Planning a Web Site for your business

You should have a good business plan before designing a website. Business plans typically detail the short and long-term goals of your business. If you want a great relationship with your customers, try to find answers to these questions.
The Intention of your site
Audience for your site
Your ultimate goals with the site

Develop a good mission statement for your website, so that your customers will be attracted to your website through your mission statement. Mission statement should include ex: The intent of my site is to promote my ex: specific product or service. The site provides a description of my services, qualifications and background, interests, and complete contact information.

When you have strong understanding and plan for your website in place, you’re ready to step through the creation of a small business site for promotions.


For ex: You may be conducting cooking classes. Your web site should include the following pages.
Home page
About yourself
Services
Getting in touch

You will need a text editor to create your website. There are free editors that come with your operating system (Note Pad for windows and Simple Text for Macintosh). You can buy a software package that will help you easily build your website. Ex: Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver. Adobe Photoshop is an image editor which will help you do lot of graphic work. Thirdly you need an FTP client. FTP client is the software that allows you to move your documents to your web server.

Just a small knowledge of HTML will be enough for you to add and modify content of your website. Create a site template by saving a new page. You’ll open this template, change the files as need. To add a header and paragraph text, simply highlight any existing text that you do not want and type the new content. You can add any images you have by manually entering the code for the image. It is that simple.

It is very important to keep in mind that your customers will judge your business from the presentation of your website.

Internet for Small Business (Stage of the world)

Real power of internet lies in the inter-connection of people and ideas. Directly sharing their opinion through the web and putting it into use. Web is turning the market into conversation. Businesses to business market places are blooming and they bring entire industries together making these supply chains faster than anybody can think. You cannot imagine that you are sitting in front of a computer and sharing ideas with people around the world.

Companies using new technologies and new selling techniques are improving faster than traditionalists. Their secret of success is sharing your products freely. Open Source software is probably the most profitable business. New companies have become market leaders because they do not sell most of the software, they rent them. Their main income is based upon specific set of applications. This is a brilliant customer service idea. Customers are attracted to your site because they can download free software. Regular visitors to these sites tend to buy what you have in the market for selling. Distributed technology thrives. If I am a frequent visitor to a certain web page and I get free products, I will visit the site again and again, if I need a major software package I would definitely buy from them.

Sharing your professional ideas is very important and fun. There are a large number of professionals like writers, musicians, artists, managers and so on who put their ideas in the internet for the common public to view and share.

Benefits of doing business over the internet is that you save your valuable time that you can spend with your family and friends, may be give some time to yourself. Cheap and easy communication methods used will spare you from printing letters and sending faxes.

You will have your local niche and also you will be trading globally extending your potential market place. You will have to trace frequent visitors to your website and send them special offers every three or six months. You will be saving the cost of premises and staff and also advertising.

If you do not have a business and would like to start one
You do not have sufficient capital to start a business
You want to be your own boss

Internet is the ultimate solution. First you must keep searching on what kind of business would be suitable for you. Just go through search engines typing your various search topics. Visit some websites. You can find lot of business ideas which may suite you. If you are a professional with lot of experience you can go to an independent contractor’s website and submit your profile. Prospective customers will be contacting you in no time if your profile presentation is really good.
Even if you do not have sufficient experience, but have the ability to publish and create adverts and cards, your creativity will work. You might be able to write articles if you are a good writer. You can be a freelancer. Only you have to show your customers that you have the ability. You can join an affiliate program like http://clickbank.com , http://www.shareasale.com and http://www.websponsors.com become an affiliate and choose many options of multiple streams of income. Before joining a program, inquire and search for highest commission paying programs.

I would suggest as your first step towards getting familiar with websites and publishing, just go and join an internet community blogs and have a blog for yourself. Blogs are like a website but do not have many tools as a website do. Chat with other bloggers and write articles and publish them in your blog. Believe me it is fun. If you are a good writer, you can join as an independent contractor in a website and add your bloging experience to your profile. This is one method of attracting customers. Read books about web hosting and blogs. You can search for them in Google search or any search engine and also reed books on the subject in your local library. You do not have to know lot of programming stuff to learn these things. It is not that scary. Believe me it is not that easy as it sounds either, if you want to succeed you have to work hard and dedicate more time to your business do not expect to be sitting on your pajamas and let money flow.

Planning your business

Have you ever thought of having your own business? No doubt you already have. First time this thought came in to my mind I was confused. I wanted to start my own business venture, but how, when and where. Those were the questions that came into my mind. You would have experienced the same situation, but never panic. Your thought is well worth working upon and might be a blue print in your success. What would be better than owning your own business? One of the best things you’ll ever do is turning your business dream into reality.

First and foremost thing to remember is never take a quick decision. Think before you leap. This is the main reason most small businesses fail. You need to have a proper plan and sort yourself out. Ask yourself, why do you want to start your own business?

You want to achieve financial independence
To have freedom
Enjoy doing what you like
Don’t like working for others
Want to make a career change
Want to be recognized
Need flexibility
You do have a product or service for which you feel there is a demand.
Other reasons.

It can be any of the above. First better write them down. Secondly asses yourself, your abilities, do you have any talent or things you’d enjoy doing most? Are you a well organized person? Are you the kind of person who can put a good initial effort in starting a venture and continue it along with you? Can you manage time? Make a list of your personal strength and weaknesses. Most successful business owners are hard working and motivated. You need to be well aware of your skills and abilities. Your idea of being in business must be based on reality, not fantasy. Otherwise you are not likely to run an efficient business

Choose the business that suits you best after considering the time you can allocate to your business. You must be able to organize your business professionally. Success in business needs more than just opportunity or skills. You have to have a can do attitude. The most important thing is the way you approach your life as well as your business. Balance you family life with your business. We have a choice whether to be happy or miserable. Many people do not realize such a choice is available to them. What ever you do you need more than courage, you need a combination of hard work, skill, perseverance and good old fashioned luck.

If you have assessed your skills and abilities on a specific product or service do some research on it. The Idea you have in mind, was it successful before, do research on successful people and get information and also find out how much time and effort you have to contribute for the business.

Find out the possible market for your product or service. What is your target market? What is your minimum startup cost? Can you afford it? This is very important. Asses your financial situation before you start to prevent possible bankruptcy.

Do not keep things only to yourself. Share your idea with your family, get their support. That is more important than anything. Develop a business plan to suite your needs. Discuss with a qualified business adviser. You will have to incur marketing and other costs. If you need financial assistance, you have to have your business plan ready so that your financial institution will asses your business idea and if they think it will work, they will be happy to lend you money,

You must register a business name or a domain name. This would help you from future inconveniences. Find out whether any license and requirements are needed for this business. For some types of business you may need a license or permit. Asses your start up costs and estimated income and operating costs at least for one year. Consider how any shortfall will be funded.

If you are employing staff get advice about awards and minimum conditions of employment including occupational health and safety.

Consult your financial adviser. Good financial management is critical to the ongoing success of your business. Your costing and pricing should be accurate. Know your breakeven point. Be vigilant in sales and cash flow forecasts. Remember to keep your records up to date this is really important.

Make sure Insure your business and use the latest technology as possible so you do not have to bury your head on business. Enjoy your wonderful business.

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Written by Mahesha Iddagoda