27 Experts Give You Their Best Online Store Opportunities

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How Do I Identify Profitable Ideas For An Ecommerce Business?
• Niche Fashion Communities Build Fast, Sell Well
• Digital Health Services are on the Rise
• Go Industrial for High Margins with Little Competition
• Think Micro-Niche: Gluten Free or Nurses Who CrossFit
• Planners Have a Massive Following
• Today’s Retirees are Tech Savvy (And Shop Online)
• Appeal to People’s Ideologies
• The Education Industry is Getting Big Investor Bucks
• Do What Amazon Can’t
• Find Confusing Products –– and Include Instructions
• Passion is the Most Important Part!
• Remove the Middlemen to Win Big
• Deep Knowledge Has the Most Power
• Solve Your Own Problem
• Use KickStarter for Research
• Cool Matters –– Here’s Why

Thinking about launching an ecommerce business, but don’t know where to start? Well, an ecommerce business idea would be helpful.

Of course, that’s just for starters.

While you can peruse books and guides on how exactly to start a successful, long-term online store –– every entrepreneur everywhere has to start at the exact same place.

And that place requires you to answer this 1 question:

What are you going to sell?

From there, you’ll then launch into competitive reviews and building your online store –– just 2 more steps on the way to building a long-term, successful venture.

But it all starts with what your product is. And, some even argue, the ultimate success of your business is also all about your product.

Marketing, social media reviews, customer lifetime loyalty –– all of those are easier when your product speaks for itself.

So, while some of us are lucky enough to have online store ideas find us, others of us –– well, we have to search.

How Do I Identify Profitable Ideas For An Ecommerce Business?

Identifying the perfect business opportunity for an online store can be a long process that requires a lot of time, research and analysis. Below are some ideas to help you brainstorm worthwhile business ventures in the ecommerce space.

1. Build up a niche fashion community.
2. Jump on the digital health ecommerce trend.
3. Sell industrial-focused products for specific industries (like electric generators).
4. Embrace micro-niche sales opportunities (think gluten-free).
5. Offer products for tech-savvy retirees (Baby Boomers are starting to embrace online shopping).
6. Use KickStarter for market research to identify what types of products sell.
7. Appeal to specific ideologies.
8. Create an educational site.
9. Start a store with a high amount of customizability.
10. Focus on appealing to people’s passions.
11. Find confusing products.
12. Remove the middlemen.
13. Have deep knowledge on a store.
14. Focus on solving a problem.
15. Sell something cool.

To help save you time and energy, we picked the brains of some of the industry’s most trusted and successful entrepreneurs, marketers and researchers to get their thoughts on the best ecommerce business opportunities with huge growth potential. Dive on in and learn more about the best ecommerce business ideas and opportunities in 2017.

Niche Fashion Communities Build Fast, Sell Well

Niche fashion sites are a huge ecommerce opportunity. Niche fashion communities serve those audiences with hard-to-find or hard-to-fit needs. Those communities can also serve up coming mindsets and trends –– like minimalism or the Great Return of Bell Bottoms (emphasis my own).

Here are a couple of site examples for you before we dive in what the experts have to say:

ONYCHEK

ONYCHEK is a great example of a niche fashion brand serving hard-to-find communities. In this case, that community is Luxury Fashion from Africa.

Tucker Blair

Tucker Blair serves both customizability as well as a niche audience –– that of New England nostalgia.

Bygone Brand

With both brick-and-mortar and digital locations, the Bygone Brand has leveraged nostalgia and advertising lore for a niche fashion site geared toward those looking for prints no longer available.

Below are more ideas.

Daniel Wallock, Marketing Strategist, Wallock Media

While the fashion and garment industry is incredibly crowded, I’ve been having trouble finding minimalist clothing without branding and with quality fabric.

I shop at James Perse and Everlane, but I’d love to see a store that just focused on selling incredible-quality monotone-colored clothes that you could order in pairs of 5 or 10.

This would appeal to a very niche audience, but I think creating an incredible quality brand that only specializes in simple outfits could possibly do well with people like millennials who are looking to dress more minimally and worry less about making choices regarding their clothing.

Brett Owens, Marketing Director & Co-Founder, LeadDyno

Clothing, clothing, clothing. There is an endless demand for clothing products of all types!

Nearly 40% of the affiliates and influencers in our ecommerce affiliate network have this checked off as a category of interest for them.

Find a niche apparel product and sell it. There are plenty of influencers out there who would love to help you promote it, and plenty of folks who are waiting to buy it.

Digital Health Services are on the Rise

Digital health services here means a couple things:

1. The ecommerce capabilities for patients and others affected to buy items previously only sold in office
2. Products that help people prevent health issues, including more education around health in general

So, before we dive into the advice, let’s look at two that do these 2 things.

National Autism Resources

National Autism Resources creates a community-like online space for parents and practitioners, as well as offers helpful items and education to help people find what they need, and then get it delivered to them.

Jigsaw Health

Jigsaw Health is highly committed to education around magnesium for their customers and potential new customers. They write frequently on their blog, use videos to help spread the word on YouTube and Facebook and ultimately have turned the product they sell into an educated community.

Ryan Pfleger, Founder, PayWhirl

Digital services like online personal trainer sessions and digital classes are on the rise and are worth noting!

Sweta Patel, Director of Demand Generation, Cognoa

I would say the most underserved niche is the digital health market.

Digital health has been emerging for a long time and most products are not being sold online due to the regulations.

