Online Business All-In-One For Dummies E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1096

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Turn your business dreams into profitable reality with this straightforward guide to setting up and running an online business. It walks you step-by step through the entire process, from researching the market and designing your Web site, to marketing your product online and trading securely. Whether you're starting out or looking to expand an existing business online, this up to- date book provides you with all the support and expert advice you need to successfully build your own online empire.

Leseprobe

Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®

By Colin Barrow, Paul Barrow, Gregory Brooks, Ben Carter, Frank Catalano, Marsha Collier, Peter Economy, Lita Epstein, Alexander Hiam, Greg Holden, Jane Hoskyn, Bob Nelson, Steven D. Peterson, Richard Pettinger, Bud E. Smith, Craig Smith, and Paul Tiffany

Edited by Dan Matthews

Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England

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Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex

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ISBN: 978-0-470-51646-1

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About the Authors

Dan Matthews is Online Publisher of Caspian Publishing, which produces magazines, Web sites, and events for an audience of UK entrepreneurs. Primarily working on realbusiness.co.uk, Dan writes about stellar business success stories as well as up-and-coming start-ups. He was previously Group Online Editor of Crimson Business Publishing, with responsibility for sites such as startups.co.uk and growingbusiness.co.uk. He has contributed to a range of business magazines, including being contributing editor of Real Business Magazine and Growing Business Magazine.

Colin Barrow is Head of the Enterprise Group at Cranfield School of Management, where he teaches entrepreneurship on the MBA and other programmes. He is also a visiting professor at business schools in the US, Asia, France, and Austria. His books on entrepreneurship and small business have been translated into fifteen languages including Russian and Chinese. He worked with Microsoft to incorporate the business planning model used in his teaching programmes into the software programme, Microsoft Business Planner, now bundled with Office. He is a regular contributor to newspapers, periodicals and academic journals such as the Financial Times, The Guardian, Management Today, and the International Small Business Journal. Thousands of students have passed through Colin’s start-up and business growth programmes, raising millions in new capital and going on to run successful and thriving enterprises. He is a non-executive director of two venture capital funds, on the board of several small businesses, and serves on a number of Government Task Forces.

Paul Barrow trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte & Touche before obtaining his MBA at Bradford University. As a senior consultant with Ernst & Young he was responsible for managing and delivering quality consulting assignments. During the mid-1980s, he was Investment Review Director for a UK venture capital business. In 1998, as Group Finance Director of Adval Group plc, he was part of the team which took their software company on to the Alternative Investment Market. Adval specialises in providing multimedia training – both bespoke and generic. Paul has also been a director of several owner-managed businesses, and has started up and sold other businesses. He currently works with businesses as diverse as software, turkey farming, and food retailing. Paul is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University where he teaches on the Business Growth Programme. This programme is designed specifically for owner managers who want to grow and improve their businesses. He also teaches at Warwick University and Oxford Brookes on similar programmes. Paul has written several other business books: The Business Plan Workbook and Raising Finance (both Kogan Page/Sunday Times); The Best Laid Business Plans and The Bottom Line (both Virgin Books). All these books are aimed at owner managers trying to grow and improve their businesses.

Greg Brooks is a freelance journalist who has written for a number of broadcasters, newspapers, and magazines including Channel 4, The Guardian, Marketing, New Media Age and Marketing Direct. He has also carried out corporate ghostwriting and consultancy duties for a number of blue-chip clients around the globe. As part of his role as an industry commentator, he has spoken to organisations such as the BBC about how to communicate with consumers and journalists using interactive channels.

Ben Carter runs his own digital agency helping famous and not so famous brands launch marketing initiatives to capitalise on the changing media landscape and ever-changing consumer behaviour. Current clients of Ben Carter & Associates include npower and AOL, and the company has also provided consultancy services for several major UK-based blue-chip companies. Before setting up BCA, Ben worked as a business journalist for eight years, covering the UK’s media and marketing sectors and most recently was News Editor of Marketing magazine. He has also freelanced for a number of national newspapers including The Times and The Guardian and is used regularly as a commentator on the booming digital economy by different media, including the BBC, The Independent, and CNN.

