Tips For Starting Your Online Business
You've got the big idea, you've got the drive, you're keen to make a success of it. Good for you. But before you push off from the shore, STOP. Take time and think. Do your research. Look at other successful online businesses and see how they've done it. What made them an attractive proposition? Avoid false starts by doing your homework first. You don't even have to scrabble about for the information. It's all in front of you, right there, on the Internet. Here are some basics:
• The business plan. Write a plan and revisit it regularly. It makes good business sense to check that it's still fit for purpose from time to time. Later check it's still in line with what you've learnt. Ditch the ideas that didn't do so well and expand on the successes.
• Webspace. Be wary of buying webspace and pre-packaged templates. You will need the flexibility of a website that you can change yourself. Otherwise you could end up paying big fees to someone every time you wanted to change the minutest of details. OWN your website. If you really don't have the expertise, hire a freelancer to get it up and running - keep control of ownership. This not only saves money in the long run but helps you adapt more quickly to changing markets.
• Security. It is vital that money transactions are secure on your site. Make sure you've covered all the basics.
• Volume of calls. If you're expecting a lot of calls, hire someone to help you manage those. It will lose you custom if you fail to answer the call to prospective buyers. They'll go somewhere where they can get through.
• Business like. Run your online business like a traditional business with set working hours. It will require the same level of commitment. There will be things that need attending to offline. Concentrating solely on your online proposition means failing to take account of all the background tasks that go into running a successful business. Even better - plan your day to factor in time for these.
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Don't shy away from this. You need your business to feature in the top 10 of search results. Learn all you can about SEO from online resources or hire an organisation for that expertise.
• Other approaches. Think cleverly about what else you can do to spread your name and spread news of your product as far as you can. Don't miss an opportunity. Things to consider are posting your web address on the back windshield of your vehicle or getting other websites to link to yours. Tell your friends and family and get them to tell THEIR friends and family - word of mouth is a very powerful advertising tool. Google Adwords, Overture and other similar advertising are good vehicles for driving your target audience to your website by finding keywords that have very low bids. You can measure your conversion ratio of such traffic with sales in real-time.
Customer service. Treat your customers well. Online business prevents face-to-face with customers and that makes the job of getting to know them more difficult. So work twice as hard at servicing those customers and making them feel valued and confident in your business. Do well by them and you will be rewarded by loyalty.
• The business plan. Write a plan and revisit it regularly. It makes good business sense to check that it's still fit for purpose from time to time. Later check it's still in line with what you've learnt. Ditch the ideas that didn't do so well and expand on the successes.
• Webspace. Be wary of buying webspace and pre-packaged templates. You will need the flexibility of a website that you can change yourself. Otherwise you could end up paying big fees to someone every time you wanted to change the minutest of details. OWN your website. If you really don't have the expertise, hire a freelancer to get it up and running - keep control of ownership. This not only saves money in the long run but helps you adapt more quickly to changing markets.
• Security. It is vital that money transactions are secure on your site. Make sure you've covered all the basics.
• Volume of calls. If you're expecting a lot of calls, hire someone to help you manage those. It will lose you custom if you fail to answer the call to prospective buyers. They'll go somewhere where they can get through.
• Business like. Run your online business like a traditional business with set working hours. It will require the same level of commitment. There will be things that need attending to offline. Concentrating solely on your online proposition means failing to take account of all the background tasks that go into running a successful business. Even better - plan your day to factor in time for these.
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Don't shy away from this. You need your business to feature in the top 10 of search results. Learn all you can about SEO from online resources or hire an organisation for that expertise.
• Other approaches. Think cleverly about what else you can do to spread your name and spread news of your product as far as you can. Don't miss an opportunity. Things to consider are posting your web address on the back windshield of your vehicle or getting other websites to link to yours. Tell your friends and family and get them to tell THEIR friends and family - word of mouth is a very powerful advertising tool. Google Adwords, Overture and other similar advertising are good vehicles for driving your target audience to your website by finding keywords that have very low bids. You can measure your conversion ratio of such traffic with sales in real-time.
Customer service. Treat your customers well. Online business prevents face-to-face with customers and that makes the job of getting to know them more difficult. So work twice as hard at servicing those customers and making them feel valued and confident in your business. Do well by them and you will be rewarded by loyalty.