There are a lot of ecommerce business opportunities for health-care companies to evolve in the online space and increase their revenues. An idea I would recommend to an entrepreneur is around building a product that helps digital health products become more readily available for those in need.

It may be a smaller niche than Amazon that just focuses on health care products but it would make it easier for providers and patients to get things at their convenience.

Go Industrial for High Margins with Little Competition

Launching in B2B or the industrial ecommerce industries is hard. It has a high barrier to entry –– but then again, the margins you make from it are also much higher. And, you typically spend less on marketing to boot!

Best yet –– few other B2B brands have figured out how to sell something online well and at scale. That means that if you have any ecommerce chops at all, this market is ripe for you.

Here are a few examples.

AP Electric Generators

Most people don’t dream of owning a business selling generators. That is, unless it’s highly profitable. With few others on the market to compete, thanks to a high barrier to entry as well as costly shipping and storage, AP Electric nearly owns the market.

1-800-Stencil

What I love the most about 1-800-Stencil is that this B2B brand is *very* good at Facebook marketing. I see their ads often, and the comments on them are the only social proof any B2B buyer would need to pull the conversion trigger.

By focusing on a niche, B2B market and trying out various B2C growth tactics, 1-800-Stencil leads the industry in their vertical.

Eric Carlson, Co-Founder, 10X Factory

I think there is HUGE opportunity in construction supply related ecommerce.

There are several brands in construction that drop ship, and have websites that simply take people to a request form.

In my opinion, the construction supply niche has big dollars, decent margins and very few sophisticated players.

Ross Simmonds, Founder, Foundation Marketing

The most underserved niche for ecommerce is in B2B.

As B2B buyers become younger and younger, more opportunities are opening up for B2B brands to sell their products online and turn ecommerce into a viable online business for their brand.

In many cases, B2B brands think of themselves as regional businesses, but with technology today, there’s opportunities to reach new marketers with a simple website, shipping processes and understanding of how their customers are using Google to find solutions like theirs.

From telephone providers and bottling equipment to sensors and interior design services, B2B is one of the most underrated yet high-potential opportunities for ecommerce entrepreneurs.

Daniel Wallock, Marketing Strategist, Wallock Media

An industry that is underserved by ecommerce is the industrial equipment and industrial pharmaceutical equipment industry.

A lot of companies that sell expensive equipment stay away from online stores, but I’ve worked with clients who were selling tons of very expensive equipment online without doing almost any marketing.

Think Micro-Niche: Gluten Free or Nurses Who CrossFit

Trying to come up with unique ecommerce business ideas for your store? The more niche you can get –– the better. Why? Because with Facebook’s targeting power, you can spend less to perfectly serve a unique audience no one else is touching.

Here are a couple good examples.

WholeMe

WholeMe sells healthy, gluten-free snacks –– which as our expert below and yours truly can attest to –– do not exist enough in the wild! They are serving a very badly needed market, and one ripe to buy!

Diamond Exchange

Part of serving a niche audience is often allowing for insane customization. This way, you only produce 1 item –– and you know for sure it will sell.

Diamond Exchange is the master of this strategy. Their site allows for above and beyond engagement ring customization from the comfort of your home. They get a sell. You get something no one else has.

Now that is niche.

Kaleigh Moore, Freelance writer

Gluten free products! As someone who’s always searching for them, I can vouch for the fact that the current online business market is lacking.

Ryan Bemiller, Founder, Shopping Signals

I think people can see big success by combining two or three niches into a highly specialized micro-niche. For example, male nurses who are into CrossFit. Just an example!

Donald Pettit, Sales & Partners Manager, SalesWarp

I think the next wave of businesses who will emerge on the ecommerce scene are the service-oriented businesses that can personalize products at a high level.

Think about the companies that make a Lego replica of your home & family or the custom-printed M&Ms.

Customers are increasingly demanding high levels of customization and personalization: they want a unique experience and a unique product.

For any emerging brand, I would almost demand they have a micro-niche strategy to reach the small clusters of devoted customers with ultra-personalized products and services.

Planners Have a Massive Following

This advice comes from Suzy Moore, the founder and former owner of So Suzy Stamps –– an online stamping community she grew to valuation within 3 short years. If she says something has community power, you better believe it does.

Here’s an example of a site to help you visualize what Suzy says.

Beatific

Beatific’s site is fun, inspirational and they’ve grown their social media audience to more than 100,000 is just a little over a year.

Suzanne Moore, Narrator, All About Suzy

Planner supplies. They have an almost cult-like following that is INSANE!

Instagram followers are in the 100K range. There are planners, bullet journals, accessories, stickers, traveler’s notebooks, pens, stickers, washi tape, bookmarks and so much more.

Most of the suppliers reside on Etsy and it’s rare to find one single location that offers EVERYTHING.

This is such a creative endeavor that it would be fabulous to have a company or site that could utilize these budding entrepreneurs and carry their items. Think outside of the box and get creative!

Today’s Retirees are Tech Savvy (And Shop Online)

More people than ever are reaching retiree age, and continuing to live long, healthy and happy lives past their retirement date. And with that trend comes a boom in older generation technology and products.

Here are a few.

Soundwall

Soundwall has seen incredible success in nursing homes and the homes of older people. Why? Because it looks like art (AKA it’s really nice) and it plays music as well as lights up when something in the room moves.

So, for instance, you may want to get up to go to the restroom in the middle of the night –– and want to make sure you don’t jam your leg on anything.

Soundwall will help you.