Frank Catalano is a veteran marketing consultant and analyst. He’s the principal of Catalano Consulting, a strategic marketing firm advising Internet and technology companies. His consulting assignments include stints as Managing Director for PC Data’s Internet Monitoring Division, VP Marketing for McGraw- Hill Home Interactive, VP Marketing for iCopyright, and VP Marketing for Apex Computer. He also was a marketing manager for Egghead Software and for the Apple Programmers and Developers Association. When not consulting, Frank provides tech industry analysis and commentary for KCPQ-TV Fox Seattle and is the author of the long-running Byte Me columns for Seattle Weekly and others. His essays and short fiction about technology have appeared in a wide variety of print and broadcast media, including ClickZ, Omni, Inside Multimedia, and Analog.

Marsha Collier spends most of her time on eBay. She loves buying and selling – she’s a PowerSeller – as well as meeting eBay users from around the world. As a columnist, and author of several best-selling books on eBay, a television and radio expert, and a lecturer, she shares her knowledge of eBay with millions of online shoppers. Thousands of eBay fans also read her monthly newsletter, Cool eBay Tools, to keep up with changes on the site. Out of college, Marsha worked in fashion advertising for the Miami Herald and then as special projects manager for the Los Angeles Daily News. She also founded a home-based advertising and marketing business. Her successful business, the Collier Company, Inc., was featured in Entrepreneur magazine in 1985, and in 1990, Marsha’s company received the Small Business of the Year award from her California State Assemblyman and the Northridge Chamber of Commerce. More than anything, Marsha loves a great deal. That’s what drew her to eBay in 1996, and that’s what keeps her busy on the site now. She buys everything from light bulbs to parts for her vintage Corvette to designer dresses.

Peter Economy is associate editor of Leader to Leader, the award-winning magazine of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Leadership, and author of numerous books. Peter combines his writing expertise with more than 15 years of management experience to provide his readers with solid, hands-on information and advice. He received his bachelor’s degree (with majors in economics and human biology) from Stanford University and his MBA at the Edinburgh Business School. Visit Peter at his Web site: www.petereconomy.com.

Lita Epstein, who earned her MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, enjoys helping people develop good financial, investing, and tax planning skills. While getting her MBS, Lita worked as a teaching assistant for the financial accounting department and ran the accounting lab. After completing her MBA, she managed finances for a small nonprofit organization and for the facilities management section of a large medical clinic. She designs and teaches online courses on topics such as investing for retirement, getting ready for tax time, and finance and investing for women. She’s written more than ten books, including Trading For Dummies (Wiley) and Streetwise Retirement Planning. Lita was the content director for a financial services Web site, MostChoice.com, and managed the Web site Investing for Women. As a Congressional press secretary, Lita gained firsthand knowledge about how to work within and around the Federal bureaucracy, which gives her great insight into how government programmes work. In the past, Lita has been a daily newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and fundraiser for the international activities of former US President Jimmy Carter through The Carter Center.

Alex Hiam is a consultant, corporate trainer, and public speaker with 20 years of experience in marketing, sales, and corporate communications. He is the director of Insights, which includes a division called Insights for Marketing that offers a wide range of services for supporting and training in sales, customer service, planning, and management. His firm is also active in developing the next generation of leaders in the workplace through its Insights for Training & Development. Alex has an MBA in marketing and strategic planning from the Haas School at U.C. Berkeley and an undergraduate degree from Harvard. He has worked as marketing manager for both smaller high-tech firms and a Fortune 100 company, and did a stint as a professor of marketing at the business school at U. Mass. Amherst. Alex is the co-author of the best-seller, The Portable MBA in Marketing (Wiley) as well as The Vest-Pocket CEO and numerous other books and training programs. He has consulted to a wide range of companies and not-for-profit and government agencies, from General Motors and Volvo to HeathEast and the U.S. Army (a fuller list of clients is posted at www.insightsformarketing.com). Alex is also the author of a companion volume to this book, the Marketing Kit For Dummies (Wiley), which includes more detailed coverage of many of the hands-on topics involved in creating great advertising, direct mail letters, Web sites, publicity campaigns, and marketing plans. On the CD that comes with the Marketing Kit For Dummies, you’ll find forms, checklists, and templates that may be of use to you. Also, Alex maintains an extensive Web site of resources that he organised to support the chapters in the book.

