The main problem of many start-up online businesses has nothing much to do with the products or services they are selling. It also has nothing much to do with the start-up costs and overhead expenses. The main problem of most start-up businesses, online or otherwise, is letting their target markets know that they are existing.
Marketing is the biggest hurdle that any business, including the well-established ones, must continually face. As long as the business exists or rather as long as it wants to exist, it must always find ways to announce it presence. Otherwise, it can easily be drowned out by the background noise.
When it comes to online marketing, the challenges are more difficult considering the fact that the internet is a very crowded market place in terms of the number of websites. The website population, both commercial and non-commercial ones, continues to increase. This makes online competition very stiff that newcomers can easily be overwhelmed by the challenges. Very few startup businesses survive the first year of operation.
Of course, the uniqueness and excellence of the products and services being offered are among the primary factors that can give competitive edge to a startup business. Nonetheless, no matter how unique or excellent the products and services being offered might be, a startup business cannot expect to be profitable if it cannot reach a significant portion of its target market.
Despite of the potentially large market base for online businesses, some market sectors are already very crowded. In some market sectors, the proportion of sellers to buyers is somewhat off-balanced. It is conceivable that there are some instances wherein the number of sellers may equal or even exceed the number of buyers. It should be noted that start-up online businesses can avoid this scenario if they will focus on smaller but highly specific market niches.
Start-up businesses can also create new unique niches of their own. A new niche does not necessarily have to be totally esoteric. It could simply be a modification or improvement of an existing niche. For example, a startup online business can focus on sub-categories of rare hobbies such as genealogical research. A start-up online business can focus on a particular geo-political area such as a small town.
Some level of creativity will also prove to be useful. For example, related merchandizing products may be included in the package. Promotional campaigns will be more effective if there are some value added incentives for prospective clients or customers.