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2010 (6)
Archive for July, 2010
This week I have been reading a number of other people’s blogs on starting your own business, and here are the links for you to read what they have to say:
What makes you start your own business?
What stops you starting your own business?
Copywriting tips to make people buy
How to get your website started – better still purchase a website design and hosting voucher from Virtual Business in a Box
Financial insights from Bangalore – a little light hearted stuff
Start of a new week, start of a new list of 'to dos' to ensure the launch of my new product for business start ups is on time.
- Review first draft of contract agreements etc from solicitors
- Complete instructions for template customisation (not every one is okay with Word – especially some trades people and I want to make this as easy as possible for people to set up their own business)
- Research designers for designing new Cubecart v4 skin for my e-commerce website - Update 28/08/10 new website showing.
- Continue updating e-commerce site with products
- Ask for review of e-commerce site and blog from associates
Starting up a new business, even if you have been in business for a while, takes time and energy. There always seems to be something you have forgotten and I'm sure that by the time I come to launch my Virtual Business in a Box, I will still have forgotten something…
What a week this has been – some good things and some bad things happened.
Bad things: managed to delete my website and had to rebuild it – lesson learned? Back it up daily. Now have back up in place through my web hosting company, JustHost.com.
Good things: managed to get it back up and running in next to no time, also found a fantastic piece of software programming which has allowed me to design my own WordPress Theme -Artisteer. Took me about 15 minutes to design my new blog pages.
Since my last post I have been busy preparing various documents to upload to my new e-commerce store at www.virtualbusinessinabox.co.uk. Some items are ready but I am still working on others, namely the templates. Financial and client templates are almost ready and I am now writing an instruction sheet for people who are not very computer savvy to be able to customise to their own branding, which I think is extremely important.
I have uploaded an extract of the guide I am writing, Dream or Reality?, which is free to download (just need to log in with email address) and which will be completed and on sale at the end of the month. Other things I have been doing in readiness to launch the product are:
- Talking with video producers to prepare and film an introduction
- Chasing solicitors for draft versions of the various contracts, terms & conditions, confidentiality forms they are drawing up
- Searching for skins to change the appearance of my e-commerce site
- Writing instructions sheets for customising templates which will be available.
Hopefully, when new entrepreneurs purchase The Box they will find everything in it they need and will not have some of the problems I have encountered this week. If you are a new business or just setting up, what have you found easy or difficult to do in preparation to launch? Let me know. Until next time…