Setting up a website

Matmania

I am thinking about setting up a business. Looking to setup up a website. Anyone any suggestions on the best way of going about it. Would going to a college student be any good. I know this is vague but as i'm looking to trying to do this as cheap as possible as it's going to be for an idea that may or may not go ahead.

Matmania

If this is in the wrong section please move. Also i was thinking of another option of giving some equity in the business.

Matmania

Also just a few things about the website. Its basically a website where i could add/remove products for sale as i need. Also have the ability to buy from the website etc.

pinktoe

Have a look at Wix or WordPress or similar.

Wix has templates, and is super easy to use. You don't need to know how to code. Easy to add and remove items and change prices. Hosting will probably be €20 a month. You can sign up and make the website before paying to host it.

Get your domain name from Blacknight as they are cheaper than buying from Wix.

Zamboni

There are several important factors.
Building, maintaining and changes.
Do you have the interest to learn and do it yourself or would you rather pay somebody to do all three for you?

Axwell

To give you the most honest answer..which is not what most people with your sort of comments want to hear. Equity will not pay my rent or bills...your company is worth 0 right now..10% of 0..is still 0.

You can get the website done cheap in lots of places..a student, freelancer websites like upwork etc..but then that is what you are paying for and that is what you will get..a cheap website..if that is how you want to represent your business online then sure its an option.

Then you mention the functionality - You want a website with secure payment integration so people can safely pay by credit card..you want ecommerce functionality so you can sell products online and add/remove these as needed. That's not basic and something you need done right.

If you plan to just sell products online have a look at an off the shelf platform like Shopify where you can set up a store, use one of their templates and pay a monthly fee instead. That way if you decide to can the business after a while you have only a few months of fee's - if things start to work out then pay for a bespoke website later.

Matmania

In and ideal world id like someone to design the website for me. I know the look that i want. Then going forward i'd like to be able to add new products on a regular basis. I'll be honest i know nothing about website design. If i could do the changes like adding removing product that would be great. The thing with the site changes would have to be made very often. That's probably where my problem would lie. Anyway thanks very much for the responses so far.

Matmania

Axwell that thing about Shopify i will check out. Thanks. As i said open to all suggestions.

tricky D

Avoid cheap, value is what you want. A website can be a seriously good value channel but you need to invest properly in it.

Avoid wix, it is really poor. Wordpress is good and with loads of options, video tutorials and support. Shopify also gets a +1 thumbs up.

A student is not likely to have the required business know-how so is a bad idea. You could get lucky but that is a poor approach to business.

When designing a website, think how it works much more than how it looks. How it looks should depend on what it does, not the other way around: Form follows Function is the principle here. You will need to flesh out how it works in detail in order to be able to provide a proper specification/brief to potential solution providers. You will get more and better quotes that way, though the pricing will likely still be, eh, an eye opener ie. all over the place. Do not tag on SEO as an afterthought, it is too important for that.

How it looks can be resolved later in the process by picking a suitable theme close to what you want and tweaking to your brand (logo and colours).

Forget about equity offers.

Matmania

Tricky thanks very much for the advice. If i was to get a professional to design the website is in costly.

tricky D

How long is a piece of string. The general rule of you get what you pay for applies but as there is little barrier to entry into web working, quality can be all over the place. The best way to protect against hiring a bad supplier is to provide a really detailed specification of what you want (must-dos, should-dos, could-dos and want-to-dos) and by going through your Business Plan and figuring out how pretty much everything on your site works. The Devil is in the detail so work accordingly. Then send that out to lots of suppliers making sure to get lots of quotes. Scrutinise and check out the suppliers, shortlist, then select.

daymobrew

You could talk to your Local Enterprise Office (LEO) about the Trading Online Voucher (TOV) scheme where they will give you back a decent portion of the money you spend on your online business.

A colleague of mine had started doing webinars to explain TOV and things that you should think about first. Her next one is on 24 June.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6676157509121654784/

Axwell

You have to be in business for a minimum of 6 months to be able to apply for the tov.

daymobrew

Axwell wrote: »

You have to be in business for a minimum of 6 months to be able to apply for the tov.

Good point, I'd forgotten about that one.