If you’ve decided to go into business, there are many aspects to think about. Marketing, branding, clients, business name and online strategy. There’s also the prospect of choosing which area of business to enter; ideally an industry which is a growth area and there is an instant online appeal to users.
One such area of growth is the online recruitment agency and there are now agencies with websites covering local and global vacancies, specialist industry recruitment such as engineering or medicine and those which have a number of add-on services such as writing a CV or offering template letters to send to prospective employers. If you think that you could make a success from an online recruitment website, you’ll also need to think about the kind of software you would use. Recruitment software means that you can track candidates, store CV’s and upload new vacancies quickly.
Whatever kind of business you decide to launch, you will need to have a website. Whether it is to sell products as a retail store or offer services, a website is vital to spread the word about who you are, raise your branding profile, reach potential customers and act as an income generator.
Before you launch a website, you’ll need to decide on the domain name. This needs to be something which is easy to remember and straight forward to spell so it is easier to find when searching or typing into an address bar.
A domain name is part of your business identity so think about keywords. Try to use your business name if possible, but if not, use words which are relevant to the company. For example, if you decide to start an online recruitment agency consider words such as job, vacancy and opportunity.
Avoid using numbers and the hyphen sign. It means that users have to try to remember the number and there is always much confusion about whether a hyphen sign or an underscore has been used. Keep the name all as one word and don’t look to include spaces as this will automatically add underscores between each word.
Look to be original as there are billions of websites and there will be a fair few similar to yours, whatever your company does. When you’ve decided on the name, ask a few friends what they think to find out if it is memorable, easy to spell and what they think it means in relation to your business.
The last stage – and a very important one – is to ensure the name or word isn’t already covered by trademark. The last thing you need after a successful launch is a law suit from a company with the same name who feel you are trying to cash in on the fact they are already established.
When you have your domain name and look to register it, there’s every possibility there will be a number of options available to follow on from the name; known as the top domain level. These are .com for a large number of global businesses but if the name is already taken, there will be a number of other choices. It’s important to pick one which is relevant to you. As an example, sites which contain information are .info and ones which are about specific people are .me. Look for .com if available – this gives you a great option to easily go global in the future – or .co.uk for those in the United Kingdom. After that, .biz is for any kind of business and .net if you have a website with a technical focus.
When choosing your domain name, it’s important to act quickly once you’ve decided on the name as they can sell fast if it’s a popular combination of words or industry type. Also take care not to overpay – there are millions of combinations available for very little cost and there have been some record prices paid for domain names purchased in the past which now lay dormant through non-use.
Once you have your domain name and your website is built, it’s ready to launch to the virtual world. With your marketing in place and your email set to receive enquiries, it won’t be long before you’re reaping the rewards of deciding to enter the world of ecommerce. Good luck!