Preperations for turning your idea into a business

1. Consult a lawyer or accountant to secure your company name/corporation (& if needed), trademarks.
2. Develop a small business plan as well as a Mission Statement, Company Bios & Contact Info. It will be the base of your website and print material content.

"What will help my projects move along more quickly?" The answers are:

1. Consider a domain name for your company & sign up for a hosting account to host your website and email accounts (we can handle this for you.)
2. Define your target audience.  Do a web search for similar businesses . Look at their sites and make notes on graphics and functionality that appeals to you. Collect fliers or brochures of your competition as well, they can come in handy for some competitive analysis.
3. Having your text/content ready to go will shave days off of your project timeline. Using your Mission Statement and Company Bios from your Business Plan, form a detailed "about us." Include information about your experience in your field, you company goals, notes about pleased customers and a bit about your tools or specialties.  For your "services" or "products" page, make a bullet point list of those items that you offer and elaborate on each.  This may be the most important page on your website, so make it count!
4. Woudl you like to use photos on your website, brochure or fliers but don't have any of your own to use?  Stock photography is the answer.  Go to iStockPhoto.com, create an account and search for your new collection of business stock photographs, graphics, videos and more.
5. Allocate a budget for your project.

Once completed, you're ready to click here: