Take your Business to the Next Level – Start Online Business

You have a small business.  You feel confident that you are ready to take your small business to the next level by establishing your online presence.

But you know almost nothing about the Internet.  You don’t know anything about social media.  You are not a geek and this is your first time to venture into online business.

Do not be afraid.  You are not alone.  There are many other entrepreneurs out there are who have not tapped the Internet as part of their marketing strategy.

There are several steps that you can do to establish your online presence which you can do on your own.

1. Register your own domain name.  You need to get a good domain name for your business.  Use a domain name that you can associate with your product or services.  Follow our blog post with the title “Domain Name – What is in a Name” for more information about domain names

2.  Start a blog.  When you have purchased a domain name the next thing that you think about is the web hosting.  Some blogs are hosted for free by wordpress or blogger.  However, having a blog like home-business-partner.blogspot.com may not suit well for our business because the name is too long for our clients to remember.  So some bloggers make the decision to pay for web hosting services.

Some domain registrants also offer web hosting services as part of their package.  Some companies offer their services for the price ranging from $40/year to $100/year.  In our case, the cost for web hosting of our other blogs is $50.88.  If you will include the fees for domain name registration and the privacy registration services the total fee we paid was $60.0 which is for one year of service.

You might say that you do not have time to blog.  Blogging is not supposed to take too much of your time.  You can post your blog at least once a week or twice a week depending on your availability.  Moreover, if you have the time now you can schedule the posting of your blog so they can be published during the weeks or months that you are very busy.

3.  Have a LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter account.  Your clients are into the social media so it is not a bad idea to be into social media.  Make sure that you use your own name or your business so your clients can easily find you.

4. Find out more about your audience.  Know your audience.  Understand the social media that you are using and make sure that you are there too.  If you are new in the social media, make sure to follow your competitors and understand how they are using the social media so you can adopt the same strategy for your own business.  You can also study how the social media is being used by other businesses and see if you can apply the same in your own business.

5. Devote your time to your blog and the social media.  In making sure that you have loyal clients you need to devote your time to your blog and the social media.

6. Be generous to your clients.  A successful Internet Marketer once said that the secret to his success is his generosity.  He started a newsletter campaign detailing the secrets of his business.  For some of you this could be unthinkable.  However, it was his strategy to success. The more information he gave to his loyal clients the more these clients became loyal to him.

7. Do all these things by yourself.  Home-business-partner.blogspot.com is a blog built by a lawyer who simply fell in love with Internet Marketing.  He is not Internet savvy and has no knowledge, training or exposure on html codes or programming languages.  But he was able to build a blog on his own.  You can do it as well. Hiring a consultant who will do these things for you may not be the best idea. If there is somebody who knows your business it is you.  There is nobody who can speak for your business other than you.

Good luck with your online business!

We already posted the most important reason why you should have an online business.  We have said that the Filipinos heavy use of the Internet makes it indispensable for every entrepreneur to have their businesses online.

Now, let us talk about the other reasons why you should have a website and establish an online business

1. 24/7 availability.  When you have a physical store business you have limitations in terms of your availability.  Perhaps you may be open only from 8 A.M. or 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. or 6 P.M. Your store could only be happened during weekdays and be closed on weekends.  In contrast, when you have an online business your business can be opened 24/7.  You can still receive emails or calls even during the night or during weekends. In our case, our website allows us to accept orders from our clients even before sun rise I can confirm these orders using my Blackberry without physically getting out of bed to confirm orders.

2. Unlimited Visibility. When you have a physical store business you are only visible to those who pass by your store.  In fact, even if people pass by your store it does not follow that they will even notice your store.  In contrast, when you have an online business you are visible not only in the Philippines but even in remote places in other parts of the world provided they have access to Internet.  In my case, my clients who are in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia can see our website and place their orders.

3. Specific Market. When you have a physical store business it does not follow that the people who pass by your store will purchase your products and services.  In contrast, when your target customer finds you on Google and clicks on your website you can be assured that the person who is viewing your website is looking for precisely the same product or service that you sell.  In our case, when our clients go to our website I am sure that they are looking for the products that I am selling.

4. Savings on Business Expenses. When you have a physical store business you will be spending so much money on securing your business licenses, registration requirements, lease contracts, monthly salaries of personnel and other business expenses.  Moreover, it will take time, around two to three years, before you can actually recoup your investment. In contrast, aside from domain name registration and hosting which are paid yearly, and expenses for developing your own website which is a one-time fee, you do not have to pay for any other thing.

5. Direct Sale. When you have a physical store business, generally, before your clients can actually purchase anything from your store you need to be opened first so your clients can go to your store and make purchases.  On the other hand, when you have an online business your products and services are available to your target customers 24/7.  Transactions can easily be done as well since our website is linked to website allowing me to confirm payments after I receive orders.

6. Accessibility of Information about your Company.  When you have an online business your customers can easily find you in Google to know more about your company, philosophy, values, mission, vision and products and services.  We have an About Us page in my online business which contains information about our company.  If my clients sends me an email asking me questions, I refer them to my FAQ page where the answers to their questions can be found.

There are many more benefits of having an online business.  The information which I gave are only those things which we found very important based on our experiences.

Identifying and Targeting Your Goals for your Online Business

Are you starting your own website?  Don’t know how to start building your website?

The common pitfalls among many online entrepreneurs is that they focus on the design of their website first before they think about its content.  When this happens they end up inserting additional pages on their website that may affect its overall design.

Before you starting designing your first blog or website, you need to clarify your goals.  What is the function of your blog or website? Is it simply a personal blog or website? Is your blog or website seeking to convince other people about political issues? Is it a company blog or website seeking to give out information about your company? Does it sell a particular product or service?

If you are just starting your own online business you need to make sure that your design fits well with the goals that you want to achieve.

Before you start building your website you need to see if it has all the elements that can help you achieve your goals.  These elements may or may not be present on your blog or website depending on your goals.

A. Corporate history
If you are a company your blog or website needs to have a page dedicated to show your target customers your corporate history.  Corporate history tells about your company and the products that your company sells.

B. Company Information
This page contains more details and information about your company such as your address, contact number, and hours of operation.

C. Press Releases
You may have an important news to share to your target audience.  Press releases ensure that the most recent and up to date news about you or your company is made available to your audience

D. Product and Service Information
If you set up your blog or website to sell products or services, a page dedicated to your products and services should be made part of your blog or website.

E. Online Purchasing
Online Purchasing page allows your loyal customers to purchase your products and services.

F. Support for Existing Customers and Prospective Clients
A blog or website needs to provide information that can help or assist your clients should they have questions.  This can be embodied in a Frequently Asked Questions page where the most common questions you encounter are answered.

G. Sitemap
A sitemap allows your target clients to see the outline of the entire website.  At the same time, it allows your target clients to immediately go to the page they want to see.

H. Online Support
If you want to be able to communicate with your clients 24/7 there should be a live chat support system that will allow them to ask you questions or information.

I. Customer Testimonials
You have customers who have said nice words about your products? Why not gather them and share them by building a Testimonials Page so your new customers can see it.