Many people are seeking for the best online business ideas. The problem is, there are way too many online business ideas and models to choose from. Which one is right for you?
This article will give a brief overview of many of the popular business ideas that I think are worthwhile. Though this is not an exhaustive list of online businesses, these are the top business ideas that can lead to a 6 figure+ business if you can practice that elusive thing called perseverance.
The Four Main Types of Online Businesses – What should you sell?
There seems to be an unlimited number of online business ideas. All these various business ideas can be categorized into a framework of 4 business models. These 4 main types of online businesses are:
- Physical Products Based Businesses
- Digital Products Based Businesses
- Affiliate Marketing Business es
- Freelance Businesses – Selling Your Services
These business models are all solid business models that can be used to build a 6 figure + online business. It’s just a matter of finding what model appeals to you and picking a business idea within that model. If the idea of making money online is new to you, the key is to stick with an idea until you are successful. Then once you achieve some success online, you can venture into other areas with your newfound experience.
17 Online Business Ideas – Categorized by types of businesses
The following are some of the best online businesses ideas, categorized by the type business. I have a few favorite business methods, but my favorites shouldn’t be yours. You should pick one that suits your own personality and preferences. Any of these ideas would be worth pursuing, as long as they fit your personality.
Physical Products Based Businesses
Though selling physical products doesn’t sound like an incredibly exciting online business idea, it is absolutely a solid route to a successful business online. Selling physical products is a tried and true way of making money online, and remains one of my favorite methods.
Selling physical products does have some disadvantages, however one main advantage is that most of the internet marketers out there spend their time on digital products. There generally isn’t as much chatter about selling physical products in the internet marketing circle. Most of them are selling digital products or are affiliate marketers.
What does this mean for you? Less competition, thus more niches to conquer!
Product Business Pros
- Quickly start a business
- Many untapped niches
- Always a demand for physical products
- Fairly easy to compete (depending on niche)
- Once established (systems in place), it can land more on the passive side of the income scale
Physical Product Business Cons
- Small to large investment (depending on niche and cost of inventory)
- Much Lower margins than digital products
- You must balance purchasing inventory and paying yourself (It’s easy to overbuy inventory)
- Slow expansion (takes capital to buy new products within your niche)
- You have to store and ship products (unless you have amazon FBA or another service do it)
- Takes time to grow into a substantial income (depending on type of e-commerce business)
1. Amazon FBA Business
If selling physical products sounds interesting and you are not afraid to put in some work to find inventory locally, Amazon FBA is a fantastic choice for beginners and for those that want to start getting paid within a months or two. Its also very appealing to those that don’t have much capital to invest in a new business ( $100 or less).
There are several methods that can be used when selling on amazon and utilizing their FBA service. In general though, how it works is basically you go around to local retail stores, goodwill stores, libraries, garage sales, estate sales etc. While at these places, you are essentially looking for prices that are lower than the amazon market place. “Lower than Amazon? That’s impossible!” you might think. You’d be surprised at how much you can find to flip on Amazon.
The way you look for profitable inventory is you scan items with a phone or PDA Scanner. You go around town scanning used/new media, books, toys, household items etc. Since many people donate things to good will stores and since local stores constantly put things on clearance, it allows you to seek these things out at an incredibly low price. Then after a day of scanning, you go home and list all your treasures on amazon.
In the old days, it was just about making money used books and media mostly. Now theres a buzz word going around called “retail arbitrage” where you focus on buying new products that are on clearance. For new people, I typically recommend focusing on selling your own old stuff, then scan for used books and media inventory. Then you can look into the retail arbitrage to eventually utilize a mixture of various FBA Business methods. As you gain experience, you can utilize more advanced options like buying wholesale from China instead of sourcing your inventory locally. There are pros and cons to each FBA method, but in either case it’s a great business model.
What is Amazon FBA?
The FBA stands for fulfillment by amazon. It is a pretty amazing service that amazon offers to amazon sellers. Amazon will essentially pick, package and ship your items every time an item sells to a customer. This allows you to spend all your time on sourcing new inventory, rather than fulfilling orders. Also, amazon deals with customer returns and complaints. Not only that, people are often willing to spend more money on the items that are available via FBA because the amazon prime member can get free two day shipping.
