How to Start a Home Business on the Web

Home businesses can appear large with a well-designed website.

Online is a great place to start a new business because of the wide reach of the internet. Online businesses may sell products such as mugs and clothes, or services such as graphic design and virtual assistants. With a functional website and a marketing plan, a business will be able to reach customers throughout the world who are interested in the offered products or services. A distinct advantage is that an online business can have the look of a large firm based on the appearance of the website when the business actually operates from a home.

Things You'll Need

• Initial capital
• Business idea
• Product or service ideas

Instructions

1. Register the business with your state and local government offices and obtain a business license. Retail businesses may require a retail tax identification number as well as a federal employer identification number. Once these licenses are in place, you can open for business, purchase inventory for your online business if you sell products, and hire employees or freelancers.

2. Identify the products or services that you will offer. For product companies, take high-quality photographs of the products and determine a price for each item. Typically, retail cost is twice the wholesale cost. Find wholesale companies through trade shows and trade magazines. For service companies, develop a list of your services and a corresponding price list. Base your service prices on lump sum costs or hourly rates determined by your experience and skills.

3. Write the content for your website. The content includes detailed product or service descriptions and informative articles that will be useful to your customers. High-quality content will increase your site ranking in the search engines.

4. Purchase a domain name from an online vendor and hire a design company to build your company website, or develop the site yourself. Find the right firm for the job by interviewing several companies and viewing their past work. If you hire a website design firm, you will need to decide how much control you wish to have over your website. Some companies will insist on making all edits to the website, while other firms have site managers that allow you to make small edits and manipulate the items for sale. If necessary, hire a graphic artist to work with the website designer on a company logo and color scheme for the website.

5. Publish the website online and begin to market the website through search engines, social media and paid advertising. Hire a firm to help your marketing efforts if you do not have time. Marketing firms can help you list your site in the search engines by submitting your domain name to each site, and help you develop pay-per-click advertising campaigns, which will maximize your visibility on websites such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook.

Tips & Warnings

• If you plan to ship product, choose a carrier who will give you the best prices with flexibility, such as the post office, UPS or Fedex.

• Find the URL submissions pages for sites like Yahoo and Google by searching for their free URL submit page.

• Launch your social media marketing campaigns using Facebook and Twitter.

• If you sell retail products from your home, set aside a "warehouse" space for inventory storage and packaging.

• Check with your city or county for any regulations about running a business from your home.

References

• StartupNation.com: 11 Steps to a successful website
• Entrepreneur.com: 3 secrets to a site that sells

Resources

• SCORE Small Business Advice
• Entrepreneur.com: Integrate Social Media Into Your Website