Over the next few weeks I'll
be talking about the core structure of a business broken down into the 5
P's, in order, Principles, Prepare/planning, Product, People, and Profit.
If you miss one of these P's or don't give it enough time of day your
business will have a difficult time succeeding.
Last week I talked about your Principles and how they translate over
to the Internet. This week we will be talking about Planning, specifically
Planning to do Business on the Internet.
Doing business on the Internet isn't very different from a brick and
mortar store (B&M) but how you do business and how you should think
about your business is very different.
Things that
are similar.
- Store
Location = Domain Name and Quality Hosting.
- Store Image
= Website
- In
Person/Phone Customer Service = Phone or Email Customer Service
- Customers
leave with the product = The product is shipped to them
And all of these factors need
to be quality.
But the major things that separates B&M from an online business
is on the Internet your
business is open to the world where as a B&M is usually limited to an
area that you can serve because of customer travel time.
On the Internet your business
is faceless in the terms of when a customer comes to your web site,
they don't see you. They can't interact with with you. Being
personable is done through your site being user friendly, presenting
quality information, and your customer service. This can be a hard concept
to grasp because you never see your customers, you only see I.P. addresses
and orders. Your site has to do the selling for you.
In my opinion as a web developer, opening an online store is very
easy these days, but making it successful is one of the hardest things. It is even harder than having a
B&M. Because most people do not plan or have wild
misconceptions behind selling things on the Internet.
- You will not
automatically get a ton of business and be rich.
- Just because
you are selling it doesn't mean someone will buy it.
- Just because
someone else is making money off selling a Widget doesn't mean you
will make money by selling the same Widget.
- Just because
you are selling a lot now, doesn't mean it will continue to sell well.
But don't give up, like any
business with proper planning and being smart your business can be on it
way to being successful. Here are some tips.
- The first
and most important step is to plan how your business will function.
- How will
you take orders?
- How long
will it take to fulfill orders?
- How will
you ship your products?
- Who is your
target market?
- How can
customers reach you?
- What is
your policy on returns?
- How will
you handle lost packages?
- Where can
you ship to?
- Are you
shipping items directly or are you using a fulfillment center?
- What will
it cost to ship your items?
- How many
items do you need to sell to cover my costs (web site, merchant
account, hosting, employees, etc).
- Will the
shipping rates cover the actual cost of shipping?
These will help you create a
solid business plan and give you realistic figures.
- Don't
undercut yourself then try to make your money back
through your shipping costs or try to make an extra buck on shipping
costs. Besides a poor functioning or broken web site nothing will
drive your customers away faster than high shipping costs. If you
can't offer low prices and a decent shipping rate, rethink your
business plan.
- Get an easy
to remember domain name. Being clever might help.
- Plan and
spend good money on a web site. If your site makes you look
like it is fly by night company, you will be treated that way. If it
is constantly down, what will your customers think about the products
you sell and your customer service? If your site is broken or doesn't
function very well, it shows you don't care.
- Don't blow
off bad reviews. Don't get mad. The best thing to
do is respond and resolve the issue. No matter what site the review is
on. It shows that you care about your customers and they are not just
a dollar sign.
- Don't post
fake reviews or have friends/family post fake reviews about your
business or products.
- Be unique
but smart. You and countless other people are trying to
do business on the Internet, what makes you special?
- Do your
research. Research your competition. Research how other
sites function/user experience. Research User Interfaces.
- Make
ordering from your site easy, friendly, and go the extra step to make the
customer's day.
- Stay up on
the latest trends, research and figure out which ones
will work for your business.
- Make sure
you have quality information in a neat, consistent,
orderly fashion.
- Create a
quality newsletter. Find the sweet spot on send
frequency. It could be once a week, or every other day, or once every
two weeks. Don't use it just to spam, us it to educate first.
- Learn how to
Guerrilla Market.
- Reach out to
your customers, talk to them, listen to what they
have to say.
- Become a
community resource by having a blog or forum but don't
use it to spam your business, use it to create an asset to help drive
customers to your business. Give out knowledge.
But what if you aren't
selling anything on the Internet? What happens if you just want a brochure
site or blog for your business's web site? Everything I talked about still
matters. In short, your business plan should include a quality web site
just take the selling portion out.
With proper planning and creating procedures, like with a B&M, it
will help create a solid foundation for your business.
--
Jeff Mendelsohn
Liquid Mechanix Studio, LLC
419.297.3364
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