Starting a Small Business Online

Thinking About Starting a Small Business Online?

Is starting a small online business different to starting any other business? Yes, but only in terms of the tools you use to research your market and the tools used to promote the business!

What is your Business Model?

The only real difference between developing a business model online is the method of promotion and how your make your sales. You still need to find a sound business idea and investigate the demand for what you can offer.

For more information on developing a viable business model, go to the page on Business Models, and work your way through the process.

Researching the Online Market

This is where the process of researching your business model becomes significantly different. Your potential customers will be online, and that is where you need to do your research.

Your Online Business Identity

Your online business identity is defined by your domain name and the value proposition you present to the outside world through your pages.

Researching Your Online Business ‘Premises’

When you are starting a small business online, your ‘premises’ equates to how you choose to host your website. Some businesses decide to buy a web server and do their own hosting, but most, particularly embryonic small businesses, use the hosting services offered by web hosting companies.

The choices in terms of cost are virtually limitless depending on the level of service you require. There are some companies that provide free hosting for simple template based websites, for example a google search for the phrase “free web hosting” returns over returns over 16 million results!

Alternatively, if you require more than a free service can offer (i.e. more space, better support, training, or the use of the companies tools) you can choose to pay for fully supported hosting. The cost can vary from as low as $4.95 per month to $299 per month (perhaps maybe even more) depending on the additional services the host is providing.

It pays to work out what you need for your online business, before you start searching for a hosting company. If you are new to this ‘online stuff’ the technical jargon can be rather confusing!

Dealing with the Search Engines and Directories

No matter how much care and effort you put into building your website, unless people can find you on the net, your online business will end up being an expensive dud.

One of the best or most cost effective ways to get the word out is to have your site indexed by the major search engines.  Free organic traffic is much more cost effective for an online business than any other form of advertising!

Another Option

Does all this sound hard or difficult? Don’t fool yourself, it is. If you are trying to build an online business yourself with limited knowledge or experience, it is going to be extremely difficult and very time consuming.

Do you need some help starting a small online business? I know I did! If you would like to know how I managed to put this site (and a couple of others) please feel free to read about my experiences with SBI.

Or if you would like to see an example of a small online business take a look at Knitting Naturally. This site is one of my online businesses, it has been live for six months and is beginning to pay it’s own way!