The world of digital entrepreneurship has reached one of its highest points with the emergence of the pandemic, entrepreneurs have had to learn in an accelerated way a set of digital tools that were not indispensable before.
Keep reading to learn more about digital entrepreneurship, its importance, and examples.
As stated in ResearchGate, digital entrepreneurship is broadly defined as creating new ventures and transforming existing businesses by developing novel digital technologies and/or novel usage of such technologies, (European Commission, 2015).
Digital entrepreneurship has been viewed as a critical pillar for economic growth, job creation and innovation by many countries including the Member States of the European Union.
Digital entrepreneurship has taken its importance thanks to this fast track digital world.
According to the OECD, the digital economy has the potential to enhance productivity, income and social well-being.
It is creating job opportunities in new markets and increasing employment in some existing occupations.
As digital technologies enable the production of more goods and services with less labour, they also expose some workers to the risk of unemployment or lower wages.
They also enable changes in the organisation of work, with implications for the capability of existing policies and programmes to ensure labour market inclusion, job quality and skills development.
Digital entrepreneurship is popular nowadays because it allows entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses using the internet and other digital platforms.
This type of entrepreneurship is especially attractive to young people, who are often more comfortable with technology than older generations.
Additionally, digital entrepreneurship can be less expensive than traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, making it a more viable option for many people.
We are seeing in the recent years how we are having more and more digital entrepreneurs on the digital space, and thanks to information technologies and its really low cost of entry, actually everyone who has access to a digital device and internet can set up any kind of online business.
The flexibility of the available digital media tools has established easier business processes where people can offer their products and services to all around the world.
This digital entrepreneurial ecosystem has opened access to society to be running a business worldwide and offer services such as social media management, dropshipping, e-commerce, cloud services, content marketing, coaching and more, hence people can dedicate their time on working on activities that they really enjoy, therefore they decide to join a digital entrepreneur career.
As technology keeps improving and lowering the costs of acquisition, it is easier for already established businesses to slowly roll into the digitalization wave.
In the other hand, digital entrepreneurs have also come to run their business models based on the internet, being for them already a business set up with the use of technology.
Either doing the transition from analogue to digital, or being already born digital, digital businesses have the advantage that technologies have driven innovation on their processes.
The are different digital business models that entrepreneurs can start.
From building up a Software as a Service, turning their current small business into an E-commerce store, or creatings Apps.
Internet has brought a world of business opportunities to develop new projects.
From chosing a easy start online business such as one of the best known and most successful that is Amazon Affiliates, which has positioned itself as a leader in the digital environment growing in countries like Spain, Germany and throughout Europe.
Or going into more advanced projects such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence based.
There is no formula that will garantee success, and that states what is right or wrong.
Results will be the one who tell if the digital entrepreneur is constantly developing in this path.
Following up, I show some digital entrepreneurship examples that I hope can help you to see if there is a path that you might like to try.
From Keyword Research, SEO, SEM, Social Media, Email Marketing, knowing and understanding how to reach and nurture the markets is key part of any digital entrepreneur. Of course a digital entrepreneur can't do it all by himself, that is why he needs to know the next skill.
As in businesses, the entrepreneur must know his strenghts and weaknesses. Taking leverage on other people skils and expertise will help the entrepreneur to grow his or her digital business. That is why it is important for the entrepreneur to know how to manage his teammates.
Understanding that also digital businesses need a proper architectural structure, will help the digital entrepreneur to know what steps to follow in the future to keep building his business. Silo Architecture will help to further develop a online content on an organized way.
Digital Entrepreneurs must understand that in the digital world there is no perfect work. It is a matter of testing what works and what doesn't. That is why A/B testing is has taken its importance, and the entrepreneur should use his creativity to find the solutions he or she needs.
If you are looking for investors, one digital skill that is required on Entrepreneurs is the the ability to develop a persuasive elevator pitch that engage even through video calls has become part of everyday life.
The digital entrepreneur must know his business model and its revenue source. Either if you are aiming for product sells, on-demand services, or subscriptions, the entrepeneur should focus on further developing his income streams. As well, among the new skills that entrepreneurs must develop is the ability to generate passive income through different affiliate platforms and / or advertising, which eventually will help to keep developing his online business.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to becoming a digital entrepreneur, but there are some steps that can help you get started.
First, you need to have an entrepreneurial mindset and be willing to take risks.
Second, you need to identify a problem or opportunity that you can solve with a digital solution.
You can choose to go any way of the types of the digital new business models that we mentioned previously.
There is no right or wrong answer when you start, and as a tip, the more time you spend on planning and just thinking on the idea, the bigger amount of time that you are actualy not really working on your startup.
If you have spotted the problem and have the solution, then go for it and work on starting your business operation.
Third, as you launch your digital product or service, your will get the first feedbacks from your customers, and only after you should dedicate time on worrying about what it should be improved based on the analytics.
Fourth, building a business online is not as a traditional business, where location is the most important. Focus on developing your brand awareness and attract either new visitors to your website or followers to your accounts.
Fifth, once you have worked on generating the first traffic of your business, you need to grow and scale your business by converting those visitors into new customers or users.
With the use of the best digital marketing tools and digital marketing strategies, you can focus on growing your customer base and retain it.
Finally, you need to always be learning and keep up with the latest trends in the digital world, remote workers and digital business ventures.
There are different paths to become a Digital Entrepreneur.
As easy as starting your Youtube Channel and creating content that can be related to affiliate marketing could be a way to start.
Of course there are other paths, such as developing a blog, an online store, an App, but you will require to learn more technical knowledge in how to do a blog and so on.
But as in overall, some key points to consider are the following.
Of course there are more in detail steps to that are part of an entrepreneurial process, but in overall I consider action the most important part, because too much planning will not make you a digital entrepreneur.
According to the OECD, the digital economy has the potential to enhance productivity, income and social well-being.
It is creating job opportunities in new markets and increasing employment in some existing occupations.
Digital Entrepreneurship has become popular because it has reduced the cost of starting a business to almost nothing, and everyone can easily start developing their online business.
Plus, reaching and targeting potential markets is easier than ever.
