You got a website business idea, but don’t know how to move ahead?

You got a website business idea, but don’t know how to move ahead?

29 July 2009 No Comment

You got a websites business idea, but don’t know how to move ahead?

Congratulation, possibly you may be the next Sergey Brin, Larry page, Jeff Bezos, Sameer Bhatia…as you are now on the first step, yes the idea…you got the idea and you and only you know why you got this idea of running a website, a search engine, an e-commerce website etc which can solve an important problem of society.

At WebNeeTech R&D we believe and follow” Your second step more important than your first step and your third step is more important than the last two steps….and your 100th step is the most important step than your last 99th step”

You completed your first step as you got an idea to start a web based business, now what’s next? Most of us were not sure how I should move ahead, what I should do, how I should plan etc when we first get the idea?

Most of us think that creating a website will do everything…but the reality is a website comprises 5% of coding/programming and 95% is business logic which runs a website.

Get as many as business idea as you can get, but make sure you follow these steps:-

STEP 1:-

Before moving to second step, work on your first step once more.

Most of us, as soon as we get the idea we jump straight to the calculation of profit, loss, investment, team, future expansion plans, bla blaaaa and this is the biggest mistake that anyone can do (unfortunately we all do…I also did it ) .

The first thing is to make your idea perfect, find its feasibility, its usability in the market and is your website really solving a problem or filling a gap.

The best way to improve your idea and make it perfect is by ASKING. Yes talk to people you know, your friends, colleagues and most importantly talk to your target audience or customer. Go and share your idea with them and see the response.

Be as fair as possible and talk only about the solution you are having. Don’t talk about your whole business plan.

Once you get the response, see how you can make your website idea better…what you should add or delete from your present idea.

This step is also a test of your guts, your persistence, and your emotional quotient…as sometime or most of the time people will say your idea will not work and that is the time when you have to decide whether you should go ahead or not with your idea. This is the real test of entrepreneurship.

Recently at WebNeeTech R&D we got a project to create a web based software application. The client just shared the IDEA with us. The first thing WebNeeTech R&D did was finding the feasibility of the idea by interviewing the actual target customers of that product and once we found YES there is a market for this…we started developing the site with some changes which was required to sell the product in market.

STEP 2:

See who else is married or marrying the same person as yours?

Once you have a green signal and you designed what you are looking for, finalized your idea…the second most important step is to find about competition.

As your idea is a web based…so search the internet, ask your connection to find about competitors and make sure you find following details about them:-

1) Who else is doing the same thing as you are planning?

2) Where they are located?

3) What they have special that your idea doesn’t have?

4) How big is your competitor?

5) Who are their major clients?

6) What is their annual revenue and if possible find their business valuation?

If you don’t find any other website or business model as yours, go ahead you have hit the nail on right spot. If you find the competitors, analyze your business idea and develop something unique in your business which they are not having.

Don’t be afraid of competition, as no matter how good is your competitor but at the end what matters is how good is the service / product you are offering to the customer.

STEP: 3

Find what is required to establish your business and run

Once you have found out that your idea got strength and you are passionate about it, list all the necessary resource(s) which are required for running your website.

1) Prepare Functionalities:

As your idea is to start a website, first and foremost prepare the functionalities that you want in your website. By functionalities, I mean what all things, functions you want in your website.

2) Find the resources required:-

A website never runs on its own. It’s the activity behind the web pages which make or break a website business. This step include following-

a) List down all activities which are required to run the website. For example, if you are making a job portal your major work is contacting the HR Managers of the companies and convincing them for showing their company’s job openings on your job portal. So your main work is getting job openings from the companies.

b) Find how you are going to do it, Will you hire someone? Will you do it on your own? Etc.

c) Find whether you need an office space to run your website business. My suggestion is don’t go for an office in the initial stage. A website business is a business which requires less resource and you can run it from your home, the only things you required is a computer, internet connection and a telephone.

3) Find how you will bring visitors on the website. This step calls for preparing marketing plan and the resources required.

