After I retired from engineering, I set up a website to sell Garden
Stuff. Later I built a Wordpress site focusing on reviews of Electronic
products for the home. This article details the founding of the Store.
These are the steps I took to begin and operate the store with no
professional help. But I arise every day enthusiastic to see what the day will bring forth, and I retire each night and sleep well. Perhaps this article will encourage others to launch an webstore.
I was looking for a way to earn extra money when I retired and I had been dreaming for many years of having an Internet business. I was computer literate. I could type quickly. I a fairly new desk model computer, a high-speed Internet connection, and a printer. And I enjoy learning new skills. Well, I finally did it and I enjoy it immensely. You may take pleasure in operating your own store too.
Choose a generic title for your store. Later you can change to a name that is more descriptive of what you are selling. Choosing a title that suggests what you sell is not essential but it will assist to get your store into the early pages of Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc searches. Check with your State government to confirm that the
name you select is not already taken. In Florida where I live, the State web site to check is SUNBIZ.ORG. There will be an equivalent one in your State.
It's a simple matter to register a company name online, and to apply for a sales tax number. You don't need legal advice, it's easy to do and straightforward. You can register the name as a DBA (doing business as), LLC (Limited Liability Company), or you can incorporate (Inc). Both the corporation and LLC insulate your personal assets from liability lawsuits, but there will be the druggery of extra government and accounting records every year. One of those chores is that you must submit an annual report to the State and pay an annual fee. It's easy to do but it is one more bureaucratic nuisance. When you register as a DBA you can use your Social Security number as a federal tax number. A corporation and an LLC need a federal company tax number. In some States you use your Social Security number for the LLC provided you do not have employees.
Choose your company name, check that there is an Internet name the same or similar, then register the company name with the State. I purchased the address I use through GoDaddy, one of the many resellers of domain names. The cost of an Internet domain is usually about $10 annually. If you already know what you will be selling at your store, you should choose a store name and website name that will serve as a keyword phrase to attract search engines. A good Internet address would be "toys for sale" because there are thousands of searches every month for this phrase. You'll find that somebody might already use this domain name and most combos of it.
Use Google's Keyword Tool to find keyword phrases that make good company names and are phrases with high search engine volumes. Aim for above 6000 monthly but no lower than 700 monthly. I selected my generic name because I had not yet decided what items I would be selling. With no previous retail experience and no website I could not cajole a wholesaler to provide me with items to sell.
You need a hosting company with powerful servers to host (park) your site and the software you use. A server is a fancy name for a very large and powerful computer. You'll need to lease or buy shopping cart software to arrange the website for selling. After some false starts, I now use Lexiconn as my hosting company and Shopsite as my shopping-cart software. Both are excellent. There are other first-class hosting companies and shopping software companies. For example I use Hostgator to host my Wordpress websites.
The total cost of leasing shopping cart software with monthly hosting fees is about $40 . The hosting company you select should be very familiar with the shopping cart software. You'll need their knowledge to install the software and later to solve problems for you.
A checklist of things to do
1. Register the name of the company with your State and county.
2. Obtain a merchant credit card account with an online credit card company to accept customers' credit card charges. You do not need any type of credit card machine unless your are going to take orders by telephone - not recommended for a beginner. You could use Google's shopping cart system only, which is simpler to set up. I use both in my store to give customers more choices to pay. The Shopsite software that I use also gives me the option to use Amazon's shopping cart system. This can be reassuring for your customers.
3. Get a PayPal account to accept charges through PayPal. Not absolutely necessary, but many buyers like to pay with PayPal.
4. Signup for a business checking account and a business credit card account. I suggest you open the checking account and the credit card account at a bank near where you live. Why? Because you'll find you have to visit the bank often. Now, you can pay your wholesaler with the credit card, and put sales income from the Internet store into the bank account. Having the same bank for both simplifies accounting. You can pay the credit card bill each month by moving funds from the checking account to the credit card account.
5. Now you can find a wholesaler who will open a retail account for you. It can be a problem finding a wholesaler to provide you with products for a new store. You should only do business with legitimate wholesalers who get the products direct from a manufacturer or importer. I can tell you how to find wholesalers. Sign on with worldwidebrands.com or one of the companies like them. They'll give you access to hundreds of authentic wholesalers and good advice on dealing with wholesalers. Avoid getting enticed into additional services until you understand the business better. One of the added services I paid for was a series of articles on keyword research. Use the free Google Keyword Tool instead. Browse through free search engine help on YouTube videos by Google's Matt Cutts. They're excellent.
Select a wholesaler who will send the products from their warehouse to your customers with your name on the package. This is known as drop shipping. It's less costly, less time consuming, and less risky than purchasing products, storing them and shipping them yourself. .