To be fair, this product isn’t only for retirees. It seems to work well for just about anyone.

SOUNDWALL INCREASES SALES 483%

Find out exactly how this B2B technology brand found their niche and scaled the startup.

Expression Fiber Arts

Again, Expression Fiber Arts doesn’t sell only to retirees, but they don’t overlook them either. Their product suits users of all ages well, and the brand has a particular hand-me-down feel that goes from one generation to the other as the skill is passed down and picked back up.

Emil Kristensen, co-founder & CMO, Sleeknote

In my opinion there’s a massive underserved niche in the older generation. Many of the people who retire now have grown accustomed to using computers at work.

This means we have an older generation who knows how to use computers and feel comfortable shopping online.

5-6 years ago this consumer group would not be targeted online, but rather through traditional marketing channels such as TV and radio.

Now and in the next 5-10 years this group will grow and increasingly shop online. For instance, yarn, which often appeal to the older consumer segment, can now target potential customers online as well.

Appeal to People’s Ideologies

No, this doesn’t mean go crazy and appeal to people’s crazier sides. Instead, it means use the communities people are already forming around you to sell them things that help them identify.

Let’s look at an example.

Nine Line Apparel

Nine Line does this incredibly well. Founded by two veterans, this brand brings patriots together in clothing and household items –– speaking to them as part of the community and ideology.

Jordan Brannon, President and COO, Coalition Technologies

Offensive or contentious products. I’m shocked by how rigid people are becoming in their view of other political groups as we take our social media soap boxes to the real world.

There’s huge opportunity to develop products espousing a particular soap box stance in a very aggressive (and hopefully humorous) manner. Lots of ecommerce sites cater to offensive humor, but very few play to particular ideologies or soapbox topics exclusively.

The Education Industry is Getting Big Investor Bucks

It’s true –– online education is booming as brands old and new alike turn to ecommerce as the next channel of growth.

Check out a few below.

Bridgepoint Education

Bridgepoint Education runs Forbes’ online bootcamp –– and uses a site to gather interest through SEO as well as to sell the courses.

Rand McNally

Rand McNally has come a long way from just supplying the atlas in your classroom. Today, the brand pushes out new technology and GPS connection software –– all utilizing its atlases and mapping systems, of course.

Nelson Education

Nelson Education has taken to ecommerce in 2017 to sell both B2C and B2B, allowing parents and educators to get exactly what they need from the brand when they need it.

David Feng, Co-Founder and Head of Product, Reamaze

The education niche seems fairly underserved by ecommerce. One great example is the company Wonderbly which recently secured a $8.5 million round from investors.

Ecommerce entrepreneurs with a background in education publishing, and personalized content creation will have a significant advantage here.

Do What Amazon Can’t

We’ve talked about this a bit so far in this article, but needing customizations or specifications on products isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it is those things that a mass site like Amazon can’t do well. And where smaller, more knowledgeable brands like yours can really blossom.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Discount Electronics

Discount Electronics offers detailed laptop and computer customization unparalleled nearly anywhere on the web. It’s what keeps their customers coming back –– and forgoing Amazon in favor of their low prices for a custom-built item.

Dazadi

Dazadi, the founder of which is quoted below, ships ping pong tables and other large household items not just to someone’s house, but coordinates to have the truck drivers take it out and build it in the customer’s home.

Why do they win in this vertical? Because they take those extra steps few others are willing to do. (Hint: ShipperHQ is how they make it happen).

Sam’s Furniture

Same as Dazadi above, Sam’s Furniture ships furniture from their Dallas warehouse around the U.S., coordinating with LTL freight to get large items where they need to go.

The furniture vertical isn’t an easy one for ecommerce –– but Sam Furniture has been able to spread out their hometown love and loyalty to the nation as a whole, all by figuring out the shipping issues.

Vladimir Gendelman, Founder and CEO, Company Folders, Inc.

An underserved market is custom-built items, mostly because there is an expense involved in adding a product to the site and then taking it down.

With custom-built items, you can have a higher margin to allow for more work.

It could be a car, furniture, jewelry or something that gives people one-of-a-kind goods.

My advice is to start an ecommerce business with unique items and figure out a way to work with designers or other providers to create an online business outlet that is really known for high-quality one-of-a-kind pieces.

Plus, you have to have an easy process for people to submit their ideas for their items and get them made.

John McCann, CEO, Spectrum Audio, & Co-Founder, Quote Ninja, Inc.

The keyword here is niche. Pick a narrow lane, and own it. I’ve struggled with this myself, trying to sell more products than we can possibly keep track of.

Our goal this year has been to cut all of that excess fat, and narrow our lane substantially.

Sell items that require a little bit of expert knowledge, and be that expert.

If someone needs to call and ask a few questions before ordering, I don’t see that as a bad thing anymore. It gives you edge over Amazon, and the other big guys.

If it’s an item that anyone can order without calling, or needing some assistance with, rest assured you’re likely to lose the battle against Amazon and friends in the long run.

Jason Boyce, Co-founder & CEO, Dazadi

Anything heavy online that ships via LTL freight is relatively underserved.

Shipping large freight in the U.S. is very difficult.

We’ve spent a decade and a half mastering freight shipments and we still have much to learn, but we see our skills in this area as a competitive advantage.

Amazon and others are also trying to figure this out, but it’s still very much a work in progress.

Find Confusing Products –– and Include Instructions

Whether it’s FAQs or additional spec information drawn out in an easy-to-digest way, do whatever you can to make sure your product is the most consumer-friendly on the market.

