Wondering how to start a website for your business? Look no further! We cover naming your business, securing a domain name, legal aspects such as incorporating and financial structuring, and branding elements such as logo design. Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be ready to set up hosting, choose your website platform, and work on your design/layout. But first, we’ll help you choose and secure a domain name for your business.
Phase 1: Naming Your Business And Choosing a Domain Name
The name of your company will have a direct implication on the domain, or URL, that you choose for your new website. Unfortunately, the domain name space is a crowded marketplace and many popular names have already been registered. It’s for this reason that we recommend you ensure that a corresponding domain name is available for your business before incorporating your company under that name.
Note: If you already have a business name, then you may not have this luxury but hopefully you can find something that is memorable and makes sense for your company. There are likely some useful tips below if you do not already own your domain name.
First we’ll look at some basic tips for naming your business and how they will apply to your website, particularly in regard to SEO factors.
What’s In A Name? Startups: How To Name Your Business
In our how to come up with your business name guide, we’ll show you there’s a place for both creative as well as straightforward names, depending on your niche.
Next, you’ll want to take your short list of potential names and see if corresponding domain names are available for registration. You’ll want to use a reliable domain name registrar. This is one of the most important decisions for your online business as it is literally the point of control for your entire company. In other words, if someone gets control over your domain name, they have control over your website. We conduct annual reviews and select the best domain registrars.
Best Domain Registrar: This Year’s Winners
Now that you’ve secured your domain name, you are ready to begin working on your website. We recommend that you first address your logo and get your legal and financial documents in order, which we describe below. But, if you already have this covered and want to jump straight into choosing your website platform, setting up hosting, and the rest, you can head on over to our guide on building your website from scratch.
Phase 2: Creating a Logo and Brand Colors
Your logo is one of the most important branding elements of your business, so you should spend some time and money to get it right. When you work on your website layout, everything can be adjusted (including the colors) to match your brand color scheme. We rate the best logo makers to help you gain access to the resources necessary for designing a logo that is both professional and affordable.
Best Logo Maker: This Year’s Winners
Phase 3: Legal and Financial Must-Do’s
First, you’ll want to ensure that you are both legally and financially secure before proceeding with your website. This section covers incorporating your company, setting up a business bank account, and engaging the services of the necessary attorneys and accountants. Don’t worry, it’s simpler than you might think!
Step 1 – Form a Legal Entity
One option is to simply form a DBA (Doing Business As) with your city and work as a sole proprietor. We recommend incorporating (as an S-Corp, or as a LLC if you are small and just starting out) if you can afford it. Online legal services make this a breeze, and you can save a lot of money over hiring an attorney (which will typically cost you $800-$1,200). But, if your company has complicated operations, you may want to sit down face-to-face with a local attorney to make sure you get it right. After all, this is the legal basis of your company.
Best Online Legal Services: This Year’s Winners
Can you avoid paying hundreds of dollars per hour and having to deal with lawyers’ busy schedules by simply using one of these online legal services? We dive in to find out how legit these services are and closely examines the types of services they offer in our best online legal services comparison.
Step 2 – Banking
Open up a dedicated bank account for your company.
Step 3 – Filing System
Use a separate filing system for your business to save and track invoices, receipts, expenses, etc.
Scan Your Receipts, Save Paper & Time
Why use a receipt scanner? In addition to clearing out all that paper clutter, you’ll be able to find documents much easier – you can scan and store your papers and search for them later using keywords and categories like gas, groceries, credit cards or a contact’s name instead of searching through the filing drawer or old shoebox. It comes in handy for tax season because you can give your accountant direct access to the service and they can take over from there. We compare the top receipt scanning services and pick our winners for this year.
Step 4 – Accounting
Once your business is established you can consider paying a bookkeeper to do your books for you, thereby saving you time. But when you’re starting out, bookkeeping software will save you a lot of money. But there’s another advantage to doing your own books – you’ll naturally stay on top more of money that’s coming in and out and be acutely aware of overdue invoices or missing payments. Not to mention, the top services are very affordable.
Best Accounting Software For Small Business: This Year’s Winners
Step 5 – Taxes
Find a good accountant to do your taxes (or if you’re just starting out you might consider using an online service such as TurboTax).
Next Up: Building And Launching Your Website
Now that you’ve got your ducks in a row to launch your business, no matter the industry you’re in you’ll need a solid website. That means a website that looks good, loads quickly, and effectively represents your products and services. We’ve got you covered in our guide on how to build a quality website from scratch in less than a day.
What’s the largest hurdle you’re facing while starting your business? Let us know in the comments!
Tagged With: Branding, Create A Website
