There are many things you can do, but to progress, be efficient, and launch quickly, focus exclusively on the things you need to do. And if this is your first time creating an online business, plan to have a big learning curve and plan to spend a little investment to outsource tasks that will take too long to learn or are beyond your abilities.
If you are the type of person to learn technology quickly, you probably want to invest the time necessary to learn how to set up your website on your own. The investment of time upfront will pay off when you know how to do things yourself. If you do this, you have to recognize that you may be better off outsourcing the writing or graphic design work.
On the contrary, if you insist on writing every word on your website, find a graphic designer and / or website developer who can help you with the setup. While you could be building a business with the goal of being a solo entrepreneur, it is possible, but not always smart, to do everything on your own.
With progress as your goal during this phase, remember to always focus on what needs to be done and not on everything that can be done.
DOMAIN AND ACCOMMODATION
The first thing is to go buy your domain name and accommodation. I use SiteGround services for my sites .
When you start, or if you do not plan to generate large amounts of traffic to your website, choose the cheapest hosting plan and increase it according to your needs.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Once you buy the domain, now is a good time to set up profiles on social networks, try to have the same username on all platforms.
WORDPRESS
This is the Content Management System that I recommend. It is one of the most used in the world for the creation of websites, which makes it the most dominant CMS. The main advantage is that it is an “open source” CMS which gives you much more flexibility, from which “theme” to use, to the available “plugins” you can add, and also gives you much more control over your website.
WORDPRESS THEME
Once WordPress is installed on your domain, you must install a theme (or have one built in). Where WordPress is the framework of your website, your theme is its stylistic blueprint. Many themes are highly customizable, so unless you require a totally unique look, chances are you can find an existing theme and make it look the way you want. Clean code is important when using WordPress, so don’t go for free third-party themes. Premium themes are generally less than $ 100 and are worth the investment.
WORDPRESS PLUGINS
Once you install your WordPress site and choose a theme, you can start discovering “Plugins”. Plugins extend the functionality of your WordPress site, and there are thousands of them. You can add a plugin that provides the e-commerce capability of your website, adds itself in a subscription box, or increases the types of fonts you can use. The possibilities are practically endless, but do not add too many, the ideal is 5 but you can go up to 15, remember that the more the more add-ons you have, the slower your site will become. Only choose plugins that have a good rating and have been recently updated
DIGITAL COMMERCE
Shopify is a popular CMS alternative for WordPress.
With Shopify , you pay a monthly / yearly fee to have an ecommerce site hosted on their platform. If you want a feature-rich ecommerce site without a lot of hassle, this is a good way to go.
Regardless of the CMS you run your digital business on, you need to be able to accept payments. With Shopify you have several proposed options, otherwise you can use third-party services such as PayPal or direct payment through bank deposit. There are many pros and cons to using a third-party service like Paypal and accepting payments directly on your site, so be sure to research your options carefully to select the best option for your business.
EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER
To grow a successful online business, you will want to collect and nurture an email list.
There are several popular business email service providers. These providers give you the tools and capabilities to collect email addresses, segment lists, send formatted emails, create auto-reply sequences, and give your contact the ability to automatically unsubscribe whenever they want.
A good way to acquire subscribers is by creating incentives that lead people to sign up for your newsletter or email list.
PRODUCT / SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
During the setup phase is when you will work to finalize and develop your initial products and / or services. You have to identify and develop a minimum viable product for your launch.
You can build your suite of services or expand your product line over time, but to be agile, move forward efficiently, and progress, less is more up front. Once you have developed your products or finalized the services, the last step before launch is to add them to your website.
Important: Update and configure your social networks using everything you just created. It is important that you give a professional and well cared image. Complete each space and post images that go with the identity of your company.