Annesley Surfboard

Annesley does a lot on their product pages right, but one of the best parts is allowing you to spin the board around and showing you exact length and measurements based on your own surfing level.

James Thomson, President, PROSPER Show

It’s not what the specific product is, but how poorly competitive products are doing at bringing out the value of the product.

I would look for products where there is question about how to install or use the product.

Be the seller that comes along with a much richer experience that includes how-to videos, proper documentation, and carefully thought-through effort to address the top 10 problems/issues a customer is likely to have when buying or using the item.

That seller is going to do better than everyone else.

We see hundreds of brands that exist only on Amazon, where those brand owners know how to do a better job merchandising and clarifying the benefits of their products to Amazon customers. National brands need to start thinking more like those Amazon-only sellers.

Passion is the Most Important Part!

All in all, no matter the product you sell, the very first thing you have to be is passionate about it.

Why?

Because the days will get hard. They always do. And the only thing that’s going to keep you going is your passion for the product, the people and the community you are building.

Here are a few brands that take passion to the next level.

Highway Robery

Founded by husband and wife duo Evan and Jackie, this robe company takes pride in its ethical roots, as well as its very, very photogenic friends.

Andie Swim

It all started with a work trip to a local beach. That’s when Melanie realized she didn’t have a suit she’d feel comfortable wearing around co-workers.

So, she set out to find one, and per usual, the experience was terrible.

Awful lighting in dressing rooms. Gross tags in the crouch. Really awful suit fits that nearly changed her mind about going to begin with.

That’s when she had some conversations with friends –– and everyone she spoke with had the. Exact. Same. Experience.

And that’s when she launched Andie Swim.

Christopher Cowden, Director of Operations, Grace and Lace

I agree with Seth Godin on this one. There is no end of people who will sell you a lackluster gadget or a ho-hum service.

What we need more of in this world is people who offer their unique “art” to the world.

To would-be entrepreneurs: whatever makes you come alive, whatever makes time disappear, if there is some activity you engage in that you wouldn’t trade for anything else in this world that brings value to others, do that.

Creating a business model around your passion is not the difficult part.

Jason Ehmke, Senior Client Data Analyst, AddShoppers.com

I wouldn’t recommend any one niche to anybody. I would recommend any entrepreneur to go with what they’re passionate about.

If you’re passionate about a specific niche, you’ll put in the extra effort needed to put yourself ahead of your competition. If you start an online store in a niche that is underserved, but you’re not passionate about, you’ll end up burning out before it becomes worth your while.

Greg Johnston, Managing Director, Be A Part Of

Do what you are passionate about. The niche is not really what I would focus on. Just focus on doing what you love better than someone else.

Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle, you have to love it. If you want a hobby or quick cash, find untapped niches and sell fast and get out!

Remove the Middlemen to Win Big

Retail isn’t dying –– but a lot of distributors are. Why? Because they can’t offer the lowest price or the highest quality. Who can? The manufacturers. The owners. The real people behind the real business.

Sure, these folk have had to learn a few marketing chops to take their product to the masses, but now without the middlemen they are seeing skyrocketing profits.

Here’s an example.

Oyin Handmade

Oyin Handmade used to only sell through distributor sites or drugstores. Today, the brand is still sold there, but there’s no reason not to have a homepage both B2B and B2C consumers can love (and shop!).

Sun Bum

A sunscreen that is a brand all its own? Yeah, the world has changed! Sun Bum promotes healthy living and SPF protection, and sells both B2B and B2C so their loyal consumers can get the lowest possible price.

Max DB, Founder, HeyMaxDB – Content Strategy

Any company giving a limited offer at a reduced price in an industry dominated by middlemen. Companies like Dollar Shave Club, Bombtech Golf, Everlane, those get me really excited.

If you can corner the same kind of situation, definitely go for it. And call me.

Deep Knowledge Has the Most Power

Want people to buy from you? Prove to them you know the most about it.

Trust breeds trust –– and conversions.

What topic do you know the most about? That’s the one you should get in to!

Here’s an example.

FlexFireLEDs

The FlexFire website has more information than Wikipedia when it comes to strip LED lights. This is because the founder has invested time into building out the most helpful site he possibly could on the topic –– and today, it wins him the business of Google, Disney, Ford and more.

James Brown, Client Engagement Manager, RANDEM

Do/sell what you know better than anyone else. Either your special knowledge comes from your previous working life or your specialist hobby.

If you’re able to effectively communicate your deep knowledge and passion for a specific product/market, you will find others who are willing to engage with you, and hopefully buy.

Solve Your Own Problem

Necessity is the mother of invention. And that’s a good thing. Just like Andie Swim above, and the example below, think through your pain points and figure out how to solve them. Likely, others have had the same issue too (and are looking for your solution!).

reCAP Mason Jars

“Our story began with salad dressing,” writes the founder of reCAP Mason Jar lids. “After creating yet another oily mess with the lid and ring, I searched for a pour cap that would fit my Mason Jars and allow me to shake, pour and store dressing.”

Today, the brand has tutorials on fermentation and take-to-work salads, among many other things!

Daniel Wallock, Marketing Strategist, Wallock Media

If I were a new entrepreneur, I wouldn’t think about what product I want to offer or sell. Instead, I would think about what is a problem I can solve and/or what is a product I can make better.

At the end of the day, people want to buy a product that will make their life better.

