By now you should know the importance of a website. It gets your name out there, it shows off your products and services, acts like a 24hr salesperson, and creates a sense of community and authority if done right.

Considerations before building a website:
What is it that you want to communicate?
What products and services do you offer? What do you specialize in? How do you normally interact with your customers?
Do you want to launch in phases, or launch the entire entity at once?

What are your competitors doing?
Keep some notes on what your competition is doing. See whats working for them. Or what isn’t working for them. What can you do better in order for people to understand more about what you specialize in? How can you make your user experience a clean and productive one for visitors?

What do your website visitors/customers want to see?
Your customers obviously need your products or services if they are visiting your website. What it is they are after? Specifically? Is it to see more case study and installations of your products? Do they want to see your track record of selling homes? Testimonials? Or do they want to see what other types of products you carry in a clean and organized fashion? Get out and talk to your current customers, or those that might be interested in your business. Get a feel for what they want to see on your website.

Website costs to keep in mind:
Domain name. Domain names usually float in the areas of $8 – $20 depending on the extention. (.com, .ca, .co, .org) These are paid out on an annual renewal basis.

Monthly Website Hosting
Think of a web server, or web host, as a storage box that houses all of your website related files. It is what customers call into using your domain name in order to reach your website. Monthly fees are required in order to manage, update and keep that web server in working order. These can range anywhere from $5/month up to $100 and more depending on the size of your business and the type of content you wish to serve. Small and mid sized businesses should expect to pay anywhere from$15-$30/month for website hosting. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Stay tuned in for what comes next!
After we have a background on your business, the products and services you offer, and a look at what your competition is doing, we can start looking into the user experience of your website. How content will be laid out and communicated in the best way for your visitors and potential customers. This is the basis for your web strategy.

After we have compiled a rough walkthrough, wireframe and site map for your small business website, we can then journey into the look and feel area where we play with colours, fonts, layouts and imagery.

Starting a small business involves a lot of paperwork, and a lot of thoughts. Having one general location where all your notes can be stored and accessed is a dream come true. Well, its possible with Evernote, and a lot of small business owners are understanding the value.

Have you ever been away from office and your laptop only to realize that amazing thought that just came to you cannot be written down? Paper and pens are nowhere to be found and that great thought is slowly drifting from your mind. Or what about being at an important client meeting and forgetting a great line you had to get across to the customer that was on your laptop back at the office?

Evernote let’s users easily save ideas, audio and visuals that can be accessed across multiple devices and computers. It is a platform many small business owners are using to easily take notes that can be accessed wherever they are.

Aside from taking notes and accessing them from all mediums, Evernote has the capability to take pictures, record audio, save webpages and tag them so they can easily have gps coordinates associated, and be easily searchable.

There is a free version of the Evernote software that is available for both Mac and PC operating systems, as well as Apple iOS,  Android, Windows phone, BlackBerry and Palm mobile devices. With subscription rates starting at $5/month. Check out this brief guide on how to get up and running with Evernote.

How are people supposed to find you with a domain name that doesn’t make sense, is hard to remember, and creates no feeling or emotions?

A domain name is how consumers are going to find out more about your business when they are directly interested in what you have to offer. There are a few key points to consider when choosing that perfect domain name for your business. Lets give you a hand on choosing an effective domain.

The proper domain extension

First and foremost, try acquiring your actual registered business name as a .com. COM’s are the worlds most recognized top level domain extension. Since they were the first, and most marketed, people will always easily remember them. A second choice for a domain extension could include the newly released .co TLD. These names stand for the new breed of entrepreneurial spirit and the launch of great ideas, products, stories and beliefs. .Co’s are similar to the .com extension. Again, good for recognition and top of mind.  If the goal or direction of your business is to stay local, pick up the local tld for your area as well. (IE. .ca for Canada, or .co.uk for UK). as well as the .com or .co. You never know when you just might decide to break borders. Something small like having a more universal name will aid in your credibility.

