How To Start A Business

Starting an online business isn’t always as easy as it seems. Many of us out there with a business idea in mind often have a clear idea of the product or service they intend to sell, but don’t exactly know how to start a business. The following paragraphs will take you through the first few physical steps involved in starting an e-commerce shopping site. We won’t be covering in detail the planning aspect of business development, as this is covered in a different section.

So far in your business planning process we will assume for the purposes of this piece that you have:

• - A clear idea of the product or service you intend to sell
• - Determined your target market segment
• - Know your competition and why you’ll be able to compete successfully
• - Already contacted wholesale suppliers (if you are reselling products) and currently have a reliable source for your products
• - Decided to sell your items via your own shopping cart and not in an auction environment
• - Already done some prior checking to the availability of your desired business and domain names

Now it’s time to register your business. Depending on the country in which you live there will be different requirements, but generally you will apply with the appropriate governing body (in the USA it’s the CCR/Pro-Net) for your requested business name. In most cases a simple business name will only allow you privileges to that name in your specific state of registration. If you want or need exclusive rights to that name throughout the entire country you will more than likely need to file a Trademark in your country (USA – check with the US Patent and Trademark Office USPTO). Seeing as you will be trading over the internet there is no real need to register you business name in the other states, as at this stage it will only add to your tax woes more than anything.

Next is to register your domain name, the place at which you will park your e-commerce site. Two popular domain facilities are name.com and godaddy.com. You can actually search for your desired domain name at either of the two, with the option to buy the name for one or more years. Many registration sites like name.com and godaddy.com will also offer you free bonuses upon registration such as free email addresses, free websites and free hosting. Beware to filter through these ‘free options’ for what you actually need. The bundle may often sound impressive for the price, but generally won’t be of any use to you if require an outright e-commerce system for use with your business. The age old phrase ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ rings true in many of the cases here.

Ok so you’ve now registered your official business name and domain and found that the free options included with your domain registration don’t offer you the required hosting facilities for your online business requirements, so it’s time to find appropriate hosting for your needs. A simple search engine search for ecommerce hosting plans will reveal a multitude of options for you. Depending on your current skills in web and e-commerce development, you will find the plan to suit your needs and budget. Of course if budget is of no concern to you, you will have your pick of the crop and can hire a web development team directly to custom design a complete e-commerce solution for your business.

If you have not decided to make use of one of the free e-com systems from your domain or hosting service and want to explore the other applications for your business you will no doubt encounter some powerful systems out there that will cater to almost every one of your business needs. Of course the implementation of these is dependent on your current ability in development. For most of us out there this option is generally outside the bounds of our skill set and often paying for the custom installation of such a system exceeds our budget.

Regardless of the option we choose to implement at this stage, we are well on our way to starting an online business.