Greg Holden started a small business called Stylus Media, which is a group of editorial, design, and computer professionals who produce both print and electronic publications. The company gets its name from a recording stylus that reads the traces left on a disk by voices or instruments and translates those signals into electronic data that can be amplified and enjoyed by many. He has been self-employed for the past ten years. He is an avid user of eBay, both as a buyer and seller, and he recently started his own blog. One of the ways Greg enjoys communicating is through explaining technical subjects in nontechnical language. The first edition of Starting an Online Business For Dummies was the ninth of his more than 30 computer books. He also authored eBay PowerUser’s Bible for Wiley Publishing. Over the years, Greg has been a contributing editor of Computer Currents magazine, where he writes a monthly column. He also contributes to PC World and the University of Illinois at Chicago alumnimagazine. Other projects have included preparing documentation for an electronics catalogue company in Chicago and creating online courses on Windows 2000 and Microsoft Word 2000. Greg balances his technical expertise and his entrepreneurial experience with his love of literature. He received an MA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and also writes general interest books, short stories, and poetry. Among his editing assignments is the monthly newsletter for his daughters’ grade school. After graduating from college, Greg became a reporter for his hometown newspaper. Working at the publications office at the University of Chicago was his next job, and it was there that he started to use computers. He discovered, as the technology became available, that he loved desktop publishing (with the Macintosh and LaserWriter) and, later on, the World Wide Web. Greg loves to travel, but since his two daughters were born, he hasn’t been able to get around much. He was able to translate his experiences into a book called Karma Kids: Answering Everyday Parenting Questions with Buddhist Wisdom. However, through the Web, he enjoys traveling vicariously and meeting people online. He lives with his family in an old house in Chicago that he has been rehabbing for – well, for many years now. He is a collector of objects such as pens, cameras, radios, and hats. He is always looking for things to take apart so that he can see how they work and fix them up. Many of the same skills prove useful in creating and maintaining Web pages. He is an active member of Jewel Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation and study group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Jane Hoskyn has been a journalist for 15 years. After a number of years writing features for leading UK lifestyle magazines including FHM and Cosmopolitan, she joined IPC Media’s Web User magazine as Features Editor. In 2003 Jane was named IPC Commissioning Editor of the Year, and a year later she returned to the successful freelance writing and editing career that spans publications from Woman & Home to Loaded.

Bob Nelson, PhD, is founder and president of Nelson Motivation, Inc., a management training and products firm headquartered in San Diego, California. As a practising manager, researcher, and best-selling author, Bob is an internationally recognised expert in the areas of employee motivation, recognition and rewards, productivity and performance improvement, and leadership. Bob has published 20 books and sold more than 2.5 million books on management, which have been translated into some 20 languages. He earned his BA in communications from Macalester College, his MBA in organisational behavior from UC Berkeley, and his PhD in management from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate Management Center of the Claremont Graduate University. Visit his Web site at www.nelson-motivation.com or contact Bob directly at [email protected].

