How to Start an Online Courses Business

Online courses are offered for many types of learning. Global Industry Analysts, Inc. reported the global, online, eLearning industry was over US $107 billion in revenues during 2015. There are plenty of opportunities to make money with an online courses business.

Online courses may lead to earning a degree, getting certification and/or completing legal requirements. Online courses are popular for corporate training, continuing education purposes, self-improvement, learning foreign languages, hobbies, and “how-to” instructions for a variety of projects.

You may also be interested in additional online business ideas.

Ready to turn your business idea into a reality? Tailor Brands is our top recommendation because it guides you through every step of the formation process with hands-on support — from paperwork and compliance to devising a detailed plan to help you achieve your business goals.

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Start an online courses business by following these 10 steps:

  1. Plan your Online Courses Business
  2. Form your Online Courses Business into a Legal Entity
  3. Register your Online Courses Business for Taxes
  4. Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
  5. Set up Accounting for your Online Courses Business
  6. Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Online Courses Business
  7. Get Online Courses Business Insurance
  8. Define your Online Courses Business Brand
  9. Create your Online Courses Business Website
  10. Set up your Business Phone System

We have put together this simple guide to starting your online courses business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas.

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

What will you name your business?

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Online Courses Business Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.

When registering a business name, we recommend researching your business name by checking:

  • Your state’s business records
  • Federal and state trademark records
  • Social media platforms
  • Web domain availability

It’s very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

What are the costs involved in opening an online courses business?

For level one self-directed online courses the costs are to create the course materials, build a website, and create an online marketing campaign with enough funds to attract students.

A typical budget for a sophisticated course offering would be about $21,000 consisting of these expenses:

  • Creation of Course Materials – $10,000
  • Website – $5,000
  • Internet Marketing – $500 per month ($6,000 per year)

For level two self-directed online courses with live chat help, this would be the $21,000 above plus live chat support for a total budget of around $24,000. Live chat support can be outsourced for prices starting at $199 per month for 24/7 monitoring and response. There are many companies providing these services. 

For level three online courses guided by instructors, you will need video conferencing capabilities, good lighting, and a good quality webcam. Also, the instructors will earn US$30 per hour on average. Your small startup budget would be about $25,000 and depend on the hours of instruction you plan to offer at inception.

What are the ongoing expenses for an online courses business?

The ongoing expenses are:

  • A high-quality Internet connection that allows for a fast response and large bandwidth for web hosting. Allow $1,000 per month for an average operation that is successful.
  • For Internet marketing, allow a minimum of $500 per month for the most basic advertising. Successful online courses businesses spend $5,000 per month on marketing or more.
  • To pay instructors, allow $30 per hour for their class teaching time.
  • For course content creation, allow a minimum of $1,000 to $2,000 per new course created.

Who is the target market?

Contracting with an organization(s) to create online training courses for new employees, and continuing educational courses for existing employees, is an excellent way to achieve continual business.

For online courses taken by individuals, the best customers are those who have a need or desire to complete a course and prefer the convenience of taking such a course online.

How does an online courses business make money?

There are two ways to make money with online course offerings. They are, charge each student a participation fee or contract with an organization to provide these services for a fee.

How much can you charge customers?

Level one and level two self-directed courses start at around $9.99 and go up to about $499 if certification is the goal. Video conferencing courses may be charged per hour and students pay $10 per hour up to $30 per hour depending on the number of other students participating at the same time. One-on-one tutoring is usually around $30 per hour. Specialty courses by industry experts can sell for thousands of dollars.

How much profit can an online courses business make?

Some people are comfortable making a few hundred dollars profit per month. Others make hundreds of thousands of profit per year. The largest companies in this industry sector make many millions in profit annually.

Here are some resources to use to generate ideas for online courses that are likely to be profitable:

How can you make your business more profitable?

Continue to offer new and exciting courses to past customers. Sell materials related to the course content. Expand from teaching individuals to getting contracts to provide training for the entire workforce of major organizations.

Set up an affiliate program that gives commissions to those who find new customers for your online courses. Expand operations to include multiple languages and market your courses in other countries.

Want a more guided approach? Access TRUiC’s free Small Business Startup Guide – a step-by-step course for turning your business idea into reality. Get started today!

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

One crucial aspect that cannot be overlooked when starting your online courses business is the importance of establishing a solid business foundation. While sole proprietorships and partnerships are the most common entity types for small businesses, they’re a far less stable and advantageous option than LLCs.

This is because unincorporated business structures (i.e., sole proprietorships and partnerships) expose you as an owner to personal liability for your business’s debts and legal actions, while LLCs protect you by keeping your personal assets separate from your business’s liabilities.

In practice, this means that if your online courses business were to face a lawsuit or incur any debts, your savings, home, and other personal assets could not be used to cover these costs. On top of this, forming your business as an LLC also helps it to appear more legitimate and trustworthy.

Ready to Turn Your Business Idea Into a Reality?

Tailor Brands is our top recommendation because it guides you through every step of the formation process with hands-on support — from paperwork and compliance to devising a detailed plan to help you achieve your business goals.

FORM YOUR LLC

Note: If you’re interested in more information before getting started, we recommend having a look at our state-specific How to Start an LLC guide (DIY) or our in-depth Best LLC Services review (for those opting for a professional service).

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It’s really easy and free!

You can acquire your EIN through the IRS website. If you would like to learn more about EINs, read our article, What is an EIN?

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil.

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

  • Separates your personal assets from your company’s assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
  • Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank or credit union.

