You may already have a business running, but you might be thinking of going online to expand it. In some ways, starting an online business has a lot of similarities to starting the brick-and-mortar kind. In many other ways, there are big differences. Let us take a look at some of the most essential steps that you need to take when starting an online business.
Treat it as you would when starting an “offline†business. You need to get permits, register the business, do research, and all that stuff. Make sure that these things have been done even before you start going the online route.
Pick out a domain name and register it. The domain name is the web address of your online business. Ours is biziki.com. What will yours be? There are many ways by which you can register a domain name. We’ll take a look at that in a separate post.
Choose a web host. Once you’ve registered your domain name, you need to get a web host. This is the entity that will give you the storage space you’ll need as well as the support that you might have to rely on. Again, we will look at the specifics in a separate post, as it can be quite detail-intensive.
Create your site. You can opt to design your web site yourself, but you might need expert help. If I were you, I’d find someone who has extensive experience in web site design and work with them.
Market your web site. This is very very important. People will not come in droves to your site unless you spread the word. It’s basically the same as an offline business. Marketing and advertising is absolutely necessary.
Originally posted on April 10, 2010 @ 7:05 pm