Now that you have finally decided to take the next step on expanding your business, you now have to weigh your pros and cons carefully, so that you start this new business journey on fairly stable footing. By now, you probably know—and heard—the beauty of online selling, and how a business owner can benefit from it. Seniors, particularly, have these advantages when selling online:
•    Lower operational cost
•    Time flexibility
•    Faster transaction time
•    Wider market reach
•    Ease of selling, especially if you have limited range of motion
•    Be able to sell on equal footing with larger companies
It is easy to set up an online shop however, it can be quite expensive and time consuming too. Good thing is, there are people who specialize in this kind of business whom you could hire. Bad point though is that, there are about thousands, if not millions of people, claiming they know everything about this stuff and will charge a whole bunch for a job not so well done! In other words, scams abound, so seniors, be forewarned. On the other hand, if time is not an issue at all, you can build your own online shop all by yourself—arthritic hand and all!
•    First, you need a specific product to sell, or at the very least, a theme to work on. If you’re expanding, then you already have this one but if you are just starting out, then choose your best product or service to highlight on your web business. For example, you sell senior clothes or adaptive clothing line for disabled seniors.
•    Prepare your business plan. Of course, you need one too! It should include feasibility study, marketing plan and financials, as these are the areas which your business will depend on.
•     Choose a domain name—and choose wisely! This is your first in-action experience with the ever doubting web community but it should not be a scary one too! However, choosing a domain name for your website is one of the most important things you need to secure early on as this will carry your online store’s name. As much as possible, choose something that will represent your store more clearly such as “shoppingseniors” or “clothedseniors” (for senior clothes). Your domain name should be .com and nothing else. Also, keep it short and sweet. You can either create unique domain name or just buy an existing one.
•    Pick a good web host for your site. A web host will enable your domain name thus allowing other people to access your website. Without this, your website cannot be viewed at all. Nowadays, there are many web hosting services available for you to choose from. My advice is that you shop around and stick with the popular ones.
•    Build your website. This is where your creative juices must flow. If you don’t have any, then get a good website building software to assist you with your website building needs.
•    Set up a payment system for your website. Your website should be able to accept payments online, credit card especially. A merchant account would do or a third party payment processor.
Now that you have your website up and running, you can either keep it as it is or go a little further by boosting its search engine ranking for better searchability!