A complete guide, with online business examples
So you want to work online? Yay for you! Speaking from experience, the decision to start an online business is the decision to take control of your career, your future, and essentially build an asset for yourself. But now that you’ve decided, you’re probably wondering how you’re going to pull this off. Where do you start? Let’s talk about how to start an online business in Canada.
In this blog post, I’ll share my personal experience of starting an online business in Canada, plus…
- Online businesses that make money.
- Online business examples, like freelancing and selling digital products.
- The steps to start an online business in Canada.
- Where to start marketing your new business.
- How to run your online business around a busy life (for the moms like me đź‘‹).
There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get into it!
Note: None of this is legal advice. Everything shared here is based solely on my personal experience of building, pivoting, and rebuilding multiple variations of my online business since I first started in 2014.
Online Businesses that Make Money
Most importantly, you’re probably wondering how to pick an online business that makes money. The good news: All the business types and models I’m going to share have the potential to bring in a lot of revenue and be profitable when run well. It’s a matter of choosing the best fit for your work style, lifestyle, personal goals, capacity, etc.
You can design your work to fit around your life. That’s what this is about.
For more guidance to design work-life integration, check out Align + Integrate.
We start with this part of the conversation because, although nothing needs to be locked in, it’s important to have at least a general idea of your vision before you start. “Begin with the end in mind,” is a quote I live by. Without that vision, the rest will feel challenging or you may lose focus. So we start by choosing a business type and model first. Work towards that. Shift as needed.
Online Business Examples
Let’s get into the business inspiration. Here’s some online business examples that you could try for yourself.
- Agency model (creative studio, advertising, etc.)
- Digital products business (solopreneur, build out a shop, or an entire online school)
- Freelance services (creative services as a solopreneur)
- Affiliate marketing (recommend other’s products to a targeted audience and make commission on sales)
- Content creation (and generate revenue through brand deals, ad traffic, etc.
- Physical products with an online storefront.
I’ll get into each of these in detail next.
How to start an online business in Canada: Freelance Writer
I have lots of experience with starting a freelance writing business. This is where my career began! Since starting, I’ve expanded to build a micro-agency, a digital product shop, coaching and consulting arm of the business, affiliate stream of revenue, and content creation. I’ve tried it all! And this helped me figure out what works for me in each season of life.
If you like to write and either know about marketing or want to learn, freelance writing may be a fulfilling online business for you to pursue.
Read more about how to become a freelancer or copywriter…
How to start an online business in Canada: Become a Virtual Assistant
Starting a virtual assistant business is a great idea for the generalists reading this. Many specialized creative types start here before picking what types of services they want to focus on. You can leverage skills you already have with minimal training. Skills like organizing, bookkeeping, content management, and more could all be beneficial as a virtual assistant.
From there, maybe you discover you like a specific type of work best and you can shift your services to offer more freelance creative work instead. Or you could lean into the organizational side of things to become more of an OBM than a VA. The possibilities are endless!
How to start an online business in Canada: Graphic Design Business
If you like graphic design, you could start a graphic design business or offer freelance graphic design services. However, if you don’t have design experience, this may require more training on the tools and from a design perspective, but there are plenty of online courses and programs you can work through quickly to get started ASAP. If you do have design experience, you just need to learn the business setup side of things, which you can figure out as you go.
How to start an online business in Canada: Build an Agency
After freelancing for a while, you might realize you have bigger goals. Maybe that includes growing a team or building an agency style business model. I’ve done this and had a great time learning at the same time as growing. Here’s some pros and cons from my perspective…
The pros of building an agency:
- Increased capacity, therefore revenue and reach.
- Can take on larger, more interesting projects.
- Get to work more collaboratively.
The cons of building an agency:
- More pressure to get clients and support your team.
- Your role will transition to management vs most creative work as the freelancer.
- The types of clients you can work with may change.
There are more pros and cons that could be on either side, but your list will be specific to your preferences.
How to start a digital product business
Most people who sell digital products on the internet would love for you to believe that you can do it too… EASILY. Especially those who sell Master Resell Rights courses (that don’t bring in the revenue promised in most cases).
If it weren’t obvious, I not only disagree, but think this is misleading at best, and harmful at worst.
Selling digital products can be a lucrative revenue source. However, like any business, it requires work. Hard work. Smart work. It’s not a one and done or set it and forget it kind of stream of revenue.
Since launching my first digital product, I’ve learned a lot. Over the years I redid that original product, discontinued it, built the entire Biz Bar you see today, and helped clients build and launch products too.
Here’s the pros and cons of a digital product business as I see it…
Pros of starting a digital product business:
- You get to leverage your brainpower and intellectual property to maximize revenue.
- It can diversify your revenue as a freelancer, while still relating to the work you already do.
- You can leverage your existing audience.
- You get more flexible in your schedule (fewer meetings!).
- You are more in control of your revenue when your funnels are working (your job is to drive traffic).
- You can run with a lean team, or as a solopreneur.
Cons of starting a digital product business:
- Audience growth required to generate traffic can be a slog at times.
- Working as a solopreneur might be tiring for some.
- You have to stay on top of marketing and filling the top of your funnel.
