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The post Online Business Planning For Newbs appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Have you discovered a need that can be filled online? Are you decided in your approach to fill that need? Are you clueless or brand new to the process of creating, publishing and maintaining a website? If so, this article is for you. At this point, you may have already outlined your operations strategy and colorfully grown your brain child into an impressive embryo of idea rich DNA. And, if you are a business mind worth anywhere near your salt, you are preparing to tackle all those unknown expletives…lol…or rather variables   1. Know Your 1, 2, 3s First thing’s first. A decision to proceed and capitalize on the shiny new “land of opportunity”, found in the WWW, is a decision to either spend money (hopefully wisely) OR invest considerable time. Again, just to be clear, your success will be a derivative of either 1. Monetary Investment or 2. Substantial Time Investment. And, in most cases, depending on the lofty or lowly goals you may set, 3. Both could be imperative. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure you make the “right” decision for YOU and your business model. There is typically a direct relationship between the quality of development and the amount of monetary investment required. A good web developer will cost a good amount of money while a great developer will cost a great amount of money. The same is true of your time investment. If you are completely inexperienced, developing a site, alone, from scratch, will require serious time in order to conquer the learning curve involved. The more complex or polished you desire your site to be, the more the time investment you must make in order to get it that way. You must also consider that websites are not static. Generally speaking. They will consequently require occasional or frequent updates. These updates could be necessary on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis depending on your business needs. Again, this will cost either money or time. Unless, of course, you have an awesome friend who is adept at all things “web” and can give you a courtesy hook up. Otherwise, build this cost into your business budget and plan. It is an absolute.   2. Mark Your Method Once you have picked your poison and chosen your pill, outline the next steps of your process (realistically). Example: When tieing shoes, step 1 is take string A and crossover string B…In other words, you want a REAL step by step process in place so you can quickly identify your prefered criteria and make an informed decision. That process can take a while. So, we created the following starter checklist just to get you started:   When evaluating potential developers you will want to evaluate: 1. Are their prices competitive? 2. Does their work portfolio include examples similar to your expectations? 3. Can they provide ongoing maintenance as you would need it?   When deciding on a DIY-business project you will want to do the following: 1.  Establish a set period of time (start and finish) during which you will commit to hone your skills as a developer. 2. Decide what information (i.e. books, websites, how-to articles, etc.) you need to study in order to create the vision you have in mind. 3. Consider and plan to study all necessary security measures if developing an ecommerce site.   3. EXECUTE!!! A plan means NOTHING without action. Therefore, plan the execution of your plan. Set a solid start date and develop a timeline with various (practical) goals. Understand that the nature of planning denotes that everything will not always go according to plan. So, plan for change. Build a “review period” into your timeline and prioritize celebrating your successes in addition to acknowledging where/how you need to improve.   4. Launch Never approach a launch casually. Be sure to check and double check and triple check site functionality. Have others proofread and test the site thoroughly. After all is officially approved-set and promote your launch. And, when you arrive at this point in the process, give yourself a pat on the back. Invite your friends over for a party. Go out on the town. Whatever you do, make sure you do something AND enjoy yourself!!! You have reached a significant milestone in the life of your business. Whether you contracted someone to do help put flesh on your idea or you did all the grunt work alone, you still have great cause to be excited. Make a big deal about your launch. You earned it!   Quick recap, understand the different types of investments that will be required. Choose one (or a combination). Build your plan according to the corresponding investment method. Execute your plan. Launch your business! web hosting Continue reading →