steps to setting up and ecommerce business

[poppyseed]

Okay Mamas, tell me what steps I need to take to set up my online business, This is what I have done so far:

Secured domain name, and several variatons of domain name
Secured supplier for our main product
Found magizine to advertise in
Designed and made up first advertisement
Found pictures for website
Come up with Business name and written up philosophy/slogan for our business
Designed layout of website
Written business plan
Opened a business account with the bank

This is what I need to do:

Find hosting
Get business insurance
Get webiste up and running
Write terms and conditions for lawer to look over
Order packageing to get product to our customers
Place first order for product
Write 1st article to feature on our website
Pay for photos from stock photographer to use on website
Contact post office to arrange a business account for printing postage/having post picked up
Sort out phone number to put on the website

Have I covered everything - any thing else that you have done and found useful, or anything I am missing. This is all new to me and I just want to make sure I get it all right!

TIA

[CawMama]

Wow....you're on top of it mama! I'm sure you've already done your competitive shopping?

[nursingmom]

most important thing is to find the right hosting for your business. To start off, I find that WAHM hosting companies are good price with lots of features I need.

Depending on the type of business, you may not need business insurance for a while.

One of my brother-in-laws is a patent lawyer and another brother in law is lawyer in traning. You do not need to have laywer to look over terms and conditions. Just research what other website has done on their site... revise them according to your needs.

USPS offers free boxes/envelops for shipping.

If you buy Adobe CS3 which includes photoshop, illustrator, and many other softwares, you do not need to hire professional photographer. You can make any pictures look professional with those software programs.... unless you really need absolutely professional looking pictures. If you are retail, you will get your photos from your vendors. If you are vendor, it might be useful for professional photography....unless you have a really good camera. You can get good price on Adobe CS3 on amazon.com.

It took me a long time for me to get my site up and "launched". You should have a general idea on how you want your website to look. Sales tend to be slow in the beginning... so, a lot of other things can be sorted out once your website is up and running.

[Night Owl]

Do you know who your target market is and where you can find them online and offline?

Do you know who will be your credit card processor/payment gateway. I'd find out about this before purchasing a cart.

I'd also recommend finding out what cart you'll use before choosing a host. You don't want to pick a host, only to find that the server isn't compatible with the cart you want to use. And you don't want to pick a cart, only to find out it won't work with the payment process you want to use.

Do you have a marketing plan?

I would go ahead and have a lawyer review your terms and conditions. I had been in business five years before I had a lawyer look over mine and she still found stuff that I needed to change or could improve upon.

Good luck!