Dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur? Planning to start a online business?

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs form the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” – Steve Jobs, Co-founder, Apple Inc. Starting a small business or aiming for something big. Successful businesses have nothing to do with the size or platform of your business. It is only concerned with the correct blend of true marketing facts, creative & achievable ideas along with strong vigor!

With O2O (offline to online) sky rocketing at an unbelievable pace, the competition has reached its peak. Amidst all this competitive wave how can you stand out? Let’s understand this with the help of an example: You are looking forward to start your own business online, an e-commerce fashion accessories website.

Step 1: Find the Need

Maybe you have already planned your business, product and other details but did you consider what your audiences are looking for? It is a myth that you know your audience. Many a times what they want and what you provide is absolutely opposite.

Spot the market need bang on! That’s what Apple did when it first launched iPod. People wanted to listen to music and Sony’s walkman was in absolute demand. Apple recognized this need for music and hence launched and far more furnished and quality product. Here’s the question: How to find that one need? Since your planning launch an online site, make the best use of online tools like

• Social Media Polls: Facebook has an amazing in-built tool for marketers to win the majority via polls. You can put up your question in a poll format on your wall or some business related page.
• Email Surveys: People do read emails! As per Smart Insights the open rate of e-commerce emails is 16.75%. Conduct your product survey via emails and MailChimp will guide you with clear insights for your campaign.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Login into Google Keywords and get accurate ideas for your search. For example if you search E-Commerce, carefully note down all the searches that pop up.

Step 2: Review Your Product

If you think the results from Step 1 match is inline with your business ideas, then go ahead. But if in case the audiences have different needs, it is recommended to look into their needs first than trying to push and sell your ideas. Give importance to your audience and the chances of your business increasing exponentially are really high.

Step 3: Plan Effectively

After completing steps 1 & 2, setting your product and/or marketing plan shouldn’t be that painful. Engineering your product (your website, products on display, etc.) in such a way that it is easy to use by all is important.

Creating an effective communications plan is essential too. Which communication channels you are going to use to reach out to your target audience? What are you going to communicate? And many more questions need to be effectively asked, answered and hence planned. Some of the key ‘must-to-be-included’ words or terms you can consider:

• Blogs
• Social Media
• Website
• Emails
• Online games
• Mobiles phones
• Forums
• Video
• Messaging

Step 4: Funding your Startup

Now its time to pitch your intellectual property! This is one of the major steps for your online business because your development, either on the product or the marketing front will be reliable on the funds you are able to bundle. Before you start calculating your existing or ‘I-need-this-much’ funds, know the different types of funding or investment:

• Bootstrapping or Self-funding: As a founder of your e-commerce website equip it with most of what you have in your pockets if not all. Bootstrapping is the key to kickstart your venture journey. It is considered to be the most effective and inexpensive way to ensure your business’ positive cashflow.
• Friends & Family: Here, you go and reach out to your inner circle of people for investing in your idea/online business. However, it is not advisable to not have too many people in your investors panel initially though. Reliability is the key here.
• Seed Funding/Seed Capital: This is the initial stage of raising funds or investments from outside. Seed funding can be done by an individual or a group of investors usually termed as angel investors (semi-professionals, who were or are founders of companies themselves).
• Venture Capital: In this round of investment, your firm is either the most profitable or could revive all the negative cashflow afresh. Sighting these possibilities a venture capitalist will pump in funds in your company system.
• Mezzanine Financing: This is final round of investment before you go all out in the public. Here, your company is growing not only in terms of resources but also in its operations. It is valued over several millions if not billions. Most of the startups sell off before entering this stage.
• IPO: Initial Public Offering is the very first sale of stock issued by the company to public. After the IPO is issued, the company becomes public and doesn’t remain private anymore. In order to grow and expand, a company raises huge amount of money by going public. It is not the end goal of all startup businesses.

Step 5: Choose your Type of Business

Whether you own a business in Partnership, Pvt. Ltd. or proprietorship. You can refer to the Indian government regulations and norms for corporate rights. Quick glance at the new company registration process:

• Select at least one suitable and unique name of your company.
• Online application to the concerned RoC to ensure availability of the company name.
• Form 1, 18 and 32 need to filled and submitted within 60 days of company name approval.
• Draft, vet and print the memorandum and articles of the association by the solicitors.
• Arrange for appropriate stamp duty of the memorandum and the articles.
• Attest the memorandum by at least two subscribers with specification mentioned.
• Check all the details once – date, signatures, stamps and so on.
• Login to the portal and submit the form along with other mandatory documents.

Step 6: Register your Domain

Domain name is the face of your e-commerce site. For example, www.xyz.com/in/net and so on. XYZ is could be your brand name or its abbreviation.

To register a domain visit: ParallaxHosting.com

Tip: Let your domain name relatable, short and memorable. This will increase your audiences’ brand recall rate, awareness and hence sales; broadening your online business opportunities and scope.

Step 7: Web Hosting

As introduced, online businesses are upscaling rapidly and hence there are many web hosting services offered for free. If you are serious about running an online business for a really long term in the future then it is better if you buy your own hosting services. Customized or paid services are flexible enough to provide you with all that you need for your site – templates, structure preference, code your own program and so on. Opt for a service which allows you to grow – upgrade or update regularly.

