You Gotta Crawl Before You Can Run

According to the media it’s a great time to start a business. Although this may be true, it is imperative that up and coming entrepreneurs research business opportunities before jumping in head first. This week’s business question is a reality in many households that are being affected by our present economy. Christy from Boston asks:

I have a good friend who is willing to build a website for me. What advice do you have on what should be included on the website? I really do have to make some money before the bank comes for my house. Job hunting is driving me crazy, so I am concentrating on this today.

Omar Tyree Answers:

Sure. If you have a friend who can build a great web site, then by all means, have them do it! But do you have products and services that you are GUARANTEED to sell from your web site? That is a much bigger question to answer. Because I must warn you, having a web site does not automatically lead to business. I have had a web site now for more than ten years, and I have rarely sold more than 10 items per week in my BEST years! So to think that a new web site is going to create sales like an Amazon.com in our present economy is major dreaming! I’m just being realistic about that.

So here’s how I would do a deal with your web-site-building friend. If they are seriously go-hung about their site skills, I would offer to give them a healthy piece of the business to design it and continue to improve it for a 20% cut of the online sales that the web site creates and no upfront money. That way, they must work with you to figure out how to make it work on a production level. Otherwise, you will become yet another one of millions out there who has a web site that is only attempting to sell product! You feel me? In the meantime, I would study every professional web site out there that has been profitable to try and copy what THEY do! Okay?

But that is the hard-core truth of your dilemma. Web sites are not overnight saviors of any business. It takes a lot of work, marketing savvy, diligence, and everyday updates over time to be successful on the web. And remember, you still need to drive TRAFFIC to your site to begin with. That takes even more marketing savvy, and possibly more money. So I would come up with some other ideas to save your house, starting with calling up your mortgage holder to see what kind of new deals you could take advantage of. These guys are aware that ALL Americans are going through hard times in the present state of the economy. So make a new deal to give yourself more time to work with, set up your website to open up more opportunities, and come up with some other ideas as well to continue to earn short and long term money to stay afloat toward your goals of economic survival.

So The Equation of your question is all about Business know-how. Don’t just jump into something new because of what you THINK can happen. You have to research that particular Business and study it until you KNOW what will happen. This is why successful Business folks spend many hours, days, weeks, months and even YEARS of research in a new Business and its details before they jump in. They want to make sure that they know what they’re putting their time, effort and money into. And so should you.