Starting a small business online is almost the same as starting a brick-and-mortar business, since you must get all of the same licenses and permits, plus you must set up an online presence. Setting up an online presence is time consuming, especially if your business is retail and you have a lot of inventory to upload. Before getting the online portion working, be sure to obtain all of the necessary licenses, including sales tax licenses and any insurance needed for your specific business.
Step 1
Using a site such as godaddy.com, register a domain name for your business. Try to get a domain name as close to the business name as possible, if you cannot get the business name itself. If the business name is long, use part of the business name. The domain name should be something that people will remember and will connect to your business (see Resources below).
Step 2
Find hosting for your online company. Sites like godaddy.com do offer hosting, but the hosting space is limited. You need to check each hosting company for the amount of bandwidth (traffic) allowed, whether it includes mysql or other database capabilities, and language capabilities such as cgi and php (see Resources below).
Step 3
Transfer the domain to the hosting company. The site where you registered your domain will provide a link to transfer the domain names. Once the domains are transferred, you may have to wait 24 to 48 hours for the new mapping propagates.
Step 4
Design the website. You can hand code the entire website, if it is a small site and you do not need a shopping cart. If you have many things to sell, you can download free shopping carts such as zen cart (see Resources below). You can also use scripts such as Joomla! to help organize the website for service oriented businesses. Some hosting companies may have links to scripts through the administrative part of your website. Once the website is designed, upload the website.
Step 5
Get your website in front of people. Submit the website to places such as Google and Yahoo! Search. Create a blog about your wares or services, and link the blog to the website. Be sure to write in the blog at least once a week. Submit the blog to search engines. Create a link in your email signature for your business. Do not spam people by sending them unwanted advertising from your online business. The best way to get the word out by email is to just use a link in your signature.
Skill: Moderately Easy
Keyword: start small business online Internet
