Diary of a Start-Up Part 1: Business Plan and Strategy

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Part 1 of our series, Diary of a Start-Up, will take you through the first essential steps in getting your e-commerce business off the ground.

Welcome to Part 1 of our ongoing series ‘Diary of a Start-Up’.   Remember to make use of our comments section at the end of each series post with any feedback, questions or updates you may have about your own e-venture.

Let’s get started.

Devising your business plan and strategy is the first step in bringing your e-commerce idea to life. This article is divided into three sections:

1. Business Structure Set Up
2. Obtain a Domain Name and Email Addresses
3. Obtain Your Own SSL (Secured Socket Layer)

1. Business Structure Set Up

Objectives:

To set up the appropriate business structure for your type of business and country. For Australia, obtain an Australian ABN or ACN, or register a business in your state. Engage help from those around you – pay your accountant or business advisor to help you set up your business. Or do it yourself via the online resources in your state.

Develop a business plan.

• The description of the business
• The marketing plan
• The financial management plan
• The management plan.
  • executive summary,
  • supporting documents and
  • financial projections.

Develop your eCommerce Strategy

• Mission and Aims
• Business Objectives
• Business Alignment
• Tactical Deployment
• Marketing Requirements and Goals
• Content Gathering and Management
• Fulfilment and Logistics
• Financial Management and Payments
• Social Media
• Platform and Technology
• Maintenance and Management
• Review and Recycle

Prerequisites:

• Understand what products or services you will be selling
• Estimate annual expected turnover
• Determine tax status such as GST
• Choose a business name

Tasks:

Apply for an ABN or ACN by following the directions on the ATO and ABR web‐sites: www.ato.gov.au which then links to www.abr.gov.au or have someone such as your accountant do it for you.

Tips:

1. Talk to your accountant about your plans and have them help you register your business name and other applications.

Traps:

Starting an online business without a formal business structure or plan.

2. Obtain a Domain Name and Email Addresses

Objectives:

Firstly, you will need a domain name.

• Expect to pay $99/two years for a .com.au or .co.nz address. Costs vary dramatically so you can shop around.
• Make a domain name decision that supports your core business and try to find a domain name that uses your primary keyword.
• Register the domain name that is your company name.
• If you can afford it look at alternative domain names similar to your key domain and register alternatives as well as the various country variations for .co.nz, .com, .co.uk etc.

Now you can obtain business email addresses.

• Expect to pay around $99/year for five email boxes.
• The unit cost will decrease as the number of email boxes increases.

Prerequisites:

• You must be able to prove your eligibility to use the domain name on the application.
• A registered business or sole trader with a valid ID Number recognised in Australia such as an ABN, ACN, ARBN or Inc Association Number.
• A Trademark or Registered Business Name which may be registered in one or more states or Australia‐wide. Look at the Department of Fair Trading web site in NSW: www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au

Tasks:

• Find a domain provider – an on‐line search will reveal many.
• There are many good Australian domain providers and here are a few examples:
  • www.netregistry.com.au
  • www.tppinternet.com.au
  • www.melbourneit.com.au
  • www.webcentral.com.au
• Organise business email addresses.

Tips:

1. It is highly advisable to check the Terms & Conditions.
2. A successful website will have its own email addresses for such things as sales, enquiries, etc. Email addresses can be organised through your domain name provider.

Traps:

Ask yourself the following questions. The domain name may be cheap but does it include DSN hosting or is that an extra charge?  Is the really cheap overseas domain provider going to let you transfer the name? Will they still be there next year or even next month?

3. Obtain Your Own SSL (Secured Socket Layer)

Objectives:

In this section, you will find out how to obtain your own SSL (Secured Socket Layer).  An SSL is essential for any website, particularly online retailers, that collects sensitive data online such as credit card or bank details. It ensures safe transactions.  If you don’t have an SSL, this sensitive information is transmitted over many networks and computers, making it very easy for people to steal it.  Do not go any further without an SSL.

• Expect to pay from $150/year.
• You may also have to pay a fee to your web developer to add it to your website.

Prerequisites:

An already registered domain name.

Tasks:

• Check your domain name provider’s site to see whether they also sell SSL.
• Otherwise search the internet and as with the purchase of the domain name, carefully check the Terms & Conditions.

Tips:

• The SSL is about providing security and confidence in your online shop.
• Many hosted solutions will come with shared SSL which means that it is secure, but when your visitors go to the secured pages, the URL (or your domain name) will change to that of the SSL Certificate owner.
• The owner will be the payment provider or the hosting company.
• Potential customers who see the URL change may lose confidence in your site and abandon their basket without completing the purchase.

So you have made it to the end of Starting an Online Retail Business Part 1. Once you have completed the tasks outlined in this article, you should have:

1. Your business structure, complete with business plan, in place;
2. A registered domain name as well as appropriate business email addresses; and
3. An SSL.

Well done – you have made a very real start to your online retail business!  Stay tuned for Part 2: Where to Start?

5 Comments

• • 
  • Jill Garland
  • 25th August

  Hi John
  What is your opinion of a Hosted Payment Page? We have decided to go down this road with St George, but I am now wondering if this is probably not a good idea!!!

  Reply
  • • 
    • John Debrincat
    • 25th August

    Hi Jill, longer term most gateway providers will move to hosted payment pages i.e. a payment page hosted by the payment provider and not on your website. This is because the PCI DSS requirements are getting more difficult for the banks and payment providers to handle and the risks higher.
    Having said that, there are some shopping cart abandonment issues with hosted payment pages and also there are some security issues if they are implemented badly, and some of the earlier ones are not so good.
    The abandonment issues are due to the buyer being sent away from your website – this is often seen as risky even when the payment page looks OK. Most you can do on the website is explain to the customer what is going to happen and why.
    Also, make sure you still have the traditional trust stuff in place like an SSL certificate and logo and your business contact details. We are seeing newer implementations of hosted payment pages using technology like Ajax and Java Script where the payment page appears over the website in a light-box view. The issue is that some people don’t allow Java Script and some older browsers don’t support Ajax.
    So the easy answer is to check out how it works. The shopping basket should be locked or disabled when the customer goes to the payment page to avoid fraud. Your website should check the charge value against the order value after the control has been returned from the payment page. Hope all that makes sense.

    All the best

    John

    Reply