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We're here to help you setup an internet
business and it does not have to cost you a penny to begin.
Costs associated an online business:
Acquiring a Domain Name
Buying a pre-built site with shopping cart.
This step can be one of the costliest parts of the process.
There are
many free templates, such as osCommerce which a programming savvy
person could do, but the average person cannot. Other
pre-built stores
are more turn-key, but this also limits your ability to customize and
troubleshoot problems. The other option is to have a store
hosting
service and pay a monthly fee for your website. These
services usually
provide you a site as a subdomain on their site and then
provide the
shopping cart and payment system. This service sounds nice
but is
really rather limited functionally because it is only useful on a small
scale because it is on someone else's domain, and takes up a rather
substantial amount of your monthly income when just getting started.
However, pl
Web Hosting
All websites must be hosted by someone. The cost varies what
you get in return. Don't ever go for free hosting, it is not
in your best interest.
Credit Card processing service
Essential for any e-commerce store. There are alternatives to
having your own credit card processing, including paypal, but you will
not get as many sales. Credit card processing typically runs
between $35 and $60 dollars per month which can be hard to swallow when
starting out.
SSL certificate to perform Credit Card
Processing
Another essential for any e-commerce store that does credit card
processing. You can only process credit cards through a
secured server. In order to do so, you must purchase use of
that secure server, which typically costs about $10 per month.
FTP software
Though not entirely essential, is a very useful tool because of the
time savings. When time is the most expensive part of a
project, reducing the time burden is very helpful. FTP
software is usually free for about 1 month, then costs typically
between 25 and 50 dollars.
Business Lisence
An annual expense that every organized businss must have.
Hoopes Financial Business Consulting provides one of the rare
options to avoid having a business lisence.
Office
Not every business starting out can justify an office outside of the
home. However, having an established office is important in
the eyes of the customer.
Phone Service
Being able to answer calls coming in at all times is an important thing
for many customers. Whenever there is a problem or people
have questions, they need to know they can call and get help
immediately.
Marketing Expenses (Search Engine
Submission, Article Submission, Database Submission, blog reviews,
network of contacts)
Hands down the biggest expense in establishing a strong internet
business. It takes time and understanding, but with the right
tools a good advisor and time, one can be very successful.
Service Subscriptions (Ebay, Amazon, Yahoo
Store, DMOZ)
Service subscriptions can be your biggest expense because they
are recurring. $20 here, $50 there, to have just the 4
services above would be nearly $150 per month. Definitely not
logical for the person starting out.
Experience (Learning how to do most things
right online can be very expensive)
It takes time to learn how to do most things right. The
internet is no exception. The number one thing I wished I had
in the past was someone who could teach me how to do these things
rather than have to learn them on my own.
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