We’ve talked about whether you’re the right kind of person for an online business, and whether it’s the right kind of business for you. So today let’s talk about what resources you need to have if you want to start an internet business.
Is it as simple as having an internet connection and a desire to succeed?
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
(Note: for your convenience, there are links within the list below for things I recommend, some of which are my affiliate links)
What you need…
1) A computer
-Doesn’t need to be the latest and greatest
-Can’t be a total dinosaur
-Recommend Windows XP or newer
-Consider a laptop
-spend $200-$1000 for a desktop, $400-$1500 for a laptop
A few places to shop for a computer:
HP Shopping (where I bought my computer and my laptop)
Buy.com (I’ve bought a lot of stuff there including backup hard drives)
Amazon (A good place to compare prices and look for specials)
2) Internet connection (Broadband recommended). I used Qwest DSL (Now CenturyLink) for many years, and they were been good. I then used Comcast broadband for a few years, and loved it, as the speeds were much faster. Now I live out in the foothills, with no DSL or cable available, so I use Skybeam, which is a wireless Internet service. The speeds are not blazing, but it’s good enough for my business, and fast enough to stream Netflix too. If you live in an area not serviced by a major provider, you might want to look into something like Skybeam, or satellite broadband.
3) Antivirus program. I use AVG; their website is www.avg.co.uk.
UPDATE: I believe AVG is still good, however I think there are some better ones. On my main PC, I’ve switched over to Avast, which is also free:
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download
And on my laptop I’ve switched to Microsoft’s free progam:
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
4) Email (free options available). For example: http://mail.google.com/mail/signup
5) Zip program (free options available). This is a good freeware: www.7-zip.org
6) Productivity software (free option available). Here’s a good free option: www.openoffice.org
7) Startup capital (highly recommended). I recommend having at least $200 available.
8] Credit card (highly recommended). If you’re afraid you’ll abuse it, you might want to consider a prepaid visa card.
9) Paypal account (highly recommended). You can get a free account at PayPal. If you live in a country that PayPal doesn’t allow, read this article for inspiration.
10) Business checking account (highly recommended).
11) Business registration (requirements vary – might be optional).
12) Business Entity such as an LLC (Optional). In general, you can probably start as a sole proprietor, and decide later if you want to form an LLC.
An LLC may help save you from paying self employment taxes. It also can protect your personal assets. Consult with an attorney or tax accountant.
If you want to avoid paying an attorney to help with the paperwork, you can often do it the cheapest directly through your state department. I’ve also found LegalZoom to be a helpful shortcut. I’ve used them to form three LLC’s, one non-profit, and two wills.
13) Accountant (Optional).
14) Lawyer (Optional).
15) Telephone (Optional). If you have broadband, you might want to consider Skype for your phone service.
16) Insurance (Optional).
17) Backup drive (Highly recommended). I added this one after making the video. A decent external hard drive can be purchased for $100 – $400. It’s not so important what kind of drive you get; what’s important is that you use it to backup all the files on your computer on a regular basis. I’ve bought several hard drives (including Maxtor, Lacie, and Western Digital) from Buy.com with good results.
There are a few other things that you’ll need which will be specifically covered in upcoming lessons, so don’t worry about them for now.
Action steps:
1) Go through the list, and make sure you have everything that is required. For the highly recommended ones, do as best you can to get them. For the optional ones, do some research and decide whether it’s something you need.
As I mentioned back in lesson 3, you don’t need to be a computer expert, but there are some things you’ll need to know. I’ll go through those basic computer skills in the next lesson.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
Have a great day!
there are always ways to get around obstacles. For example: http://www.ericstips.com/tips/ladan-lashkari/
As Usual, Your infomation is clear and to the point. Seems as though EVERY decision I made prior to starting your lessons was WRONG. While gearing up, been spending a lot of time backing out of the things I’d started that obviously will never work and getting ready to get things built right.
Thanks
Don
When you mention computing you think Windows and antivirus automaticaly but now you can easily install Linux Ubuntu on any PC and do everything you said with NO risque of virus and it’s totally free. Open Office comes from Linux and it is not surprising that it is good because Linux is an enormous community of computer masters. Everybody still uses Windows because it is popular but once they realise how this system outbeats Windows and the philosophy behind it, maybe they will make a change.. It resembles Mac wich is also a good solution but more expensive.
Thanks for the tips
Hi Eric
I enjoyed and appreciated your informative lesson.
Kind Regards
Eric these lessons are great and professional. Thanks for your expertise. I need a prepaid credit card. dp
Eric I appreciate the effort you are making to help us newbies get started. I am 52 and I would consider myself as somewhat knowledgeable
with computers. Some of the tech stuff I still have a ways to go. I hear people talk about a brower and I am not sure what that is.But I will learn. Thanks Eric your help is appreciated.
Hi Eric,
Thanks again! Lots of great informations!
Yes, i will looking out for #9!
Up to now i can follow you easely!
Maybe i need to upgrade my exel skills!
And aquire some vedeo making skills!