Steven Peterson is a senior partner and founder of Home Planet Technologies, a management training company specializing in hands-on software tools designed to enhance business strategy, business planning, and general management skills. He is the creator and designer of The Protean Strategist, a state of the art computer-based business simulation. The simulation creates a dynamic business environment where participants run companies and compete against each other in a fast-changing marketplace. Each management team in the simulation is responsible for developing its own strategy, business plan, and program to make the plan work. Steven has used The Protean Strategist to add excitement, hands-on experience, teamwork, and a competitive challenge to corporate training programs around the world. He has worked with both large and small companies on products and services in industries ranging from telecommunications to financial services and from high technology to consumer goods and industrial equipment. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. When he’s not planning his own business, Steven is planning to remodel his 80-year old house or to redesign the garden. And he confesses that of the three, the garden proves to be the most difficult. Steven holds advanced degrees in mathematics and physics, receiving his doctorate from Cornell University. He teaches part-time at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, and lives in the Bay Area with his long-time companion, Peter, and their long-lived canine, Jake.

Richard Pettinger (BA, MBA, DipMktg) has taught at University College London since 1989, where he is senior lecturer in management. He teaches on the foundation courses, organisational change, and construction marketing courses. He has also taught strategic and operations management; the management of change; human resource management; and leadership to a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate, professional, and international students. Richard is also enhancing and developing Management Studies Centre activities and courses, including the directorship of the new Information Management for Business course. Since 2005, Richard has been a visiting professor at the Jagiellonian Business School, Krakow, teaching strategic management and developing a common UCL/Jagiellonian syllabus in strategic management and organisational change. Richard is the author of over thirty business and management books and textbooks, and also writes journal, conference, and study papers.

Bud Smith’s experience is split between the technical and marketing sides of the computer and Internet industries. Bud was a short-order cook before starting in the computer industry at the age of 21. He was a data entry supervisor, programmer, and technical writer before working as a competitive analyst and QuickTime marketing manager at Apple Computer. He has been a full-time writer and has joined Frank in several consulting projects. Bud is currently Director of Marketing at AllPublish, a venture-funded Silicon Valley startup. Bud’s writing experience is all on the nonfiction side and includes computer and medical articles as well as a dozen computer books.

Craig Smith is the editor of Marketing, the UK’s highest circulation weekly magazine, and PPA Weekly Business Magazine of the Year, serving the marketing and advertising industries. He has worked as a business journalist for 18 years and is a regular commentator on marketing issues to the national press and broadcast media. Craig works closely with industry trade bodies the Association of Publishing Agencies and Business in the Community to promote best practice in the areas of customer magazines and cause related marketing.

Paul Tiffany is the managing director of Paul Tiffany & Associates, a Santa Rosa, California-based firm that has offered management training and consulting services to organizations throughout the world for the past fifteen years. In addition, he has taught business planning courses at some of the top business schools in the country, including Stanford, Wharton, and The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where he currently serves as adjunct professor. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a PhD from Berkeley. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Media Development

Project Editor: Daniel Mersey

Content Editor: Steve Edwards

Commissioning Editor: Samantha Clapp

Executive Editor: Jason Dunne

Executive Project Editor: Martin Tribe

Art Consultant: Steve Hill

Screenshots: These materials have been reproduced with the permission of eBay Inc. Copyright © eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Cover Photos: ©Getty Images/Ciaran Griffin

Cartoons: Ed McLachlan

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Erin Smith

Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Stacie Brooks, Carl Byers, Stephanie D. Jumper

Proofreaders: John Greenough, Todd Lothery

Indexer: Galen Schroeder

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies

Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Book I : E-Business 101

Chapter 1: Can You Do the Business?

Deciding What You Want from a Business

Assessing Yourself

Chapter 2: Testing Feasibility

Finding Enough Product or People

Sizing Up the Market

Working Out Whether You Can Make Money

Chapter 3: Preparing the Business Plan

Finding a Reason to Write a Business Plan

Writing Up Your Business Plan

Using Business Planning Software

Presenting Your Plan

Stuff for Other Places?