STEP 4:

Find the cost of making website and running it

Most startup fails in this step. Your investment in business is not only the cost of developing the website but it’s also the cost of running it. Do the following thing:-

a) Visit website developers and find the cost of making websites. Don’t just visit and rest on one developer…visit around 5-6 website developers. (Read “How to select a website developer and 31 killer questions you should ask to a website developer)

b) Find the cost of running your business; it may include the cost of internet, phone, your traveling expenses etc.

c) Now add up all these costs and over an above add 20% more to the actual cost. The extra 20% is for unseen or uncalculated expenditures.

STEP: 5

Its time to start the development

Once you have calculated the cost and planned everything, let the developer start the work; but keep in mind just don’t make your website 100% in the first phase.

Ask the developer to make the initial pages live. The initial pages includes home page, about us, contact us, service you offer, blog etc. you can decide which pages you want to up first.

By the time developer is making your website, just don’t sit and wait for the website completion…during this period, work on your business plan, start some marketing, let people know that you are making such website.

STEP 6:

Go out and shout. You are now in business

This is last step of your initial days. Once your website is up and running, now its time to start all the activities you have planned.

Congratulation, possibly you may be the next Sergey Brin, Larry page, Jeff Bezos,…as you are now on the first step, yes the idea…you got the idea and you and only you know why you got this idea of running a website, a search engine, an e-commerce website etc which can solve an important problem of society.

Most of us think that creating a website will do everything…but the reality is a website comprises 5% of coding/programming and 95% is business logic which runs a website.

Get as many as business idea as you can get, but make sure you follow these steps:-

STEP 1:-

Before moving to second step, work on your first step once more.

Most of us, as soon as we get the idea we jump straight to the calculation of profit, loss, investment, team, future expansion plans, bla blaaaa and this is the biggest mistake that anyone can do.

The first thing is to make your idea perfect, find its feasibility, its usability in the market and is your website really solving a problem or filling a gap.

Be as fair as possible and talk only about the solution you are having. Don’t talk about your whole business plan.

Once you get the response, see how you can make your website idea better…what you should add or delete from your present idea.

STEP 2:

See who else is married or marrying the same person as yours?

Once you have a green signal and you designed what you are looking for, finalized your idea…the second most important step is to find about competition.

As your idea is a web based…so search the internet, ask your connection to find about competitors and make sure you find following details about them:-

1) Who else is doing the same thing as you are planning?

2) Where they are located?

3) What they have special that your idea doesn’t have?

4) How big is your competitor?

5) Who are their major clients?

6) What is their annual revenue and if possible find their business valuation?

Don’t be afraid of competition, as no matter how good is your competitor but at the end what matters is how good is the service / product you are offering to the customer.

STEP: 3

Find what is required to establish your business and run

Once you have found out that your idea got strength and you are passionate about it, list all the necessary resource(s) which are required for running your website.

1) Prepare Functionalities:

As your idea is to start a website, first and foremost prepare the functionalities that you want in your website. By functionalities, I mean what all things, functions you want in your website.

2) Find the resources required:-

A website never runs on its own. It’s the activity behind the web pages which make or break a website business. This step include following-

b) Find how you are going to do it, Will you hire someone? Will you do it on your own? Etc.

3) Find how you will bring visitors on the website. This step calls for preparing marketing plan and the resources required.

STEP 4:

Find the cost of making website and running it

Most startup fails in this step. Your investment in business is not only the cost of developing the website but it’s also the cost of running it. Do the following thing:-

a)Visit website developers and find the cost of making websites. Don’t just visit and rest on one developer…visit around 5-6 website developers. (Read “How to select a website developer and 31 killer questions you should ask to a website developer)

b) Find the cost of running your business; it may include the cost of internet, phone, your traveling expenses etc.

c) Now add up all these costs and over an above add 20% more to the actual cost. The extra 20% is for unseen or uncalculated expenditures.

STEP: 5

Its time to start the development

Once you have calculated the cost and planned everything, let the developer start the work; but keep in mind just don’t make your website 100% in the first phase.

Ask the developer to make the initial pages live. The initial pages includes home page, about us, contact us, service you offer, blog etc. you can decide which pages you want to up first.