Internet Business 101
By Niyi Adeoshun, October 10, 2000

Generally speaking, these days a business without a website is like a house without a door. Creating an online business may not be anything new, but below I have outlined briefly the essentials for starting-up online.

Set your goals.
What do you actually want to achieve on the Internet? For starters, set simple, realistic business-goals for yourself. You may enlist the help of your prospective customers to gather together their needs (and wants) .By using and sending by e-mail (at this early stage) any of the over 100 customisable survey forms at Zoomerang's website.

Get a website.
The next step now is to set up a well-designed website. You may want to consult the result of the customer survey so as to be able to meet your customers' needs. The decision to build the site yourself or have it professionally made depends entirely on you.

Going hand-in-hand is having someone to host the website for you. There are several levels of hosting; you have to carefully choose which one meets your needs most.

The price must be right.
If you want to sell online and don't know what to charge for your products and services, visit Make Your Price Sell which utilises web technology to help you determine the 'perfect price' for your products and services.

Get a merchant account.
If you intend to sell products online, it is essential that you offer secure credit card purchasing. For this, most of the time, you must have a merchant account that connects to your business bank account. At MerchantWorks you will detailed listings of international credit card merchant account providers that you can choose from.

Be ready and willing to work hard.
From this point onwards you should be driven by you goals to achieve them. Expect the unexpected and be prepared to work very hard at making your site sell.

Each of the above topics will be dealt with in details very soon.