For web hosting, visit: ParallaxHosting.com

Step 8: Create your Online Store & Mobile App

In this stage, the main face or storefront of your website needs to be worked on. The entire user interface and user experience (UI,UX) is chalked, consented and implemented. Here’s the checklist:

• Choosing templates
• Designing home page (color schemes, fonts, etc..)
• Integrating landing pages
• Showcasing high resolution and true product images
• Selecting categories (earrings, clothes -men, women, kids, footwear, etc.)
• Updating relevant products (as per categories)
• Syncing shopping cart
• Finalizing a trusted online payment gateway

One of the main advantages of an online business is – it can be accessible anywhere and anytime. Use this advantage to the fullest by making your site mobile savvy.

Step 9: Marketing Tools

Now that your online business is ready to roll out in the market, follow these most cost effective marketing tips to make your marketing efforts fruitful. Some of the tools include:

• Social Media Marketing: Promoting your business on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
• Content Marketing: Making optimal use of blogs, videos, images and so on, to create awareness about your business.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): SEM is a paid form of optimizing search engines. It poses as a top result for any organic search, depending on which keyword you want to show up for.
• Viral Marketing: It’s a mixture of referral and influence marketing. Your customers will influence their friends to make purchases from your site and in return you reward them with some incentives like coupons, cashback offers, free gifts and so on.
• Email Marketing: It is all about directly communicating with your audiences.

Step 10: Analytics

You won’t know your success unless you measure it. Know who viewed your e-commerce website or web app? How many times and for how long? Google analytics is the key ingredient followed and trusted by all. Business analysis gives you a wider and brighter picture of what is working and what isn’t. This information helps you to strengthen your online business and guides you to move on the correct path without any major losses.

Step 11: Feedback

This cycle is vicious and isn’t completed without a valuable feedback. Seeking for feedback always makes you stand tall as a learner and a businessman of quality. Your customer feels open and cared when you give them some space to speak out their minds about your product or business. Respect your audience and what you get in return is definitely priceless!

Starting an online business and climbing the success ladder holding it upright is a choice of matter. There are many businesses which came to life and died before their expiry. But the ones who sustained, are smart players wanting to make it big and better not only for themselves but for all.

So, which one are you?

Successful brand building process outshines competition and plays an important role to create your customer’s loyalty. You need to establish a strong connect with your customer in order to make your company successful. Brand building is an ongoing process which defines your company’s vision and position in the market.

A successful brand building process increases your sales and advocates your product or service. From developing your Brand Guide to creating crucial brand elements such a logo and slogan, brand building process represents your company’s true spirit.

A successful brand has to be consistent in communication and experience across

• Environment
• Print & packaging
• Website & online advertising
• Content marketing
• Social media
• Sales & customer service

Use this six simple steps on how to build a successful brand:

Step 1: Determine Target Audience

When you are building your brand, always keep in mind who you are targeting with your communication. Identify your target audience and tailor your mission to meet their requirement in the best possible manner.

Aim for a scenario where you create campaigns as per the needs of your customers. Decide what type of communication best delivers your message to the audience you are targeting. Don’t forget to filter your audience on the basis of their demography, age, interest and behavior. It will help you to target niche into the segment.

Step 2: Define Brand Mission

Define the values you want to incorporate with your audience base. Your vision and mission statement basically depicts the purpose of your existence. It will guide your brand building process across channels. You need to present an authentic image of what your company strives for.

You need to articulate your company’s mission across channels so that it sets path of your communication. Everything from logo to your tagline, your communication should reflect your mission. Always ask yourself:

• Why have you started your business?
• What are your goals?
• Who is your target audience?

Step 3: Research Competition

Analyze your competition and find out what they are offering to their customers. Think why your business is different from your competitors. Your branding should focus on that difference and should revolve around what makes your product better than the rest.

If you find that your market is filled with a vast number of competitors, then you can try tweaking your branding process with an exclusive communication strategy. Always remember to:

• Be aware about what your competitors are doing
• Research about their USPs
• Differentiate yourself from others
• Convince your customers what makes you the best

Step 4: Create Value Propositions

Always focus on what makes your brand unique and valuable. Find your value propositions that sets your business apart from your competition. Today, customers are interacting with many brands, therefore you need to communicate that you stand out from the market.

Include your value preposition in every marketing communication you are driving across channels. It is one of the most important step to build a successful brand.

Step 5: Determine Brand Guidelines

Brand guidelines define your brand’s tonality and sets specific rules on how your business should interact with the audience. It helps you to maintain consistency across channels and makes your business more recognizable.

Develop your brand guide as it sets a definite pattern for your visual elements (logo, templates etc.) and structures your brand tone.

Step 6: Market Your Brand

Prepare a definite marketing strategy to market your brand. Apply your branding in every piece of communication, from packaging to stationary, website to marketing collateral. Display your brand in as many places as possible.

Identify new channels such as email, web and affiliates to promote your brand. Also advertise your brand in unexpected locations such as employee t-shirts, your social media pages and office goodies.

Brand building process is an ongoing process and following above steps will definitely stand you apart from your competitors.

The biggest challenge for an eCommerce website is to ensure that customer completes the purchase they initiate. As per Google’s first impression report, a user judges your website in 1/50th of a second. It is this time period which a user takes to rate your website. If your website is cluttered and do not have a clear call-to-action button, then your user may abandon it. Therefore it becomes quite crucial for your website to avoid any visual complexities.

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Content is the driving engine to scale reach, increase visibility and boost sales. Regular posting of quality content increases the credibility of your business in front of the potential customers.  Therefore it becomes quite important for you to market your content strategy. And content strategy starts with the publication of your business blog.

A blog is a place where you host valuable content, market product or create a thought leadership channel. With minimal expense, you can engage your readers by simply publishing a blog.

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