I have found that even before the holidays that shoppers have been shopping online because it is very convenient in some situations to simply sit down point and click and within days have that product delivered to your home or business. Let’s  face it.. businesses have already been doing this for years for a numbers of products from things such as computers, toner, paper products, water, and other office supplies and equipment. But now with the help of Google, Bing, and Yahoo you can now price comparison shop and see where you can find the best price for that product you are looking for.

If you are a business and would like to know what you would have to do in order to be able to sell online it’s pretty simple. First you would need to have a domain name for your business which is will cost from $10 – $25. Than you will need a hosting account which will run about $10 – $30 per month. Next your going to need someone to design your website. This is a very important segment of the process, and I would suggest doing a local search for your area such as “dallas web design” or if you feel comfortable working with a web designer anywhere in the country simply do a search for “website design” You want to make sure that you get someone familiar with shopping carts and e-commerce as well as search engine optimization or seo. This is very key as you want to make sure that once your site is built that people will be able to find it.

It is very important for you to understand that you should be working on marketing yourself from using Twitter, Facebook, and any other sites that you can use to help market your site. I would suggest setting up a blog depending on your business. Discuss this with your web designer when you speak with him or her. Once you have worked with your developer and your site is ready to go public be patient as it is not always an instant thing. You can send out an email blast and pass out business cards but things do take time but it will take off.

You have made a big first step and you are on your way to becoming your own boss and congratulations to you for taking the risk that not everyone is prepared to take.

Malcom Chakery
Chakery Design, President