The way you present your e-business to the world is the key to its success. Its so important that your website looks professional and credible so that customers will trust the products or services you are selling. Ideally, your site’s content will also be interesting and unique enough that they appreciate your brand and remember to shop with you again. You need to develop two types of content to make this happen: a “Hollywood pitch” and website copy.

The Hollywood Pitch

It’s important to have a clear idea of what your business does and what it offers to its customers—both for your own thinking but also because friends, family, customers, and even potential investors are all going to ask you, “So what does your business do?”

The best way I have found to encapsulate your new business concept is to use what I call the “Hollywood pitch technique.” You identify the basic elements of your business and compare them to familiar, existing concepts or previous successes in a pseudo-mathematical equation.

In Hollywood, new movie and TV program ideas are often pitched this way because it uses already existing success stories to give listeners a quick, positive impression of what you are proposing. Boiling down your business idea to this quick summary will also help you focus on what is important and unique about your business.

For example, the hit TV show American Idol might have originally been pitched in Hollywood as “an updated Star Search with Hollywood Squares-style celebrity judges and cell phone voting.” Similarly, the Austin Powers movies might have been pitched as “1970s James Bond meets Inspector Clouseau to save the world!”

Figuring out the key concepts and buzzwords for your e-business will also help you write effective copy for your website and construct effective “meta tags” to help your search engine rankings.

Now, ask yourself: How can you summarize your new business using this Hollywood pitch approach?

Copywriting for Your E-Business

Even if you’re selling commodity products like batteries or socks, you’ll need accurate and persuasive product descriptions to convince your audience to purchase from you.

If you are offering more unique items or services, your website needs to communicate the value of your goods in a concise and compelling manner.

If you’re embarking on a more information-intensive or publishing related venture, your copy will essentially be your product, so it is even more critical to your success.

In all cases, the Internet can once again help you deliver compelling written materials cost-effectively, even if you are not a good writer (or speller) yourself. Don’t underestimate the importance of well-written copy because it is more important than you may think. You’ll need good and regularly updated copy for:

• Website pages
• Product descriptions
• E-mail newsletters
• Customer service documentation
• Advertisements
• Business correspondence

If you are a good writer, you can probably fulfill your e-business’s content creation needs yourself. There are two basic situations, however, that may warrant your getting some writing help:

• You are not a particularly good or fast writer (or at least you don’t enjoy it).
• You are too busy to do a good job at writing the copy your business needs.

As usual, the Internet can help you solve your problem. (By now you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?) There are thousands of experienced writers available who would be happy to contribute to your site’s content needs on a project basis. You can find good writers looking for work by going online and posting a small ad (usually for free) to ask for help with your specific writing needs. Good places to start would be ELance & Craigslist.

Regardless of how you recruit your part-timers, ensure you are specific in your ads about the length of the written pieces you need and the style (e.g., product descriptions, advertisements, informational articles, website promotional copy, etc.), as well as your deadlines and offered compensation.

You’ll soon find that finding and hiring freelancers is a great, cost effective way to increase your productivity. This strategy also will work well for graphic artists, Web designers, photographers, customer service staff, and even salespeople.

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Every business venture starts with an idea. It may be as simple as opening a shop that features local artwork or as complex as creating a company that offers space vacations. Either way, your success depends on the strength of your idea, how well it fits your temperament, how well you can plan for success, and what resources you can bring to the effort.

Before settling and taking your first steps, consider this list of 10 questions that you absolutely, positively need to ask about your business idea before you take the big plunge.

Is This Something I Really Want to Do?

Running your own company is more than just a job. For most successful entrepreneurs, it’s a full-time passion. The people most likely to succeed are ones who truly believe in their ideas, care about the products or services that they offer, and love what they do — even when the going gets tough. Take a moment to think about what it will take to turn your idea into a business and what running that business will be like. Is your heart in it? Is it something you really care about? Is it how you want to spend your time? If you answer all the questions with an enthusiastic “Yes!” read on. If not, maybe you need to go back to brainstorming.

For more ideas on starting a business, checkout 10 Hot Ways to be an Entrepreneur.

Is This Something I’m Capable of Doing?

Thomas Edison called genius “1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.” Your idea is a stroke of inspiration, but do you have what it takes to sweat out the details and do the hard work required to turn your inspiration into reality? Beyond desire, do you have the capability? In other words, can you do it? Do you have the resources, connections, skills, and experience to turn your idea into a success story? And if you don’t have everything required to do the job well, do you have the knowledge and resources to assemble a team that does?

Check out Stefan’s post at the Small Business Blog, Reasons Why Most Businesses Fail.

Does It Tap My Personal Strengths?

