Starting an Online Business

Congratulations! You are about to take advantage of the golden opportunity to create your very own online business. This is your chance to be your own boss, acting as CEO, creative director, working in all departments, and customer service desk all rolled into one.
You probably ready to get started but may not be sure what to do first. Never fear, No fear, this course will lead you in the right direction.

About This Course.

This course takes you through the steps of preparing your online store for its grand opening. This course will walk you through the process of building and managing a successful
online business – from finding and choosing products to designing your store, creating your top notch product listings, and marketing your store on the web. You will get great tips explaining how to perform the most common task faster, better, and/or cheaper and warnings navigating you clear from the most common and costly but pitfalls.

What You Need to Get Started.

Opening and managing an online store is far easier than building and managing a brick and mortar store. As with any endeavor you will need a few tools to get started.
Plan: your plan should include the types of products you want to sell, some ideas of who you’re going to sell too, where you planning to get products, and how to position your store to avoid and beat the competition.
Domain name: The domain name is your stores address on the Internet. IE the store.com. In this course you’ll find out how to choose and register a domain name.
Website: You need to decide on what type of website, or platform that will power your online business and how to find hosting for your website. We help you shop for a provider that aligns with your business goals,
Payments: you have several options for accepting payments from your customers, including simple solutions like PayPal. You can also pick up a merchant account so you can accept credit cards directly on their site like Stripe. Several options for accepting payment online will be made available for you.
Shipping: if you pack and ship products to customers yourself, you need an account with one or more shipping services, such as UPS, USPS, or FedEx.
Time: you probably won’t need lots of money to open your online business, but you will need time to plan your business, create and upload product listings, market your store and product effectively and serve your customers.

This course uses several icons to flag the most important items:

This icon marks info you should consider carefully and never forget

This is a practical tidbit that may save you time or money or improve results.

Watch out! Follow this advice to sidestep a common or perhaps serious but fall.