Partner Article

Starting an Online Business

Starting an online business is something more and more entrepreneurs are doing each year. Indeed, data direct from Google shows that searches for ‘start an online business’ are at an all time high.

It’s an appealing option for many entrepreneurs who recognise that they don’t need a physical location in order to start and run a profitable business. As we grow increasingly digitally savvy as a nation, our propensity to purchase online has greatly increased and entrepreneurs have seen this opportunity.

Here are our tips to help you set up an online business of your own:

Conduct your research

It’s essential whenever you’re thinking of starting a business to understand the commercial landscape and how your business will fit.

You’ll need to scope out how many people are vying for your potential audience’s attention. If yours is a particularly competitive area, you’ll know how challenging it will be to compete with the bigger, more established businesses. Many entrepreneurs are seeking to identify niches where they can excel. You can use tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner to see how many people are searching for your proposed service or product name, and how much competition there is in that area.

Use this insight to form the foundations of your business plan. You’ll need to build on this plan in order to lay out your strategy for business success. Once you have identified your niche and laid out your business plan, you should…

Choose a Business Name

Your business name says a lot about your company. But it’s not just about branding these days.

Your choice of business name can also have implications on your online marketing strategy - which is really important if you’re setting up an online company! Always check whether your business name is available as a website address - e.g. www.yourbusiness.com. Ideally, both the .com and .co.uk versions will be available.

Your business name can also affect how your company is remembered and how easy it is to search for you. If your business name is too difficult to pronounce or spell, it’s unlikely people will be able to find it when they need it. Check out our full guide to choosing a business name here.

Buy your domain

You’ll need to buy the domain (website address) you want to use. This means using a site such as GoDaddy to buy the website address of your choice, remembering to buy both the .com and .co.uk if available. This can cost as little as a few pounds right up to thousands depending on what you want.

StartUps provided a useful guide to buying a domain name which you can find here.

Register your business with Companies House and HMRC

You’ll need to register your business with Companies House and for this, you’ll require a business name and address.

You can technically use your home address for this, but this means putting your home address on a public database and essentially making it available to everyone to see. For this reason, many website owners choose to register their business using a virtual address, which they purchase for a monthly or yearly fee and can use to register and promote their company.

You can register your business with Companies House and HMRC through the government website.

Build your website and prepare for launch

Now, you need to build your website and prepare it for launch! There are lots of website design and development companies you can use for this, as well as services which allow you to create your own. Platforms such as Wordpress are great for lead generation sites or smaller ecommerce, whilst Magento is ideal for larger online stores.

You should get all of your content and products ready prior to launch. Your website is your shop window and it’s important you get it all set up and looking great before opening the doors.

Be visible

It’s one thing to build and launch an online business, quite another to encourage people to visit it.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving your website’s visibility in the Google search results, which is essential if you want to be found. You can find a small business guide to Google here.

There’s obviously lots more to starting and growing your online business but by following these simple steps, you’ll be off to a great start.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Company Address .