RSSSix questions for a begginer (or an expert)
Let’s take a few minutes and go through a little experiment that will help you improve your internet business and make more money. This will be an exercise in forgetfulness, so make sure you’re not trying to do this in the middle of an important meeting at work or during a crucial conversation with your spouse or kids. Make sure that you’ve got the time to set aside to do this.
Close your eyes and imagine that you are a complete and total beginner at starting up an internet business (for some of us, that isn’t too hard to do). If you know a lot about internet business (or you think you do) this might be hard, but bear with me, it will be worth it. Let’s imagine that you are a venture capitalist and you’re interested in financing your business. There are several questions you’ll want to ask, so let’s take a look at them.
Close your eyes and imagine that you are a complete and total beginner at starting up an internet business (for some of us, that isn’t too hard to do). If you know a lot about internet business (or you think you do) this might be hard, but bear with me, it will be worth it. Let’s imagine that you are a venture capitalist and you’re interested in financing your business. There are several questions you’ll want to ask, so let’s take a look at them.
- What products or services do you intend to offer? What will you be selling? Is it something completely new or is it an improvement on something that already exists? Is it something that you, yourself, would want to buy? You can lose a lot of money and opportunities if you spend your time trying to figure out what someone else would want. Just think about what you would want and find ways to see how someone else would want that as well.
- What is the process that will transform your process or idea in your mind into a reality? Will you do it yourself? Dealing with subcontractors etc.? Will you be dealing with employees? Where will you find them? How skilled will they need to be? What are the physical resources that you will need to get your product on market? How will you find suppliers? What will the payment terms be? Will you have to negotiate them? Remember that it takes a lot of people to move your products and services from a concept to reality. Do you have these relationships? If not, make sure you figure it out and start making these relationships.
- How will you market it? Assuming your product is great, how is the buying public going to find out about it. Will you be relying on search only? Or only email marketing? Media buying? Or some combination of all three of those. There will be expenses involved in this. If you are strapped for cash, you could easily barter for it. But most importantly, make sure that you educate yourself about marketing techniques.
- What about distribution? How will the product be warehoused? Will it be in your basement? Will you rent a storage shed? How will it be shipped? Will you offer free shipping or will your customers pay for it? How will it be shipped?
- What kind of return policy will you have? Customers want to know that they have low risk for buying your product. If the return policy is overly stringent, you can expect a lot of chargebacks, which hurts your banking and fee processing. Some processing companies will even charge you monthly fees until your chargeback ratio is manageable. If it is too lenient, you run the risk of being taken advantage of. Make sure that you have a well thought out policy that allows you to deal with certain customers on a one by one basis. And believe me, there will be several customers out there who will test you on this. Don’t be fooled into thinking that only one angry customer won’t make a difference. In today’s world, there are several highly publicized sites where that customer can air his (or her) grievances, and it will completely wreck your online reputation and sales.
- Where will the money come from for your business? How will the cash-flow be controlled? It is very hard to get money from the bank or other traditional means of lending, so how will you get financing? You could go to your immediate family members and ask them for it and include them on your venture. If, however, the investors will be anyone more than your immediate family, you’ll want to get formal documents detailing the risks and the potential returns. Can you get these yourself? Or will you need help? Will you need an accountant or will you be able to take care of it yourself?
You can open your eyes now (you probably should have kept them open to figure out what we were talking about here). Now that you have these questions and are thinking about them make sure that you take the time to answer them and get going! Let’s make money online with your internet business!
Filed Under: Internet Business
October 17, 2011 at 1:27 am |
That’s 2 celevr by half and 2×2 clever 4 me. Thanks!