Online small business is growing and with it more opportunities and challenges face online entrepreneurs than ever before. If you already have a small business online, be aware some problems are beginning to assert themselves and it is best to be prepared. If you’re just getting started, welcome. We’ll try to help you in any way we can through the resources we provide. Don’t be discouraged! While there may be concerns, the online environment offers nearly unlimited place for your small business to grow. Let’s begin:
Getting Started
Launching your online presence like a pro. Like anything else, creating an online presence takes deliberate action and dedication. Of course, the tools for getting your business online have never been more abundant, but choosing the best path while getting started in crucial and following through is the ultimate key to your success. Tweak Your Biz
“Fresh ideas” for online marketing? Some of these aren’t exactly fresh and you may have heard of them before, but they are gathered here and stated so concisely that this post might be one you want to bookmark or share with a few friends. Here is online marketing in a nutshell.Take note! Fox Small Business Center
Could an online presence save your business? It did in the case of a least one Australian company, according to this report. When sales at this local hardware store were threatened by competition from a giant chain, desperation led the owner first to eBay than to setting up his own Website. Today, online sales represent 95 percent of his revenue! The Northern Star
Policy
Is “fairness” tax truly fair to online small business? Though companies like Amazon.com may be enjoying gigantic revenues, attempts to begin collecting sales tax from online retailers could also affect small entrepreneurs just getting started in the online space. Is it a good idea to burden this group of beginning small business owners with more barriers so early in the move to online operations not to mention the impact these kinds of taxation may have on legions of small business owners who today function as affiliates to larger online sellers? What do you think? PC World
California proposal will hurt more than help. Specifically, a grab by the state legislature to wrench sales tax from online affiliate marketers located in California who drive traffic to large e-commerce sites like Amazon.com for a commission on the online sales, will only serve to either drive affiliate marketers from the state or force them to sever ties with online retailers who will resist collecting the tax. Technorati
Think the resistance to sales tax on affiliate marketers is small? Just check out this release from 25,000 who oppose the legislation. Here’s what a portion of the release says about the proposed law. “This budget trailer bill, along with any other nexus tax legislation, will devastate a currently growing and vibrant segment of California’s technology economy, Affiliate Marketers.” PR Newswire
Taxes
Is avoiding local sales tax a major incentive for shopping online? Yes it is, according to this post, at least when it comes to online retail. Let’s face it though. There are many other benefits for the entrepreneur of operating a business online whether legislation requiring sales tax collected from online retail sales passes or not. savings.com
Marketing
Using video to market your online business. According to blogger Rich Brooks, “Small businesses often don’t appreciate all the benefits of online video–and especially YouTube–to their social media marketing.” Here are some expert suggestions for using video, especially on YouTube, for online marketing success. Fast Company
How businesses create their own communities. Don’t just create an online business presence, create a community around your small business. This use to mean only relying on sites like Facebook or Twitter, a social media only approach. Now tools like Ning offer the next level. smallbiz technology
Tech
Entering “the cloud” with Office365. Clearly a public site and online marketing are only two aspects of a fully online small business operation. The rest you can get for $6 per month in “the cloud” with Office365 from Microsoft, the first stage of what will surely be many greater developments to come. Check out the review of what may be the cheapest, easiest way of leveraging tech tools for your business yet. BostonHerald.com
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Paul Viau
What a great collection of articles! I liked the Hardware Store in australia best.
Darren Slattery
Great article, as the pace of society is only getting faster we are only becoming more time poor. However as humans we do like to touch the product if possible. This is the small glimmer of hope that the physical store retailers need to take advantage of.
All very true. Small businesses definitely face many challenges but getting online and gaining access to many extra customers has never been easier. You know longer need a huge level of technical expertise, a massive budget for servers or a degree in corporate marketing to be able to get started selling on the web. One of the great things about the Internet is it allows you to have these resources at your fingertips so you can learn for yourself (indeed this article proves just that). But it is also important to recognise that all of the pitfalls you face when starting or running a business on the web are still present and in someways even more difficult to combat when things go wrong.