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Why didn’t sharing your expertise?

Your experience and knowledge are among your valuable commodities. So you may be surprised because I suggest you give them away for free. Why? It’s a “try before you buy” concept. Helping people for free builds your credibility and makes them more likely to pay for your services down the road.

When your business is online, it’s very easy to communicate what you know about your field and make your knowledge readily available. One way is to set up a Web page that presents the basics about your company and your field of interest in the form of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Another technique is to become a virtual publisher/editor and create your own newsletter in which you write about what’s new with your company and about topics related to your work.

My neighbor was skeptical because I recommended to him that he include a page full of technical information explaining exactly what equipment he uses and describing the steps involved in audio restoration. He didn’t think anyone would be interested; he also didn’t want to give away his “trade secrets.” Aucontraire, mon frère! People who surf the Internet gobble up all the technical details they can find. The more you wow them with the names and model numbers of your expensive equipment, not to mention the work you go through to restore their old records, the more they’ll trust you. And trust will get them to place an order with you.

Keeping your business books

What does “keeping your books” mean? In simplest sense, it means recording all financial activities that pertain to your business, including any expenses you incur, all the income you receive, as well as your equipment and tax deductions. The financial side of running a business also entails creating reports, such as profit-and-loss statements, that bank require if you apply for a loan. Such reports not only help meet financial institutions’ needs, but also provide you with essential information about how your business is really doing at any given time.

You can record all this information the old-fashioned way, by writing it down in ledgers and journals, or you can use accounting software. Because you’re making a commitment to using computers on a regular basis by starting an online business, it’s only natural for you to use computers to keep your books, too. Accounting software can help you keep track of expenses and provide information that may save you some headaches at tax time. And after you’ve saved your financial data on your hard drive, make backups so that you don’t lose information you need to do business. See Chapter 7 for ways to back up and protect your files.

Find and Hiring Technical experts

Conducting online business does involve relatively new technologies, but they aren’t impossible to figure out. In fact, the technology at this year is becoming more accessible all the time. Many people who start online businesses learn how to create Web pages and promote their companies by reading books, attending classes, or networking with friends and colleagues. Of course, just because you can do it all doesn’t mean that you have to. Often, you’re better off hiring help, either to advise you in areas where you aren’t as strong or simply to help you tackle the growing workload — and help your business grow at the same time.

Spending much money up front to hire a professional who can point you in the right direction can help you maintain an effective Web presence for years to come. Many businesspeople who usually work alone (myself included) hire knowledgeable individuals to do design or programming work that they would find impossible to tackle otherwise.

Do not be reluctant hire a professional help in order to get your business online. The Web is full of development firms that perform several related functions: providing customers with Web access, helping to create Web sites, and hosting sites on their servers. The expense for such services may be considerable at first. Choose a designer carefully, and check out sites they’ve done before. Tell them your plan of business, and spell out clearly everything what you want each page to do. Another area where you may want to find help is in networking and computer maintenance. You need to know how to do troubleshooting and find out how to keep your computers running. Find out if you have a computer expert in your neighborhood who is available on short notice.

If you do find a business partner, make sure that the person’s abilities balance your own. If you’re great at public relations and sales, for example, find a writer or Web page designer to partner with.

Becoming a credit card merchant site?

The words electronic commerce or e-commerce brings to mind visions of online forms and credit card data that is transmitted over the Internet. Do you have to provide such as service to run a successful online business? Not necessarily. Being a merchant for credit card makes life easier for your customers, to be sure, but it also adds complications and extra costs to your operation. At past, the way to become a credit card merchant is to apply to a bank.

Small and home-based businesses can have difficulty getting their applications approved. Alternatively, you can sign up that provides electronic “shopping cart” services and credit card payments online to small businesses.

In the first stages of your business, may you’ll be find it easier to take orders over the phone. But remember, most of your customers probably don’t have a second phone line for Internet access, however. They have to disconnect from the Internet to call and place their orders. Also invite them to send you an e-mail message that provides contact information and states what they want to order. Then if your business takes off, you can present your sales records to the bank and be more likely to get your merchant application approved.

To maximize your market by reaching people who either don’t have credit cards or don’t want to use them on the Internet, provide low-tech alternatives, such as toll-free phone numbers and fax numbers, so that people can provide you with information by using more familiar technologies.

Safeguarding your customers’ personal information is important, but you also need to safeguard your business. Many online businesses get burned by bad guys who submit fraudulent credit card information. If you don’t verify the information and submit it to your financial institution for processing, you’re liable for the cost. Strongly choice signing up with a service that handles credit card verification for you in order to cut down on lost revenue.