Opportunities to become online entrepreneurs are increasingly wide open along with the development of information technology. Everyone can have an online store and sell anything digitally without having to have in-depth knowledge of the business. Many materials are given for free about online business, ranging from free e-books, webinars, communities, to paid seminars. Because of this convenience, many people do not hesitate to try their luck by becoming online sellers.

There are at least three mistakes that are usually made by novice businessmen. From the following mistakes, you can use them as learning material so you can avoid them when you enter the world of online business.

1. Not having a mature business plan
Like other businesses in general, an online business also requires careful planning. The plan that must be prepared by a novice online businessman is how to offer products online until the product is accepted by consumers. It looks simple, but in fact, not all business people can do this first task well. Create a business plan that describes your business model and answers these questions: (1) who are your target customers?; (2) what products do you offer?; (3) how do you sell the product?; (4) how to make or get your product?; (5) where do your business income and expenses come from?; (6) who are your business partners?; and (7) how much capital do you need?

2. Ignoring customer service
Who says your dealings with customers are over once they make a payment? A successful online business doesn’t stop there. Your job as an online businessman is not only to offer and sell products but also to maintain and establish good relationships with customers. Therefore having good customer service management is one of the keys to the success of the online business that you are starting. However, there are still online businesses that ignore the importance of optimizing customer service. Customers will trust more if there is a call center or live chat service at your online store. Customers can ask many things, such as product details, how to order, process payments, or delivery. Customers who are satisfied with your customer service are guaranteed to come back again to shop and they don’t even hesitate to recommend your online store to others.

3. Less optimizing social media
The function of social media is indeed to sell, but we often forget to add other values ​​to our content, for example, educational content, inspiration, tutorials, entertainment for followers. Because of the focus on selling, our online store account looks monotonous and boring. If the content problem has been resolved, the next thing you have to do is stay consistent. This is another mistake that many online businesses make. The content is good both visually and in the caption, but the posts are still infrequent. Those with our shop accounts are quickly abandoned by followers.