Budget Your Development
May 25, 2008
Most new startups begin with a shoestring budget. It’s general, but many start with a budget of around $5,000 to $10,000. To some this may sound like peanuts, to others it may look like an impossible figure to come up with.
No matter what boat you’re in, you need to make your budget work for you, not against you. In order to do well and start off strong, you need to decide EXACTLY how much you are going to spend in specific areas of your development. To do that, you need to know what the basic areas of development are.
Of course you need to have your website designed. If you are going to sell online, you need to have a medium to do so. This not only includes the site construction, but having good custom content written for the sites text / copy. Don’t skimp here. This is your store. If you were building a bricks and mortar business this would be the actual physical location of your new enterprise. Build it well, build it to be solid. Find professional designers and writers that have experience in building sites similar to what you need.
Hosting. You need to have a place to ‘put’ your site. This is the remote server that holds all of your actual files. You need it to be reliable. If your users cannot access your site because your new host is shaky, then what good is it to have your site hosted with them. Ask questions. Find out what their uptime is by asking for references from them. Contact some of their current clients and ask how happy they are with the services. Also do a search and find out who dislikes them and why. Adding the word ’sucks’ to a company’s name in the search engines can do wonders in finding out exactly who you are dealing with.
Promotion. Once the site is built, you need users, FAST. Your method in obtaining them might include many different options, but unless you are super savvy and have a pocketful of free traffic sources, this is going to require a good chunk of your startup budget. Do NOT forget that you are going to need to do this if you are starting on a tight budget. Don’t use all of your budget to build your site and have nothing left when it comes to actually getting the site off the ground. It’s a recipe for failure that I’ve seen time and time again.
If you budget wisely, you can launch your online dreams on a beer budget. You simply need to look for the best options in all phases of your development. If you plan out each phase and know what you are willing to spend in every stop on the way, you’ve got a good chance at success. Blow it all at the candy shop and all you’ll get is a sour taste in your mouth in the long run.
If you need help developing your project, please give us a call. We are here to assist you.
Chuck Crawford
559-761-0910
Visit Affiliate Web Site Design
Call (559)761-0910 for a free affiliate website consultation.