Building an Online Business is Not Easy. The challenges to take an offline business online are much the same as creating a standalone virtual business. Despite all the “guru” marketers out there selling “get rich quick” schemes, building an online business is no different than building an offline business:
- Define a Business Model with Revenue Streams
- Find Customers
- Sell Customers
- Service Customers
- Generate Repeat Customers
In working with disgruntled business owners who have seen their dreams of an online business dashed, I empathize with them. Their lack of results can be classified into two main issues:
Business Owners place too much trust in the design firm
Most non-technical people going onto the web place all their hopes and dreams in a website designer’s hands. This is like building a retail store and leaving all the decisions about the operation of your business in the hands of your General Contractor and Interior Designer. No one would ever do that! A website designer builds websites based around your direction because they can’t possibly know your business and your goals. A lack of business planning on the front-end is the real reason why many sites never get off the ground.
There’s no Freakin’ Owners Manual
If you can make it through the website design process, it suddenly dawns on every business owner once the site goes live…”Okay, now what!?” Or as one business owner told me, “I paid more for my website than I did for my car and I didn’t even get an owner’s manual.”
Operating a website is not a “set it and forget it” endeavor. It takes time, patience and dedication to cultivate results from your new employee. Every business operates their website differently depending on the goals that were outlined in the website planning process. But, the concept is still the same: you must operate your website just as you operate your offline business – and hopefully you can do that in concert with one another.
The actual design process of a website business is the fun part. Planning for its success on the front-end to achieve your business goals and operating that business with a proper “owner’s manual” once you have the site completed is the real magic in operating your business successfully.
