What Solopreneurs Need To Get Online

You have decided to take the plunge, and you are now ready to take your business online. If you have the time and do not have the budget to hire a web design agency like ours, here is a checklist of items you will need to get your business online.

• Register Your Domain Name: The first item you want to do is figure out your domain name for your new website. Here are a couple of links below on how to find your perfect domain name. We recommend registering your domain with GoDaddy as they have been the easiest to work with when it comes to domain name registration. 
• https://domains.google/learning-center/how-to-come-up-with-a-good-domain-name/
• https://www.godaddy.com/garage/10-tips-for-choosing-the-perfect-domain-name/
• https://moz.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-domain-name-whiteboard-friday

• Choose Your Web Builder: Next decision is to choose which web builder you will use to design and host your new website. You have most likely have been inundated with different options out there (Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, etc.), and it may be hard to decide which route to go. The leading platform that most web designers go to is WordPress and or Duda, a web design platform where we build all of our websites. If you are on your own, you probably will want to sign up for one of these. 

1. Squarespace: If you want a more stylized website, you may want to go with Squarespace. 
2. Weebly: If you want an easy to use web builder, then Weebly is the platform you want to go with. 
3. Wix: if you want a more well-rounded platform, then you may want to go with Wix. 
4. Shopify: If you are looking to sell products online, then you want to go with Shopify. 

• Design Your Logo: We always recommend going with paying a professional what they are worth when designing and coming up with a new logo, but if you are strapped for cash, then try building a logo on Canva. https://www.canva.com/create/logos/

• Get Google Workspace: Once you have finalized your domain, then the next important thing to do is get a professional email service where you can use your new domain name, not Gmail. This will make your business look more professional. We recommend Google Workspace as it includes storage and Google Docs and Sheets and Google Drive, which allows you to store all of your files in the cloud: https://referworkspace.app.goo.gl/q9yB

• Sign Up For an Online Accounting and Contracting System: Next step will be to sign up for an online accounting system like QuickBooks Online or Freshbooks, or AND.CO. We like AND.CO allows us to bill online, send proposals and contracts, track hours, bookkeep, and manage subscriptions. Here is a link where you can try AND.CO for yourself. 

• Sign Up for Streak CRM: A big part of growing your business is sales, so we recommend signing up for a CRM solution to help keep track of your sales funnel. We recommend Streak CRM because it works within Gmail and is free. As you grow, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans. 

1. Sign Up for a Project Management Tool: If you are a services business and deliver services and projects, you will want to sign up for a Project Management tool like Asana or Trello. This way, you can manage project expectations, tasks, deadlines and keep your clients up to date. 

1. Sign Up For MailChimp: An essential tool to your marketing efforts is email marketing. We recommend signing up for a free tool like MailChimp so you can start to get the word out about your new business. 

1. Get an SEO Tool: Ubersuggest: You can start with a free plan from Ubersuggest, but for just $29 per month, you can learn more through SEO monitoring and training on improving the visibility of your new website. 

1. For Social Media, Sign up for Sendible: If Social Media is going to be a crucial part of your digital marketing plans, sign up for a service like Sendible. Sendible is a service that will allow you to send messages to all of your social media pages, and it will also provide suggestions of content you can share. 

1. Online Custom Apps, Knack: If none of the solutions above meet your online needs, look at Knack to build your custom Application/Database without having to code. 

Doing all of this could take some considerable time, so you will want to make sure you plan on spending a lot of time implementing these tools and need help with launching your website and business. If you do not have the time, fill out our planner, and we can send you a quote for doing this for you.