It’s never been easier to start a service business or launch an ecommerce store. Whether you want to travel around the world or build your empire from home, there’s a business for you. The real question is how to decide which one is best? Here’s how to choose.

Think About Your Ideal Lifestyle

Starting your entrepreneurial journey by figuring out your ideal lifestyle is an essential part of business building, but people often skip this step or wait too long to figure it out. Write out your perfect day and repeat for about a week. The idea is not to revisit what you already wrote down but start fresh each day. Because our moods and stress levels change each day, it’s wise to chart out your ideal day several times in a row to make sure it’s reflective of what you really want.

At the end of the week, look through your ideal days to look for similarities. What resonates the most? Do you want plenty of freedom to travel? Do you prefer a set schedule with predictability? Now ask yourself what you enjoy about your life right now. Do you love browsing for new items that fuel ideas for an online store? Or constantly have new service business ideas that you share with friends? Write everything down and start teasing apart the intersection between your dream life and what you’re already passionate about right now.  

Consider Your Business Style

Business leaders come in all shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Steve Jobs worked constantly, loved innovating, and was known as a demanding perfectionist. Richard Branson is an adventurer and calculated risk-taker. Think about how you would want to run your business. Do you want a staff around you? Are you comfortable wearing tons of hats and working solo to get the results you want, the way you want them? How involved do you want to be with clients on a one-on-one basis? The more you can identify how you’re most comfortable working, the easier it will be to figure out if you should start a service business or launch an eCommerce store.

Focus on Your Strengths (and Plan to Outsource the Rest)

Being a business owner is not about being good at everything or even doing all the tasks on your own. Instead, focus on your strengths, from research to copywriting or working with data. Write everything down and focus on how each fits into the start of a service business or launch an eCommerce store.

Remember that each business offers plenty of room to outsource. You can hire a digital marketing team to build your Shopify site and focus on everything from UX to UI. Or you can find virtual assistants to work on customer service and bookkeeping for either business. 

Consider Start-Up Expenses

It’s entirely possible to spend a small fortune when you start a service business or launch an online store. From marketing to inventory, there’s no limit to what you can focus your budget on. However, there are plenty of ways to dramatically curb your start-up expenses. Concentrating on finding clients word of mouth or adopting a drop shipping or white label business model are a few places to start. 

Whether you choose to start a service business or launch an eCommerce store, you will need some type of online presence to get started. Consider budgeting for a website that converts and SEO services that attract organic traffic to get your business rolling. 

Embrace What Excites You

Now that you have a few things in mind for how to choose your business step back and do a gut check. Is everything pointing to starting a service business, but you are passionate about all things eCommerce? It may be time to get out of your comfort zone and find the support you need to start your dream business.

Although it’s important to be realistic about what you can accomplish, it’s also essential to spend your time building a business you’ll actually love running. So take a step back and ask yourself, “Can I see myself running this business in ten years?”

Next Steps: Should You Launch an Ecommerce Store?

If you’ve decided you’re ready to start an eCommerce store, we would love to help. Our team specializes in WordPress and Shopify sites. We focus on website design and development, eCommerce strategy, SEO strategy and growth, and graphic design and branding. Book a free call here to discuss your project and take the next steps towards success.