I would think about creating something that adds real value to people in need or has better unfair advantages than other related products that already exist.

Bill Widmer, eCommerce SEO & Content Marketing Consultant

I’m good at growing eCommerce businesses, but I’m not so great at coming up with products to start them.

My advice to an entrepreneur? Solve your own problem. If you do that, you’ll have a better understanding of your target audience (people like you), which will make EVERYTHING much easier.

Use KickStarter for Research

Kickstarter is a wealth of information on what consumers want, right now. In fact, even established brands use it to launch new products.

Native Union

That’s exactly what Native Union did –– launched a Kickstarter project to get funding for a new gadget for their line. Check it out.

Bill Bailey CEO, Nodal Ninja

I suggest staying abreast of the newest gadgets and technology.

Follow Kickstarter and project funding sites and look for projects that “spark” your attention.

Talk to the developers and ask for first shot at reselling their products once they are ready to go to market.

Cool Matters –– Here’s Why

And in the end –– no matter what you sell –– selling it better than your competition is going to depend on how you build a community and relate to your audience.

You need them to think you are cool. That you know what you are talking about. That your products should be trusted over all others.

Here’s how a couple brands do that.

RAD Soap

Fun visuals and an organic online atmosphere blend aesthetics with sustainability, and the RAD audience loves it.

Obscura

Taking their brick-and-mortar brand online, Obscura recreates their in-store cool home vibe in a series of never-ending online windows with beautiful photography. It’s an online store presented as an online magazine.

David Tendrich, CEO & Co-Founder, Reliable PSD

I think the key nowadays is to stop focusing so much on demographics and niches and instead focus on psychographics within a niche.

For example, someone buying a high-end leather bag might fall into a couple categories:

1. I buy high-end leather bags to feel elite.
2. I buy high-end leather bags because I want quality that will last.

The more you hone in on just 1 or 2 of these, the more you’ll connect with that group of people, and you’ll become the “go to” for that psychographic.

With our coding agency, Reliable PSD, that’s essentially what we did. We came in to an insanely over-saturated market, but we were the only ones to speak to a specific psychographic within that market, making us the instant obvious choice to people within it.

It doesn’t matter how crowded anything is. If you come in and you’re cooler than the other kids on the playground, people will want to hang with you.

Final Thoughts

Identifying an online store idea with growth potential is an important part of starting asuccessful ecommerce business. What you sell matters. How you land on what you sell does too. Whether you come by your ecommerce idea through passion or by luck, be sure you focus on product quality and customer service above all else.

To get started on the next stage, dive on in to our How to Realistically Start a Profitable Online Business book and use these examples of innovative ecommercee companies for inspiration!

Want more insights like this?

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Tracey Wallace

Tracey Wallace is the Editor-in-Chief at BigCommerce, where she covers all things ecommerce: marketing, design, development, strategy, plus emerging trends, including omnichannel and cloud replatforming.

She is often featured in publications, such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Mashable, and ELLE, along with leading BigCommerce partners like HubSpot and Square. She launched her career in ecommerce with Y-Combinator backed Shoptiques.

View all posts by Tracey Wallace 

19 Pro Tips on How to Become a Successful Freelancer

3 months ago

12 Min Read

Are you dreaming of cutting the chain from your 9-5? If you’re amongst the 86% of Americans that the US Census Bureau says drive to work every day, then the hours per week and days or even weeks per year that you could be saving on commuting is enough of a reason alone to break free.

The dream is no longer simply to become financially free and have the right colored fence protecting your house and kids. With the rise of technology people are increasingly in the position to demand that their lifestyle be up to the times. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 53 million American’s are participating in the freelancer economy in some capacity. That’s 1 in 3 workers!

Maybe you’re already apart of the freelancer economy as a side-hustle and you want to step it up to a full time income. Or maybe you watch helplessly from your desk as some of your friends are living the life of their dreams as a digital nomad in Nicaragua or Bali and you’re ready to get in on the action.

Do you want to know how to become a freelance writer? Or maybe how to become a freelancer web developer? Whether you want to be a writer, web developer, editor, graphic designer, marketer, programmer or any other kind of freelancer, the process of transitioning your income stream from payroll to invoice is similar.

We’ve put together a panel of experts to help you transition to the freelancer economy, no matter where you’re currently at. These seasoned freelancers collectively have decades of experience freelancing and they want to help you. If you have any tips to add submit a request.

So without further ado, here are the top tips on how to become a freelancer from those who have done it themselves:

Stephanie Caudle, Owner of Black Girl Group, a freelancing site for African American women.

 My one piece of advice for freelancers is to focus less on project based jobs and more on retainer opportunities this because project work will always run out and will put you in a feast or famine world.

Professionalism & Communication

Daniel Davidson Founder of By Dan Design Co.

Having a successful career freelancing is the culmination of many small things done right – with consistency.

One trait that is missing for most freelancers is their ability to communicate. When communication isn’t clear and timely, all sorts of bad things happen.

It’s quite common for new clients to share their horror stories before coming to me. Without fail, it always comes back to problems with communication.

Which is frustrating, because communication isn’t that complicated.

Simply, respond in a timely manner. Don’t leave your client guessing if you’re still alive.

Never allow the client or yourself to assume what the next steps are. Make it clear who is responsible for what, and set a clear due date on next steps.

It sounds simple, but it’s shocking how often the simple things are missed.

When you keep your client in the loop, you establish a pattern of trust. That trust leads to less wasted time, increased efficiency, and just a happier experience for everyone involved.