- Marketing and sales tactics are always changing.
How to Start an Online Business in Canada, step by step
So how do you start an online business in Canada? Here’s the step-by-step based on my experience.
*This is not legal advice! Just my experience. For more information, check out this link.
Pick a name, and check it’s not taken
From my experience of registering an online business in multiple provinces (Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia), this is part of the standard registration process. Different provinces have different requirements for naming based on your business type.
Even as a sole proprietor, you will want to register your business in order to access business services, like a business specific bank account. This doesn’t need to be a high pressure task, so don’t get stuck here (even though picking a name can feel like a hard thing to do).
Register your online business in Canada
In Canada, different types of businesses have different registration requirements. This is both federally and provincially. You’ll need to register with the CRA as well for things like your business number and sales tax numbers (after you pass the provincial threshold for collecting and submitting sales tax).
You’ll also need to get a local business license… This will be through your city and needs to align with your local bylaws about the type of business you’re able to run in your zoning. It’s not as scary as it sounds though!
Get a business bank account
You absolutely need to separate your personal from your work for simple bookkeeping and easier tax time. Even if you’re a sole proprietor, don’t skip this step! All of your cashflow in and out needs to be accounted for, and that’s easier if you know which transactions are for business versus which are personal.
When you have a separate business account, you can pay yourself to your personal account accordingly.
Save the URL and handles for your business name
After you know what you want your business name to be, and you get approved for that business name, go save your URLs and handles! Even if you don’t plan to launch right away, you should still grab these for future use so everything is as close as possible to your business or operating name. Someone else might have a different use for the same or similar handle.
Optional, but helpful: Create a Business Plan
I didn’t do this until a few years in. It’s helpful to know these details, but don’t get hung up here. Your business plan doesn’t need to be a fancy document to get started… although it can be, and that can definitely help you stay focused.
Create offers and set rates
Each business type and model will create offers and set rates differently. Offer optimization is a huge part of the work I do with clients. Specifically, we look at how to design your offers to align with your ideal day-to-day.
For example, in my current season of life, calls every week can be challenging to schedule. Instead, my business’ offers and capacity are designed to give me every other week off all calls and meetings, so there’s more flexibility for my family. You can do the same kind of thing to fit your work around your life.
Here’s a few resources that might help you…
Make a Marketing Plan
Next on your “how to start an online business in Canada” to-do list is marketing… After your business setup stuff is out of the way, you need to think about how you’re going to get clients! That requires a marketing plan. Here’s a brief overview of your immediate must-dos prior to launch.
Build a Website
First, you need a website. Your first website doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should help you sell your products and services. And you do need one. It should be able to filter out those who aren’t a good fit, and convert the ones who are so they purchase a product, fill out your inquiry form, or take the next step in your lead generation funnel.
The Plug-In Website Copy Template Library is a good place for new business owners to start if you don’t know what to say to sell your services online.
Set up your Social Pages
After you’ve built a website, you can set up your social pages. Even if you aren’t going to use all the main platforms yet, you can still set up basic profiles on each so they’re ready for when you have the resources to expand. I recommend starting small with something manageable, then growing from there.
Plan your Launch
With a website in place, social pages ready to go, you can plan your launch. Your launch strategy can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. It should have a launch trigger, a conversion event, and a series of content to drive traffic.
Get Clients, Get Feedback, and Improve
Hopefully, all of the above has worked for you! The cool thing about being in business is that it’s a constant evolution. You’ll know that you’re doing it right because you’re always growing.
Part of that evolution is the process of landing clients or customers, working with them, getting feedback, and improving. There’s always something you can refine about the customer journey, workflows, and more.
How to Start an Online Business in Canada as a Full-Time Mom
This is the part that’s most relevant to those who are looking at how to start an online business in Canada in a similar season of life as me… How do you do it all as a full-time mom?
First, you need to know that you get to define what “it all” means to you.
Next, here’s my best tips for moms who want to work around their kids’ scheduled… or those who want this lifestyle someday.
- Automate as much as possible to eliminate busy work. You don’t have time to spare, so why would you waste it on tasks that your tech tools could do instead?
- Get clear on your goals and priorities… No distractions. It’s go time for you to make a real impact on your family’s lives.
- Set realistic expectations… Don’t set yourself up for failure. You’re living through exceptional circumstances as a mompreneur, and should acknowledge that. It’s no small feat.
- Detach yourself from your business’s success. This is a huge one for myself, and a lot of my clients. Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go as planned… It will always change. You are worth more than your revenue.
- Find a community who gets it… Other working moms you can rely on. It’s challenging to do this alone. And speaking from experience, you don’t have to be alone as you start and grow an online business.
- Structure your business to put your life first… Offers, rates, how and when you work, etc. It all can support the ideal day-to-day that you want.
I designed my business with this in mind from the beginning, and it’s become even more important as a mom of 2 now.
More resources on how to start an online business in Canada
That’s it, that’s all! There’s a lot here for you to digest.
All that said, if you’re ready to jump into the “marketing and launching” phase of how to start an online business in Canada, check out 4 Steps to Profit. Learn more here.
