Ready to Do Business Online?

By: James T Kendall

     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.

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About the author: James T Kendall runs http://wwww.jtkconsulting.com and has created over 50 sites since 1994. He and his staff can be contracted to provide real world solutions for your Internet business.