So our renovations company should consider the arrenovations.com domain, as well as the arrenovations.ca domain since they are now solely focused on the Canadian market. With a current connection stateside, they could easily setup an office in Chicago.

Size does matter when it comes to small business domain names, as does rememberability – the shorter the better

As with choosing a business name, your domain name should be easy to communicate, and easy for passers by to remember. Sure plenty of traffic might come through our beloved search engines (if your Search Engine Optimization is done proper), but having a domain name that is easy to communicate when out and about for not only you, but visitors of your website, will benefit you in the long run.

Our fictional company, AR Renovations, has a bid in for the small business domain name “renovator.com” (which is already owed, but on the market) as a way to help in the marketing and communication of their brand at trade shows. This is a much easier way to track their success at shows (We will discuss the benefits of website analytic tracking in a later article.) and communicate to potential customers. After all, upon meeting AR Renovations, which domain name are you more likely to remember? arrenovations.com or renovator.com?

Business name specific – does the domain name relate to your business?

If you are one of the lucky ones to be able to register a generic domain name, easy to remember domain name, or industry term domain name, like our imaginary friends at Peters & Sons Fasteners who use the domain nutsandbolts.com, good show. We also recommend nabbing your business name as well. Looks better for corporate papers. And for the extra $10/year or so, for the domain registration well worth it.

Create an easy to remember and easy to spell domain name

If you have a confusing business name, or want to have fun with your domain name, please rethink your strategy. Having domain names that are easy to spell and easy to remember will ensure the appropriate traffic is finding your website. I have seen plenty of real estate agents getting a little too creative with their domain names. While “”House4UinToronto.com” was an available domain name, it doesn’t mean that you should have registered it and put it in all of your advertising. How long will it take you to tell someone your web address vocally? “Please visit my website ‘House for you in Toronto.com’, to find out more about the properties you are looking for in your area. But please remember that it isn’t spelled the way you might think. Its House, the number 4, the letter U, in Toronto. “ Wow! What a mouthful. Too bad your potential client lost interest and glazed over. Instead, choose something like your name “BrendaFlowers.com”, or offer the owner of HouseInToronto.com who isn’t using the domain name a few thousand dollars for it. (We will cover domain name auctions at a later date.) Keep it clean and simple and easy to remember.

Create a meaningful small business domain name, something that evokes feeling for the consumer

Your brand is you. Ensure that the domain name you choose adequately reflects what you want to be known for. Whether it evokes a feeling or helps potential customers to create their own like “nutsandbolts.com” or “”BrendaFlowers.com”. These two domain names are relatively easy to remember and evoke a feeling for potential customers.

Best wishes on your small business domain name hunt!

StartupBackpack recommended these resources for small business domain name registration:

Domain name registration:

• GoDaddy.com
• Hover.com
• Domainsatcost.ca

* All of the above names and domains are for example purposes only.

Stuck on choosing a domain name for your small business? Is everything out there taken for you? Let the StartupBackpack team help!

There are a range of different business registration types. Lets take a peek on what they are. (These might be different, and have different restrictions depending on your country.)

Sole Proprietorship

Individuals commonly form sole proprietorship businesses. They are simple to form and operate, with far less legal controls, fewer taxes as well as flexible management options. One drawback for this type of business registration is that it involves personal liability. The owner risks his/her personal property for all unpaid debts the business incurs.

Partnership

This type of business setup is common for two or more individuals who agree to contribute money, labor or skills. Partnership types include general, limited, limited liability and limited liability limited.  A general partner and limited partner make a limited partnership. The general partner manages the business and the limited partner shares in the profits, but his liability is limited to his investment. In limited liability partnerships, the partners don’t have personal liability for the negligence of the other partner. A limited liability limited company shields limited partners from liability while a general partner or partners run the business.

Limited Liability

One or more individuals or entities enter into a special agreement to form a limited liability corporation (LLC). The agreement details the LLC’s organization including management provisions, separation of interests and distribution of proceeds and liabilities.

