GoDaddy shares tips on how to start an online business
As Saudi Arabia ramps up its support for digital transformation of business and e-commerce, GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs around the world, offered a number of tips to help entrepreneurs start an online business.
Selina Bieber, Senior Regional Director for Turkey and MENA Region, GoDaddy said, “GoDaddy supports Saudi Arabia’s ‘2030 Vision’, with the goal to envision a sophisticated digital infrastructure to boost competitiveness of the Saudi economy. Our programs and integrated suite of GoDaddy online products and service offerings are designed to help inspire, educate, and provide Saudi Arabia’s entrepreneurs with knowledge and tools to help them grow their venture online.”
“Now more than ever, the focus for small businesses is to be online, especially as consumers’ behavior is changing to be doing more researching and purchasing online,” she added.
If you are ready to consider taking your idea and start an online business, here are some tips to help get started.
1. Decide how you will make money and your business model.
To make your online business succeed, you need to make money. So, the first step in considering your business is deciding how you will generate revenue. You can choose to sell products or services or both.
Some types of online products you can consider selling include:
- eCommerce products that you make or purchase from a wholesaler and then sell on your site. For this type of business, you may need to store and ship products to customers.
- Affiliate products that you sell on behalf of another business. When selling affiliate products, you usually don’t have to store or ship products. The merchant deals with delivery, and you simply receive a commission for helping sell their product.
- Digital products and ebooks that you create yourself or sell on behalf of other writers and producers. Digital products don’t require physical delivery so you can automate the process to send products to customers as soon as they make a purchase.
- Online courses that you create yourself or sell on behalf of others. Like digital products, online courses can be set to automatically deliver to customers upon purchase.
Sell services
You can also consider starting an online business based on selling consulting and freelancing services that can be completed online or offline. When you sell services online, you can find customers and complete sales directly with clients on your own. Or you can sign up with websites that manage the process and allow you to connect with clients through their platform.
2. Cover your legal and financial bases
Once you decide on what your business is and how it will work, you need to legitimize your business.
You will want to set up a legally registered business with related government agencies, which can help to protect you and make your business more professional to customers and vendors. You will want to determine your financial arrangements for running your business, and may want to talk with local professionals on options and ways to do this in your area. It is important for your business to follow local business guidelines and adhere to tax requirements, to help ensure your business is being set-up properly from the start.
3. Choose your online platforms and providers
As you decide on a business model and registering your business, you need to choose the best place to build your business online. Your business model can help to determines platforms and providers to consider as you build your online business.
Your website can be the home base of your online business. Creating your own website allows you to control the messages about your business and your products and services. You can easily integrate your website with your social media channels, an ecommerce store, and with digital marketing tools, to help you grow your business and stay engaged with your customers. As an example, GoDaddy Arabic Website Builder is an easy to use website builder tool to create and launch an appealing, professional and customer-oriented website. GoDaddy Arabic E-Store gives you the ability to sell your products and services directly online to customers around the Region and around the world.
If you are more technically savvy, you can choose WordPress from GoDaddy, which is a more sophisticated management system to design a richer website with thousands of choices of plug-ins to create a unique website for your business.
If your business is offering online courses, you will need a place to house your content and classes. You can deliver your content directly through your website, or choose to use a learning management system such as Teachable or Udemy.
4. Get to work.
Once you have a product or service to sell, a place to sell it and the peace of mind that you are operating legally and strategically, it’s time to get started and work to share your unique business with the world and get some interested customers. Tell family and friends, market your business through email marketing and on your website to seek out potential new clients and customers. You may want to consider a strategy for integrating your website with your social media channels, to further get the word out about your business, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, depending on your business.
Today, it is easier and more affordable than ever to get started creating a digital presence for your business. Along with tools for digital marketing and ecommerce, along with customer support to assist, GoDaddy can help you turn your idea into an online busines, and help your business grow.
