Businesses nowadays are now aware of the power of the internet. Who would think decades ago that Yahoo, Google, Ebay or Amazon will became large corporations today? Twenty years ago no one would imagine that this would happen. Now even here in the Philippines there are some online entrepreneur from rags to riches made his way to success. So what is the most important thing to start a business? Is setting up a brick and mortar (this is a physical business like a grocery store for example ) comparable to an online business? It has similarities in some ways like both sell products or services. But the big difference for both to succeed is:
Brick and Mortar -> Need Good Location
Online Business -> Need Good Information
Why did I say that? simple. A brick and mortar business should have a good location, for example, in a place where many people pass by like in a commercial place. A school perhaps. If you will build a store away from the crowd, no one or very few will have a chance to go to your store. Very few people will know that your store exist.
I remember many years ago about my sister who has a general merchandise store. I was wondering why people flock to her store since it is very small and her items was priced higher than the competitor near her place. The other general merchandise store was triple the size compared to her and has much more inventories or items and has lower price. By observing, I noticed that her store was located near the corner of the street and much nearer to the school, church and municipal hall. Because those places have much more crowd so is it the best place to start a business. You know how powerful word of mouth is.
Now we know about the brick and mortar. How about online business? is it enough that you will create the most beautiful website in the world and millions of visitors will flock in? No way Jose. Very far from the truth. Of course you have to promote it online but even if you pay a fortune but your website don’t have information what good is it? Internet surfers are looking for information. They search a solution to their problem and when they find it …BINGO! they are SOLD! For example, your have an aching sole. You search the internet for reasons why it is aching and want a solution to eliminate the pain. Then you search the search engine like Yahoo or Google. You typed “aching sole” and there you found a website that explains why it is aching and gave medical information about the illness and then sells a product like for example a custom made insole for it. It is more likely that you will pull out your wallet and use your credit card to buy it. This is called pre-selling.
So which is more important? Location or Information?
About the author: Manolito Montala is an online entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is his best interest whether online or offline. To know more about it please visit:
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The Filipino Entrepreneur