Chapter 4: Setting Off in the Right Direction

Why Values Matter

Identifying Your Company’s Values

Putting Together the Values Statement

Creating Your Company’s Vision Statement

Chapter 5: Harnessing Creativity in Your Business

The Creative Process at a Glance

Finding Out What You Need to Change

Generating Great Ideas

Applying Your Creativity

Chapter 6: Opening Your Own Online Business in Ten Easy Steps

The Time Is Now

Step 1: Identify a Need

Step 2: Know What You’re Offering

Step 3: Come Up with a Virtual Business Plan

Step 4: Get Your Act Together and Set Up Shop

Step 5: Get Help

Step 6: Construct a Web Site

Step 7: Process Your Sales

Step 8: Provide Personal Service

Step 9: Alert the Media and Everyone Else

Step 10: Review, Revise, and Improve

Book II : Setting Up Your Web Site

Chapter 1: Finding the Money

Assessing How Much Money You Need

Reviewing Your Financing Options

Determining the Best Source of Finance for You

Going for Debt

Sharing out the Spoils

Finding Free Money

Chapter 2: Choosing and Equipping Your New E-Business

Starting Off on the Right Foot

Mapping Out Your Online Business

Flavours of Online Businesses You Can Taste Test

Marketing One-to-One with Your Customers

Easyware (Not Hardware) for Your Business

Getting Online: Connection Options

Software Solutions for Online Business

Chapter 3: Selecting the Right Web Host and Design Tools

Getting the Most from Your Web Host

Finding a Web Server to Call Home

Fun with Tools: Choosing a Web Page Editor

Chapter 4: Giving Your E-Business Site Structure and Style

Feng Shui Your Web Site

Nip and Tuck: Establishing a Visual Identity

Extreme Web Pages: Advanced Layouts

Hiring a Professional Web Designer

Chapter 5: Building in Security Up Front

Practising Safe Business

Installing Firewalls and Other Safeguards

Using Public Keys to Provide Security

Keeping Other Noses Out of Your Business

Book III : Getting Known E-asily

Chapter 1: Marketing Your Wares

Making Up the Marketing Mix

Defining Your Product Parameters

Using Advertising to Tell Your Story

Getting in the News

Selling and Salesmanship

Pricing for Profit

Pondering Place and Distribution

Looking at Legal Issues in Marketing

Chapter 2: Researching Your Customers, Competitors, and Industry

Why Research Matters – And What to Focus On

Planning Your Research

Carrying Out Primary Research

A Dozen Ideas for Low-Cost Research

Finding Free Data

Chapter 3: Getting Net-Savvy

Marketing on the Internet

Finding Your Online Market

Working in the Online World

Chapter 4: Search Engines: What You Need to Know

Understanding How Search Engines Find You

Going Gaga over Google

Leaving a Trail of Crumbs

Monitoring Traffic: The Science of Webanalytics

Chapter 5: Controlling the Message with Online Advertising

Working Out Your Goals

Finding the Right Format

Clinching the Deal

Measure by Measure

Chapter 6: Spreading the Word with Internet PR

Whom Do You Want to Influence?

