Start up costs for online business

Atlas_IRL

Hi guys just currently close to getting a website built by a company i found through scriptlance.


It will basically be making money through percentages of work and/or monthly memberships.


Now on getting the funds for that im just trying to come up with a budget for everything else

Registering the company, .ie domain/hosting, Payment gateway, CRO etc.

Is there any other things i am leaving out, hidden costs etc that people have found that they originally didnt factor in?

Also from your experience without using adwords to get the page ranked high on google is it very hard to get ranked high quickly? Ill have PR and will have to do a lot of advertising through forums/inbound links etc just the budget may be too low as the key words are quite high.

PCPhoto

do you have the merchant account setup and facilities to deal with financial transactions ?

as well as VAT/Company registration etc

Atlas_IRL

I havnt set it up at the moment no, the website will take 20-30 to complete, how long can it take to get the merchant accounts up?

probe

I'd be cautious with google adwords - I know several people who have spent lots of money on adwords before getting a working formula going. Be very specific on the keywords you use and test them with tight spending caps that you can afford.

You probably don't need a "merchant account" for card acceptance - too much hassle. Use Amazon payment services, paypal or similar to start off - assuming your client base is English speaking. Otherwise it depends on your market. If your customers are in Continental Europe - you will need to accept direct online payments from peoples' bank accounts - because many/most people prefer to pay immediately rather than "charging it" to a card.

Most Visa and MasterCards on the Continent are not credit cards, they hit the current account in near real time - though they behave as credit cards in dumb Anglo Saxon countries like the USA, GB and Ireland - taking big commissions from dumb retailers! The same cards behave like debit cards on the continent, with no % charge on the retailer - just a small fixed fee - and no credit period - immediate settlement.

Have a look at www.asknet.com - they are based in (D-76131) Karlsruhe - there are lots of others providing similar services. I had a problem as a customer buying something online some time ago on a web retail site that used Asknet to process their payments, and was very impressed with the response from their call centre in Germany. They sort the issue out, call you back and send you an email to confirm! No third world outsourcing....

Atlas_IRL

It will be Ireland only, north and south. I may have to start with paypal but i know some people think it looks unprofessional and dont really like sites using it. Was reading a few threads here about the payment gateways and it seems a real pain and takes time to set up. The budget is quite small atm so will prob have to stick to paypal at the start.

Yeah it's really annoying. I wanted to start off using Paypal but psychologically I personally hate it when I see sites that accept paypal as their main form of payment - it looks unprofessional and mickey mouse-ish. I suppose my gripe comes with it due to the amount of money they took from me when I used them last year. It's one expensive service if you're selling regularly on eBay (as I was last year)

Atlas_IRL

Atlas_IRL wrote: »

Also from your experience without using adwords to get the page ranked high on google is it very hard to get ranked high quickly? Ill have PR and will have to do a lot of advertising through forums/inbound links etc just the budget may be too low as the key words are quite high.

Depends how much competition you have. The thing with adwords is you have to pay the prices at the beginning to get a reputation but from what I'm told is once you are getting more and more click throughs and it's going to exactly what the consumer is looking for - over time Google reward you with lower prices and improved quality score etc which all helps towards you ranking high.

Well that's my understanding on it - correct me if i'm wrong anybody!!!

swanvill

Hi Atlas IRL,
Best of luck with the new venture.

Some obvious start up costs for a home business which I have listed for completeness sake

Registering a business name with CRO, €20 doing it on-line and much cheaper than a limited company which will cost about €250 - €350 using an agent. But bear in mind that you will be a sole trader(with registering a name) rather than a limited company.
Registering for taxes, free if you use form TR1 free,
Accounting & bookeeping services about €750 plus VAT per year.
Business bank account costs, BOI are offering free banking for 2 years and you could check out Halifax
Cost of running a mobile phone.
You should also be able to write off any costs of IT Equipment against profits.
Running an office from your home will enable you to write off a portion of your utility bills against the business

Anyway I hope this was of some help and if you have a tax/accountant issue feel free to contact me.

Regards,
Swanvill

podgeen

Hi Atlas IRL,

In relation to payments and merchant accounts you have two options -

1. Use a Payments Bureau such as PayPal which will not require you to have an Internet Merchant Account.
2. Get business bank account, Internet Merchant Account and use the services of a Payments Service Provider.

