INTERNET BUSINESS HELP AND ADVICE

Internet business help and advice on starting a new internet company, best advice and help on the pitfalls and mistakes internet entrepreneurs often make when launching a new website

If you are thinking about starting an internet business and don't know where to start the best thing is to sit down and write a simple business plan. An internet business or company is exactly the same as any business; it has overheads; marketing, advertising and PR costs; legal responsibilities, tax liabilities, data protection, employment and VAT considerations and, whatever the business is involved in, one important aim - and that is to make a profit.

Had Henry Ford had the forethought he would have built the Ford Mondeo and not the Model T Ford. Obviously, he did not have the engineering capabilities that Ford has at its disposal today and any company will develop and improve as it learns. However, with the technology that the internet provides today, you need to plan your business and think through every possible scenario for your website to ensure you produce the nearest of your equivalent to a Mondeo and not a Model T.

STARTING A NEW INTERNET COMPANY

What is your business going to be about? Who are your potential clients? How big is the market place? What percentage of that market place are you aiming to capture? Who are your main competitors? How are they getting their business? What is their market share? How much will you be investing in website design, marketing, advertising, PR, product development and the numerous other overheads your business will have to cover?

Where will your business be in one year? How much will it be turning over by the end of year three? How are you going to achieve this?

This might appear to be pretty boring and mundane stuff when you have an exciting idea for an internet business but if you don't sit down and plan your business, something that you hadn't thought of is going to jump up and bite you in the arse. And when it does, it is likely to take far more than just a pound of flesh; it may be responsible for you losing everything you own.

PITFALLS AND MISTAKE

How can this be possible? The taxman may want his share and if you have not been managing your cash flow and not setting aside the money to pay your tax liabilities in the belief that things will get better, then the likelihood is the taxman will want paying at the most inopportune time. The there is the VAT Man who happens to have more powers and will not wait for his money. The VAT Man is responsible for seizing more properties due to bad debt than any other organisation in the UK.

Now, do you really want to start an internet company?

LAUNCHING A NEW WEBSITE

The dotcom boom of the nineties saw investors rushing to invest billions into internet companies that were springing up all over the shop and going public on the stock exchanges. It was internet fever with everyone believing that the internet was going to make them billionaires overnight....

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You are reading an extract from

The Golden Web - The Internet Entrepreneur's Definitive Guide to Making Money Online

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Internet business help and advice on starting a new internet company, best advice and help on the pitfalls and mistakes internet entrepreneurs often make when launching a new website