Getting Started, Networking, and Goal Setting

Vladimir Gendelman, Founder and CEO at Printwand, Inc.

When you are venturing out on your own, it’s important to set some goals before you get started. Most people make one of two mistakes when setting goals: They either don’t know how to get to their goals, or they obsess over it at the expense of other endeavors. Both of these strategies will set you up for failure.

Instead of expecting your goal to magically happen, plan ahead. Decide what actions you need to take to accomplish the goal. Then, mix those behaviors into your daily routine. You’ll have a roadmap to reach your goal while staying on track for your other objectives.

If you’re not sure what to do, reach out to people who have achieved what you want to and learn what they did to make it happen. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. They will be flattered you aim to achieve what they did and you see them as a mentor to make it happen.

Clemens Sehi, Freelance Creative Director at Travellersarchive.com

My best advice is to stick to the contacts that you might already have from a career not freelancing and then just go proactive. Send your portfolio out to agencies and potential employers to say hello and present your work to them. If they don’t know you, they probably should. Because your work is great, right? So if they would know your work they would probably give you freelance work.

Another advice would be to just call them: say hello and tell them who you are. Its’s never too direct. 

Differentiation/Personal Branding/Value Proposition

Fabi Paolini, Brand Strategist and Designer at FabiPaolini.com

I have been working as a brand strategist and designer for over 11 years and built a 6-figure business by helping hundreds of entrepreneurs others build their own.

The most important thing in being able to build a successful freelance business, in my opinion, is to be able to effectively differentiate yourself from everyone else. Giving your audience an understanding about the unique things that you bring to the table that no one else can bring. Usually, designers feel like the work that they are doing is something that maybe anyone can do, and because of this, they end up undervaluing their work and even undercharging for their services. However, if they understand the true essence and value of their work, while bringing that extra value that no one else can offer, it builds for an important foundation that will radically change they do business.

For example, for years I used to communicate that what I did was work as a designer that did logos and websites. There was nothing special or unique about that message. It wasn’t until I realized that I wasn’t communicating my unique value, that I made the change. Now I say that I help entrepreneurs transform their years of experience into a profitable online business and a Brand that Attracts premium clients. With this, I am clearly positioning myself as an expert that is specifically geared towards people that are looking to turn their expertise into a business. I am also communicating that what I do is build premium brands.

In your case, I would recommend getting crystal clear on what it is that you do differently and how to make that message effectively come across to your audience. It will absolutely make the difference in having success in your business as a freelancer.

Dipping your toes with a side hustle vs. diving in head first as a full-time freelancer

Ryan Scollon, SEO & PPC Freelancer at RyanScollon.co.uk

My tip for anyone wanting to pursue the life as a freelancer would be to get started while you are working elsewhere. Progress as a freelancer can be slow, so it’s worth having a main source of income and then working in the evenings and weekends to get small bits of freelance work.

At the moment, I have enough additional income from freelance work, but there is no way I could survive on just that alone. So the plan is to get as much freelance work as possible and to get a steady flow of leads to build my confidence for the future supply of work. Once that is in place, I can then make the move of leaving my main job. 

Jason Scott, Digital Marketing Specialist at jcscott.co.uk

My number one tip for those who are looking to pursue a career as a freelancer is to start whilst you’re still in full-time employment. Making the leap from full-time employment to freelancing is daunting and for many, unsuccessful. By making it more of a phased process where you slowly phase in freelance work and phase out of full time employment you set yourself up for a more successful career.

So, sign-up to a few sites like UpWork, People Per Hour and Fiverrand start pitching. Once you start to build a good reputation on freelancing sites, you’ll find more and more work coming your way. Once it becomes financially viable, quit your full-time job and go all-in on freelancing.

Productivity

Erik Pitzer, Graphic Designer at Illumine8 Marketing & PR

As a former freelance graphic designer, my biggest piece of advice is simple (though difficult to achieve): Stay on top of your game. Whether that involves giving yourself a strict schedule or physically re-locating to a dedicated workspace, staying productive is paramount to success.

The temptation of idleness and leisure time is very real when you have no direct superior, and you’re not going to make a comfortable living if you’re only putting in 20 hours of real work each week

General Tips

Delanie West, Founder & Creative Director at DelanieWest.comand BeSuperCreative.com

Most important to consider for remote workers and a freelance economy:

1. Cultivate genuine connections with people you meet professionally and socially.

Someone in our networks is always asking for reference

on a designer, your connections & friends will recommend you.

2. IF you’re void working with creative temp agencies when you can some of them require businesses to pay a

“finders fee” if that business wants to hire you or work with you past your initial assignment. Once you have a body of work

that you can present to the client, you can do the work of the agency and sell your-self (and keep the markup).

3. Know when to offer gratis or discounted work. Often bartering or discounting your service fee it worth it. If it’s a business or organization that is growing, and you develop a working relationship with them as their trusted creative, when they are generating greater revenue, they more likely than not call on you and you’ll be able to at a point adjust your fee to the market rate.

4. When negotiating a fee, always start by asking what the budget for the project is. Straight away, you’ll know how much value is placed on design as a service. You can counter with “I don’t think I’ll be able to provide what you’re looking for at that rate” and see if they offer a rate more commensurate with your services and experience, and if the budget is just impossible, you can offer what could be achieved within that range.

5. For unknown contacts that don’t come with a recommendation, charge an consultation fee – which can be deducted from the total project fee (if they indeed choose to move forward with you as the creative on the project). You would be surprised at how little is understood about design, the time it takes to research and provide creative direction, and the time attributed to requested revisions. Often you spend a good amount of your time communicating about the project needs to build the brief so you can educate the client on the prices, agree on the rate or negotiate the fees – that’s time you don’t get paid for if you don’t charge.

6. In an offsite freelance economy, your online presence matters. Be Present! Unless you have an agent, you are your best advocate. You need to cultivate an online presence that gives an at-a-click introduction to who you are, what you do and what work you’ve done. Gone are the days of leafing through various portfolio sites to figure out what a creative has to offer, you should own your personal URL or that of your business name. Your work should be easy to access and not emailed to a client in a jumble of PDF attachments.

I have always managed my private design business while working in corporate. It’s kept my finger in the creative pie, and allowed me to maintain my creative identity separate from that of any brands that I was managing professionally. Working both sides (hiring freelancers and acting as a freelancer)  has enabled me to better manage both professional and personal freelance efforts.

Dylan Kelley, Founder of Wavebreak

Always charge upfront. Require clients to pay you in full before they can book time on your calendar. It’s not fun to do thousands of dollars worth of work and not get paid for it. You’ll save yourself a lot of stress and worry by billing at the beginning of a project.

Referrals & Ambition

Jessica Thiefels, Freelancer at JessicaThiefels.com

My top tip would be to not be afraid to go after big projects. So often, we think: oh, I can’t handle that or my work isn’t good enough—but in most cases, you’ll be able to figure it out.

Bonus: you’re getting an amazing potential referral in the process, while learning something new you can offer future clients. Big projects often pay more as well – win, win, win!

Ready to get started as a freelancer?

So now that you’ve been able to get tips directly from all these seasoned freelancers, what are you waiting for? If you’re like many of the other people allowing their skills to go undervalued with one employer, chances are you’re a bit skeptical that your skills are marketable as a freelancer. Will you really be able to get clients? The answer is overwhelmingly YES!

If you’d like me to write up a full guide on how to market your unique skills as a freelancer to stop being underpaid, leave a comment below requesting what topics you’d like covered.

Are you an experienced freelancer with something to add to this list? Contact us with inquiries. 

Tagsdigital nomad freelancer

About the author

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Nick Hastreiter

Shaping the future of your industry? Send pitches to Nick at Future of Everything .io !

HOW TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IN 1/2 HOUR (OR LESS)

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

— George Addair

I recently read one of the most powerful blog posts I’ve read in a long time, a post about renowned entrepreneur Elon Musk and the 'secret sauce' that allows him to accomplish the seemingly impossible.

In the post I saw a lot of parallels to my work. When I’m not running my adventure travel company, I also mentor and consult with startup entrepreneurs to help them get their entrepreneurial ideas off the ground. Although they turn to me for advice, tips and tools, usually what’s really holding them back isn’t a lack of knowledge or knowhow, it’s something else entirely.

Fear.

As Tim Urban explains in his post about Musk, what makes him so successful in achieving the seemingly impossible is not some sort of superhuman ability or rare genius, it’s simply the ability to view two important things in a more realistic light: 1) what’s possible and 2) the risk involved. With this ability, he is able to manage fear far better than most of us.

TAKING THE LEAP

Many of the entrepreneurs I work with work at full time jobs that don’t provide them with much fulfillment, meaning or joy. Underlying this lack of fulfilment is an idea, a dream that’s been itching away for years without ever being scratched. Typically the first question they ask me is some variation of “Where do I start?’ or “How do I start?”.

The enormity of starting a new business - or any new worthwhile endeavour - typically overwhelms most people, and they feel that it requires a massive commitment on their part: quitting their job, selling their house, moving to a new country… some sort of big change to signify their commitment to their dream.

The problem with that thinking is that it typically kicks our fear response into overdrive. And then we operate from this:

This is taken from the Wait But Why post referenced earlier. As the author explains, 'chefs' like Elon Musk, whom we revere as extreme risk-takers, are not actually taking on levels of risk that are truly dangerous. The rest of us are just so risk-averse that their behaviour seems crazy to us.

And when our fear response kicks in our self-talk starts to sound like this:

“If I quit my job and this business fails, I’ll never get another job again."

“If I sell my [house, car, baseball cards, etc.] to fund my business, I’ll end up broke with no assets and have to start all over, and I'll probably end up on the street."

“If I commit to this and it doesn’t work out, my [husband, girlfriend, dog, parrot, etc.] will leave me."

As the above diagram shows, the portion of the fear spectrum most people typically operate in is well to the left of “things that we should be truly concerned about”.

So the first thing is to recognize that that the fear reaction is a normal response, but that it’s often warped well out of proportion to actual risk.

The second thing to recognize is that the fear response shows up in devious ways: it typically manifests not as a conscious response of “holy crap, if this doesn’t work out then X and Y are going to happen, and my life will be over”, but rather as some variation of:

“This idea is really dumb. No one is going to buy this from me."

“I don’t have the [knowhow, knowledge, willpower, brains, personality, etc.] to pull this off."

“There’s another more-established competitor already offering this. I’ll never be able to compete with them."

“Someone’s going to come along and steal my idea and put me out of business."

"I'm not an [entrepreneur, singer, artist, athlete, etc.]. What was I thinking?"

When you hear self-talk like this, it’s important to recognize that you are probably not operating from what Elon Musk calls ‘first principles’, or objective information, but rather from a perspective of fear. That self-talk is a direct manifestation of your fear centres - mostly that pesky amygdala - trying to keep you unnecessarily safe.

