Many people I talk with haven’t recognized the need for, and importance of, normal and expected expenses of running a business. Certain tools, services, software, and equipment may be essential to your chosen field or niche.
To help you brainstorm possible expenses, consider the following examples.
As an internet marketer, certain bare minimum expenses should be assumed. Others can be optional or may not immediately apply to your particular niche or business model. Some of these include:
o Internet service
o Email account(s)
o Autoresponder
o Domain name registration
o Hosting
o Traffic
o Advertising fees
o Themes
o Outsourcer(s)
o Additional training
o Costs of products if you decide to purchase items before you review and recommend them (if this applies to your niche)
Right about now you may be thinking, “Man, all that stuff has got to cost a bundle.”
Well, hold on! Remember I said some of these are optional. There are some free and extremely low cost solutions, so don’t despair.
Straying a little for just a moment from the Internet marketing space, I want to provide some additional information for you to consider with regard to possible expenses. I justify doing so as a way of providing additional information and value to you.
If you are selling physical products, there will be a cost to acquire and store stock, process orders, and ship to your customer. For each of these steps you can expect costs to include, but not be limited to, the following:
o Subscription service to source, or find, suitable stock
o Transportation costs to pick up stock yourself or to have it shipped to you
o A suitable location and sufficient space to store product before they are sold
o Label printer, computer, shipping scales, shipping boxes, packing material, etc.
o Shipping costs to the customer
If you are in direct sales, you may find the need to purchase a certain amount of product each month yourself. That might be in addition to whatever volume your downline produces. Other expenses may include:
o Back office fees of your company
o Company website fees
o Fees for training
o Sample products to give away to prospects
o Shipping and mailing costs
o Internet connection
o Telephone
o Teleconference service
o Company produced brochures
o Other company produced marketing materials
If you are performing work for others such as Virtual Assistant, Copy Writer, etc. you will need to provide your own:
o Computer
o Word processing application
o Internet connection
o Email service
o Telephone (Some work at home opportunities require a hard wired telephone; a cell phone just will not suffice)
o Graphics design software as the work may require
o Other applications such as Adobe Acrobat Pro (If an older edition will suffice that can save you some money. A current edition, at the time of this writing, is cloud-based and the subscription is about $15 per month at the time this is being written)
If you are creating and/or selling digital products, many costs such as transportation and shipping, storage for stock, label printers, boxes, and packing materials can be avoided. This is not to say there will be zero costs. You can expect to need some or all of the following, and you may need some items not listed here:
o Computer
o Word processing application
o Internet connection
o Email service
o Graphics design software as the work may require
o Outsourced work
o Email autoresponder
o Self-hosted blog or website
o Ongoing traffic to get your offer in front of the right audience, and the costs associated with that
o Platform for selling your product
o Payment processor fees
o Specialized software and/or services specific to your niche
Any of the tools listed above are legitimate and necessary expenses and will serve to further your business operation. Some, you may not be able to do without. For others, there may be some free options you could use in the beginning. Later, you will want to migrate to paid versions to enable more capabilities and control.
Other legitimate expenses I recommend are additional training products that can help you focus on, and grow, your business. More on that later.