[Jake-Entrepreneur]

Hey, i am thinking of setting up an Online Business selling software and i was wondering if anyone could give me any advice E.g. Making the website and getting a shopping cart. Thanks

[spyro]

The first step to any business is a business plan. It is a very enlightening way to realize what you will and won't be able to do. Running a website alone is very hard work, much less doing it in the software industry. To answer your cart question, the VirtueMart/Joomla setup is very easily configurable and a great CMS/ cart combination. I would also start reading a few books about ecommerce and don't pick up anything that makes it sounds easy because they are pretty much lying.

[Jake-Entrepreneur]

thanks for the help

[youngmoneyblog]

How to start a real online store internet business

i use virtuemart. you can check out my blog and my series on starting an e-store to see what i went through.

[Kenix]

Hi Jake,

Have you determine your target market? Customer segmentation determine your marketing strategies...

[fizfaz]

Yes the easieast way to make make a website with shopping cart is using open source software which is f ree. As eg. you can use oscmmerce, virtuemart or zen chart. To test drive you can go to http://www.opensourcecms.com .Click at left hand side menu with title e-commerce
Hope this help.

[spyro]

Originally Posted by Kenix

Hi Jake,

Have you determine your target market? Customer segmentation determine your marketing strategies...

I'm with Kenix. I would write a full business plan before you jump into designing a site and stocking it up.

[Aletheides]

What kind of software are you going to be selling? If you don't develop it yourself, what kind of distribution network have you set up?

Who are your competitors? What are their strong points, what are their weak points and how can you capitalize on them?

You need to try to determine your expenses as best you can before you start your business, add room for misc. stuff that might come up. After you do all this, consider how much you can realistically sell your products for and how much $ you will be taking home.

If you are inexperienced start small. In business (like life) things can and will go wrong, when you're small you can easily adapt without too much of a loss.