Not everyone can run a high-tech business — or a local gift shop, for that matter. Your strengths and weaknesses will go to work with you every day, so take time to consider whether your idea aligns well with your personal attributes or whether it requires talents in areas where you’re a little weak. Successful entrepreneurs devote themselves to businesses that leverage their strengths and work around their weaknesses. How do your strengths and weaknesses match up to the business idea you’re considering? If the business requires plenty of personal contact, for example, are you good with people? If the business requires you to move rapidly to seize an opportunity, are you prepared for long, sometimes stressful days?

Checkout Steve’s blog post about Discovering Your Strengths.

Can I Describe It in 25 Words or Less?

If your business idea is so complex that you need a half-hour and 20 flip charts to explain it, chances are it’s too complicated. You can describe almost every great business idea in 25 words or less. Consider a few examples:

• A combination electronic organizer and wireless Internet device (8 words)
• A gift certificate that you can redeem online to contribute to the charity of your choice (16 words)
• A catering service that delivers meals based on The Zone, Atkins, or Weight Watchers diets (15 words)

As part of your evaluation, pare down your idea to its essentials and describe it as simply and concisely as you can. A simple, polished phrase can make your idea shine — or it may reveal a fatal flaw.

What’s the Closest Thing to It in the Marketplace?

As the age-old saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun. In fact, refining or combining existing ideas generates most new business ideas. Here’s a television, there’s the Web — hey, how about WebTV? As you judge your idea, think about similar products or services already swimming in the marketplace, and then ask a tough question: How is your idea better?

Does It Meet a Need or Solve a Customer Problem?

Most customers don’t plunk down hard-earned cash because they love spending money or love buying products. Customers spend money because they believe that what they buy can solve their problems, fulfill their needs, or satisfy their desires. If your business idea doesn’t address a real problem, need, or desire, getting it off the ground will be doubly difficult, because instead of presenting your product as the best solution to existing needs, you have to create the sense of need and then present your product as the solution. That situation is a hard row to hoe.

Does It Take Advantage of a New Opportunity?

Often, business success hinges on having the right idea in the right place at the right time. The rise of the Internet — and the simultaneous passion in America for collecting — presented twin opportunities that helped turn the booming auction site eBay into a household word. And the nation’s ballooning waistline was the opportunity that Weight Watchers rode all the way to a multimillion-dollar success story. Does your business idea stand a good chance of catching a similar wave of opportunity?

What’s the Biggest Drawback or Limitation?

You have to take off your rose-colored glasses and admit that even the greatest business ideas have drawbacks and limitations. Maybe your idea is very easy for would-be competitors to copy, for example. Or maybe it requires a difficult-to-achieve change in some ingrained customer behavior. Perhaps your idea requires a long R&D phase, or maybe it poses difficult marketing challenges. By thinking long and hard about the potential drawbacks of your idea, you put your business opportunity in perspective. If the pluses far outweigh the worst-case scenarios you dream up, chances are your business idea stands a pretty good chance of succeeding.

Will It Make Money — and How Fast?

Oddly enough, this simple question is the one most likely to go unasked by wannabe entrepreneurs, maybe because it’s one of the toughest questions to face up to. It goes well beyond your answer to the question of whether or not customers will be willing to pay for your product or service; this question takes you into the realm of forecasting:

• How long will it take before your business idea will generate profits?
• How long can you afford to wait?
• After the sales start rolling in, can you sustain profitability over time?

Take the time to give questions like these serious thought — sooner rather than later.

Am I Willing to Remortgage My House?

I’m not suggesting that you take out a second mortgage to fund your new business venture. But as a test of your passion and belief, ask yourself: If you had to do it, would you be willing? Even if you’re planning on persuading outside investors to take on some of the risk for you, you need that kind of personal belief as you make the pitch. And if you decide to take a bank loan instead, you have to sign on the dotted line to pledge to repay the money, absolutely, positively. One way or another, you assume financial risk when you launch a business. If you’re not willing to take on that risk, you may not be cut out for the business you’re thinking about starting.

What other questions should budding entrepreneurs ask themselves before they take the plunge into starting a new business?

I’ll leave that question for you guys to answer; do so by leaving us a comment below.

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You’re starting an online business, so it’s important that you understand the internet and all it has to offer. You should know by now that it’s a great learning resource and it can teach you an awful lot about how to run your own web business.

The following are ten of the best and most useful websites available to you may want to consider using for research, online shopping, business advice, or just websites you may want to use on a day-to-day basis. These sites will help you get your business up and running and to grow it from a small start-up to a flourishing online success story. Now get surfing!!!

Realbusiness.co.uk

In need of some inspiration? One of Dan’s websites, realbusiness.co.uk, is the website of Real Business Magazine, and it’s the place to start your journey. It’s full of great features, profiles and interviews with entrepreneurs from all walks of life. There’s an online forum where you can ask questions or express your views, a news blog, podcasts, vodcasts; everything you need to understand who entrepreneurs are, what they strive for and what you can achieve too. Read the rest of this entry »

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