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How To Start An Online Business In 5 Steps

Posted on 16. Mar, 2011 by Faye Bond in Blog, Internet Marketing, Online Business

Starting an online business is very similar to having an offline business. The principles and rules are just the same, the only difference is the media by which it is served. That is where the Internet comes into its own. With the advent of the Internet in the early 90s people have been creating their own online success.

Good business practices like building strong and long-term relationships with customers through honest advertising and providing products and services at a fair price, are just as important online as they are offline.

Now the opportunity is there for you to start your own online business. But how and where do you start?

Starting just like any good offline business does, you need a Plan. Plans give you direction, structure, a sense of purpose and a goal to work towards. If you don’t plan, then you are planning to fail.

Step 1: Organize yourself and your computer

First things first. At the very beginning of any business organizing yourself and computer is essential. Have office space that is warm, comfortable and with natural lighting. Storing your electronic information and having them in a logical way is important, as further down the track lack of organization will waste your time and cause frustration.

On my computer under My Documents I have each website in their own folder, in that folder I have a different folder for all things that relate to that particular website like, articles, hosting information.

Step 2:  Business Plan

Personal profile of your likes, dislikes, passions, expertise, dreams and goals.

SWOTT Analysis – This is where you find out a lot about yourself – your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and trends.

Vision Statement – A short paragraph of what your ultimate goal is. Have the end in mind as you develop this     Statement.

Mission Statement – Defines the purpose and the essence of your company.

Value Statements – These define how your business operates. One statement could be ‘We must act professionally at all times.’

Administration – Determining how you run your business from an adminisitrative point of view. At the outset your will need a hosting provider, domain name registrar and autoresponder. As your business grows you will need an accountant or bookkeeper, legal representative, banking facilities and tech person. Another resource that you will need in the future will be a writer for your sales pages and articles.

Step 3: Research

With your personal profile and SWOTT analysis you will have some idea of what your niche could be. Now you need to research your competitors. What do they do? How do they do it? How much do they charge? What are their services?

During this research also take note of the keywords that your competitors use. One way to do this is when you are on their website go to View – Page Source. A text document will open with the html of the website. Keywords will generally be found close to the top of the page. Take note on how many of your competitors actually have keywords on their website. These are vital elements to include on a website so that the search engines can find your site.

Once you find your competitors make sure you bookmark them and set up a Google Alert. Google has some amazing tools that you can use for free that enable you to monitor your competitors, perform key research to name a couple.

Step 4: Create Your Product or Service

The exciting part is the creation of your product. Your research has now shown you what your competitors do, now you can create your product by giving bigger and better products and services. Will it be an ebook? What about video tutorials that have a written version of the tutorial in pdf format. There are many formats that you can chose and having done your research you will know what your market wants. 

Step 5:  Online Presence – Your Website

The easiest way to start your business online is to use the platform WordPress. Today there are countless of websites that are established using this platform. It is well known as a blogging platform and by using WordPress for your website you can combine the both – website and blog. On your website you can start to build a list of subscribers by giving away a small report or something that relates to your niche. Add content, images and video

When you follow these five steps of Organizing Planning, Researching, Creation and Building you will start your business online.

For further information please contact me at faye@bondglobalenterprises.com or go to www.bondglobalenterprises.com and see more ways to easily and effectively build your online business.

Faye Bond

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Tags: Business Start-Up, Internet Marketing, Online Business, Planning

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