Corporation

Corporations offer a more complex legal structure. The corporation owns rights, liabilities and privileges beyond those of the individuals forming the company. Corporations may receive more tax or financial benefits, but will also have decreased personal control as well as increased licensing fees that can erase the tax or financial benefits.

Nonprofit Corporation

Individuals typically form nonprofit corporations to further a cause or goal rather than make a profit. Many nonprofits serve public interests; others operate in the private sector. Nonprofit organizations may need to apply for additional registration to conduct charitable events. Charitable organizations don’t distribute surplus funds to shareholders or owners. They usually use the funds to help further the nonprofit’s cause. Nonprofits may receive tax exempt status.

You’re well on your way after you choose your business name registration type. From this point, your local governments online business name registration website (or government services location) will ask you to submit for a name check to figure out if there are any similar businesses in your market that have the same or similar business name. Good luck with the availability of your small business name!

Your local government should have additional online resources available to you, as well as consultants to discuss what business registration makes sense for you.

The next step is to get your SOHO (small business, home office) website up and running and start communicating to the world, or local market, what it is you do!

Stay tuned for helpful articles on how to choose a proper domain name, building your small business web strategy, and how to start on the path of designing an effective small business website.

The early days of the web were a time when more was best, and flashy websites supposedly enticed consumers to become engaged. We believe in providing clean, clear and concise solutions. Getting across the point in a quick and efficient manner. Cutting the clutter and getting straight to the point, yet providing enough insight and energy to feel confident and secure in customers decisions. We also believe in educating businesses as to the options they have available and why they might be the best for them. Small Office and Home Office businesses (SOHO), unfortunately do not specialize in domain names, web hosting, navigation, website structures, and content strategy, its up to us to teach them. And that, we will. In plain English.

These beliefs and vast array of knowledge and insights have lead to StartupBackpack, a quasi journal of online consulting and web strategy that aims to provide business with the steps necessary in getting business up and rolling on the technology side. Providing important insights and evaluations of business software and tools.

If you have any specific ideas or suggestions on what you would like us to investigate or provide additional knowledge on, please let us know in the comments.

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Introduction

StartupBackpack is quite simply an information source and community for new businesses, specifically Small Office, Home Office businesses (SOHO). Not only will it help SOHO business individuals though the steps necessary to get their business up and rolling on the technology side, but it will give some important insights and evaluations of business software and tools and help build a web strategy.

Who’s inside the backpack?

Chris is a web designer by trade. Focusing on user experience and getting served the content that matters in a clean and effective manner. Building web strategies. Through consulting and discussions with small business he has noticed a gap between the consumption and understanding of technology that matters most to business that are trying to stay current and up to date with the changing economies. He believes in saving time and money, as well as doing things the most effective way possible. His backpack is filled with useful tips and tricks SOHO businesses can use to stay ahead.

Chris has previously been a writer/blogger on such highly ranked popular technology publications as GigaOm’s WebWorkerDaily, AOL’s DownloadSquad and Cali Lewis’ GeekBeat.tv.

Why was this blog created

This blog was created to fill the blanks with a stripped down, no nonsense, candid look into getting business’ rolling online, as well as to help small business stay ahead of the technology curve, and understand it!

Types of problems this blog will solve, questions it will answer and help it will provide visitors

StartupBackpack will educate visitors as to how to get their business started online. from choosing a domain name, building a website, saving money and resources with web based software and attracting new customers in the always open, always on web space.

Posting schedule

Our goal is to post at least two insightful posts per week in which we look at pressing issues that companies face when starting up, as well as online technology and products that  will benefit entrepreneurs. Rolled out throughout the week, we will provide interesting news and discoveries that are going on in the technology space that relate to SOHO business.

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Not everything from the backpack will get posted online. StartupBackpack’s most exclusive lists of tips and tricks and insights will be shared with users who personally want to receive updates straight to their inbox.

Up up and away….

We welcome your input and ideas as to the types of content you want to see here. Please visit our easy to use contact form to submit your comments and article ideas.

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