Never Do These 4 Things When Starting An Online Business

by Czarina R. Content Manager and SEO

A lot has been written on the web about things one should do when starting an online business or any business for that matter. But only a handful can be found writing a piece about things to avoid doing or things not to do when starting a business.

So, I decided to dip my hand into the cookie jar to see what I can come up for all of you out there who might be thinking of starting an online business. Maybe you are someone who is overly careful about stepping out and doing it. Perhaps too careful? Here I am going to present 6 things you should NOT do when starting an online business!

#1. Do not start your business without coming up with a solid business plan.

As the saying goes,

You plan to fail, when you fail to plan.

Get a good grip of how you are going to attack your business! Create milestones you can celebrate after completion. A solid business plan must have objectives too as well as metrics. Metrics are things and milestones you can measure, tinker, and adjust as you progress in your process of establishing your business.

In your business plan, you must consider incorporating social media marketing plan into your business model too. Recent research showed that, many organizations are doing digital marketing, but they don’t have a strategy. The reality is that digital channels are still relatively new and fast-changing, so many businesses have not responded well to this and their business is at risk.

We believe that small businesses – not only small businesses – but businesses in general, need to first define a separate digital plan to quantify the case for investment in digital marketing and change your approach to managing digital marketing. Then move to a better approach where it becomes an integral part of your marketing strategy.

Competition is fierce online. To win, you need to first have a PLAN, a really good plan of attack!

#2. Do not forget design and branding every step of the way

Design builds credibility and brand recognition by creating a consistent visual language. It provides an instant connection to your products or services. Making a good design and branding is an integral part of your business strategy. It will create a better experience for your customers.

Here are some of the things a good design and branding do for your business?

It communicates your brand or company and speaks volume about who you are.
Good design creates consistent message that strengthen your product or services in the eyes of your customers and potential customers.
Design tells your story in a clear and visual way without you speaking them out.
It affects and drives your conversion rates. A bad design will not get much attention from visitors.. a good design but slow loading website also prevents your website from making sales.
When properly implemented, it guide your users where to look first on a page, and affects them emotionally.

#3. Do not expect to get sales immediately!

Remember to invest time and money into marketing. You have to spend money to get money, so they say. And not only money, time too is a valuable investment along with money.

Investing time and money into marketing build awareness and community for your business. It provides companies with a way to get the word out to potential clients and customers. Let’s face it, if you can’t bring in the customers, you won’t be able to make money.

Marketing helps to build your reputation as a company. It helps to provide you with credibility, which is important as customers and clients look for someone to do business with that are credible.

Investing time and money helps increase your sales. Marketing allows you to reach a wider audience, so it makes sense that you’re going to be able to make more sales.

Warning: You don’t have to spend a fortune to get results. In fact, there are plenty of ways that you can market your company online that are extremely cost-effective. Not only that but online efforts make it possible to target a specific audience.

Investing time marketing entrench you deeper in your customers world. You can then provide better deals, promotions, and new offerings to further your marketing. Doing so, gives you a way to educate customers and clients about your company and products.

Marketing is worth your investments. That is why even the biggest and largest fortune 500 companies spend billions perfecting it.

#4. Do not try to do everything at once.

Focus your marketing efforts on an area where you are the BEST first and foremost, then do the other things after.

Ecommerce Marketing strategies that are not focused most likely won’t work. How could it work when people have more than three or four priorities to deal with? It is hard enough to do one thing, how much harder would it be to think of doing five or more priorities? Objectives like that almost always get lost. When you have 20 strategic objectives in a plan, you won’t accomplish any.

Focus on your strength or your company’s strengths. Play toward what you do best and take advantage of the opportunities that is before you.
Focus on selected target markets and selected target market needs and selected product or service offerings.
Establish milestone you can celebrate after completion. Milestones like, "register domain today", or "finalize website design by end of month", and so on! Another good milestone is "publish one relevant content a day for 100 days". Or "get listed on the first page of Google for a particular keyword in 3 months".

I know you want to get sales and make money, but to reach that level, you have to build your business first. Trying to do everything at once is a recipe for failure, in my opinion!

Additional Resource on getting your marketing focus.

In Conclusion

Starting an online business can be quite tricky if you do not pay attention to essential things you need to be doing and things you need not be doing!

See you at the top of your game!