I probbably need a good camcorder, right?
Eric,
Re: lawyer. We’ve found pre-paid legal WELL worth the little monthly fee they charge. Their lawyers call you back promptly as many times a month as you need to talk with them on new issues. They’ve helped us out MANY times!
Do i need a Awebe email to set up the list or how can i get a list of emails and how do you recomendo to obtain a good list of emails thank you for your excelent job God belss you for the big knowledge provided. Cecilia
Excellent presentations and can’t wait to follow you through the next bit. Good stuff.
Hi Eric
I’m totally aboard with your teachings and committed to following your lead,I think you are great. one question I already joined the homecashcourse, which I assume is afiliate marketing, I’ve only joined,purchase the web domain, astablished a clickbank account that’s as far as i made it before finding you, please tell me I don’t need to pursue that any further I had no ideal of what I was doing and definitly do’nt want to spend any more money than I need to. I was just laid off my job so I’m an unemployed banquet Director and a complet newbie to online businesses.
I am not familiar with that particular course. However, most of those clickbank-related courses involve promoting CB products using PPC (such as Adwords). If that’s the case, you will have to spend more money in order to make money with their system. PPC is a legitimate way to get traffic (in fact it’s one of my favorite ways), but it does have a learning curve and you can burn through cash when you’re learning it.
The good news is that you purchased a domain, which is something I teach in these lessons. I’d say keep following my lessons, and build your business step by step. Just keep in mind it is a process, and you will not “get rich quick” which is probably what was implied when you bought that other course.
Yes I recommend using Aweber to build your list. But rather than buying a list, you will build your own on Aweber. I will cover this extensively in these lessons.
Great information. I wanted you to know I came acrossed a website that is selling your info as their own. If you want to e-mail me, I can give the site. Don’t want to advertise for them.
God Bless
For a total newbie such as I am, your videos are a God-send, Eric. I really need direction right now. Thanks for providing some.
Hi Eric,
I found your lessons are so informative and one good thing is you are honest in what ever you are saying.I found there is no audio in lesson #7 & 8 , will you please correct them. I already have a on line store and I am looking for some other ways of making money and I think you can guide me. Keep up the Good work.
Thanks. The audio should be there, I would recommend checking to make sure you have the latest version of Flash installed for your browser, and/or try viewing it in a different browser such as firefox.
Lesson 8 was again very informative. I did not realize I was a well set up as I am. I wrote down your list of needed items and have checked off practically every one of the highly recommended ones and most of the optionals. I have an attorney who helped me fight the Public Guardian’s office (long story). I am sure I can get referrals from them. Also, my son sells some sort of pre-paid lawyer. I might look into that when money starts coming in.
By the way, you do not have to have an actual business checking account. You can open a second personal account that does not charge business fees. The idea is to keep business funds and personal funds separate. Unfortunately, I have not been able to keep the business self-sufficient so my personal funds are constantly being involved.
I also recommend having some sort of accounting program or a financial spreadsheet to account for every penny that comes in and out of your business. If you have to use personal funds for the business, log it in as an equity loan from yourself. Currently, my business owes my personal funds quite a bit. At least I don’t have to pay exorbitant interest! I am looking forward to being able to pay myself an actual salary. I also have to get into the habit of investing part of every sale back into the business. I am sure I will learn these things as we progress through building a PROPER business.
Thanks for the lessons, Eric. I wish I had these three years ago — before I set up the corporation and when I lost my last job due to downsizing and their relocation.
Louise
Hey Gary —
Are you repeating your post for emphasis? 🙂
Hi Eric
I am not a very computer literate guy and battle to create a professional website and how to get all the necessary links and click options on the site. This lack of knowledge is really crippling me Can You advise someone or some programme that can guide me step by step until I am knowledgeable about the process
Thanks
Eddie
Actually these lessons can probably help you with that. There are several lessons showing how to build a website, so just take it step by step 🙂
Great is an understatement for your work..!! I’m now a follower of your tips and don’t know how enough to Thank You.After all,you’ve shown me a ray of Hope which i’d lost for myself.I sincerely hope this works for me.This is my only chance.
Your lessons are absolutely wonderful! I can not wait for the rest of them and implement.
Thank you so much for your FREE lessons and tips!
Hi Eric and thanks again for a great video and information. These are things I always knew but did not have a list or have them in any order. I do now! Thank you!
eric i just started your tips eight days ago but i started with myonlineincomesystem.on7/30/90 i’ve already have most of your action items prior to this lesson.i set up a personal checking account only for the business before i ven started your lessons.but i have run into a stone wall maybe you can advise me.following the instruction given i went to bluewire to get my three free domains.every thing was find i went back to clickbank and notebooked my affiliate programs then went back to bluewire to start my business going,by this time i’m all excited my on online business WOW bam i never saw the wall i hit coming.i cannot acess my bluewire account to get my domains when i try they tell me i already have them?where are they? i don’t know whats going on can you shed some light on this?i’ve gone over your lesson from 1 to 8 twice now the second time i took the time to read the comments,i didn’t do this before i was to eager to get started.now i have all the time in the world to go back and study your lessons.until i can find out what up with bluewire.i’m sure i’m not the first 63 yr old newbie you delt with.i look forward to your lessons they give me great insight into the online world thank you for any help you can give me may god give his blessing to you on all your endeavors and family
robert
I have never recommended bluewire, so I’m not sure where you got that from and unfortunately I do not know what the issue may be. But in lesson #23 you will see my recommendations for domain registration.
