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When you’re ready to start
your online store business then you may want to
create your own business plan first, or use the
overview below as your blue print for getting
started. And the first step in starting your internet
business will be to choose your niche market or
in other words, choose which products you’re
going to specialize in and sell online.
1. Choose your niche market first
Statistics have shown for many years that the
best way for small internet retailers to succeed
online is to focus on a niche product market or
a specific product category.
And when choosing your niche market, it’s best
to focus on top selling products and products
which you’ll enjoy selling. |
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When you’re selling products that you actually
enjoy using, selling and learning about, then
running your business becomes something you want
to do, instead of something you have to do. And
doing what you love to do, and selling products
you believe in, can become your means of
happiness and success.
For more information on choosing your niche
market, please see “How to Choose Your Niche
Market”.
2. Create your business name next |
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Once you’ve determined which
niche market you’re going to specialize in, then
you can create an effective business name based
upon the products you sell.
And one of the most important key elements to
internet marketing success is to implement your
most important keywords or keyword phrases into
your business name and domain name as well. And
both business name and domain name should be the
same.
For example, if you were selling books, then it
would be best to focus on a niche market within
books such as business books, accounting books,
computer books, web development books or other
book categories as well.
And believe it or not, if you were selling
business books then the best name for your
business would be BestBusinessBooks or
BestBusinessBooks.com, seeing that buyers who
are looking for the best books on business would
type in “best business books” in the search
engines to find the best business books online.
And since your business name and domain name
would be the same, then your online store would
be listed higher on the search results seeing
that search engines tend to favor websites which
have the main keywords and keyword phrases in
the domain name.
If you were selling real estate books for
example, which would be a more targeted niche
market than business books in general, then the
best name for your business would be “BestRealEstateBooks.com”,
seeing that someone who wants to succeed in real
estate will search for the best real estate
books on the market and would type in those
keywords to find the best results online.
And this is just one reason why using your most
important keywords in your business name becomes
a major key element for internet business
success.
For more information on creating your business
name please see “How to Create an Effective
Business Name”.
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3. Register your business name
After creating your business name, then your
next step will be to register that name with
your Secretary of State or Department of
Corporations for your state.
If you’re starting your business as a sole
proprietorship then in most states you can
register your business name with your county
clerks’ office.
For more detailed information on how to register
your business name then please see “How to
Register Your Business Name”.
4. Register your
domain name
Your wwwdomainname.com
should match your business name as well. And in
order to achieve internet marketing success then
your business name and domain name should
include your most important keywords.
You can check domain name
availability and register your domain name with
GoDaddy.com for less than $12 per year. Or you
can register your domain name with whichever web
host provider you decide to use to host your web
site.
For more information on
creating your own domain name, please see “How
to Create a Search Engine Optimized Domain
Name”.
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5. Form your
business/company
When forming your
business/company, you will have to choose which
legal business entity to use when forming the
actual business. And in order to do so, you will
need to understand the pros and cons of the 4
main forms of business entities such as sole
proprietorships, corporations, partnerships and
LLC’s (limited liability companies).
Once you’ve determined
which legal business entity to use, then you can
proceed to form your business. (NOTE: In most
states you can establish your business as a sole
proprietorship just by registering your business
name).
For more detailed
information on forming your business using a
legal business structure please see, “How to
Choose the Best Legal Business Entity for You”.
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6. Obtain applicable business licensing
Some counties, cities and
states require additional licenses such as
business occupational and/or county occupational
licenses as well, (if applicable in your
county). And to find out which
license(s) you’ll need in order to operate your
business from home, then you’ll have to contact
your local county clerks’ office to see which of
these licenses is required in your county, city
or state.
You can contact your
county clerks’ office and ask them to send or
fax you the form or you can download it from
their website. Then fill it out, and fax it or
mail it back to them with the appropriate fees.
For more information on
obtaining any additional licensing, contact your
local county clerks’ office or visit their
website online.
7. Obtain your sales tax license
A sales tax license, also known as a sales tax
certificate, resellers’ license or tax id allows
you to collect sales tax where sales tax is
applicable, such as when a sale is made from
within your home state, (if your state has a
sales tax).
Furthermore, distributors will require you to
fax them your sales tax license as a form of
proof of business registration and tax
exemption.
NOTE: Alaska, New Hampshire,
Oregon, Delaware and Montana do not issue sales
tax licenses since these states don't have a
sales tax.
To obtain your sales tax license, you can visit
or contact your local IRS office and ask them to
send you a sales tax license application. Or,
you can download the sales tax application from
your states’ IRS website.
For more information on obtaining your sales tax
license please see “How to obtain your sales tax
license”.
8. Open a business bank account
Although most of your sales will be paid by
credit card, some customers such as small
businesses, schools and other organizations may
want to pay you by check.
However, those businesses are not going to write
or make those checks payable to your own
personal name. Instead they’re going to make
those checks payable to your business name. And
you can not deposit business checks made out to
your business name into your own personal bank
account.
So for this reason, you’ll need to eventually
open up a business bank account in the name of
your business.
You can open up a business bank account from
within the same bank of where you already have a
personal bank account or you can shop around to
see which banks offer the best rates and
services.
You may be required to present a DBA form (doing
business as) to the bank when opening your
business bank account. You will also be required
to present your sales tax license, fictitious
name certificate or corporation documents. Be
sure to check and have all documents on hand
when opening up your business bank account.
9. Get singed up with wholesale
distributors
Select your choice distributors and get signed
up with a few of them. You’ll need one or two
distributors for your primary suppliers and a
few more distributors for back up as well,
especially during the holiday seasons.
You can contact them by phone to request an
application or download a dealer application
from their website. Fill it out and fax it in
along with a copy of your sales tax license.
Then you’ll be able to check on product
inventory and real time pricing.
For more information on getting signed up with
distributors please see “Drop-Shippers,
Distributors, Wholesalers and more”.
10. Choose your ecommerce solution and
web host provider
Determine how you’re going to open your online
store and then do it. You can use your domain
name register to host your web site as every web
host provider offers complete ecommerce
solutions.
Select a plan, get your business online and then
start adding products. For more information on
web hosting and ecommerce solutions please see “Open Your Own Online Store”.
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11. Obtain and establish a payment
processing solution
You’ll need to be able to
accept credit cards online as a form of payment.
And most web host providers offer merchant
accounts and complete payment solutions as well.
You can also obtain your own merchant account
from
www.nationalbankcard.com and/or use PayPal as
a secondary or even primary payment processing
solution as well.
For more information on
merchant accounts and payment processing please
see “All About Merchant Accounts” and “Using
PayPal as a Payment Processing Solution”.
12. Promote, market and advertise your
online store
Once you have your online store up and running
then it’s time to create traffic in order to
produce sales. And by using internet marketing
methods such as search engine marketing, text
link ads and other internet marketing
strategies, you’ll be able to create targeted
traffic to your website within a matter of
hours. And you can do it yourself for free.
For more detailed information on promoting your
website then please see “Marketing Your Online
Store”.
Once you’ve created targeted traffic to your web
site then it’s just a matter of time before the
orders start coming in. And from there on out
it’s all about taking and placing orders and
running a successful online store business. |
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Next-> |
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How to Choose Your Niche Market |
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How to Create an Effective Business Name |
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Check for Domain Name Availability |
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How to Register Your Business Name |
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