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Here are the basic components of an eBusiness (each of which will be discussed in future, more in-depth articles) for someone who...
- Presently owns a home-based or small business and now wants to have a Web site created for it;
- Wishes to start an exclusive Internet eBusiness.
Choosing Your Online Business "Niche"
If you have an existing home-based or storefront business, then you already have found your profitable "niche," but you may also want to start an online spin-off to your present venture to add to your income; or your goal may be to start an exclusive online business. Whatever the reasons for your wanting a eBusiness, you must first do the preliminary research to see if potential markets exist for your entrepreneurial ideas. To do this, you must do research to find the answers to questions such as...
- How does your business idea(s) compare with other existing online businesses?
- If there are no others, then why not?
- Can your potential customers be found online?
- If they are online, what is it that they would be willing to buy online?
Planning - To have a successful online Web venture you should develop the following plans:
- Business plan to set its mission and goals, as well as to estimate your startup and ongoing operating costs.
- Web site design plan that is customer-friendly, but one that also incorporates your business plan's objectives.
- Marketing plan to define your target customers and how to best reach and serve them.
- Financial plan for finding funding, if needed, and how it will be spent.
- Management plan (ongoing) for your eBusiness to form your daily operational schedule and who-you, an employee or an expert (Web designer, Webmaster, accountant, producer, or other Internet specialist)-will carry out those duties.
Establishing Your Business Entity
If you are starting a new business, you will have to take care of making your business "official" including...
- Determining your legal structure.
- Making sure your website adheres to Internet laws and regulations.
- Obtaining business insurance.
- Registering your business name (and also your domain name).
- Setting up an accounting/bookeeping system.
- Opening a business bank account.
- Obtaining any required business licenses.
- Following tax submission schedules, and fulfilling any additional requirements necessary to operate your business, on- and off-line.
Unless you are a specialist in any of these areas, it is a good investment to consult with qualified experts-to prevent you from being fined, penalized, or even sued because you did not follow the law.
Timing Your eBusiness Launch
It is important to assess when is the best time to launch your eBusiness, because startup tasks can be overwhelming; so before taking your business online, Web experts suggest you...
- Analyze how much time and finances you can allocate to a web business.
- Find a "balance" with family obligations and other important commitments.
- Purchase the needed equipment and technology.
- Get additional technological and/or business management training if you need it.
Planning and the overall setting up and establishment of your eBusiness' website on the Internet may take as long as a year or more before you are ready to have a website posted. Going online is not something that should be rushed.
Deploying and Building Your Web Site
When your plans are completed, next comes the actual posting of your Web site. As it undergoes online "construction," you and your Web designer should...
- Follow your design plan and concentrate on its ease of use and navigation for your site's visitors.
- Add more complex business processes and interaction capabilities as you can afford them and as a response to customer demands.
Promoting and Marketing
Here is where you put your marketing plan into action, using both traditional and creative methods to garner notice about your site such as...
- Starting with a well-written press release to be delivered to on- and off-line editors of targeted publications.
- Adding your Web site's URL to all your promotional and advertising materials, and your e-mail taglines.
- Trying and then analyzing the response of the many other marketing avenues-traditional and maybe some new ones you create-to attract people to your Web site.
Serving Your Customers
Of course, just because someone visits your site, does not mean they will stay there or ever return again. Thus, using your marketing plan and the preferences of your target customers, you will want to fulfill the needs of your customers by...
- Having a site that is customer-friendly, especially in locating products, ordering, having questions answered in a timely manner, and other convenient options.
- Providing useful information in the forms of your product/service descriptions, related, helpful articles, regular e-zines, and/or guest expert chats.
- Staying current with the latest trends in your industry to offer your customers the most up-to-date product, services, and technology.
Maintaining, Analyzing and Enhancing Your Web Site
Because your Web site is just one of millions, you will need to maintain it on a daily basis to keep it interesting and attract more traffic, see who is coming for "visits," and to keep it current. To do this, experts suggest you...
- Provide your visitors with "news they can use."
- Encourage customers' feedback, analyze their comments, and implement the best of their suggestions to better respond their needs.
- Monitor your competitors' sites so you can emphasize the unique benefits your products and/or services bring to customers-what separates your business' offerings from the competition.
- Add interactive components-real-time chats, message boards, online events, and similar opportunities that enable visitors to network and communicate with others of similar interests and/or to express their opinions and comments.
- Add interactive components-real-time chats, message boards, online events, and similar opportunities that enable visitors to network and communicate with others of similar interests and/or to express their opinions and comments.
- Stay current with customer service options-accepting credit cards, shopping cart capabilities, understandable return policies and other methods that enable you to stay competitive while best serving your faithful visitors and customers.
One other piece of advice is to focus on and review often the objectives you set in your online business plan. Increasing profits while pleasing your customers are two of the most important goals of any business-be it on- or off-line.
If an eBusiness website is well-designed and well-planned, it can increase your business' proceeds, help develop strong customer bonds, extend your networking connections with other online entrepreneurs, and allow you the opportunity to expand your business in areas you never dreamed of before. Despite the death of many dot-coms, the possibility of potential profits still exists on the Internet. However, it will only be found there through your hard work and a persistence to find the answers you need to have a successful eBusiness!
Related Resources (two of the many available on the Internet!).
- Starting an Online Business for Dummies, 2nd ed. by Greg Holden, Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. 2000 www.dummies.com
- Wilson Web www.wilsonweb.com - many helpful articles about Web marketing and business; also offers a helpful e-newsletter (fee for subscription).
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Priscilla Y. Huff is the best selling author of 101 Best Home-Based Businesses for Women. Specializing in the issues of women's entrepreneurialship, Priscilla Y. Huff is the author of many articles, books and information about home-based and small business. They are filled with entrepreneurial ideas that women may have never considered. Her most recent book is HerVenture.com - JUST RELEASED!.
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| A freelance Internet columnist, she writes several syndicated monthly business columns from her home in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. For the past fifteen years, she has written numerous articles on these subjects for Spare Time Profits, Income Opportunities, Small Business Opportunities, Wealth Building and others. Huff has been quoted as an expert in The New York Times, BottomLine, Forbes, Good Housekeeping, Woman's World and other magazines.
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