Startup Management: How to Setup a Successful Online Business
It’s best associated with the American Dream, but it’s much more of a global thing. Owning and running a successful business is the foundation and essence of a small green pasture in lots of people’s minds, whether it’s pursued or not. ‘A little shop on the beachfront’ or ‘an office on the highest floor of the tall building in Manhattan.’ Now though, shopfronts can be digital. This improved access to building a store means the first step towards success, of any sort, is more attainable. As such, here are a few tips to setting up a successful online business.
Business Plan
Let’s assume that there’s a product or service which has prompted you to set up the business, that it’s decided or heart-set-upon. As such, aspects, or even the cornerstones, of a business plan have naturally followed. Importantly, the market research should be well underway. Knowing why and how similar products or services have been successful, or not, provide invaluable lessons: for instance, in assessing how they’ve priced, delivered, and marketed their product or service.
It’s important to keep the plan lean. Keeping it simple allows you to see the essentials and remind yourself of the key targets. There’s an added benefit to a simpler, bullet-pointed plan: there should be plenty of white space surrounding them, which shouldn’t be intimidating, but, rather, allows for improvisation. (Improvisation is a fancy word for problem-solving. Ornette Coleman, a famous avant-garde jazz saxophonist, even while working a genre where ‘improvisation’ was its fundamental trait, didn’t believe in true improvisation was possible: it’s all about structure. ‘Improvisation’ and problem-solving should be considered the same thing.) There is less rigidity, allowing for measured risks and experimentation.
Insurance
Insurance should be a priority. It’s an easy means for future-proofing your business. They guarantee that anything unfortunate that happens will have less lasting damage than it might otherwise have had. Finding online insurance for a business is quick too. Costs change depending on a variety of factors: location, type of business, how many employees, experience, etc. However, they can be personalised to fit your needs, ensuring you aren’t paying for any extras which are unnecessary.
Website or Landing Page
Having a website is great, but not an absolute necessity. It might be money better saved, rather than spent developing one. E-commerce websites and apps are workarounds, for instance. Shopify, eBay, and Etsy, for instance, offer convenient means of opening a store. The host site takes a percentage of the revenue on each sale, which is the only cost. (These costs vary across the market. For example, Etsy looks increasingly likely to continue upping and upping their percentage of the revenue.) Not only that but these sites can give you access to a wider audience as they’re global websites, and the search functions might result in you being discovered. Moving to your own website, in time, where you have more control and no go-between, makes sense so long as it is worth the investment. Growth could force your hand, as working from an ecommerce site can appear less professional.