Are you the right person to start an online business? Here are the skills and personal traits you need.

A successful business owner will be:

Passionate

Time and time again, e-commerce professionals tell beginners they must have a passion for the product or service they expect to sell. If these new Web site merchants expect to be successful, they must be willing to put in long hours and try as many different approaches as possible.

After several months, their efforts will most likely begin to pay off. If you do not have a true interest in your business and a deep desire to watch your personal and financial investment progress, you will have a much more difficult time reaching success.

Committed

Before starting your business, you need to ask yourself some serious questions: In the past, when you have started other ventures, were you able to stay on point and see them through to the end? How about at your regular nine-to-five job? How was your performance record? When asked to do a job, even one you did not particularly like or enjoy, did you do your best anyway? This type of commitment is necessary.

Be prepared for your life to be different once you launch your own Internet business. Talk with your close family members, so they know your availability will be limited and you could be more stressed than normal. Also, your personal life may not be as flexible as it has been in the past.

Forward-thinking

Because the Internet changes so quickly, you must be the type of person who continually looks for and recognizes opportunities when they present themselves, such as new forms of marketing. Some people are okay with the status quo and let others come up with the ideas and changes. Then, they follow suit. Others see a headline in a magazine, such as “By 2015, the Internet will be the primary source of news for Americans,” and suddenly start thinking about the impact it will make.

You do not have to be a Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin and come up with new ideas. Yet, once you make the decision to begin your own online business, you need to be able to spot trends and predict the changes your business will need to make in the future to keep up with those trends. You constantly need to implement new techniques for promoting your site and improve your processes to reach your store’s maximum potential.

The Internet changes rapidly, so you always have to be on top of your game. You have to spend a great deal of time learning about online trends and talking with other people in the field, all while keeping your business afloat. Spend time searching the virtual world to see what is new. Read trade publications and journals related to Web retail and your industry. Keep up with trends and always be aware of what other successful competitors are doing.
Original

It is not always necessary to wait for an idea or opportunity to present itself to you. Crazy, but lucrative, ideas — such as sites like www.plentyoffish.com, www.gasbuddy.com, and www.ratemyprofessors.com — can come from anywhere, such as a book, a TV news program, or a comment you overhear.

In most cases, these ideas are going to come when you least expect them. Successful e-commerce merchants try different approaches on their own. Originality also means continually searching for creative and different ways to solve new and existing problems, such as why customers are putting items in their shopping cart but not buying them, or why you are receiving multiple returns on a single item.

You need to consider the problem from a completely unique perspective. This requires looking at an issue from all directions and always having an alternate method waiting in the wings.

For instance, you may find a drop-ship company that always responds to your sales within 24 hours. What happens if this supplier receives its product late from the manufacturer? You may have to make a decision right on the spot: Do you tell customers they have to wait longer for their purchases? Or, do you find another vendor, even if it means paying a premium price? Making such decisions before the problem arises might mean your customers would not have to suffer.

Originality also means venturing beyond your normal habits. Doing so is the only way your business will continue to expand and distinguish itself from the competition. For example, over the past few years, technology has begun to allow users to interact more with Web sites.

Now with the use of this technology, users can design a variety of products from their homes. With a few clicks, they can design one-of-a-kind t-shirts, wedding invitations, birthday cakes, or shoes.

Motivated

With $1,000, an area of expertise or interest, and an idea that your research proves can be successful, anyone can open an online business in a matter of hours. That does not mean you are the right person to start an online business, nor that you would want to open a store without doing all the necessary prep work beforehand. You also must go into this venture with a strong “I can do it” mentality and an understanding that all businesses have risks.

Know that only approximately 10 percent of online businesses succeed. In addition to the typical reasons, such as not having a business plan or not placing enough emphasis on customer service, many online businesses fail due to fraudulent transactions and thefts, contractual violations, regulatory changes, and trademark infringements.

When motivated, you are inspired to act on strategies and goals. Personal motivation gets you up and moving every day. If you are going to have you own business, your boss, supervisor, or fellow workers will not be there to tell you to make phone calls or change product copy.

Without personal motivation, it will be much more difficult to stay motivated and focused when the day does not go as planned. There are a large number of e-commerce merchants who quit before their business even has a chance of succeeding. Remember that sales will vary day to day. Some days there will be zero sales and other days you will be swamped. The most successful e-commerce owners have enough personal motivation to find solutions to their problems.
A Jack/Jill of All Trades

Running any kind of business also necessitates multi-tasking. You will be responsible for many different activities—especially if working alone. This may require you to be on the phone ordering product from a drop-ship vendor, writing new copy for the Web site or blog, analyzing the store’s Analytics, and packaging a product to send to a customer.

As your business grows, you will be able to hire additional employees, but in the beginning, you will be responsible for all necessary tasks. Many e-commerce startups have only one or two people overseeing the planning, buying, sales, marketing, billing, and customer service. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the many ongoing duties involved in running the business, especially when the store is really busy.

Your organization will greatly affect your ability to expand into new areas. You must maintain accurate records and an effective filing system that can adapt to changes with your business.

Available

You say you want to open an e-commerce business part-time or as a hobby. This is possible due to the flexibility of the Internet. When you have a brick-and-mortar store, you have to literally open the doors every day at scheduled hours. Online it does not matter when you open. However, you must be capable of servicing customers worldwide all day and night.

Even if you plan on operating part time, you must give customers the means for using your store around the clock. On your Web site, provide customers with the hours when an actual person, you, will be available to answer questions. Remember, what you get out of this venture depends on what you put into it. If you only work a few hours each day, it will take you much longer to grow your business. You also need to set priorities in order to operate uninterrupted.

Business-oriented

Although it is helpful to have business skills when starting your e-commerce store, it is not completely essential. Many skills will be learned as you gain experience or you can take a quick online business course before starting. Instead of becoming a business genius, focus on thinking clearly, logically, inventively, and having strong management and organizational skills.

You must spend time and money on advertising to market your Web site and products. Naturally, it is helpful to have a strong sense of customer service, facility with basic mathematics and accounting skills, interest in marketing, and ability for recordkeeping. An interest and ability in Internet technology is important as well.

Committed to Continued Education

While operating your own online store, you will learn a great deal of new information needed to be a successful online merchant. You will discover you are the one who continuously must make decisions. When inventory needs to be found, taxes must be paid, ads have to be written and posted, and the Web site has to be redesigned, you are the one who will be responsible.

If you already have an established brick-and-mortar business these may not be new skills, but rest assured, there will be a host of new areas you will add to your repertoire. You should never stop learning. The online world is always changing, and you must do the same.

Practical

There is a danger many new merchants encounter that keeps them from attaining a successful business: a belief that an online business is an easy way to make money without doing much work. Do not fool yourself into believing that starting an online business is any easier or any less demanding than it would be to open a traditional brick-and-mortar operation.

Far too often, individuals start an online store because they truly feel it will make them wealthier and require much less work than an offline business. You need to be practical about the requirements of an e-commerce business and what you will gain, or not gain, by the degree of your participation. Making a place for yourself in a particular niche requires a lot of work.

It will not happen overnight. You can expect to wait several months before you see results. You will not make millions on your first attempt at starting an e-commerce store.