WEB/DIGITAL Steps to starting an ebiz??

[Walley]

Let me know if I'm correct...

Register a legal business name

Find wholesale distributors

Sell

??

 

[aptohosting]

Let me know if I'm correct...

Register a legal business name

Find wholesale distributors

Sell

??

No, unfortunately it is not easy! Here are the steps that I would take in a nutshell.

1) Determine what you want to sell.
2) Come up with a detailed business plan, and your start up costs.
3) Figure out what venue you will be using (advertisment/products/services/etc)
4) THEN register the domain and the company (probably as sole proprietorship)
5) Figure out who will supply you and how reliable they are.
6) Hire a good web developer (like me)
7) Test the website
8) Plan your marketing blitz
9) Launch the site.
10) Evaluate the results.

If you need help getting the site built, let me know I have a great deal of experience with e-commerce stores.

Thank you
Tom

www.aptohosting.com

 

[lucas]

Depends on what kind of ebiz you want to start.

Most of the websites I run do not sell actual physical products... they either sell services (usually subscription based) or digital/electronic products (ebooks and such).

Actually, a lot of the websites I run don't sell anything at all. They just provide free services/information to whoever visits, and the revenue comes strictly from advertisements.

 

[BLK85]

How do you find someone in step 5? Thats about where I am and I have been emailing company after company trying to get them to let me sell their product and I am getting little to no response back. Any advice would be great.

 

[nomadjanet]

what type of product are you trying to sell? it does not make sense that a producer of a product would not want you to sell their product. if you are absorbing the cost of website developing, what do they have to lose?
Janet

 

[WheelsRCool]

How do you find someone in step 5? Thats about where I am and I have been emailing company after company trying to get them to let me sell their product and I am getting little to no response back. Any advice would be great.

Well one thing, you may want to stop calling the companies that manufacture the product and try to find companies that supply it wholesale, to the big chain stores and so forth. I'm not expert though, but that's what I'd do.

I actually saw a video about this and on it the guy said to be weary of suppliers that advertise on the Internet, that they are likely scammers. He said that real suppliers do not advertise, because they deal with the big chains and established ecommerce websites and they figure if you are truly serious about starting an ecommerce business, you will find them. He might have said you have to contact them multiple times to show diligence, I'm not sure. They say if you find them, then they may be more willing to do business with you. Here's the website: http://www.worldwidebrands.com/ - there is a group of video clips on the right side called "Top 5 Product Sourcing Tips," watch those, what I said above is in one of them plus some other cool tips. Hope that website helps.

Also try these, they are the Howstuffworks articles "How Ecommerce Works," "How Creating An Online Business Works," "How Planning An Online Business Works," and "How Promoting An Online Business works," plus they have links to other ecommerce sites.
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ecommerce.htm/printable
http://money.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-do-it.htm/printable
http://www.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-planning.htm/printable
http://www.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-promotion.htm/printable

 

[aptohosting]

Well one thing, you may want to stop calling the companies that manufacture the product and try to find companies that supply it wholesale, to the big chain stores and so forth. I'm not expert though, but that's what I'd do.

I actually saw a video about this and on it the guy said to be weary of suppliers that advertise on the Internet, that they are likely scammers. He said that real suppliers do not advertise, because they deal with the big chains and established ecommerce websites and they figure if you are truly serious about starting an ecommerce business, you will find them. He might have said you have to contact them multiple times to show diligence, I'm not sure. They say if you find them, then they may be more willing to do business with you. Here's the website: http://www.worldwidebrands.com/ - there is a group of video clips on the right side called "Top 5 Product Sourcing Tips," watch those, what I said above is in one of them plus some other cool tips. Hope that website helps.

Also try these, they are the Howstuffworks articles "How Ecommerce Works," "How Creating An Online Business Works," "How Planning An Online Business Works," and "How Promoting An Online Business works," plus they have links to other ecommerce sites.
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ecommerce.htm/printable
http://money.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-do-it.htm/printable
http://www.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-planning.htm/printable
http://www.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-promotion.htm/printable

Couldn't have said it better myself...

Speed +++


Tom
www.aptohosting.com

 

[thenewguy25]

How do you find someone in step 5? Thats about where I am and I have been emailing company after company trying to get them to let me sell their product and I am getting little to no response back. Any advice would be great.

When I first started selling on Ebay, I became a member of Salehoo. this site has a one time fee, and will put you in contact with a lot of suppliers. The members of the site rate and vote on which companies are good. the ones that are bad get deleted. Their url is www.salehoo.com (no affiliate link)

 

[BLK85]

When I first started selling on Ebay, I became a member of Salehoo. this site has a one time fee, and will put you in contact with a lot of suppliers. The members of the site rate and vote on which companies are good. the ones that are bad get deleted. Their url is www.salehoo.com (no affiliate link)

Thanks that looks like what Im looking for. I will have to read into that further and figure it out.

Speed +++

 

[Jonleehacker]

The first step for me is always market research. If you don't understand the market you are trying to sell into, you're kind of doomed from the start.

It's surprising that most people want to skip this part (it's boring I guess) but this is where the money is made in an eBiz.

Unless you understand the consumers, the offers and the competition how can you make a plan. Most of the time when doing research it really isn't that hard to improve on existing strategies and brainstorm ways to get an advantage on the current players.

Get on Google and start searching. Compile notes. The business plan will almost write itself after a week's worth of good research.

 

[CRBFL]

The first step for me is always market research. If you don't understand the market you are trying to sell into, you're kind of doomed from the start.

It's surprising that most people want to skip this part (it's boring I guess) but this is where the money is made in an eBiz.

Unless you understand the consumers, the offers and the competition how can you make a plan. Most of the time when doing research it really isn't that hard to improve on existing strategies and brainstorm ways to get an advantage on the current players.

Get on Google and start searching. Compile notes. The business plan will almost write itself after a week's worth of good research.

Jonlee is completely right. Once you find your consumers and competition the rest will be much easier. Don't start a e-biz just for the sake of having one. Figure out in terms of- I am going to help people/businesses do [whatever] faster/easier/with more entertainment value/the list goes on forever. In order to do [whatever] better they need my product because...

You need to know your consumers, so you can figure out your marketing strategy. Once you identify your competition you can determine what you can improve upon compared to their current platform. You'll save a lot of time and money if you do all of your homework now.