Small Business Matters

[#1]

“I’m starting an online business – where do I start?”. It’s broad question, but is one that comes up repeatedly on small business forums and discussion boards.

Of course, an online business is merely a vehicle for the product or service you are selling. So starting a Web-based business – and making it a success – will take more than just “getting online”. 

There are two fundamental steps you will need to take. The first is to treat your online business like any other business venture and pay attention to business start-up processes; second, you’ll need to generate traffic to your site.

Below are some tips and best practices that can guide you through these steps – with all your check boxes ticked. 

Starting an Online Business: Be a Responsible Business Owner

Whether you are starting an innovative new online business or setting up a hot dog stand, you must pay attention to the fundamentals of business ownership. For online business owners, this means more than just building a Web site and registering your domain name. You’ll also need to comply with the regulations that govern your type of business and the products and services you sell.

You’ll also need to understand your tax obligations, make decisions about your business structure, know your responsibilities as an employer, and so on.

A useful resource to help you get your arms around being a responsible business owner is Business.gov’s 10 Steps to Starting a Business.  This step-by-step government guide consolidates everything you need to know and do to honor your legal obligations as a new business owner.

If you are engaging in any form of e-commerce in your online business venture, you should also be aware of these federally-mandated e-commerce rules and regulations.

Marketing an Online Business: Using Online and Offline Channels

To succeed in your online business venture, it’s critical that you generate traffic. But without a store front or obvious physical business location, let alone any kind of physical signage, generating traffic is one of the biggest challenges of starting and online business.

Take time to write an integrated marketing plan that maximizes both online and offline channels – and delivers a consistent brand message through both.

Below are some tips for using both online and offline channels to market your online small business venture:

1. Promoting Your Online Business Using Online Channels

Using Web-based marketing channels to promote your online business can be accomplished in many ways. But, unless you have a substantial marketing budget, your best advice is to employ a mix of low cost and free tactics. At a minimum these should include these three intertwined tactics:

• Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – You don’t need to hire an SEO expert to help make your small business Web site search engine friendly. Getting your site to rank high in organic search results, such as Google, gives your site a “presence” and there are some basic strategies that you can implement. Here are some Tips on Doing SEO for Small Business.

• Pay-per-Click (PPC) Advertising – PPC advertising is an online advertising model used on search engines (usually appearing under the heading “Sponsored Links”), advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs, in which you only pay when your ad is clicked. It’s a cost-effective option for many small businesses who can’t afford more complex SEO campaigns. Here is a useful overview of Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Small Business from the StartUp Blog at PartnerUp.

• Social Media Marketing – From Twitter to Facebook to blogging, the concept of building the profile of online business through social media is being used by over 260,000 companies in North America, not just to engage with their markets, but to actually generate sales. John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing has many tips on social media marketing for small business. Read how to “Hit the Social Media Sweet Spot” or view  his archived webinar “Social Media for Small Business”.

To help track and measure the success of these initiatives, free tools such as Google Analytics or Yahoo Web Analytics can provide insight on conversion rates, ROI, etc. 

2. Promoting Your Online Business Using Traditional Offline Channels

If your online business is local in its focus, get out there and make the most of on-the-ground tactics such as flyers, or advertising in local newspapers, community newsletters or at niche market events. You can even generate free press for yourself by getting involved in cause-related events. If you have writing skills, contact your local free press and volunteer to write an article or quick column on your particular area of expertise.

Other Resources

• Real-life Twitter Business Success Stories (Web Worker Daily)
• Seven Ways to Raise Your Local Business Listing Rank in Google (LevelTen Interactive)
• Quick Start Guide to SEO : Search Engine Optimization Basics for Small Business (SBI+ M)
• How to Use Your Local Newspaper to Market Your Business (Allbusiness.com)
• Three Ways to Earn Followers on Twitter (American Express OPEN Forum)
• How to Conduct a Website Self-Evaluation (Sparkplugging.com)
• Twitter Tools for Business (SCORE)
• How to Use Facebook for Business (Community Marketing Blog)

Message Edited by CaronBee on 07-02-2009 12:22 PM

Message Edited by CaronBee on 07-02-2009 12:33 PM

[#2]

This is an excellent post! Thank you Caron.

