by John K. Romano

Business angels are individuals who have the ability and willingness to provide your company with enough capital to move your startup businesses to the next phase. Angels are primarily local people who are, relatively speaking, financially independent, but who are by no means super rich. These investors are usually first generation money-entrepreneurs, retired corporate executives, or professionals who have a net worth of more than $1 million and an annual income of more than $100,000. In the United States there are over 2 million households with a net worth of $1 million, and 90 percent of them made their fortunes by starting their own businesses. Angels are self-starters who are trying to help perpetuate a system that made them successful in first place and, at the same time, make a considerable return on their money.

Once you have built it you must advertise it. You don’t just put a website on the internet then sit back, because nobody knows it exists. You must promote it by advertising it. If you are selling cheeses, you could put advertisements in cheese magazines, or you could write articles about cheeses and submit them to article directories. Anyone interested in cheeses will search the directories and come across your articles with your website link on them.

Once your visitor finds your site you could offer inducements to get their name and email address, such as a free seven part course on making their own cheese. Once you have their email address you can keep in touch and send them special offers now and again. Never let a visitor leave your site without you getting their email address.

No matter what kind of business you start with, you will generally need a website if you are going to be successful at working with an internet business from home. If you don’t know where to start you have two or three options. You can start with a good web hosting system that charges a monthly fee for the provision of all that is needed for you build your website and operate it professionally.

Such services cost in the region of up to $30 monthly, and provide web design software that takes you by the hand and shows you how to design and build your site either from scratch or by using templates. They also provide email services, autoresponders, checkouts and a means of accepting payment by credit and debit cards. This type of system is good for beginners.

The Basics

You have chosen a great platform if you have decided to run an internet business from home. Imagine having a shop on a street that everybody in the world could walk down every day, occasionally popping into yours and checking out your products. Imagine how much you could sell!

There are disadvantages of course. You must have a product to sell that people want, and you must persuade them to pop into your shop. You must also keep them there when they walk in the door, and not just walk out again because they don’t like the look of the interior. Your shop must be well designed and look welcoming, with lots of stuff on display that they can browse through.