A decade ago, most people would assume that setting up their own online business would require an investment that would run into the thousands of pounds; they would have been right. Nowadays, there are people that make their money, from helping people start businesses on a low budget. There are actually ways to get online, start selling and marketing a business, without investing a penny. Of course, some things are worth paying for, such as e-commerce analytics, but on the whole, business owners can spend as much or as little as they like. Here are some things that might be worth looking at.
WordPress
WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform. People are able to log-on, get their own yourname.wordpress.com URL and start writing right away. Over the last few years, developers have realised that people can build their own sites using this platform. There are templates now available which can be integrated into these platforms which help to make them look incredibly professional. In fact, sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between a £50 template and a website that has cost £1,000 to be custom built.
Getting A Domain
Getting a personalised domain name is a worthwhile investment. Most domain names can be purchased for around £10. That means for as little as £10, the website could have a name that is suitable. Most people simply go with their company name, followed by .co.uk or .com. Of course, people do buy up domain names expecting to profit from them, so sometimes people will need to be creative to get a name that is similar to their company name.
Networking
A great way of marketing a business online for free, or a small fee, is networking. There are lots of internet networking groups that are run and have members that are also business owners. They will not just be able to offer some excellent advice, but they are likely to use people within the networking group when it comes to products and services. Many people have managed to create a full time income, and more, simply by engaging in networking on a day to day basis. Most networking websites will not charge for basic membership, so it allows people to experience this marketing tool for free!
Conclusion
Starting up a business does not need to cost the world. Instead of worrying about cash investments, worry about what your business can do to really standard out from the competition.