There is much to learn about the web and I have tried it myself. It is very tough in the beginning but is well worth it once you make it. 

[#3]

Great article.  I would add one more thing, to generate organic traffic you need good content.  People think with webistes, if you build it they will come.  Not true.  Build good content, get found by google, rank well and they will come. 

Takes time and like you said, treat it like a business.  Keep up the good work

[#4]

I recently began working on a new website that is already ranking well because of minimal SEO work. Depending on your niche it may not take a lot of effort to rank well for particular search terms.

Drill Pipe & Drill Collars

Message Edited by NicoleD on 09-08-2009 11:40 AM

[#5]

hi thank you for this great  information. full of knowledge specially for me. i am going to start business for seo services but dont have enogh knowledge about seo field. i am learning rite now and executing any way thanks..

Message Edited by NicoleD on 08-18-2009 08:50 PM

[#6]

Thank you for such valuable information, we really don' need an SEO for such work, practise makes man perfect. At the beginning it may be hard but later on it will benefit

Computer RAM

sony ericsson bluetooth headset

Message Edited by NicoleD on 09-08-2009 11:39 AM

[#7]

Hey guys, if any of you are contemplating starting your own business or are interested in entrepreneurship, there is a new platform for young minds to share their ideas at The Startup CEO: www.startupceo.co.za

[#8]

Hey Caron,

Great post, this is a great resource, almost a full course about starting an online business.  I run a company that teaches brick and mortar businesses who are only reaching the offline crowds what they need to do to get more customers from the internet.  Do you have any other work published?  Great sources - thanks again for the post! I am new to this forum, so I am not going to leave a hyperlink to my site. Here is the text version:

http://www.BusinessTrafficSecrets.com

Best,

Earl Sondreal

[#9]

Earl - Thanks for your comment, all my posts are located here within "Small Business Matters". I touch on a variety of topics involved in starting and running a business, including marketing. 

If you have any suggestions for future posts that you and your business would find useful, please let me know.

Thanks

Caron

[#10]

What a great article!! I have been in the same business for 23 years and just recently decided to go in a new direction. Because I had suilt a good reputation, most of my business was from direct referrals, so I did not  understand all the great tools that are available these days, for relatively little money, but they are time consuming and do involve a learning curve..

Another way to help boost your visibility is to join some type of Business Networking group. I just joined Beach Cities BNI, and I now have 50 sales people working for me!! That means there are at least 50 people that I give a commercial to every week, and when they are out and about in the community and someone mentions a need for the type of services I provide, they just hand them my business card and let them know I will take good care of them!! just one more tool in the tool box!!

www.whiteinkstudios.com

Message Edited by NicoleD on 11-09-2009 10:51 AM

[#11]

Kudos to  You whiteinkstudios!

I think this is a great Entrepreneur's checklist. SMM, PPC, and SEO are all viable and profitable ways to market your business online. 

Good Luck!

www.seop.com 

[#12]

This is a great article with fantastic resources.

Running my own small online business, I would say one of the biggest challenges is deciding which of the millions of tools and techniques out there to build my business.  Without giving any recommendations here, I would say there are 2 fundamental things that any business owner should focus on:

1)  Build the product.  You have to have a strong, compelling product that people are willing to buy.

2)  Build the website with content.  Yes, follow all the SEO and web design standards, but at the end of the day, content is king.  Produce useful, relevant content to your product for your customers.  They will thank you, and you will be rewarded by the search engines.  Remember that this is a long term strategy.  You have to be patient and let it grow slowly.  Most online businesses fail due to a lack of long term commitment to this.  If you're interested, see how we built our content on our sports jerseys store, where we created relevant and fun sports articles for our seemingly straight forward business.

Best,

Johnny

--

This post was edited to remove a commercial link. Read our discussion policies for more Community best practices.

[#13]

Thanks for the ideas.  They are right there are many ways to economically promote your website online.  New ones pop up every day.  Everyone knows Twitter but there are numerous other avenues to get your site out to the public.  The key is to work at it a little each day.  Set aside 10 minutes and you will be surprised how many new customers and ideas you can produce--as long as you have a good product and work on providing your customer quality information.

Thanks

Tim

ergonomicpartners.com/