When you hear this type of self-talk, ask yourself "Am I operating from objective, 'first principles' information, or is there some sort of distortion going on?" Typically it's the latter: your idea is probably not that dumb, you probably do have the knowhow to pull it off, and you are an entrepreneur/singer/artist/athlete/etc.

The third thing to recognize is that even if you do recognize this self-talk for what it is - your innate fear response - it's still incredibly difficult to overcome.

Fortunately, there’s a way around this.

HOW TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IN 1/2 HOUR

OK, I’ll admit it, I got a little clickbait-y with that headline. I’m not suggesting that you can accomplish anything in just 1800 seconds. What I want to demonstrate is that you can accomplish just about anything you want in life by applying a very simple strategy to it.

How? By focusing a small, very manageable amount of time, every day, toward a chosen goal. 

When I work with people who are not happy with their current career path and are considering a switch to entrepreneurship, but are concerned about leaving the safety of their existing job, I'll usually work with them to help them clarify their idea and turn it into a viable business model, then outline next steps to help them validate their idea. Once we've outlined those next steps, I'll encourage them to break them down into small bite-sized chunks, then get them to commit to doing some small daily action or actions that will get them a little bit closer to their goal, every single day.

I usually suggest 1/2 hour a day, but for some time-challenged people, I suggest they at least commit 20 minutes per day to working on their 'escape plan'. One woman I recently worked with was working 75-hour weeks at her current job, so her time was pretty limited, but she wanted to get the hell out, so she was very motivated - she has committed to doing 20 minutes a day, and has managed to do it consistently.

That's the strategy in a very simple nutshell: commit a small amount of time (at least 20 minutes) every day towards your dream. If you can spare more, then commit more time, but only commit to what you can realistically pull off. If you say you're going to commit 2 hours a day, but then do 3 days in a row where you only do 1/2 hour, you're going to get de-motivated by not hitting your goal, so you're better off committing to 1/2 hour a day.

It's a powerful strategy because:

1. You're not overwhelming yourself with a monumental task, and not letting your natural fear response overtake you. 
2. While you're moving towards your goal, you get to appease the safety-seeking, risk-averse side of you and stay in your current reality (while still moving away from it).
3. Every day you make a small bit of progress toward your goal, which is extremely motivating and helps build momentum towards your goal.

I've applied this strategy to a number of projects over recent years. For most of this year my daily 1/2 hour was applied to building out a comprehensive online course for social entrepreneurs. There's a massive amount of content in the course (over 300 pages and dozens of videos), and a lot of technical setup involved to make the course function the way I wanted it to.

Had I sat down without a strategy and thought about the enormity of the task ahead of me, and how I could fit that in to a busy life that already entailed running a 50-person adventure travel company, parenting 3 young children, supporting my wife and everything else in life that I have a responsibility to, I probably would have thrown in the towel and said "No way I can pull that off." 

Instead, I just told myself I would commit 1/2 hour - every day - toward building out the course. Every day I would write some content, build out the website, whatever it took to move closer to that goal. And lo and behold, here I am 11 months later with a complete entrepreneurship course that is already being used by hundreds of people. [psst... I'm offering a launch promo of 50% off the regular monthly subscription of $38 CAD/month - just use promo code 'changetheworld' until Dec. 31, 2015]

Want more proof? This blog post was written in three 1/2 hour chunks: once while I was at the pool while my daughter was doing her swimming lesson, once while sitting on the subway traveling to an appointment, and once during my morning routine.

KEEPING ON TRACK

To keep me on track with my 1/2-hour-a-day commitment, I use an app called Way of Life (here's an Android version):

It's a pretty simple app: you start by creating up to 12 'habits' that you want to track. They can be either good habits (like spending 1/2 hour a day on your project) that you want to encourage, or bad ones (like too much coffee) that you want to avoid. 

Then you log in to the app every day (I find it easiest to log in once in the morning and once in the evening), check in on the habits you want to encourage/discourage, and mark off whether you've achieved your goals or not that day. So if I actually did 1/2 hour of work on my 'muse' (I borrowed this term from Tim Ferriss' excellent book, The 4-Hour Workweek), then I just click on 'Yes' under this habit and I get a nice green checkmark for my efforts.

The app offers a reporting feature where you can track your progress both on a macro (i.e. all of your goals) or individual goal level ('how did I do with regards to exercising every day?'), but that, to me, is less important than the simple act of having to report on my progress each day. Reporting my progress in the app is an act of accountability that reminds me, every day, what is important to me. And as silly as it sounds, I don't want to let the app down (and by process of extension, let myself down).

HOW WILL YOU USE YOUR 1/2 HOUR?

I'll finish off with a question: how will you use your daily 1/2 hour? What dream will you pursue? What idea will you launch into the world? What long-buried goal will you finally bring to life?

Just commit 30 minutes every day and you'll be amazed at what you can achieve.

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Want some help starting or growing your business? Check out The Social Entrepreneur, a comprehensive online course I spent 11 months developing, to help entrepreneurs like you build, launch and scale businesses that change the world for the better.

From now until Dec. 31, 2015, enter promo code 'changetheworld' on the order form and you'll get 50% off the monthly subscription fee of $38 CAD/month - forever.

I also work with a (very) limited number of committed, passionate entrepreneurs on a consulting basis. 

Tagged: productivity, goals, goal setting