Get a business credit card

Getting a business credit card helps you:

Recommended: Apply for an easy approval business credit card from BILL and build your business credit quickly.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate an online courses business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits.

In addition, certain local licensing or regulatory requirements may apply.

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses.

Other Considerations

The nature of legal requirements in distance education is ever changing, especially in regards to copyright laws. Here is a frequently updated resource, which can help keep you aware of the legal requirements.

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance. This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance. If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers’ Compensation Coverage.

Find out what types of insurance your Online Courses Business needs and how much it will cost you by reading our guide Business Insurance for Online Courses Business.

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator. Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.

How to promote & market an online courses business

It is important to use the best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) to make sure you have the highest ranking possible on the search engine results page (SERP). This will increase the organic (non-paid) search engine traffic to your website.

It is easier to market a course that offers very special content that is highly valuable and not available elsewhere.

Experts attract high-paying students when they share specialized information that they know with a select group. The most effective way of attracting these students is to give free introductory webinars to discuss the course content in such a way that motivates the participants to sign up for the online courses.

Social media is an excellent way to attract customers by interacting with others who have similar interests. Distributing free introductory e-books helps create interest in taking the full, online courses.

How to keep customers coming back

The quality of the course materials and the good experience of past students, who give positive course ratings and testimonials, will help attract customers. Adding new course content that is of interest to past students helps make them into repeat customers.

STEP 9: Create your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business.

While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

  • All legitimate businesses have websites – full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
  • Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
  • Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.

Recommended: Get started today using our recommended website builder or check out our review of the Best Website Builders.

Other popular website builders are: WordPressWIXWeeblySquarespace, and Shopify.

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2024 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com

Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and it’s fair pricing.

Is this Business Right For You?

Online courses are created by people with a considerable amount of expertise and experience in the field they wish to teach. As such, having a niche skill makes it easier to offer desirable courses. These businesses require a considerable amount of time when they are the live video-conference style.

Online courses can be more difficult to teach than standard classes as students typically need lots of interaction with the teacher. A high-quality computer and speedy internet connection are essential when teaching online courses if you intend to offer live, video-conference style courses.

Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?

Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!

Entrepreneurship Quiz

What happens during a typical day at an online courses business?

The activities differ, depending on the type of online courses offered.

For level one self-directed courses, most of the processes are automated. As the business owner, you will be highly focused on marketing efforts to find students who will take the courses. You will spend most of your time creating online marketing campaigns and/or supervising those who you hire to help you do this marketing effort. You will spend some of your time creating or supervising the creation of materials for new courses in order to expand your online course offerings. A smaller part of your time will be checking the existing course materials to make sure they are up-to-date with current information.

For level two self-directed courses with live online chat, you will have similar responsibilities as for level one, with the addition that you will participate in the live text chatting with students and/or oversee the live text chats for quality control purposes.

For level three live real-time video conferencing online courses, in addition to the responsibilities of level one and level two, you will spend part of the day preparing for your online lectures and part of the day giving the lectures to students on a regular schedule.

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful online courses business?

It helps if you have expert knowledge in a specific niche or if you can hire those who have this expertise to help you.

For level one self-directed courses, you will need to prepare the course materials and then market them on the Internet. The course materials may come from your professional efforts and be an extension of them. For example, if you are a great chef, you can create an online cooking course to teach some of your best techniques in preparing recipes.

Some courses require a teaching certification. For example, if you want to teach English as a second language using the video conference method, you should have a teaching certification of TEFL or TESOL. There are many choices for how to get these certifications. One company, ESL Certified, offers both courses online.

Another example is the extensive certification process offered by Microsoft for software programmers and developers.

What is the growth potential for an online courses business?

Depending on the market niche, the potential for growth is excellent. Examples of very successful businesses that offer online courses include these top-ten selected by the eLearning Industry for 2016:

  1. SweetRush
  2. EI Design
  3. Allen Interactions
  4. Allen Comm
  5. Pulse Learning
  6. Obsidian
  7. G-Cube
  8. Designing Digitally
  9. Learnnovators
  10. CommLab India

BusinessWire reports that TutorGroup is worth $1 billion. TutorGroup is the largest English language online education platform in the world.

The Training Industry provides an annual top twenty list for various types of corporate online training companies.

Not sure if an online courses business is right for you? Try our free Business Idea Generator and find your perfect idea.

Take the Next Step

Find a business mentor

One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.

Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.

Learn from other business owners

Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.

Resources to Help Women in Business

There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:

  • Funding
  • Events
  • Guides
  • Support

If you’re a woman looking for some guidance in entrepreneurship, check out this great new series Women in Business created by the women of our partner Startup Savant.

What are some insider tips for jump starting an online courses business?

Take advantage of the easy-to-use software tools and templates like those offered by eLearning Brothers to more easily create your online courses. A great resource for online teachers is the Online Learning Consortium.

Starting a brand new, independent website may not be the best option because the classes will be much harder to market. Udemy and Teachable offer course-hosting websites with lots of existing web traffic of people looking for courses to take. Udemy and Teachable offer a great opportunity to reach a large group of customers, though these companies take a percentage of profits.

One way to start a business of this type might be starting with a class hosted through Udemy or Teachable, and then, if your course develops enough of a following and a good reputation you can create your own website to expand the business, thereby capturing all the profits.

How and when to build a team

This is the type of business where it is possible to start as a sole owner/operator. However, if you get enough traction and have enough students you will want to add staff for administrative support, staff (either in-house or freelance) to help increase marketing efforts, and additional instructors if you offer video conferencing courses that have sufficient student demand.

Useful Links

Industry Opportunities

Real World Examples

Further Reading