you don’t, you’ll go through a process to generate some ideas and then you’ll choose one to test.

Next, you’ll get clear on exactly who your potential target market is by conducting market research. Once you know your market, you’ll spend some time actually validating and testing your idea so that you know you’re on the right track and won’t waste valuable time and money on an idea that ends up going over like a lead balloon.

If you already have a business that’s struggling to make money, this validation step can help you clarify your offer so you can start actually making money.

2. Attract your ideal customers

First, you’ll create a content marketing plan. This is the BEST free marketing strategy. I literally have never spent a dime advertising my digital course business and it now generates multiple six figures after just two years.

Creating content also has the added benefit of building authority and trust, which is important for anyone deciding whether or not they want to spend money on your products and services. I

Next, you’ll start an email list. Your content marketing plan is what’s going to generate subscribers to that list. An email list is the best way to get the word out to qualified leads once your offer is ready.

Don’t worry about the size of your email list in the beginning. If you already have a service or a product ready to go, this step could be as simple as reaching out to your personal network. Go for the quick win if you can.

Next, you’ll create a simple website or landing page — and when I say “simple,” I mean it! Do not waste time finessing your website at this stage. The site simply needs to be functional for now; you can spend time beautifying it later. I created my website in a couple of hours using a WordPress template and photos of myself from my wedding day! I’m STILL using that same website (minus the wedding photos).

3. Create your irresistible offer

You’ll do this at the same time you’re working on attracting your ideal customers. It will take time to build an audience, but you’ll have the ball in motion as you’re working on your offer so hopefully you’ll have a bigger potential customer base when your offer is ready.

You’re going to find out directly from your audience what problems of theirs need solving. Then you’ll determine which problem you will solve, how you will solve it, and what your price will be.

You’ll also spend some time considering how you plan on delivering your offer and how you’ll receive payment.

Alternatively, your irresistible offer could actually be someone else’s product or service. Once you start building an email list and attracting your ideal customers you can become an affiliate marketer for someone else’s product or service and begin making money right away. This would definitely be the quickest and easiest way to start making some money.

4. Set up your infrastructure and launch your irresistible offer

Here are a few things to consider when setting up your business infrastructure:

• Determine where you plan on housing your offer. If it’s a product, how will it be configured and delivered?
• Set up business bank account
• Set up a payment gateway
• Set up bookkeeping system (even if it’s just a spreadsheet)
• This is also the time to register your business as a legal entity (if you’ve determined it makes sense for you at this time)

The final step is to map out your launch. This doesn’t have to be complicated; it can be as simple as announcing your offer to your personal network to quickly get your first paying clients.

A more elaborate launch might include sales pages, funnels, webinars, etc., but you don’t need anything fancy.

Finally, you’ll execute your plan. Pull the trigger and launch your offer!

This is the exact basic framework for creating a successful skill or knowledge-based online business that I used to create my online course business.

In the next four related articles, I’ll go deeper into discussing each of these steps. For now, I hope this has given you a basic framework that you can refer to when starting to build your own skill- or knowledge-based successful online business.

If you think this was helpful, I’ve created a free downloadable guide, The 4-Step “No Time to Waste” Online Business Start-Up Blueprint, so that you’ll have a written copy of what I cover in this series.