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Five ways to make your online experience easier for your start up
Creating a successful tech start up is one of the most difficult things you can do in business. So many people have what they think is a great idea, but sadly 90% of startups eventually fail, and even the ones that seem to get everything right often find it’s tough to maintain momentum, so keep an eye out for anything that you can do to give your business an edge. With that in mind, here’s some advice on how to make your online experience as smooth as possible:
Consider reseller hosting
If your business is in web design or website management, then reseller hosting is a fantastic way to improve your bottom line with relatively little work needed on your part. Essentially, many web hosting companies offer packages where their clients can store the websites of their own clients, piggybacking in other words. So if you have some free time, some technical knowhow, and the urge to make a residual profit then this could work for you. Most clients don’t need that much help after you’ve got them set up in the first place, and you don’t need to buy in any expensive equipment such as servers.
Smart marketing
Key for any start-up with tight purse strings is to go for a low-budget but high-impact marketing strategy. Utilise social media to amplify word-of-mouth about your company and use competitions as a cheap way of getting followers and encourage sharing, especially among influencers, with innovative, attention-grabbing campaigns. It’s possible to make a big splash nowadays by spending only a fraction of what it would have cost 10 years ago, if you do it the right way.
Know who really counts
If you want your business to succeed then there is one partner in the venture you can’t afford to ignore, and that’s your customers. With website design, you must focus on the end user experience above all else. If it looks great but it’s difficult to use, then it’s going to cause you problems - form must follow function. So produce content that aims to answer questions, to provoke meaningful debate, and to add to the knowledge base. Make your site easy to navigate, with calls to action in all the right places, and if you’re operating an e-commerce site, then concentrate especially on your sales funnel. Make it smooth and easy to understand, with advice every step of the way, so that your customers’ path to purchase is unobstructed.
Security
Your website security must be tight from the very start. Develop good protocols with staff in line with best practise. What does that entail? For a start - install security patches as soon as they become available; backup your data regularly, several times a day; install antivirus software on all computers and devices connected to your network; insist on staff creating solid passwords and changing them frequently (you can set the system up so that they are forced to do so), and put together a set of guidelines for staff working outside the office, such as what data they can and can’t download from the server. With the prevalence of threats from hackers, there is nothing more important for a business with an online presence than security.
Get with the times
Any tech startup must understand that the ways in which people browse and shop online has changed forever. Your customers are searching for you not just on their PCs and laptops but on their games consoles, their smart TVs, their watches and glasses, but, most importantly, on their phones and tablets. So if your website isn’t fully optimised for mobile devices, they’re rapidly going to take their business elsewhere, and that’s a massive slice of the market you’re missing out on.
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