How to Start a Home Business Online: a Dot-Com Start-Up
One of the most common home businesses to launch is an online dot-com start-up. "Dot-com" is a catchphrase for a business that serves customers via the Internet in some manner. Since all you need to start a dot-com business at minimum is a computer and an online hosting service, it is simple to do so from the comfort of your home office. However, launching an online home-based start-up requires just as much planning as a traditional bricks-and-mortar company.
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Instructions
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Decide if you want to sell products, services or general information (such as electronic books and media) to your customers through your dot-com start-up. Explore viable business concepts for your new dot-com start-up once you know what you want to sell online. Focus on your own talents, education and certifications when brainstorming ideas.
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Secure a domain name for your business that is catchy, simple to remember, relevant to your concept and straight to the point. Get a corresponding hosting plan also. In most cases you can get both from the same provider.
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Hire a professional web programmer or designer to create your website: Unless you are a skilled programmer yourself, creating the website should not be the focus of your work in launching your home-based online business. It is very time-consuming, and the wrong design can impede the success of your small operation.
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Set out a marketing plan to make your dot-com destination more visible to potential customers. That includes Internet listings, banner advertisements, pay-per-click text ads and search engine optimization (SEO) to draw search engine traffic to your online business. Again, hire a specialist to handle this last aspect (SEO) of marketing your new online startup, as it is often very time-consuming.
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Fine-tune your services or seek distributor contracts if you plan to sell products. Managing the products and services you plan to sell on your dot-com website is one of your top tasks when running this type of home-based business. Another important task is managing your limited budget to maintain the website, purchase what you need to keep selling and paying for advertising your small website.
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Hire staff as your home-based dot-com business grows. You can start with independent contractors or part-time employees to help you with the various tasks required to process and deliver to your online customers to keep costs manageable for your small operation.
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Tips & Warnings
Put your entire dot-com start-up plan in writing. Use this plan for your own guidance and for potential investors to peruse if you plan to seek financing in the future.
