YOU'RE PLANNING TO FAIL IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN!

plan; - noun

A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective: a plan of attack! (American Heritage Dictionary)

Before you begin any project, ideally, you should plan out what you hope to accomplish and how exactly you will achieve it. This is essential when developing and expanding your business. As the definition implies, you need to have a plan of attack, you cannot run a business with a passive attitude.

The first thing you need to flesh out is whether your business idea is going to be viable. An important way to figure this out is by checking out your competition. Unless you have a huge budget for advertising and resources, you cannot successfully enter a market that is already flooded. If you have your heart set on entering an already saturated market it would be wise to focus on a small corner of the market and cover it specifically and thoroughly. You also need to be sure that there is enough demand for your product to sustain your business. You may have a unique product but you need to do a bit of market research to be sure that you're going to sell some units. All these elements should be contained within your business plan, along with your strengths and weaknesses, goals, business profile, finances, etc. For more info on business plans check out http://www.MyOwnBusiness.org/s2/

Once you have your business plan formed and you are ready to launch your business publicly you need to choose a domain name for your site. The importance of your domain name can't be underestimated! Your domain name is what will make you either blend in and disappear among the billions of other sites on the net or make you stand out and command attention. You can have the greatest site ever but if nobody remembers your site nobody will get to see the amazing site and incredible product you have to offer.

A few pointers for choosing a domain name -

* Keep it short, simple and easy to remember

* It should capture the nature of your business

* It needs to be unique

* It has to be easy to pronounce, spell and interpret

Finally, you need to choose high quality, trustworthy web hosting. If you are serious about your website, dedicated servers are the way to go. They may cost you more financially but it could end up costing you a lot more if you put your site in the hands of a dodgy web host. Shared servers have too many limitations to host a hugely successful website. Both options serve different purposes but most businesses will need the capabilities and flexibility of a dedicated server. For more information take a look at www.dedicatedhostingreview.com so you can have a better idea of which is the right option for you.

Once you have these details ironed out you will be ready to move on to the design process. Next week you'll find out some basic design and layout techniques to improve your site and make it more attractive to your viewers.

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