How to best get started with an online business - Part ll

As already announced in the first part of this article (Part l) it is now about creating a solid basis for your online business.

Although the steps described below do not necessarily have to be followed in order, their purpose is to provide you with a foundation that is stable enough to support the weight of your future business growth and success.

1. Evaluate the feasibility of your new business idea

As with a physical business, the first step in your online business is to assess the scalability of your idea. The most brilliant business idea can fail if your product or service does not have a market in which you can scale your business.

Even if you have found the solution to a problem that plagues many people, you are only throwing money out the window if the potential customers have little or no purchasing power.

With this in mind, you should evaluate your idea using the following questions:

Does my product or service solve a problem that generates enough demand?

Are people willing to spend money to solve that problem?

How costly will it be to reach the people who need the solution with my product or service?

2. Create a business plan for an overview

Once you are aware that your idea is viable, it is time to create a comprehensive business plan. Even if you don't plan to get funding for your business, it makes sense to create a rough business plan, as it will allow you to identify potential obstacles along the way early on and anticipate future growth and profitability.

You should consider the following points when making your plan:

Business idea and its specificity

Potential target group (customers)

Competitor analysis (Who is my competition?)

Description of your offer including packaging, design and price

Description of your distribution channels, for instance how you want to sell your product or service (e.g. via a digital marketplace, online shop etc.).

Description of marketing activities (how and when you will start promoting your product or service)

Determining the legal form, organisational structure and personnel

Description of the business opportunities and risks

Listing of capital requirements, potential turnover and costs as well as profitability for the next 24 months

An effective plan will help you better identify your market, clarify your goals, provide your marketing roadmap and help you make the kind of decisions that can make the difference between success and failure.

3. Give your company a name

Naming your business is an important step in the start-up process. As your business will mainly operate online, the name you choose must be available for registration as a company name in the digital space.

This means that you must check whether the desired name is available as:

Domain name

Username on each social media platform you want to use

Even if your chosen name is not available as a domain name or username for social media, you can consider various name extensions.

So keep in mind that many domain name extensions may be available beyond the original ".com".

In addition, it is important to check that the name and domain name do not infringe the rights of registered trademarks.

4. Create your website

The website of an online business is as important as the physical location of a brick-and-mortar business. Therefore, you should give as much care to this part of the start-up process as if you were signing a lease or rental agreement for your brick-and-mortar shop.

For many online businesses, hiring a website developer makes more economic sense due to time constraints. However, if you are not under time pressure, you can also create your website or online shop yourself, given all the available and easy-to-use website construction kit platforms.

However, care should be taken when choosing your future web host, as there are web hosts that have too much downtime and/or only offer web hosting with high load times.

Before buying your domain, try to find out from other online business owners about the reliability of a web host.

5. Handling of legal matters

As with a stationary business, you must also ensure that you submit all the necessary documents for setting up the business and other required documents to the relevant authorities. This will ensure that your new business has a solid legal foundation.

The following tasks need to be considered:

Registration of your company with the competent trade office

Obtaining all necessary permits and licences

Fulfilment of all tax matters (e.g. application for tax identification numbers, selection of a good and favourable tax advisor).

Since these requirements may vary from state to state and depending on the type of legal form, it is important to do research to comply with all applicable requirements.

Again, it is often useful to consult a lawyer with experience in setting up a business in the relevant industry to make sure you don't miss anything.

But don't panic, nowadays a lot of lawyers offer such services at very reasonable prices via the internet.

6. Get started with your online business

Tell the world that your business is now open for business and go live with your website.

Logically, for an online business, the best way to do this these days is through online ads, social media platforms or an email list if you have one.

You can also implement this step together with your marketing measures beforehand and start to tell the world, for example, 1 month before that you will open on day x and offer those products or services.

If you follow these steps, you will create a solid foundation for your online business and can devote yourself to running and marketing your business without worry, instead of dealing with complications that could arise from neglecting these steps.

This link will take you to the first part of this article.