Now more than ever, there are online businesses popping up. Some of them immediately go viral and have more demand than they can handle, while others never gain the traction, they need to be a contender in the business market. These are the five things you need to do before you open your virtual doors.
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5 Things to Do Before You Startup Online Business
Pick Out the Right Name
The first thing that you want to do is pick out the right domain name for your online business. This needs to be something that checks off all the boxes for you, it’s easy to remember, it’s unique; your domain will do better if you pick a domain that is your business’ name also. But be careful here, if you are selling something like keycaps for keyboards, and you call yourself Key-Caps.com, don’t be surprised if you get a little less traffic at first.
Most online buyers have learned to be wary of generic and plain websites as a defense tool. But there is still hope, even if you have chosen a generic name because that weariness usually only lasts a little while before people begin to get comfortable with your work and product. Likewise, your business will do better all-around if you pick a name that implies a connection to your product or online business name.
Buy that Perfect Domain
Once you’ve found that perfect domain name, it’s time to buy it. Use a domain purchaser that will help you through the process. When you buy a website domain, you should meet with a consultant to speak about the best course of action for your business goals.
After this, you will most likely either need to contact the owner of the domain yourself (which we don’t recommend) or use your purchaser’s connections to make contact for the selling/buying process. In the end, you should find yourself with favorable selling terms, and you should be ready to move on with your online business.
Think About Schedules
Most new businesses owners have a hard time balancing their new business and their life. This is especially true if you are a student, parent, guardian, or employed full-time at another job. Business owners usually think of their business as a 24-hour job, 7-days a week.
Now that doesn’t mean that you have to think about it in the same way but know that the time and effort that goes into your business, will be returned with interest. You will need to seriously consider how much time you want to dedicate to your online business on a day-to-day basis.
It is obviously fine to skip days, but you should be spending a good portion of time and energy on your new venture. Create a new schedule, factoring in obligations and the important things (like your current job), and add in time to work on your online business around those events. Doing your schedule like this will ensure that you are meeting your obligations and still making progress on your business goals.
Research the Area and Your Competition
Make sure that you look at the competition of your online business. This is a critical step in creating your own successful business because it lets you know what others are up to and what seems to be working for them.
Some businesses even have pictures of their working setup on their websites, so you can see what they are working with. You need to know this sort of information and who they are working with because since they are already established, your goal is to either produce a better product than them or produce something with a unique aspect that only you can do. This is how you get into niche areas and clientele—give them something that the other guys cannot.
The Social Media Game
Lastly and most obviously, you’ll want to build your social media profiles. Use all of the big-name platforms that you can think of. And remember that you are going to need to use all of these platforms as much as you can (this is why people often hire SEO and marketing people for small businesses).
If you choose to go in alone, you will at least want profiles on Google Business, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Yelp, Tiktok, and Twitter. Each platform will reach out to interested people naturally, but you will want to use them as often as you can. Since different types of people tend to be drawn to a particular platform over another, you will also want to find your particular demographic of each, so that you can make content that is in line with both your ideal demographic and still perfectly in sync with your company beliefs.
