Starting an Internet Business


By Lanee’ Blunt
Sell your products online--lotushead


Starting an Internetbusiness doesn’t require a lot of overhead, and is a business to get into withminimum upfront investment.  There aredifferent types of internet businesses that you may start; a site that sellsproducts, an e-commerce that sells products, an e-commerce business that shipsproducts to people or a service selling website or maybe you probably have onein mind.

Product
Decide what type of internetbusiness you will be going into. Is it a product or products that you areselling or are you going to sell; business to business, or sell your service?Are you going to do affiliate marketing? A sales tax license is required tocollect sales taxes. The requirements may be different, so you must check withyour own local licensing department.

Name your Internet Business
What are you going to nameyour company? A name is very important and you should give carefulconsideration before you decide on any name.

License
Some states require forwebsite owners to register for many of the same licenses that other businessowners have to register for. E-commerce website owners must comply with statetax collection, and accounting regulations. Apply for a vendor license withyour state. Each state is different and the requirements may be different forstate to state. The sba.gov will let you know where you can get a vendor’slicense in your particular state. Type your state, or zip code and vendor andpeddler license in the required field and the site navigates to your specificstate where you can find out your contact information or you can apply. Thevendor license can be obtained at your state office of department of finance.

Set Up Online Site
Get a domain name andregister it. Get a web host. You can find a web host that is inexpensive andeffective. Make sure you use a web host that offers features that makethird-party scripts like a shopping cart a one click system.  Look for free shopping cart scripts. Most webhost will offer the open source osCommerce script as a quick install, but thereare others you can download. Install payment modules Paypal, 2Checkout, andothers. For accepting credit cards select a credit card processor.

Prepare a business plan foryour new internet business.  Market yournew business. Set up a checking accountfor your internet company.  Printbusiness cards.


Reference:
Start a Online BusinessInfo: Starting an Internet Business
Emarketingman: Start anInternet Business