Utilizing amazon FBA is a huge time saver, it allows you to do it without renting out a warehouse / office, and it allows you to make more money per sale. An amazon FBA Business is one of my favorite business models and is what I used to focus my time entirely on, before it got so popular. I then gained experience and skills to focus on more lucrative business models, however I still do FBA on a very part time basis. I also still have money trickling in from all my old inventory I stocked up several years ago.
I highly recommend this business idea to anyone just getting into making money online, as you can see results very quickly and it doesn’t cost much to start it. In fact an FBA business has the lowest capital requirement out of all the physical product businesses. Why? Because margins can be very high on used books/ media, assuming you can scout them out in your city.
Amazon FBA Business Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Quickly make income
- Very high margins
- Very low investment
Amazon FBA Business Cons
- Takes time to continually source inventory (unless you go the wholesale route)
- More competition these days (other people may pick over a store, leaving nothing there. However there is always ways to get more inventory.)
2. E-commerce Business
Starting an Ecommerce store is another great business model in the physical product realm. The term “e-commerce” is very broad, so what I am talking about here is selling physical products through your own website (and even concurrently on other marketplaces like eBay and Amazon).
The reason why e-commerce is a good business model, is it allows you to sell physical things that are in demand, yet have a low supply online. People always need stuff. America seems to have an insatiable desire for stuff. People always spend money on Sunglasses, electronics, chargers, clothes, etc. Just stuff. People are always buying stuff. Though these examples may be way too competitive, you can always find a niche that is not too competitive. There are literally unlimited niches of physical products that you can sell online.
Where you may fail trying to sell info products online, you may succeed selling actual things. That is if people actually want those things and there isn’t too much competition. If you do your research, you can always find a niche of physical products that don’t have much competition online. Hell, if you want to get all Thomas Edison, you can even invent your own things! (think 3d printing, rapid prototyping and kickstarter). The point is, E-commerce is a great way to find success online, even for beginners.
Selling on your website, eBay and Amazon
You can succeed with ecommerce if you have a website that you sell your products through. You can also sell on the major marketplaces like Amazon and Ebay. May successful ecommerce business owners will utilize both methods to maximize sales and profit. On thing to consider is that, depending on your product and strategy, your margins will likely be lower on a marketplace like amazon and especially eBay. The competition is much higher, the cultures are different, etc. The benefit of the marketplaces though is that you are essentially benefiting from free traffic that these marketplaces offer. Amazon and eBay will deliver people with cash in hand, ready to buy from you.
I own several ecommerce stores and I recommend the e-commerce route for anyone willing to put in the work to make a sustainable business online. There are pros and cons to every business model, but overall I really like the ecommerce route. It takes longer to get some traction, but overall, you can make more money with less time than other physical product based businesses on this list.
E-commerce Business Pros
- Somewhat beginner friendly (lets just say if you’re not afraid to try it and learn, it won’t be too difficult)
- Better margins than drop shipping
- Many niches and markets to enter
- Ease of finding inexpensive products from china (importing from china with alibaba and dhgate)
- Steady supply of inventory from manufacturers
- Depending on niche, you may not need much capital to start (you can re-invest profits)
E-commerce Business Cons
- Some niches do require significant capital to buy inventory
- You have to fulfill and ship orders
- You have to handle customer questions, returns, warranty, complaints, etc
3. Drop Shipping Business
Another online business idea is starting a drop shipping business. The way an online drop shipping business works is you have, what looks like a regular ecommerce store. When someone orders from your website, you have the drop shipper ship the items. You don’t need to hold inventory or pay for the inventory. You only make money if things sell. It’s similar to affiliate marketing, the difference being that the customer thinks you are the store. Because of this you still have to deal with returns, customer complaints, etc. Compare this to an affiliate situation, where you just hand over the customer to another ecommerce store.
You can find companies that offer their product selection as a drop shipper. The benefit with drop shipping over the traditional ecommerce store is that you don’t have to hold or ship the inventory. This is actually a big deal and is a reason why many are drawn to drop shipping.
The major drawback is that the markups are going to be much lower. Where you may have 50%-90% Gross margins on a product for an e-commerce store, you may only get 20% margins on an drop shipping store. This makes sense because the original ecommerce store that is offering the drop shipping service needs to make money as well. If you do go the drop shipping route, you can open several drop shipping stores.
At the end of the day you are going to ask yourself, is it worth it to take lower margins just so I don’t have to hold inventory? If you have several drop ship niches and stores, this may make sense. But if you focus on one store, you might as well buy the inventory at wholesale prices, ship it yourself and make much more money doing so.
Drop Shipping Business Pros
- Beginner friendly
- No inventory to hold, ship, etc
- No Startup Capital needed
Drop Shipping Business Cons
- Less profit per order (margins are lower)
- Dealing with customers, returns, etc without actually holding products
- Less control of shipping times and quality control
4. Etsy Business
We are currently in, what I like to call, the pinterest culture. Women are intrigued by unique / boutique items. Fashion and weddings are becoming more unique, vintage, boutiqueish and expensive! Women these days are tired of mass produced items.
For these reasons, Etsy.com has exploded in growth over the last few years. If you find a good niche on Etsy you can make a good business out of it. There are so many buyers and you can charge a premium because of the boutique nature of the items typically sold on etsy. Its all about the culture of the marketplace. eBay is a cheap culture, etsy is a more expensive higher end culture.
Etsy items have traditionally been things that you make or assemble yourself. You know all those crafty items you see on pinterest. However, I believe etsy now allows you to buy items from manufacturers to sell. You just have to find the right healthy demand niche that isn’t flooded with sellers. Keep your eyes out for new trends and become a leader in that trend to maximize your success on etsy.
Etsy Business Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Very little capital needed to start (depending on niche)
- Do something you already love (crafts, making things, etc)
- Good for creative/ crafty people
Etsy Business Cons
- Takes time to make the items (not scalable)
- Competition may be high
5. Ebay Business
I almost didn’t want to put an eBay business on this list, because the price point has lowered so much and the competition been too high over the last several years for my liking. With that said, there are still niches that you can get into and make a 6 figure income on eBay.
If you do find a niche that you can source via wholesale sources in china and you can be one of the few sellers, you can still make great money on eBay. The fact is, eBay still has an enormous buyer base. The hard part is finding a niche that isn’t overly competitive.
For those thinking of buying stuff at goodwill stores or garage sells to resell on ebay, don’ to it. Though you can definitely make some money doing it this way. I did this over ten years ago when I was still in high school and I found that the time investment was not worth it. Instead go the Amazon FBA route, it is a far superior business model.
eBay Business Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Large community of buyers
eBay Business Cons
- Culture of eBay is of the low price mentality
- Lots of competition
Digital Products Based Businesses
One of the biggest benefits of selling digital products is that the items have 0 marginal cost. This is just a fancy economics term used to describe the cost to sell each additional unit.
Understanding marginal cost
As an Econ major in College, I con’t help but to explain the power behind low marginal costs in a business. Lets compare a physical product business with a digital product business. Say you sell specialty glass and metal water bottles (for the health market). Say you have a manufacturer in china that will produce each bottle for $5.00. You then resell each bottle for $14.99. For each extra unit you sell, your marginal cost is $5.00. So if you want to sell 1000 units, you will need to first invest $5000 in inventory.
Compare this to a digital product that sells for $14.99. The marginal cost of a digital product is $0. It would have required an initial fixed time or capital investment to produce a digital product like a video tutorial, ebook, software, etc. However, after that fixed initial cost, it would cost $0 to sell each additional unit. So if you want to sell 1000 units of your digital product, it will cost you $0.
This simple concept you may learn in an intro economics class is very powerful for the business world. It allows for better cashflow, profits and the sustainability of your business. If you read the famous stock book, security analysis, you will even notice that they recommend looking for businesses that have low marginal cost as a factor for investing in stocks. It makes a basis for a good stock investment because it is a basis of a good business.
Low or 0 Marginal cost is a huge benefit to digtal products and businesses in general. For this reason, all digital avenues are among my favorite business methods. However I gravitate towards software because there is less competition than say with tutorials or ebooks.
Digital Product Pros
- Low or 0 Marginal Cost
- Because of the 0 marginal cost, you can offer good commissions to attract potential affiliates to promote your product
Digital Product Cons
- Time Consuming to produce the digital products
- Takes capital to outsource digital products
- Depending on the niche, you may need to update the content regularly
6. Online Video Courses
Have some specialized knowledge in something? Interested in something that you can learn about to create a course? There is always a demand for information products. Online course can be a great way to make a somewhat passive income online.
