5 tips to consider when starting a web business

Your web developer will become your first business partner. I will state the traits that are important when choosing your web developers. You need a firm with:

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    • a track record of working with entrepreneurs
      
      
    • an SEO-web development angle; i.e. a web company with a focus on web marketing and search engine optimisation
      
      
    • social media marketing expertise; i.e. a firm which will help you get the best out of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
      
      
    • a face that you can talk to, with a mouth that sounds like they know what they are talking about
      
      
    • a web systems background, preferably with their own CMS (content management system). The system they build you will be the crux of your business for as long as it is around
      
      
    • a respectable pricing structure

Now, this section could easily be confused for a plug for my company, KayWeb, as we tick all the above boxes... but... we need to be given the opportunity to prove that!

3) Advertising plan

No website has attracted visitors with zero advertising.

It could be PR, which gives you free editorial advertising, or something more organised like SEO, banner advertising, email marketing, radio advertising, television, buses, billboards, etc.... they key is that advertising MUST be planned and budgeted for.

SEO is a must for any website, as a presence on Google and other search engines will be the key to your long-term viability.

4) Budget

You need money.

For development by good developers, you will have to pay. For advertising in revenue-increasing areas, you will have to pay. For staff and resources, you will have to pay.

Many web businesses have taken different approaches here. They either have savings to count on, a rich relative willing to put in, or they offer shares to potential investors or venture capitalists.

What you do will need to suit you.

5) Set goals

It is very important to be able to measure your success or failure against an original plan.

You always have a main goal, e.g. you are building this web business to sell it to a major competitor, or you are building this web business to become a millionaire, or to create a bunch of mini-sites around it, etc.

Then around that main goal, you can set mini-goals to accomplish whatever your dream is.

Without goals, you will not know how you are going.

That's it for now. Feel free to give me a call to discuss in more detail. Reach me at KayWeb Sydney on 1300-793-646.