A step into the known

Research done? Check. Thinking done? Check. Decision made? Check.

So where do you start?

There are no clear cut answers to this, there are a myriad of companies out there who can build you a website and create a brand for you. The key decision for you is whether or not you need them.

Getting a website live can be very simple and it can be very difficult. It can be free and it can costs thousands. It can be staggeringly quick it can be frustratingly slow and whilst I cannot make the decision for you I can give you some tips and facts I have learned over the years to help you decide:

• It is very rare for the first site you launch to be perfect. Only through having a site live and in use will you begin to understand what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. Do not be afraid to start small and test your conclusions. There are many providers out there who let you build your own site in a very easy way for only a few pounds each month. There are also some great template sites available that take only a few hours to get live with your content.

• Plan your site correctly BEFORE you start to either build it or ask for quotations. How do you want people to navigate around your site? How many pages do you require? Do you want to be able to change the content yourself? Do you want connections to social media on your website? Do you need any form of "live help" that allows you to chat with your clients online? If you are listing items for sale or products do you need to be able to edit prices, photos and descriptions yourself? Asking someone else to make the changes for you is never as fast as being able to do it your self.

• You WILL make some mistakes, you will very probably overestimate the potential in the early days. Making a website live is the easiest part - getting people to see it is much harder. I still meet people today who have spent thousands on a nice new shiny website, it is launched without any marketing plan and they remain confused after a few weeks when nobody has seen it. 

• Establishing a logo and brand is a fairly easy step but is best left to those with the skills and software to make something impressive. Again there are many providers out there that will design you a logo for as little at £10. I do this for free for most of my clients as it is a great way to start a relationship with the business owner.

• The content on your site is the most important element to get right. Yes, new clients like to be greeted by a nicely designed site that is easy to navigate but ultimately they will want to see or read about the item that made them come to your site in the first place. Writing text for a website is a skill and needs to be right so make sure you pay particular attention to this. Other sites can help you with effective ideas for content but you should never copy and paste the content from others. It is unprofessional, will not get your message across clearly and may well result in a little trouble if you get caught! Make your content interesting to read and informative and keep it fresh. 

• Before you open your site to the big wide world ask any many friends, family members and businesses associates to look at your site and comment. They will find things that do not make sense to fresh eyes, they will find errors and they will give you honest feedback.

The last piece of advice I can offer when it comes to this stage of opening your new online business is to be determined. It is rarely easy, there is lots to learn and it will not happen overnight. A new site needs constant attention, it needs to be fed with information and it needs to be nurtured. If your site is not offering products that change and is more service based or informative then making changes, updates and adding content daily is a must. If you let the content become stale then why would people return? Would you read book you read last week? This is where a "Latest News" section or social media connections can really help keep your content up-to-date and your readers engaged. 

Month one after launch is the learning zone, months two and three are the changing zone and months four to six is when you can start to enter the benefits zone. Perhaps you are lucky or have deep pockets but realistically if you work to these expectations then you will be well prepared for the online world.

I have met many people who can moan endlessly about the vast sums of money they have lost while trying to build an online business but I have never met anyone who spent a couple of hundreds pounds at the beginning and then moaned later. They either turned the business into a success or they lost very little in trying.