Ready to Do Business Online?

There is a common misperception these days that if you haven't got your
small to medium sized business online yet you're too late. As long you
learn from the first wave of Net entrepreneurs you can actually be better
off then those bleeding edge web pioneers. Using the lessons that it took
e-stores four, five or even six years to learn you can get online in half
the time and with better infrastructure and tools.

The biggest mistake new e-businesses make is not initially putting enough
money into the venture. Just because it's the Internet the majority of new
businesses do not put the kind of resources behind it that they would any
other endeavor. Many try free hosting, hiring a nephew to do the design,
using free shopping cart scripts, etc. The hard truth is while the Net is
great for reaching a global audience it also makes for global competition.
If your selling books you're no longer competing with the other book store
in town or on the same street - you are now competing with Amazon.com and
Barnes and Noble.

The flip side is that if you plan well enough (or contract a reputable firm)
you can minimize the long term cost of running a successful enterprise. By
choosing the right infrastructure you can minimize the time it takes for
design and information updates, inventory management and pricing changes,
and all the other aspects of managing the entire operation. One solution is
to set up a data base solution in conjunction with a series of programs to
handle everything from displaying your sites pages to handling the ordering
process. And while this does take more time to set up, you can get a data
base that will handle all but the largest businesses for free called MySQL -
the trick is to know when to use a free solution and when to pay the piper.
This is where the learning from others mistakes comes in.

The second biggest mistake that new online businesses make is not doing the
proper planning to make their project successful over the long term. By
either doing the research yourself or hiring and outside agency to evaluate
your project you can save time and money. What technologies are other
similar enterprises using to achieve the results you are looking for? What
type of hosting solution will you need for your enterprise? Does the
provider you are considering house the servers themselves or do they
re-sell? Do they employ load balancing so that your site does not crash
after you've spent big bucks on a promotion? Where is the most effective
place to spend you ad budget? These are just some of the questions you
should have answers for before jumping in to the world of e-commerce.

Choosing a hosting provider is filled with pitfalls. It is easy to sign up
with a substandard provider as well as over paying for bandwidth, disk
space, features you don't need. If you are planning a large enterprise you'
ll need to choose either a dedicated server (your own machine, but this
brings server administration into the picture and it's not for the casual
user), or go with high quality virtual hosting. You'll need a provider that
supplies you with enough bandwidth (10 Gigs is enough for all but the
largest sites) as well as enough disk space (100 - 300 MB, one of our sites
generates 100 MB of log files each month!) and excellent tech support. Also
ask about their connection to the backbone and uptime stats for the last few
months.

The next step is to plan the site itself. Before you start the first
graphic or HTML page you should decide how the site should work. Are you
going to use static HTML pages or a database that serves pages to users on
the fly? There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of course,
and you can blend the two as well. Many sites use static HTML for their
main pages and a DB to drive the content or shopping sections of the site.
There are many other considerations as well: to use frames or not, heavy use
of graphics or quick and clean, what scripting language to use, etc. In our
experience the initial planning of a web project is the number one indicator
of success or failure, poorly planned sites rarely stay afloat for more than
six months.

By doing the proper planning and putting enough money into the project you
can start a new online business (or re-tool your existing one) and be
competitive in the marketplace.