What are the differences between online and a traditional business?

These days we are seeing more and more people who try to leave their day to day job or their own traditional business for an online business...

I have run a few traditional businesses over the past 4 years and so I recently decided to step myself into an online business too;
so far I really enjoy the experience and the journeys and I thought to write down my experience and the major differences I found over them with the hope of inspiring and encouraging others to make the move..

So the first and most important thing is time management;
running a traditional business locks you in a certain "operational time",offices, services , customers are most likely to be available for you over a certain period of time which most likely happens between 9Am to 5PM...so if you are an early bird or a night owl you can still make some preparation or adjustment to your day or next day duties but there is only a limited amount of things you can do!
Well, this is not the case for an online business where most likely you don't only sell locally but with a worldwide extended time lapse you can considerably work early in the morning or late at night to reach out to some customers on the other side of the world.

The second key point is automaticity;
with a traditional business you can make a lot of automatic procedure with your set-up or employees. However, there is only a limited amount of automaticity you can use, as most of the time it requires involving people who needs your personal guidance.
An online business can pretty much be automatic for the 90% of his entity, and even when there is a need for a human involvement you can still generate a automatic response or you can hire someone online, these days for a very low low price, who can be the filter between you and the customer itself;
the guideline and procedure are obviously set up by you at the beginning of your journey, but once they are set up the and the foundations are built you are ready to play..

The third key point is relationship with customers!
For as much as I found that a relationship with customers has been my highlight over my journey in a traditional business,I have also found it very mentally draining.
Your client wants and requires your attention. Most of the time, they much prefer to be in direct contact with you as the business owner rather than your employees, hoping to obtain the best deal and discount.
Dealing in person, you have more of an emotional attachment to the customer and most of the time, you feel obliged to give them more than what is needed.
With an online business, it's very different. There is always a middle man entity which as previously mentioned, is "The automaticity"...The "automatic responses" or the customer services are great options and emotional filters between you and the customer itself.
The energy and the set up reflect your values and ideas but you do not feel directly responsible if a client decide not to purchase or agree to your terms.

The fourth key point is the freedom to travel or move;

A traditional business is a sort of contract you are doing with your life.
Yes, as previously mentioned you can set up an automatic response system but that is only limited to a certain extend as eventually, your business will need your attention.
With an online business "you are always on the spot" as working through a laptop or an Iphone allows you to do so .
This is something that I advise you to read over again as freedom is priceless!

The fifth and most important point is that a traditional business is limited to its number of customers!
This is so simple but so underestimated...if you are operating in Sydney CBD you will only acquire loyal customers from Sydney CBD, or near by...unless you are so amazing to attract people from Perth...but then you should change profession and get online too!!LOL
With the online business, you connect yourself to a much bigger audience globally. This means that anyone who has access to the WEB is a potential customer. This gives you a much wider target considering the law of numbers...

Well so far the above are the five major differences I have experienced...and these days there are so many variations of online businesses such as online store,E-commerce, network marketing, YouTube channel , Blog...etc...
...I highly recommend to consider an online business and re-value your time twice as it is your most important resource!
With Love....!
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