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June 2017

Business

Rules for Starting Your Online Business

The rising boom of internet sites along with the huge growth in social media means only one thing to anyone with a bit of business savvy. If you haven’t tried to create an online business, now is the time to get one up and running. But like everything else, it isn’t quite as simple as building the website and raking in the dough.

It may seem like that to you, but not everyone who has an online payment gateway on their site is making the cash to keep it going. Want an online business and want it to succeed? Here are some basics to point you in the right direction.

Define Your Business

It is hard to start up a business if you aren’t sure what people want, or who would want it. So, before you do anything, take the time to define what this business will be and why you think it will be a success. Most of the time this means defining a niche in the world of business that is a need that has not been filled by another business.

Or if it has been filled, it hasn’t been done well or there is another aspect of it no one is really looking at right now. If you can articulate this in a well thought out business prospectus, then you may have an idea for a business that is worth spending the time and investment to get it up and running.

Find Your Audience

Netflix is a great example of a company that knew the audience was going to be key to its core business. From the beginning founder Reed Hastings knew there was a need for delivering entertainment to our homes. By offering films mailed directly to our homes, at a loss to his business, he built up a core audience that were willing to pay for this service.

By the time the internet had perfected streaming well enough to deliver movies and television shows directly, he had the audience to deliver them to through his mail order business. Who is your audience and what are you willing to do to reach them? Knowing who wants what you have to offer and finding a way to let them know you have a service they need and want is half the battle.

Monetize from the Start

You may have a great service, but are people willing to pay for it? Some businesses fail because they haven’t found a way to make it easy for people to pay for what they have to offer. You may begin with something that is a free service to build your base audience, or one delivered in an off-line way (see above) but sooner or later you have to find a way for it to pay for itself.

You can bundle your offers to make them more reasonable, use social media to make your pitch or even do the good old fashion two for one sale. But you need to monetize what you offer or it is just a hobby.

Testing One Two Three

Finally, test and retest what you have. Refine what you offer, how your site offers it and how you use social media as you go along. Know that this aspect of your business is always going to be there if you plan to not just survive but thrive.

 

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Online Business

Tools to Succeed in your Online Business

Business in today’s fast-paced economy requires the ability to think fast, act faster and always be poised for the next evolution in business. What worked only a few years ago is now old hat and probably a detriment to your success as a business.

New software such as the popular Provance for IT departments prove that staying on top of current developments can pay off with big rewards. So how does anyone keep up let alone lead in an environment like this? Here are a few tricks of the trade that can help.

Social Media and Your Website

While we have all heard the word on social media and how important it is to a business, it isn’t enough to simply have an account in each of the leading sites. You have to understand how each of them have different audiences, are used in different ways and will give you a leg up as well.

One of the important tools many forget how to monitor work from home employees is that you can link up your site to your social media sites on a regular basis, if you use it right. Have important information on how your product works on your website? Why not post about that on social media, with links to it. The same goes for new products, new distributors and every blog post you add. Connect your site to your social media pages for maximum impact.

The Importance of Blogging

I create blogs for clients and what I always hear from them is that they don’t know what to say on them. They know they are good for SEO but just can’t imagine what they have to say that anyone would like to hear. But once we talk, it becomes obvious what great information they have about their industry that others would love to read about.

Don’t know what to write about? Stuck when you open that blog software to write? Create a schedule that ties into your industry. Are there trade shows that regularly happen you can write about? Do you have seasonal shifts in your buying or selling? When do you develop new products? All of this is great for blogging, along with monthly sales information and seasonal reminders about changes in buying habits of your clients. Think about sales cycles and what you see changing in your industry too.

Update That Website

Have you ever gone on a site and thought it looked outdated? Chances are that this site was state of the art when it was built. But fashions in web design change almost as fast as women’s fashions. What looked good a year or two ago now looks clunky and out of date.

Don’t let this happen to your site or your potential customers will think you are not really a viable business. In addition, if you don’t check on the site on a regular basis you might have code break down or links stop working. That can lose you sales.

Keep that site up to date and refresh it every year, just as you would any marketing campaign. Your website is your introduction to the world, so make sure it truly reflects your business.

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