If you are using a Payments Bureau then you will not be able to accept laser which might be an issue if a lot of our target customers are in Ireland. You may have problems getting an Internet Merchant Account if you do not have a history trading and depending on the type of product you are selling.
I'd recommend talking to you bank and exploring the options. My website gives a list of payment bureaus and payments service providers in the Irish market. There is also a guide to setting up online payments which will explain Internet Merchant Accounts, chargebacks, costs & fees and so on in more detail.

How many sales do you expect to make per month and what would the average price of each sale be? With this information you can figure out which option is best financially, although this is not the only thing that you should consider but it is a good starting point. Also if funds are tight to begin with them it maybe an important issue for you.

Dave

lecheile

Deleted User wrote: »

Depends how much competition you have. The thing with adwords is you have to pay the prices at the beginning to get a reputation but from what I'm told is once you are getting more and more click throughs and it's going to exactly what the consumer is looking for - over time Google reward you with lower prices and improved quality score etc which all helps towards you ranking high.

Well that's my understanding on it - correct me if i'm wrong anybody!!!

you are correct TheEntrepreneur - getting as specific as possible with ad (and accordingly the adwords) and delivering consistency in terms of what it is presented on click-thru is vital to getting your Google quality score up. Google have an approach they want to increase consumers' confidence in the ads, and hence increase the rates of click-thru - so its not about paying the top rates, its also about giving customers what they are expecting.

byrne0f56789

Some great tips so far. Check out Yahoo Merchant Solutions for credit card processing I've heard good things about them. As for AdWords you need to start slowly and then build up. Make sure you split test both your landing pages and ads. Also, you need to become familiar with site development yourself. It's not hard, but because of the test and measure nature of Internet Marketing the costs of outsourcing all of these changes really do add up.

The start will be the hardest time. Remember, it all comes down to your conversion rate. I wish you all the best.

D.W

Atlas_IRL wrote: »

Also from your experience without using adwords to get the page ranked high on google is it very hard to get ranked high quickly? Ill have PR and will have to do a lot of advertising through forums/inbound links etc just the budget may be too low as the key words are quite high.

Sorry if I have misunderstood other replies but are you asking here about Organic rankings that could be attained using adwords as a legup?

Atlas_IRL

Well both really, the keywords are very high per click. To get it ranked organically, if i was spending a lot of time advertising online could it be ranked quite fast?


Thanks for the replies so far, really helpfull. I hope there helpfull for others too.

D.W

No.... Adwords is entirely different to organic rankings. Some people may theorise that using adwords can help organic ranking in the long term but I don't agree. Your site needs SEO, content and lots more to rank organically so thinking that adwords will do the trick is a mistake. Adwords is for instant advertising-Organic serps long term (and free of course). Whats your websites url or is it live yet?

Atlas_IRL

It will be live in a few weeks and i will post it up. The developer will be doing SEO on it, its being started on in the next couple of days.

Just trying to find out what Payment Service Provider to go for at the moment, and any other costs while im waiting.

We will be taking a % cut of jobs undertaken i.e person x does job for person y. We connect them together and get a % i.e 3% of the total agreed cost. The other option we will provide is the person will have an option to pay a monthly subscription. So finding the right one to use is more challenging than say a web store.

Atlas_IRL

For anyone that has their business online and what is their opinion on fraud.

Protx ensures that your customers’ card details remain secure throughout the transaction process. However, this does not guarantee that the person ordering from your site is the genuine cardholder. As an online merchant, you are responsible for ensuring that the transactions processed through your website are not fraudulent.

While Protx cannot provide you with a guarantee against fraud, we do provide several fraud screening tools to help you protect your business:

http://www.sage.ie/protx/packages_sbs_services.asp


We will be vetting one side of our customers for qualifications but how do we prevent against CC fraud?

podgeen

Your exposure to fraud and the risk involved depends on the type of business you are in and the type of products that you are selling. Based on what you have described of your business so far I do not think you would be a likely target for fraud. If you were selling electronic goods or something similar then I would be worried about fraud. That is just my opinion and others may disagree with me.

If you are worried about the risk of fraud or chargebacks then you should consider enabling 3D Secure. You will not be liable for fraudulent transactions as 3D Secure shifts the liability away from the merchant.
The downside to this is there merchants tend to experience "non-completions" with 3D Secure. Customers are not always aware of what 3D Secure is, they may get confused by it or they may have forgotten their password and as a result they do not complete their transaction.

Dave

podgeen

I forgot to mention some providers to offer additional services to screen for potentially fraudulent transactions so this is something else that you could consider if you are worried about fraud. For example transactions for cards issued in a particular geographical location might get flagged as potentially fraudulent and would require your input before the transaction would be processed.