Planning an Internet PR Campaign

Getting Your Release Distributed

Tracking Your Release

Book IV : Keeping Business Ticking Over

Chapter 1: Operating Effectively

Taking the Make-or-Buy Decision

Choosing a Supplier

Minimising Risk and Assessing Liability

Dissecting Directors

Finding and Choosing Business Advisers

Chapter 2: Controlling Your Books, Your Records, and Your Money

Putting Controls on Your Business’s Cash

Keeping the Right Paperwork

Protecting Your Business Against Internal Fraud

Insuring Your Cash through Employee Bonding

Chapter 3: Counting Your Sales

Collecting on Cash Sales

Selling on Credit

Cashing Up the Cash Register

Monitoring Sales Discounts

Recording Sales Returns and Allowances

Monitoring Accounts Receivable

Accepting Your Losses

Chapter 4: Monitoring and Improving Your Business

Bolstering Your Infrastructure

Performing Basic Web Housekeeping

Managing Goods and Services

Chapter 5: Making It All Legal

Thinking about Trade Names and Trademarks

Practising Safe Copyright

Understanding Legal Basics

Your Business in the Eyes of the Law

Keeping Out of Legal Trouble

Chapter 6: Online Business Accounting Tools

ABCs: Accounting Basics for Commerce

Accounting Software for Your Business

The Taxman Cometh: Concerns for Small Business

Book V : Handling Customers and Staff

Chapter 1: Employing People

Profiling Great Employees

Exploring Sources

Motivating and Rewarding Employees

Compensating Your Employees

Staying on the Right Side of the Law

Chapter 2: Inspiring Employees to Better Performance

The Greatest Management Principle in the World

Discovering What Employees Want

Deciding What to Reward

Starting with the Positive

Making a Big Deal about Something Little

Money and Motivation

Chapter 3: Harnessing the Power of Technology

Using Technology to Your Advantage

Evaluating the Benefits and Drawbacks of Technology

Improving Efficiency and Productivity

Getting the Most Out of Information Technology

Planning and Implementation

Chapter 4: Attracting and Keeping Customers

Including Features That Attract Customers

Writing Unforgettable Text

Inviting Comments from Customers

Chapter 5: Accepting Payments

Sealing the Deal: The Options

Enabling Credit-Card Purchases

Exploring Online Payment Systems

Fulfilling Your Online Orders

Chapter 6: Service with a Virtual Smile

The Best Customer Is an Informed Customer

Helping Customers Reach You

Making Customers Feel That They Belong

Book VI : Using eBay.co.uk

Chapter 1: Why eBay Is a Great Place to Buy and Sell

What Is eBay, and How Does It Work?

All About Auctions

Buying It Now at eBay

So You Want to Sell Stuff

So You Want to Buy Stuff?

Research for Fun and Profit

eBay’s Role in the Action

Features and Fun Stuff

Extra Gadgets You May Want

Chapter 2: Using eBay.co.uk to Launch Your Business

Getting Down to Business

Deciding What to Sell

Getting Ready to Sell

Making Your Auctions Run More Smoothly

Chapter 3: Running a Business on eBay.co.uk

Understanding eBay.co.uk Auctions

Building a Good Reputation

Preparing Sales Descriptions That Sell

Providing Good Customer Service

Moving from Auctioneer to eBay.co.uk Businessperson

Chapter 4: Opening a Shop, Virtually

Online Shops Galore

Choosing Your eBay.co.uk Shop Name

Setting up Shop

Improving Your Offering

Marketing Your Wares

eBay.co.uk Shops versus Auctions

Chapter 5: Jazzing Up Your Auctions

Writing Winning Text

Setting Up Your eBay.co.uk Photo Studio

Taking Good Pictures

Using a Scanner

Image-Editing Software

A Home for Your Images

HTML Made Easy

Chapter 6: Building an eBay.co.uk Back Office

The Warehouse: Organising Your Space

Inventory: Keeping Track of What You Have and Where You Keep It

The Shipping Department: Packin’ It Up

The Post Room: Sendin’ It Out

Book VII : Understanding Web 2.0

Chapter 1: Profiting from New Business Tools

Advantages of Doing Business Online

Exploring New Products and Services You Can Sell

Adding Online Content and Commentary

Building a Community

Web 2.0 – What on Earth Does That Mean?

Chapter 2: The Emergence of Web 2.0

Grasping the Basics of Web 2.0

Understanding Blogging

Mastering Podcasting

Networking with the MySpace Generation

: Further Reading

Introduction

Welcome to Online Business All-in-One For Dummies, your launch pad to understanding the fundamentals of setting up, establishing, running, and growing a successful business on the Internet.

This book draws together information on the key areas of successful business – planning, funding, researching customers, competitors and the industry, setting up, structuring and designing a Web site, financial implications and considerations involved in setting up a Web site, consulting expert advice and services, establishing an online presence, secure online trading, using new business tools and technology, understanding and taking advantage of Web 2.0, online advertising and promotion, using eBay as a business tool, handling customers and staff, bookkeeping, accounting and tax, and planning for growth– all in one bumper guide. Phew!