Over the years there have been an abundance of ebooks and digital products. There isn’t really an abundance of online course yet, so that still seems pretty lucrative for the foreseeable future. There are so many marketplaces you can now sell online courses to, such as:
- Udemy
- Skillshare
- Clickbank
- Pathwrite
- Your own website
Online Video Courses Pros
- Beginner friendly (does require slight technical know how for video editing)
- No capital needed to start (you may just need basics like a good microphone for $100)
- Teach something you are passionate about
- 0 Marginal cost products
Online Video Courses Cons
- Takes a lot of upfront time to create a course
7. Software Business – WordPress Plugins
If you want to get into making software, wordpress plugins can be a good option to look into. Since wordpress is the most popular CMS out there, there are a lot of wordpress users. If you can find a pain, you can create a solution and make a business out of it.
The only negative thing about creating wordpress plugins is that there is potential for compatibility issues (themes/plugins). Some people may rather create web apps that are self standing apps so there is more control over the user experience and making sure things are working.
WordPress Software Business Pros
- Huge user base
- Open source (build on top of other plugins)
WordPress Software Business Cons
- Potential compatibility issues with other themes / plugins
- There are a lot of free solutions already
- Free solutions may pop up and ruin your business model
8. Software Business – Webapps
Examples of web app would be things like pinterest, salesforce, quickbooks online, etc.
There is somewhat of a gold rush with web apps, though it isn’t talked about very much in the internet marketing/ making money online scene. I believe we are in an incredible landscape for entrepreneurs who want to get into building or outsourcing web apps.
There are many web frameworks (laravel, ruby on rails, django, node.js, meteor etc) based on programming languages that massively speed up development time and increase the functionality of web apps. Non-technical Entrepreneurs are also able to create software businesses with no coding experience at all with freelance marketplaces. However, why not just learn to code if you dedicate yourself to this route?
Web apps can be an amazing opportunity because you can have a 0 marginal cost (0r low marginal cost) product that also generates residual income. Many web apps are based on a SAAS model (software as a service), which gives you the benefits of a recurring revenue business model.
Webapps Software Business Pros
- 0 or low marginal cost
- solve real world problems
- many niches available
- SAAS = recurring income
Webapps Software Business Cons
- Software can be intimidating
- high cost of development (unless you get creative or code yourself)
- takes time to get your product developed
- bugs (continued expenses)
9. Software – Mobile Apps
There was once, what seemed to be an app gold rush. It seems like that “gold rush” mentality has subsided over the years, however there are still some great opportunities for creating apps. Even to this day, the app stores still churn out millionaire entrepreneurs who go the app route. The mobile revolution is not over folks, we still have some way to go!
Mobile Apps Business Pros
- large number of mobile users
- Increasing use of mobile phones
Mobile Apps Business Cons
- Some app niches are over saturated
- Need new and fresh ideas to make it big
- Making it big is more rare
10. Software – Hybrid Apps
Hybrid apps are great because you can create one app based on web languages (html, css, javascript) and you can create native apps on multiple platforms.
If you were to code these on two different platforms, you would need to learn how to code on android and on apple iOS. Then you would have to separately code both versions of apps. Going the hybrid app route, you can save a lot of time in development, yet you don’t have to sacrifice much functionality or speed that a native app gives you. You can utilize something like phonegap or the ionic framework to speed up your mobile app development.
Hybrid Apps Business Pros
- Save time by creating multiple
- Use web languages (HTML, CSS, Javascript)
Hybrid Apps Business Cons
- Not as much functionality, but very close
- Not for some game type of apps that need true native speed
11. Software – Desktop Applications
Another good route to take is to develop desktop application for mac or windows. If you can find solutions to peoples problems, you can make a lucrative business with desktop apps. Many software companies these days are producing apps that either start online or as an app and then develop for all platforms (desktop, mobile, web) as they expand.
Desktop Apps Business Pros
- Large user base
- Many possible niches
Desktop Apps Business Cons
- Takes time to learn to program
- Takes capital to outsource software development
12. Ebook Business
You can create a business out of information. You can create ebooks around certain niches to produce recurring income. You can self publish on major platforms like apple ibooks, amazon kindle, and smash words.
