Technology has changed how businesses start up!

There is a great article on Business Week by David E Gumpert called Your Startup on a Shoestring. Here David shows just how radically things have changed in the publishing industry. He uses the example of a health newsletter launch back in the mid 1980s. He then goes on to outline all the expenses that would be required back then in order to start and then run this business. These include huge costs for computers, printers and a mass mail campaign. The initial start up costs are not small coming in at roughly $400 000.

If you were to set up the same business today you could do it online for next to nothing. You could buy computers for next to nothing, use free open source operating systems and publishing software. Working virtually would mean no rents to pay. Domain registration is no more than a few dollars a year, and web hosting is no more than a few dollars a month. To start with, a free blogging platform such as Wordpress, (used for this blog), with a modified theme would be very low cost and effective. There is no printing cost which is a massive money saver.

Marketing would be one area which would benefit from spending some money. In fact it is where you should spend most of your money as without readers you have no business. Online advertising is nowhere near as expensive as a mass mail campaign and can be very effective in today’s world where people are spending so much time online. It is possible to target your marketing efforts more closely to those who are most likely to be interested therefore improving your return on investment. Technology such as RSS and email newsletters can keep your readers up to date and interested in your business.

This radical change has led to an increase in the number of niche publications which would never have been able to gather the readership to be viable before the web.

As mentioned the publishing industry really has changed in recent times and the risk involved with starting up can be minimised. The only catch is that the online publishing world is very competitive and you will have to work hard to stand out and build your readership. As with offline publishing, securing a loyal readership can lead to great financial rewards.

Can you think of another industry that has changed as drastically?