how to start an online business:7 stories of success

Many of today's ONLINE have started BUSINESS

out with the bare essentials.

ewebmarketing.com.au

A LAPTOP


INTERNET CONNECTION


and most importantly

- A PASSION


Let's take a closer look at seven successful online businesses, how they started out and what we can learn from them.


Founder: Mark Zuckerberg


Starting Funds: $0. Started as a hobby.


Where It All Began: Zuckerberg's college dorm room, where he hacked into Harvard's protected computer networks.


Start Up Story: Zuckerberg used existing information and presented in a new way to create a new way for people to socialise.


Starting an Online Business Lesson:

You can work with what already exists to create something new

that people never knew they wanted.


Founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin


Starting Funds Own personal funds.


Where It All Began: In a friend's garage.


Start Up Story: originally ran under the Stanford University website URL: google.stanford.edu

Google



You don’t even need your own website to start your online business.


Founder: Chad Hurley


Personal Funds Starting Funds:


Where It All Began: In the PayPal offices where Hurley worked with co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim.


Start Up Story: The idea for YouTube was supposedly derived from frustration around sharing video footage of a dinner party attended by Hurley and Chen.



Have you ever thought about something that would make your life

easier? Work on it. It may also help millions of other

people too.


Founder: Reid Hoffman


Where It All Began: In a living room.


Start Up Story: Started with 5 members in 2002 and officially launched in May 2003, LinkedIn now has a database of more than 175 million members from over 200 countries.


Starting an Online Business Lesson: Businesses don't happen overnight; they're often launched only after years of planning.


Founder: Pierre Omidyar


Where It All Began: In Pierre's own home.


Start Up Story: eBay, the first global auction site, began as a personal site to sell items. One of the first items sold was a broken laser pointer for $14.83.


Starting an Online Business Lesson: There's a market for everything, even broken laser pointers.


Founders:

Jack Nickell and Jacob Dehart


Starting Funds: $1000


Where It All Began: In a studio apartment


Start Up Story: Threadless began while Jack and Jacob were still living their 9-5 lives.


Starting an Online Business Lesson: You don't need to start off big - you can start your

online business while still working your day job.


Founder: James Lillis


Starting Funds: $6 to buy material.


Where It All Began: With a sewing machine


Start Up Story: Began selling at the markets, but sales were slow. Fashion bloggers picked up on Black Milk products and the company shifted to be an online store only, despite advice to the contrary.



Listen to your instincts.


how to start an online business:7 stories of success

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