Building A Business From The Web
How much does it cost to start a business? That is a difficult question to answer. Traditional businesses typically required large investments – the costs of office space, inventory, infrastructure, and manpower quickly added up. The technology boom changed that rule; venture capitalists were throwing money at anyone with an idea and a business plan. The cost of starting a business was already paid, if you had the right connections. One lesson that we can take from the dot-com crash is that any idea has business potential. Whether or not that idea should be pursued is another matter, but the cost may be far less than you imagine.
The prevalence of the Internet in the business world has opened a new launch pad for starting a business: the web. There has never been a more ideal medium to hatch a business idea or help it grow. One of the most salient advantages to this strategy is cost – the overhead is minimal. To maintain a website and its associated domain name now can cost under $100 a year. Also advantageous is the universal connectivity that the web offers – a business on the web is available to everyone, all the time. E-commerce, online advertising, and other gifts of Internet technology offer dozens of ways to turn your idea into a profitable venture.
The first step in building the web foundation for your business is construction – find someone to design the site for you, or learn the skills to do it yourself. User-friendly web development tools such as Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver are making the latter option even easier. Second, put your business into words. Provide history, background, and contact information. Write about your business idea and what your goals are. When the site is complete (or has enough information to be useful), take the third step: promotion. List your website address on company materials such as business cards or letterheads. Submit it to search engines such as Yahoo and the Open Directory project. Give the URL to anyone you meet or talk to about your business. Get the word out as much as possible.
With a web foundation in place, you can expand your business any way that you see fit. Already, though, you have a corporate presence where anyone can find it. Your contact information, mission, and business outline are public knowledge. Building a business from the website up is not only a good idea, it’s a proven one. Look at some of the most successful businesses of the last few years – eBay, YAHOO!, Amazon… all of these began with a simple website, around which they built dominating business empires. All you need now is an idea.
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