| So you want to start a business? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| You're tired of working for other people and you want to be your own boss? With today's technology you can start and operate a business without ever having to leave your house. Whether you want to do this full time or just something for extra income, if you follow these simple steps you could have your own business up and running in no time. You must start with step one and complete each one in order for my system to work for you. If you do follow each step then you can have your own onlne company in less than a week. Step 1: Your Company Name and Identity What do you want to sell or offer? The first step in starting a business is knowing what you want your business to do. Do you want to sell shoes online? Do you want to offer services? This is critical because everything else after will build upon this foundation. The name of your company can make or break you. It helps you with branding as well as online search engine relevance. For example, if you want to see horse dolls online then you wouldn't want to start a company without the name of both items included. I'll explain how a well thought out company name can ultimately affect your future efforts. A bad name would be: Horsing Around A good name would be: Horse Dolls International Let your company name be its own source of advertising. If you see a company named Horsing Around it would not clearly show what the company does. Horsing around is a clever play on words but will not help with branding or advertising your company. When someone sees the name Horse Dolls International they automatically know that your company is affiliated with horse dolls. *This also helps with search engine optimization which we will discuss later. Step 2 : The Legal Stuff Register your company. You can't do anything legal until you register your company with the State in which you base your operations. This is not a suggestion; it is the law. For tax purposes and record keeping you must register a company. You cannot open a business bank account until you have Articles of Organization or Articles of Incorporation. Most States will allow you to file the paperwork online and print your articles from your desktop printer. You can also request certified copies in case you need them for financial loans or other misc. purposes. For more information on what type of business to register After you file your paperwork then you have to visit your friends at the IRS and apply for a Federal EIN (Employer Identification Number). This is also known as a Federal Tax ID and will become your company's social security number. This will be more and more important as your company grows and you apply for company credit. Dunn and Bradstreet monitors a company's credit worthiness and uses similar numbers to keep their records updated. To apply for a Federal EIN Number here A business bank account is not a must but will help with any monetary transactions. I highly suggest you get a separate bank account for business purpose only. This is very important and can protect you in case something happens to your company and you have to file bankruptcy. In some cases creditors or debtors can actively pursue personal assets if you're not protected. Every smart business person knows how to protect themselves and their business. It is not hard to get a business bank account and most do not charge any fees because business accounts generally put more money into the bank than personal accounts. Shop around and find the best bank for your business needs. Also, if you are reselling products (brokering) then you need to apply for a State Reseller Certificate. You can apply for one at your State's Department of Revenue website or by phone. Step 3 : Purchasing a Domain Name So you pretty much have all the legal stuff taken care of and it's time to get into the meat of things. It's time to get started on building your company. The first step in this will be your online presence. In the age of Dot coms, getting a really good domain name is either going to be really expensive or simply impossible. There are companies that do nothing but buy and sell domains. It's a big business but it can also affect your business. Everyone wants short and clever domain names but those are usually taken. You can still find good ones if you use a little bit of imagination and common sense. I am pretty sure that www.horsedolls.com is already taken so you can use www.horsedollsinternational.com. The chance of longer domain names being available is much greater than the short ones. You want to avoid using hyphens, numbers, and misspelled words. Keep it as simple as possible.
Step 4 : Get Web Hosting Now that you have your domain name you have to find someone to host your website. There are thousands of hosting companies out there and you have to be real careful when shopping for them. There are a lot of things you need to look out for before making your web hosting decision. Below are a list of very reputable web hosting companies. Please be sure to read their information carefully and if you have any questions, ask before you buy.
See Complete List of Web Hosting Companies and Ratings>> Step 5 : Design Your Website Design your website or get someone to assist you in designing your website. A very important aspect of a good website is not the fancy graphics but how the website is written and the layout (how everything is presented). You can have a website with all the bells and whistles but if it's not easy to navigate then you'll scare off more people than you attract. There are several programs you can purchase to create web sites but if you are not comfortable then you can hire a professional designer or company. Below is a list of trusted design companies that will produce professional web sites. See all Professional Design Companies >> Step 6: Accepting Payment Through Merchant Services Now you have to start worrying about how your customers can pay you since you won't have a physical storefront. This is made really simple by merchant accounts that utilize payment gateways. You install a payment gateway right into your site and it allows you to accept credit cards and other forms of payments like check. READ THE INFORMATION! I can't stress this enough. A lot of companies that offer merchant accounts have a system that they don't want you to know about. It's a dark secret that they don't want everyone to know about. It's called a "Rolling Reserve". A rolling reserve is a percentage of the processed money that the bank (merchant account) holds onto for a determined amount of time. Some companies have rolling reserves as high as 75% and for lengths as long as a year. If you are operating a company it is hard to keep it afloat if 75% of your income is held for up to or more than a year. I have worked with a few merchants in my business career and have experienced some really bad and some really good. I am here to help you avoid making the same mistakes I made. The only trusted Merchant that I have ever dealt with is Wells Fargo Merchant Services. They are the best all around and they do not implement any type of rolling reserve. One you need to avoid is Card Services International. They are probably one of the largest and most well known and that is exactly how they treat you when you call for support. I had an extremely bad experience with them and would highly suggest not retaining their services. Read Complete Article >> Step 7: Marketing Your Website Company name? Check. Website? Check. Merchant account? Check. So now what? Now that you've gotten everything done it's time to let the world know that you're in business! There are tons of ways to market your website on and offline and this site is not to focus on all those different techniques. Maybe later when I have more free time I will go into more detail but for now I will share the techniques that I have used and have proved very effective. I will advise you that there is a lot to read and learn so if you are in a crunch for time or are just too lazy to do it then hire a company to do it for you. You can have a million dollar website but if no one knows about it then it's a waste of time and money. Read Complete Article >> Step 8 : Maintenance Maintenance. Now that you have your site live and actively marketing it you have to start maintenance mode. This is where you constantly update the page and add or remove things that are not selling. You will probably run several different benchmark tests to see which layout or presentation method is the most effective for your target audience. Read Complete Article >> |
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