“With OBE it’s not just about starting a new online business, we believe you are starting a new way of life”

You have read website after websites evaluating a wide range of Home Based Business Opportunities. However, with all the promises of fortunes to be made and dream lifestyles to be created, how do you choose the best concept or product to partner with amongst the myriad of Home Based Businesses and Internet Businesses that have emerged in recent years?

OBE has identified three powerful entrepreneur ideas that will help provide a foundation for you to potentially build an online business empire. We will also look at examples of how some simple concepts have provided a platform for their founders to build highly profitable internet businesses or home based businesses.

Let’s begin by identifying what we believe are the emerging business and sociocultural trends, or best new business ideas. The team at OBE have identified THREE hot global socioeconomic and business trends that will drive consumer demand for the next decade or more. In our opinion these trends and ideas will form the basis for many highly profitable internet businesses and will create many millionaires and billionaires across the globe. So here are the big three:

1. Social Media, Social Marketing and Online Social Networking

There has certainly been a major paradigm shift in the last 5 years or so, with so many of us now relying on social media for up to the minute news and current affairs. The emergence of social media is strongly linked to the massive downturn in the circulation numbers suffered by many print newspapers and written publications. Why has this shift occurred? I believe that there are two fundamental reasons:

• The development of social media platforms such as Facebook, You Tube, Linked-In, MySpace and Twitter amongst the many other social networks, has had a huge impact on the dissemination of our news. Social media has also allowed us to customize our news and communication preferences like never before, so that news and media now have greater individual relevance.
• Technological advancements and increasing global access to the internet and worldwide web means these technologies are now considered to be highly effective communications tools. Logic tells us that in a time of immediacy it hardly makes sense to wait for the nightly news service or to buy a newspaper when we can simply go online and get the news literally as it happens.

Social media and online technological advancements have certainly changed the way we communicate and do business. They have provided us with an easily accessible platform to launch and promote a new product, service or business. Social media has given us the ability to network and communicate within and across social networks and via multiple social media platforms.  It has the same time has also provided us with an amazing ability to leverage our communication and marketing efforts. Many of our future customers and best prospects would not be known to us if not for the power of online social and business networks.

2. Viral and Educational Marketing

There has certainly been a major paradigm shift in the last 5 years or so, with so many of us now relying on social media for up to the minute news and current affairs. The emergence of social media is strongly linked to the massive downturn in the circulation numbers suffered by many print newspapers and written publications. Why has this shift occurred? I believe that there are two fundamental reasons:

• The development of social media platforms such as Facebook, You Tube, Linked-In, MySpace and Twitter amongst the many other social networks, has had a huge impact on the dissemination of our news. Social media has also allowed us to customize our news and communication preferences like never before, so that news and media now have greater individual relevance.
• Technological advancements and increasing global access to the internet and worldwide web means these technologies are now considered to be highly effective communications tools. Logic tells us that in a time of immediacy it hardly makes sense to wait for the nightly news service or to buy a newspaper when we can simply go online and get the news literally as it happens.

Social media and online technological advancements have certainly changed the way we communicate and do business. They have provided us with an easily accessible platform to launch and promote a new product, service or business. Social media has given us the ability to network and communicate within and across social networks and via multiple social media platforms.  It has the same time has also provided us with an amazing ability to leverage our communication and marketing efforts. Many of our future customers and best prospects would not be known to us if not for the power of online social and business networks.

3. Online Shopping and eCommerce

The continued explosion of the multi-billion dollar e-commerce industry seems to have gone hand-in-hand with the development of the internet and the emergence of social media platforms. The growing popularity of Online Shopping and e-commerce is being powered by the need to meet the changing consumer demands. The growth in the popularity of the Smart-phone is an exceptional example of how consumers crave convenience, customization and mobility. It is the likes of Apple, eBay, Amazon and Google who have proven to be benchmark companies for best practice and profitability in the area of e-commerce.

There is no doubt that the right Online Shopping or e-commerce models have the potential to explode as consumers look to the greater value and convenience that generally comes with shopping online. Correspondingly, retailers are able to minimize labor costs and overheads normally associated with operating a traditional bricks and mortar business; while at the same time maximizing their profit margins.  Having an online presence also opens the possibilities of tapping into new markets through power of viral marketing using the platform of social media.

“Many great ideas go unexecuted, and many great executioners are without ideas. One without the other is worthless.” – Tim Blixseth

Entrepreneurs are certainly big thinkers! Imagine positioning yourself prior to the explosion of a trend and the satisfaction of being a pioneer within your industry; not to mention the financial and lifestyle benefits that would follow. Here are some powerful examples of visionary entrepreneurs who took a simple idea and then took firm and decisive action to monetize that concept.

Case Study One – Pierre Omidyar (eBay)

French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar founded EBay in 1995. There was at the time a great deal of doubt as to whether a platform selling used items via online auction would take off. After all online auctions were a significant jump from the traditional auction model for these types of items. After three years eBay’s customer growth broke the 2 million-customer barrier. In 1998 eBay went public and Omidyar became a billionaire (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay), at this point eBay’s brand was growing and so was an understanding of the potential of their online auction model. EBay’s explosion in popularity has resulted in over 200 million active customers and along the way they have acquired the likes of Skype, Shopping.com and Pay Pal. Who would have thought that the very first item a broken laser pointer for $14.83 that sold on eBay would have the catalyst for one of the fastest growing businesses in US history? (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_eBay)

Case Study Two – Felicia Day and Jacqueline Beauchamp

Next we will look at two female business entrepreneurs in Felicia Day and Jacqueline Beauchamp. They have shown that a love of gaming could be turned into a very profitable passion. In doing so they have not only broken down the barriers of what was thought as being a traditional male domain, but they have also taken their innovative ideas and pitched them successfully to Microsoft, resulting in benchmark deals with Microsoft’s Xbox. In fact, Jacqueline Beauchamp’s company Nerjyzed (energized) broke new ground by being the first black-owned development studio to develop games for the Xbox 360 (source: http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/2009/02/2-women-make-video-game-history.html).

Case Study Three – Steve Jobs (Apple)

How about Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976 to sell a hand-built personal computer kit? With Apples’ initial public offering in late 1980 they created about 300 more millionaires than any company in history. While several venture capitalists were rewarded for their vision by reaping billions upon cashing out from their initial investments.  In 1985 following differences with Apples board and their CEO, Jobs was effectively moved sideways before resigning. Jobs was approached some ten years later to take over as Interim CEO to resurrect Apple’s faltering business. History will show that Steve Jobs been instrumental in turning around Apple’s fortunes and indeed presided over the emergence of a global tech-business powerhouse.  In recent times the company have developed innovative products like the Apple iMac, iPhone, iPod and iPad (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.).

Case Study Four – Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Finally, we have Mark Zuckerberg, who is of course famous for co-founding Facebook in 2004 with three fellow Harvard classmates. Zuckerberg was one of the youngest billionaires in the world in 2010 with accumulated wealth of over $4 Billion at the age of 26. The idea for Facebook all started in Zuckerberg’s dorm room and has now become the world’s largest social networking website and one of the most recognizable brands and successful 21st century internet businesses (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg).

“A great idea nothing more than a dream, when it is not combined good planning and decisive action” – Damon Tindall (Online Business Entrepreneurs)

We have given you a snapshot of the emerging trends and business ideas that will underpin the success of many new internet businesses for the next ten years and more. Once you have found what you are looking for, your next challenge is to build your personal brand, develop those valuable online relationships and then effectively use the power of social media and viral marketing to grow your global enterprise.