What Arkansas Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Starting an Online Business
What could be an easier home-based business than to start an e-commerce, Online enterprise? Talk about a “no-brainer”! Afterall, all I need is a computer and an internet connection right? Well before you rush out into the “virtual” market place take a minute to see what my friend Matt 
Smith, co-founder of BusinessPirates.com has to say.
by Herb Lawrence Arkansas State University Small Business and Technology Development Center Director…Helping Entrepreneurs With Business Decisions from the Delta to the Ozarks.
Over the last 6 months I have been a regular visitor to Kenneth Brown’s Blog Talk Radio Show, Web2Connect. Ken’s show delivers practical marketing & sales information any small business can use. If you aren’t tuning in check his website out and join me!
The other neat part of being a panelist on his radio show is that it allows me to make networking connections with professionals in many different fields from across the country. Last Wednesday I “met” Matt Smith, co-founder of BusinessPirates.com a company in Scottsdale, Arizona created to help marketing and sales professionals through online video training. I asked Matt if he would like to be a guest writer to our little blog and he graciously agreed.
In this post Matt discusses his favorite topic “Launching Online Businesses”. Matt shares some great information that anyone considering starting an online, e-commerce business needs to know about before they launch. Thanks Matt!
5 Tips for Starting an Online Business
by Matt Smith, BusinessPirates.com
Starting an online business is hard. Lower startup costs mean increased competition. Many entrepreneurs have misconceptions when launching their online business. Here are 5 tips that will help you avoid many of the common misconceptions and mistakes.
1) Get the Website up fast and for under $1,000
Most first time online entrepreneurs obsess about their website. The reality is a website is a living breathing asset. It grows and evolves over time. Just get the thing up fast and for cheap. This will save you from spending too much time and money on the first version. Once a domain is actually live Google starts scanning and indexing it so the sooner you are live the better. NEWSFLASH: No one cares about you or your site. Entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature and believe once they launch hundreds will come flooding to their site with cash in hand. The reality is no one will come to your site. So get the darn thing up already, stop obsessing about the button color, and start marketing that baby!
2) The average conversion rate for an e-commerce site is 1%
A conversion rate is simply the number of buys divided by the number of visits. For example if 100 people come to your site only 1 person will buy. Now that you know that you can begin to project traffic and sales for your site. Getting 1,000 people to your site needs to be your first goal. Launch the site then spend the rest of your time trying to get people to your site. You will learn what works and what doesn’t.
3) Use Email as Your Primary Sales Channel
I love using email in the earlier stages of an online venture. If you can sell via email that means you can sell remotely and scale the business. I even suggest “selling” your product before you ever invest a dollar. Email 30 prospects and pitch them your product. If the response is good you can move forward. If the response sucks then maybe your idea sucks
I recommend using Gmail for email sales because it is Free. Here is a Free Gmail Training course from my company BusinessPirate.com.
4) Start Marketing BEFORE You Launch
Marketing an online venture is probably the hardest part. (beyond offering something people actually want) Therefore start marketing right away. Claim your Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube profiles and start marketing. Use Timely to schedule your tweets and Facebook updates. Create a few rough YouTube videos with a link to your site in the description. Throw up a LaunchRock page to start collecting emails. Here is what we are doing with our other site VideoLark.com.
5) Your developer is KEY!
If you are non-technical like myself you need to link up with a reliable developer. A web development services firm can work but it will get expensive fast. Start networking and asking friends about developers they have used in the past. Use LinkedIn or Meetup to find events where lots of developers hang out together. Like I mentioned earlier the site will evolve and grow over time so having the right reliable developer will make your life ten times easier.
PRO TIP: Test your developer before committing to them. Give them a small project like the above page and give a deadline. If they pass the test move forward with another larger test. Keep testing and use small sprint projects before committing.
PRO TIP: Use Keynote or Powerpoint to mock-up EVERY PAGE of your website. Most rookies have very limited info when contracting their first developer. If you mock-up every page you will see how much work is needed. Keep the first version simple. (I use Keynote and it allows you to make a click-able prototype of your si
te fast)
Good luck!
Matt Smith is the co-founder of BusinesPirate.com. He was previously one of the BizDev guys at AppSumo and is currently getting his MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. His current venture, Business Pirate, helps educate sales and marketing pros through online video courses. When he is not playing on the computer he likes to exercise and eat raw fish in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona.
Nice post for anyone considering jumping into the Online marketing arena. If you liked what Matt had to say, let me know and we will invite him to contribute other insights. Just leave your comments below!
So, think online marketing may be right for you but not sure where to go now? Contact our business consultants, Laura Miller or Robert Bahn for free, confidential consulting assistance. Our experienced professionals can help with everything from feasibility studies to market research, business plan development to loan financing, and much more. To find out more about the ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center’s free, confidential assistance visit our ASU SBTDC Consultants page and get started!
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Great post! Wonderful ideas on the key to success for building an online business! Matt was a guest on my show, “The Passionate Entrepreneur”. Here is the link to my blog that has our interview. Listen, Learn, Enjoy and Share: http://bit.ly/zdatv3
I agree with you on some points Matt. But is using Timely really the best use of my time? I can think of a million other things I could and should be doing.
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