The present economic situation worldwide , and the global credit crunch has again re enforced the arguement that self employment is a gem, while it is not easy to achieve success , as it does not guarantee a constant pay check , or any sort of pay check , it is a very good route to explore , to achieve financial freedom and success that we all crave.
The internet is the best and the cheapest way to launch yourself , the very nature of the internet makes online business a global winner, the possiblilties are endless.
The first step to creating a winning formula for any online business , and this is a code that has worked miracles in my life,
This is of course the FIVE Ps
Poor
Preparation
Produces
Poor
Performance
A sharp and focused mind is essential to the success of your internet business , so the next module and very important thing is
research .............
to succeed in business ,be it conventional brick and mortar or an online business venture , reseach is the key , knowledge is power and the right information at the right time applied in the right concept can see your idea materialize into a multi million dollar industry.
know your stuff ,dont come across as an amatuer , or a one of the crowd ,people want an expert opinion , whatever you are about , make sure you know all the is to know in the field and gain the respect of your customers and others in your niche , an online business can fail very quickly if the owner takes research for granted,
Research is also important to you because it is absolutely neccesary that you pick the right product or service to offer , this is because it might sound like a great idea to you but if there is no real interest from the public , then you effectively have no market place and no viable business, so failure is already looming,,
Hosting and E-Commerce for you online business
Choose a domain name for your internet business ie(yourcompany.com) and a hosting service at which to host it. Your choice of hosting company is important because their reliability and ability to increase your capacity to meet your needs as your online business grows is important. Your e-commerce hosting account is likely to start out as a “shared” hosting (less expensive option) this is the recomended option for newbies starting out in the online business arena and later you may grow to a “dedicated” server ,this handles more capacity and does cost a bit more money
However, the good thing about hosting is that if your host service turns out to be unreliable or is unable to scale up to meet your current needs, you can always switch hosting companies. Remember it is very important for any online business to make sure that you register the domain name under your name and not theirs from the beginning as this might cause some problems if and when you decide to change hosting service.
Decide if the goal of your website will be to capture leads (which can be done through simple contact forms), which you will then follow-up on later by telephone and or email. Alternatively, is your goal to make direct sales from your website, in which case you will need a shopping cart system tocomplete the sale. Regardless of your goal for your online business website, you should also provide good quality content on your website that will capture your prospective customer’s interest.and posibly keep them comming back.
Most hosting companies offer online business websites a shopping cart (such as Miva Merchant) with their e-commerce hosting accounts. Find out which cart they offer, and do some research to make sure it is a reputable system. Find out how user friendly the system is for non-technical people to setup and maintain an online store.
In addition to the hosting and shopping cart system, you will need a merchant account that will enable your business to accept electronic payments (e.g., credit cards). You may already have a merchant account, especially if you now run a bricks-and-mortar business. For online transactions, you will also need a Payment Gateway (such as authorize.net or Verisign).
The Payment Gateway authorises payments for online businesses. Generally, these services will interact automatically with both your shopping cart system and your merchant account. Once setup, all this happens behind the scenes so your website is selling your products or services day-and-night, without you having to be directly involved. Someone from Australia could buy something from your site while you sleep.
It is important that you have the ability to update your shopping cart easily. It is crucial that you have control of this process, as it is likely you are going to want to make changes over time.
Your New online business Website
Remember you need a professional looking, well-organised website for your online business. This does not mean it has to be expensive. Your designer can integrate your new website with your shopping cart system. Make sure you use a website designer who has specific experience in the shopping cart system you wish to use.
While you will probably hire a web design firm to do the initial website design, it is important that you have the ability to update the website. This means the design firm needs to put some sort of content management system (CMS) in place or learn to use one of the Web design/maintenance software packages (such as Dreamweaver or MS FrontPage), if you do not already know how to use one. You do not want to have to call your website designer every time you want to make some minor change or addition to your site.
While the designer will develop your site initially, it is important to give some thought to this process so you can provide plans and guidance to your designer you should be part of the process ,so your personal idea comes through.decide for yourself , What are the goals of your site? Do you want leads captured with a contact form? Do you primarily want direct sales captured through a shopping cart system? If you have more than a few items, your database design becomes very important.ypur online business relies on these small touches to succeed
Make sure your design consultant has solid database design experience (ask for examples and always ask for references). How do you organise the products so people can quickly find what they are looking for? What market segments will be visiting your site and how do you appeal to each? Both site and product navigation are key components of a useable site.
The next step is to determine the various pages that will comprise your site, what content will go on each page, and how it will all fit together. While you map this out, always keep your goals in mind -- direct sales, sales leads, etc.
A good way to start this process is to go out on the website and carefully analyse what similar businesses have done. and apply those ideas to your online business website
Once you have done the research, draw up plans for the various pages of your site to provide to your designer. In addition, since you have been surfing the web, you may be able to provide your designer with examples of sites as models of how you want your site to look. This will be helpful to your designer in thinking through what you want.Achieving Your Independence
During the early stages while you are getting a shopping cart and a website setup, it is important to spend some time learning the basics of how to maintain them. You could discuss this with your designer ahead of time, to make sure that you can get some initial training on updating both your site and your shopping cart. You absolutely do not want to have to call someone every time you want to change something on your website or in your shopping cart system. The truth is that once you learn how to do it, making changes to your website and shopping cart system is simple.
Now What Next ?
You now have a website giving your online business an online presence and the ability to capture leads or make sales directly. Now, how are you going to get people to people to visit to your site?Advertising and promoting your online business is the key ,this is what we will deal with next.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7c0b4a0b-e261-4217-be67-eb28581b2439)
