How to set up an online business 1

How to set up an online business 1

How to set up an online business 1

So what's this then?

This is the first in a three part series of articles addressing the subject of How to set up an online business'. The first part begins with a reality check and the importance of having a business plan. The second part deals with how to use the business plan and assessing progress, the third step covers adapting your plan and concludes with some encouraging thoughts from an expert who has set up many an online business and also includes links to some useful government sponsored resources.

A cautionary word or reality check

Setting up an online business is not for the faint hearted. This is as true online as it is offline. You need to have realistic expectations and be willing to persevere. You need to have sufficient financial resource to see you through the start up phase and you ought to have a contingency fund to cover unexpected delays or costs. This may all sound rather negative, but starting a business is not normally easy and your chances are a lot better if you proceed with realistic expectations rather than beginning naively and finding that you become disillusioned and tempted to give up. These comments are equally true of online businesses as they are of offline businesses. There are differences, there are advantages and disadvantages of each, but the very attractive notions that one can read about online that may lead you to think that you can have a good idea, set up your web site and wait for the sales to roll in are generally misleading. There is a lot more to setting up an online business than this.

Having said that, nothing ventured, nothing gained. There are many genuine success stories that most of us would like to emulate and these usually began with inspired ideas and determined perseverance.

Have a business plan

You need to begin with a good idea, this idea needs to be reduced to writing in the form of a business plan. The discipline of doing so even for very small enterprises is invaluable, because it forces one to think through the issues in advance, rather than crashing headlong in ones enthusiasm into disappointment. Research and preparation are of critical importance, neglect them to your peril. The business plan will set out what the business is, where it is going and how it will get there. It is a document, that will need periodic review, but will also serve as an indispensable management tool, that will help businesses to establish and meet goals for the benefit of managers, lenders and investors.

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