The employer is the person who organizes and manages one or several businesses, taking on financial risks greater than usual to achieve this. An employer can have an online store, be a freelancer, or run any other type of business.
What is an Employer?
An employer is a person who controls the operational and financial aspects of a business. Any entity that produces and sells goods and services for profit is considered a business. Businesses can be operated alone or with a group of people. Regardless, employers have full control over the company and are responsible for setting the strategy, training employees, and managing the daily operations of the business. According to data from Zipia, the average salary of an employer ranges from $67,000 to $135,000 annually.
Types of Business Ownership
There are four main types of business ownership structures to choose from:
- Sole Proprietorship: This is a non-legal business that operates without a legal distinction between the business and the person who owns and manages it. It is easy to set up and manage, and is likely to incur lower taxes.
- Partnership: This is a business owned by two or more people. General partnerships assume that the business is divided equally, or divided into agreed-upon proportions prior to submission.
- Corporation: This is a legal entity separate from the individual, providing personal liability protection unless rare and exceptional circumstances arise. What you pay in taxes varies from state to state, so you may pay more or less than in a sole proprietorship. However, your personal assets are protected.
- Limited Liability Company (LLC): This is a modern type of business that combines partnerships with the liability protection found in corporations. See our guide for the United States for more information about LLCs in California, Texas, or Florida.
Roles and Responsibilities of an Employer
Employers do everything necessary to make their venture successful. This means handling small tasks that may not be preferred, such as administrative work, delivering packages to the post office, or creating a marketing strategy.
Your daily tasks depend on the type of business you have and how you spend your time. But they typically boil down to the following roles and responsibilities:
- Planning and Strategy: Small business owners are responsible for steering their company. They are responsible for creating and managing their business plan, developing their marketing campaigns, and devising ways to keep the company competitive and profitable. Research and planning are essential skills for an employer. Many business owners also use time management applications to meet deadlines, reduce stress, and achieve a better work-life balance.
- Finance and Accounting: Business owners need to manage finances properly to give the business a chance to succeed. You will be responsible for securing the initial capital to start the business, whether through a small business loan or crowdfunding, as well as funding product development expenses, marketing assets, and hiring employees. Don’t forget to manage the business bank accounts and process payments, taxes, and general accounting.
- Compliance and Law: Business owners are responsible for complying with federal and state licensing laws. As mentioned above, you need to incorporate your business and understand the legal requirements for operating it. You will also need to know the basics of labor laws and should have a lawyer available if you run into any issues with employees or clients. Legal contracts and sales agreements are written, reviewed, and signed by you.
- Marketing and Sales: No matter how unique or great your products are, you need marketing and sales to make money as a business. Depending on the type of business you have, you will be responsible for engaging in sales calls and closing deals in the early stages. You will also be the person responsible for creating marketing campaigns, approving advertisements, running social media marketing, email marketing, and conducting other marketing activities for the business.
- Customer Service
Customers: In the early stages, it is common for business owners to be the primary person for customer support. Responsibilities include answering calls and emails, joining live chat conversations on the site, and managing the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program. You need to build a positive reputation for your business and delight customers so they leave positive reviews and make repeat purchases. As the business grows, you can hire an employee to assist with customer service duties. - Recruitment and Human Resources: Business owners also bear the responsibility of building a great team to operate the business. This includes searching for new employees, hiring them, training them, and developing current employees. You will create job descriptions, conduct performance reviews, and manage employee wages, benefits, and promotions within your company.
How to Become a Business Owner?
Becoming a business owner is about uncovering lucrative business opportunities.
Unless you have a great idea from the start and this is your motivation to start your business, finding great products to sell online profitably can be a daunting task. There are thousands of potential options, but it seems everything has been done a thousand times before.
So, where do you start looking for gold among all these options? The first step in finding great products to sell online lies in the ability to recognize the various opportunities available to discover fantastic products.
Understanding the eight types of product opportunities is essential to help you identify great products to sell and the fields you can explore online. Each type involves different thinking and approaches. Let’s explore them in detail:
- Building an Exciting and Attractive Brand: Building a brand also means building an audience. The brand-building approach involves developing a superior understanding of your potential customers, crafting a unique brand, and establishing a unique position in your customers’ minds.
- Discovering Opportunities in Keywords: Organic traffic from Google and other search engines can be the ultimate goal for e-commerce. If done correctly, Google and other search engines will reward you with a steady stream of targeted traffic. In a world of slim margins, where paid advertising channels become more expensive, this is exactly what makes products with lucrative keyword opportunities very attractive.
- Identifying and Solving Customer Problems: One of the best ways to build a strong business is by solving customer problems. Products that solve painful problems can be profitable because customers are actively seeking solutions to these issues.
- Identifying and Meeting Consumer Passions: Consumers tend to spend significant amounts to support their passions and habits. Think about golfers, for example. Golfers are known for spending thousands of dollars on equipment and tools in hopes of improving their score, even by the slightest margin.
- Following Your Own Passion: Choosing a product or niche based on your personal passion can be a recipe for disaster for some people. However, this is not always the case, and it can actually be very profitable. One of the biggest benefits of building a business around your passion is that you have the resilience to push through when faced with challenges. This point cannot be understated, as staying motivated is a key to building a successful online business.
- Finding a Gap in Opportunity: Exploiting a gap in opportunity or a unique advantage can be profitable. There may be a gap in the form of a product advantage or marketing of the product that can be exploited. There may be a gap in the current market that has not been tapped by existing competitors or it may come in the form of your own unique marketing capabilities.
- Leveraging Your Own Experience and Expertise: Relying on your experience and expertise is a strong competitive advantage. Turning your expertise into an online business is a great way to enter the market with an edge and a barrier to entry for others.
Creating
Successful Small Business
As “owning a part-time business” has become more common than it used to be, it is no longer necessary to quit your job to start your online business.
Many Shopify store owners run successful part-time businesses, during the evenings or on weekends, and eventually transition to full-time work if they choose to. Some have a physical location for their store, while others operate entirely online.
Businesses can now exist in various forms that were previously not possible. Therefore, of course, people are starting to create them for different reasons. You can too.
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