If you are wanting to embark on the journey of opening your own internet business, then take the recommendations and advice for starting an online business from an expert. This expert, Matt Freedman, shared his advice in this snapshot of an interview conducted by Dale Beaumont.
Matt co-founded Redback Solutions and has built the business into an e-marketing, web development and digital agency with offices in Sydney and Newcastle. Redback has worked with over 200 clients, helping them market their businesses online. In 2007, Matt and two other entrepreneurs launched Sticky Tickets, an online business that allows anyone to promote an event and sell tickets to it.
What recommendations would you make to an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to get started in an internet-based business of their own?
Unless you are a computer programmer, graphic artist, marketing expert and entrepreneur all rolled into one (I’d love to meet you if you are), you are going to need the help of a range of professionals. You can choose to contract or employ these skills on an individual basis, or find an integrated e-marketing and web development company. Individual contractors or employees may save you some money, but you will have to have strong project management skills and a big picture understanding of each of these disciplines to pull it all together. An integrated company will work with you to determine what your end goals are, develop the solutions and then project manage the development process.
Most aspiring internet entrepreneurs have big ideas, which is fantastic and a requirement for making big bucks. But big ideas often come with big budgets. Unfortunately, I come across a lot of people with big ideas and limited budgets. So they dip their toe in the water with their idea, making little impact, and never reach the critical mass required for the business to survive and thrive. They then think the idea was a failure, whereas the real failure was in the implementation.
To determine an adequate budget, get a quote from two or three companies with a proven track record and proven case studies for developing online businesses. Double the price of the quote – the best value quote, not the cheapest – for any changes, additions and improvements that may be needed as you start to see your idea come to fruition. Allow at least this much again for marketing and promoting the site. I believe that you are better off waiting to raise the funds than compromising the development or marketing of your business.
For more from Matt Freedman check out Dale Beaumont’s “Secrets of Internet Entrepreneurs Exposed!“.