The benefit of creating ebooks is that you create the item once and you can sell it as many times as you want. In this way the ebook business can be passive over time. In the short term though, it will take a lot of time to create the ebooks. That is the drawback. It can take a good amount of time and there is learning curve to get the ebooks going.
Selling Ebooks on Marketplaces
Smash words is an interesting one because it allows you to publish to all the ebook marketplaces like amazon, ibooks, nook, and even to libraries, all with one file. You can also self publish your books on amazon kindle which is the biggest market. Apple ibooks is also a rapidly growing market because of the iPad growth rate. However, Amazon remains the 800 pound gorilla in the ebook marketplace word. Essentially you may get most of your sales through amazon, unless you are in the children’s book niche (which can actually do better on ibooks).
Getting Affiliates to Sell your Ebooks
Selling ebooks through affiliate marketplaces like click bank can be lucrative because you will be able to charge higher prices and because affiliates can actively promote your ebooks. For example, you may only be able to sell your ebooks on amazon for $1-3. On click bank you may be able to get $30 or more for you ebooks. Also, with amazon your books can get buried with all the other ebooks. With click bank, affiliates can actively promote your ebooks to increase your sales.
Where will you make more money? It depends. You can end up making more on amazon because of the massive traffic. Or you can end up making more on click bank because of the higher price and affiliates.
Ebook Business Pros
- Good demand depending on niche
- Large markets (amazon, ibooks, nook, smash words, etc)
- More passive when you get affiliates to market your ebooks (clickbank)
Ebook Business Cons
- Time consuming to create ebooks
- Some technical knowledge needed
- Trend towards online videos (people are starting to want videos more than books)
- Ebook Marketplaces like Amazon cause a lower price per sale
Affiliate Marketing Businesses
An affiliate marketer is someone who promotes other peoples products (whether digital or physical), for a commission.
For example, say you have a blog about mixing music and learning how to be a DJ. You could then promote certain products centered around this niche to your audience. Maybe you are referring business to companies that offer music production software mixing consoles. For every person you refer that buys something, you will get a cut of the sale. Your audience does not get charged more, you just get a cut of the final retail value because you helped bring business to that company.
Becoming an affiliate marketer can be a good way for beginners to start making money online. Its fairly easy to get started with affiliate marketing because all you need to do is focus on getting traffic. If you were creating your own products you would need to learn how to create the product, spend the time to do it, learn how to get traffic, and learn how to get affiliate marketers to promote it.
Affiliate marketing can be a lucrative income source, especially if you are creating your own digital products, along with promoting other products at the same time. Both of these methods combined can make a really good business online if done correctly.
Affiliate Marketin Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Easy to find high quality products
- Fast success (although some traffic generation takes time)
Affiliate Marketing Cons
- May have a lot of competition depending on niche
- Affiliates links are bad for SEO (there are ways around it if you cloak the links)
- You can’t scale like you can with your own products (getting other affiliates to sell your product)
13. Become an Affiliate for Digital Products
I put affiliate at the top of the list because it is one of easiest method to get started with. However for most people, it may not be the most lucrative method by itself. Sure you can make 6 figures as an affiliate. However, selling your own products can bring you to a 6 figure income much quicker. Usually the most lucrative methods of making money online are a combination of selling your own products and promoting other people’s products.
Digital Product Affiliate Business Pros
- Beginner friendly
- Good for email marketing
- Easy to find high quality products
- Good commissions
Digital Product Affiliate Business Cons
- May have a lot of competition depending on niche
- Affiliates links bad for SEO if uncloaked (if you are blogging for a traffic generation method)
14. Become an Affiliate for Physical Products
I’m not talking about becoming an affiliate for amazon and creating review sites. God no. That would take way too long to get to 6 figures. I am talking about promoting physical products where you get a decent percentage of the sale price. You can find physical products to promote on affiliate networks. With amazon you only start out at 4% which is way too low in my opinion. With that said, some can be successful with amazon associates.
Physical Product Affiliate Business Pros
- Beginner friendly (easy to get started)
- Several affiliate networks
Physical Product Affiliate Business Cons
- Generally lower commissions
- Generally higher competition
- May be more difficult to find really niche products to promote
Freelance Businesses (Selling Your Services)
Selling your services is more on the “job” spectrum rather than the “business” spectrum because you cannot scale as easily. That is, you cannot outsource things as easily selling services. Unless you sell services and hire others to fulfill those service oriented jobs (say creating a web design firm).