These are the steps I took to begin and operate the store with no
professional help. But I arise every day enthusiastic to see what the day will bring forth, and I retire each night and sleep well. Perhaps this article will encourage others to launch an webstore.
I was looking for a way to earn extra money when I retired and I had been dreaming for many years of having an Internet business. I was computer literate. I could type quickly. I a fairly new desk model computer, a high-speed Internet connection, and a printer. And I enjoy learning new skills. Well, I finally did it and I enjoy it immensely. You may take pleasure in operating your own store too.
Choose a generic title for your store. Later you can change to a name that is more descriptive of what you are selling. Choosing a title that suggests what you sell is not essential but it will assist to get your store into the early pages of Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc searches. Check with your State government to confirm that the
name you select is not already taken. In Florida where I live, the State web site to check is SUNBIZ.ORG. There will be an equivalent one in your State.
It's a simple matter to register a company name online, and to apply for a sales tax number. You don't need legal advice, it's easy to do and straightforward. You can register the name as a DBA (doing business as), LLC (Limited Liability Company), or you can incorporate (Inc). Both the corporation and LLC insulate your personal assets from liability lawsuits, but there will be the druggery of extra government and accounting records every year. One of those chores is that you must submit an annual report to the State and pay an annual fee. It's easy to do but it is one more bureaucratic nuisance. When you register as a DBA you can use your Social Security number as a federal tax number. A corporation and an LLC need a federal company tax number. In some States you use your Social Security number for the LLC provided you do not have employees.
Choose your company name, check that there is an Internet name the same or similar, then register the company name with the State. I purchased the address I use through GoDaddy, one of the many resellers of domain names. The cost of an Internet domain is usually about $10 annually. If you already know what you will be selling at your store, you should choose a store name and website name that will serve as a keyword phrase to attract search engines. A good Internet address would be "toys for sale" because there are thousands of searches every month for this phrase. You'll find that somebody might already use this domain name and most combos of it.
Use Google's Keyword Tool to find keyword phrases that make good company names and are phrases with high search engine volumes. Aim for above 6000 monthly but no lower than 700 monthly. I selected my generic name because I had not yet decided what items I would be selling. With no previous retail experience and no website I could not cajole a wholesaler to provide me with items to sell.
You need a hosting company with powerful servers to host (park) your site and the software you use. A server is a fancy name for a very large and powerful computer. You'll need to lease or buy shopping cart software to arrange the website for selling. After some false starts, I now use Lexiconn as my hosting company and Shopsite as my shopping-cart software. Both are excellent. There are other first-class hosting companies and shopping software companies. For example I use Hostgator to host my Wordpress websites.
The total cost of leasing shopping cart software with monthly hosting fees is about $40 . The hosting company you select should be very familiar with the shopping cart software. You'll need their knowledge to install the software and later to solve problems for you.
A checklist of things to do
1. Register the name of the company with your State and county.
2. Obtain a merchant credit card account with an online credit card company to accept customers' credit card charges. You do not need any type of credit card machine unless your are going to take orders by telephone - not recommended for a beginner. You could use Google's shopping cart system only, which is simpler to set up. I use both in my store to give customers more choices to pay. The Shopsite software that I use also gives me the option to use Amazon's shopping cart system. This can be reassuring for your customers.
3. Get a PayPal account to accept charges through PayPal. Not absolutely necessary, but many buyers like to pay with PayPal.
4. Signup for a business checking account and a business credit card account. I suggest you open the checking account and the credit card account at a bank near where you live. Why? Because you'll find you have to visit the bank often. Now, you can pay your wholesaler with the credit card, and put sales income from the Internet store into the bank account. Having the same bank for both simplifies accounting. You can pay the credit card bill each month by moving funds from the checking account to the credit card account.
5. Now you can find a wholesaler who will open a retail account for you. It can be a problem finding a wholesaler to provide you with products for a new store. You should only do business with legitimate wholesalers who get the products direct from a manufacturer or importer. I can tell you how to find wholesalers. Sign on with worldwidebrands.com or one of the companies like them. They'll give you access to hundreds of authentic wholesalers and good advice on dealing with wholesalers. Avoid getting enticed into additional services until you understand the business better. One of the added services I paid for was a series of articles on keyword research. Use the free Google Keyword Tool instead. Browse through free search engine help on YouTube videos by Google's Matt Cutts. They're excellent.
Select a wholesaler who will send the products from their warehouse to your customers with your name on the package. This is known as drop shipping. It's less costly, less time consuming, and less risky than purchasing products, storing them and shipping them yourself. .
No comments:
Post a Comment