Hi Eric, I’ve been working since May to setup my Corporation…it’s so weird calling myself the president of a corporation…
I’ve got all these action items done and I’m ready to go.
I have an autoresponder That I paid $18 for, but do not know how to use it.can you help me please?
Thanks a lot Eric for your encouragement. i read Ladan’s story. But tell me, how can we overcome this pay pal/click bank thing. My country is restricted too and I get discouraged each time I see what I can do to make money on like, but click bank/PayPal becomes a barrier.
Hello Ngozi,
You may want to try another payment processor like this one:
https://www.2checkout.com/community/
Hello Ngozi,
We recommend that you contact the product support for your autoresponder purchase.
Eric uses and recommends the Aweber autoresponder service:
http://www.ericstips.com/aweber
Another great video.
Hi Eric,
I am pretty much up to speed with Laptop, broadband,and vista loaded. I have 25 gig download limits which is just about right for watching video’s online and uploading pages. I have several domains already. Thanks.
Hi again Eric, points noted. I had most of it, except a credit card, I’ve registered to Paypal but I don’t know the status, but I had no problem with clickbank. May be I will arrange for a debit card.
Eric,
Another great lesson. I have been following other “gurus” and not one of them ever mentioned these starting points before venturing into online marketing. They take it for granted that you already knew these things (ala easy for even Newbies). I take heart that I will be successful in my new online business. Keep up the good work. Aloha!
Thanks as always Eric! I look forward everyday to the next EricsTips!
Dear Eric’s
Thanks for ur tips. I learned many more form u. Now pls let me know how can i earn money to write my blog? And minimum how much us dollar i can get from there?
Best Regards.
Ja. Hossain
I don’t have website. How do I get one,
new at this.
thanks
I’ll be covering that in depth in lessons #23-30. So stick with us 🙂
I will be covering blogging later in the lessons. There is a lot of potential to make money with blogs…
This post is in response to E. Perry about Ewen Chia. I’ve order quite a few of his products. Most of which are of pretty high quality. However, as far as making money with any of them, it hasn’t happened for me as of this time. But then again I haven’t put forth that huge of an effort. I did get this one up and running but haven’t pushed enough traffic to it for a fair assessment: http://ewenchia-autopilot-profits.com/ The download page does contain some useful video instruction if you are a newbie to moderate experience marketer. But there is far better information out there. But on the other hand, for the price, it’s not bad and certainly won’t break anybody.
-Casey
Hi Eric,
I hope I can get a prepaid Visa Card here in South Africa. Paypal remains a problem. I applied for an account and at the end I was told that my number would be e-mailed to. Two weeks later I am still waiting. I think it is a South African problem. I need to pay for my weebly site so that I can upgrade. Hopefully the Visa Prepaid will solve this problem for me.
Best Wishes, Butch
For a free AV, I’d recommend Avira. 🙂
hi Eric
I have question for you.
Is PayPal available in Mongolia? If doesn’t what kind of card is better in our country? WHAT IS DIFFERENCE between Visa,Paypal and Bus.checking account?
buren
hi eric, i want to point out something i find a bit puzzling. i’v been following your lessons and i think lesson 5 was advising against buying stuffs and being watching out for scams. however you sent me a Special Edition on the 17th of September promoting one turn-key software business by your friends Adeele and Bobby. You said they made $900K in 60 days and you were vauching for it. My question is this,if i have teh money to spend should i go ahead and get it? most importantly, is it GUARANTEED i WILL make money from it too? pls be honest in your answer like you’ve been doing so far.
you are doing a great work!!! thank you
Hello Verity,
Eric promotes worthwhile products from time to time when they are deserving of his recommendation. But, you should only buy if it will help you in your current business, or is something that you would like to start using.
While it’s difficult to be able to guarantee that you WILL make money from a particular product, we can say that you are likely to find success if you use the products in the way they are intended, following the proven strategies of others!
Hello Buren,
Yes, PayPal is available in Mongolia.
PayPal is an online money transfer service that allows you to send and receive payments online. A Visa is a major credit card that you could use to make purchases. And, a business checking account is a bank account that you would use for business purposes.
For your capital investment? Do you need $200.00 in addition to a credit card or a credit card with at least $200.00 you can use for investment?
Technically all you need is a credit card with at least $200 available. But I recommend building your business debt-free, so it would be best if you also have the $200 on hand so you can pay off your credit card 🙂
Hi Eric,
… somehow I wasn’t able to watch the 7th lessonø it came up…