In general though, when talking in terms of selling your services, it usually involves finding something that you can do to make money as a freelancer. The big benefit to selling your services is that you can usually find a way to make money very quickly online, especially if you have a specialized skill set.
The big drawback is that you have to essentially work by the hour or by the job. It tends to be less passive in nature compared to some of the other business models mentioned above.
Freelance Business Pros
- Beginner Friendly
- Quickly start making money
- Utilize skills you already have
Freelance Business Cons
- You trade your time for money (not scalable)
- Less passive
15. Web Design Business
If you know or are interested in web design and development, you can start a web design business. There are several routes you can go with this. You can become a freelancer, you can just sell website designs, or you can actually host clients websites.
If you become a web design and hosting company you can get income from the initial website design, then you can enjoy the residual income on the monthly hosting fees. Since a dedicated server doesn’t cost very much, you can easily make a large amount of money if you are good at selling websites to potential clients and businesses. Most people don’t want to deal with setting up and maintaining a website, so if you gain enough knowledge to do so yourself, you can make a lucrative business doing web design.
Web Design Business Pros
- Can be fun
- Lucrative as quality Websites are always in demand
Web Design Business Cons
- Takes time to learn
- Web technologies continually evolve
- Time consuming to create websites from scratch (unless you use Templates & Wordpress for instance)
16. Coaching Business
If you have a specialty, you can offer coaching or consulting services. Maybe you are good at business, internet marketing, or maybe you have a lot of health and nutrition related knowledge. Basically anywhere people have a pain, or a need to gain information, you can offer coaching services.
This can be a very lucrative business if you treat it as such. Meaning, if you build a name for yourself, you can have many people willing to pay for your coaching services. You can end up charging thousands of dollars for coaching sessions if you become a top expert in your niche.
Coaching Business Pros
- Do what you love
- Get paid very high amounts if you are an expert
Coaching Business Cons
- You must be an expert (You should at least know more than your clients)
- You must position yourself as an expert
17. Online Marketing Consultant (Social Media, SEO, Etc)
If you know a lot about Internet marketing, social media and SEO you can become a online marketing consultant. You can start a SEO/ social media consulting business that helps larger organizations get a handle on all of their social media accounts and SEO optimization on their websites. You can help automate their posting schedules with hootsuite, buffer and their website. You can also teach them best practices and help them with content in all their marketing channels.
Internet Marketing Consulting Pros
- Do what you love
- Lucrative if you are an expert
Internet Marketing Consulting Cons
- You must be an expert (You should at least know more than your clients)
- You must have experience and proof of what you are capable of
- You must position yourself as an expert
18. Virtual Assistant
If you need to money quickly and don’t want to deal with the complexities of starting a business, you can always become a virtual assistant. This is a great option to make money if you don’t have a lot of skills or experience that you may need as a freelancer. You can also be a virtual assistant to supplement your income while you are learning the ropes of other businesses and/or growing other side businesses.
Virtual assistants can do anything from data entry, to writing content for websites. It just depends on what the agreement is with you and your employer.
Virtual Assistant Pros
- Beginner friendly
- You can potentially learn from experts (your employers)
- Great to get quick income
- Great to expand experience and learn new things
Virtual Assistant Cons
- You may have to work a lot of hours to get to six figures
- Not scalable (you trade your hours for a wage like a job)
19. Freelancer
Though all these “service” types of businesses are essentially freelancers, I decided to add a freelancer as an option because it is such a vast field. There are literally hundreds of things you can do as a freelancer now days with places like freelancer and odesk.
Whatever your background or experience, you can become a freelancer. Freelancers used to mean people with specific skill sets like photography, journalism, computer programming, etc. Now anyone can do freelancing. Can you write (well)? Can you do data entry? There are many skilled and non skilled tasks you can do to make money online. Just hop on over to freelancer.com, odesk.com, or elance.com and check out what they have to offer. Note that you will probably need to work for less money at first until you build your trust and ratings on the marketplace.
Freelancer Pros
- Do what you love
- Lucrative if you are an expert
Freelancer Cons
- You must be an expert (You should at least know more than your clients)
- You must have experience and proof of what you are capable of
- You must position yourself as an expert