Are you brand-new to entrepreneurship and you know that your business needs to be online.

You’ve got your EIN number all already. You’ve opened up a bank account and you’ve done all of the logistical things to set your business up.

Now it’s time to put it online. But there’s so many things out there and so much to do that you don’t know where to start.

1. Get a Website

The first and most important area is that you must have a website online. I don’t really care what tool you use to put your website online, even though I prefer WordPress, but just having a website is the most important thing that you can do for yourself.

Whether you have a brick and mortar business, whether you’re completely online, your website is your identity online that you own and it is tied directly to your business. That’s why it’s the most important area to start with.

On your website you want to make sure that you talk about what it is that you do in your business as if you are talking to your ideal client or customer.

Set up a Domain Email Address

You also want to get an email address that is attached to your domain. You can plug that email address into Google or Gmail to check and reply to emails that are associated with your domain and your website. It’s really important to have a professional email like ali  @  alirittenhouse.com.

It just speaks so much more for your business when you are giving it out to somebody that could potentially be a future client or customer. You can also set up a second email address that is either contact or support at your domain name to give out for correspondence that maybe you don’t want to give out your private email address for.

To get your website up and on the internet you’ll need to purchase a domain and you’ll need to purchase hosting. I recommend Bluehost, I have been using them for well over a decade. It’s really simple and easy to use. You can get your free domain as well as save on hosting. { affiliate links }

2. Create Social Media Pages for your Business

Once you have your website up and running you want to get your social media accounts set up. Now the main question that I get all the time when it comes to social media is how many different sites should I be on? And the simplest easiest answer to that is only sign up for the ones that you know that you can manage and maintain consistently for your business because it doesn’t do you any good to set up with a bunch of different social media accounts that you’re not gonna use or manage.

If you want to make sure that you can secure your social media name across all channels, that’s fine, but only commit to showing up and broadcasting and promoting the ones that you are actually going to use.

For my business I use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. That’s it, I don’t try to put myself on any other ones because I know those are the only ones that I can do and maintain.

Now some people may tell you that it’s more important to have social media than a website. And I actually disagree with that statement for the simple fact that you don’t own Facebook. You don’t own Instagram. And at any point in time they can change something that can affect the way that your business is seen online. So it’s always better to have your website before you even think about social media.

It’s always important to have the two and not just focus on social media, because again, you don’t own that and anything can change versus having your own website that you are in control of. So that is why I highly recommend that you start with your website first and then focus on social media.

The great thing about a website is pretty much once it’s set up there isn’t that much more for you to do on it other than just making sure that the content on there is always up to date and current. Whereas social media you are updating that kind of moving forward.

3. Create a Funnel

The final step that all businesses, no matter what you look like, you should have a funnel of some sort. Now, if you’re like, what is a funnel? If you think about everybody kind of coming into either your website or social media, and they don’t know if they are into what you do or maybe what even it is that you do. You want to guide them and nurture them to know, like, and trust you to then buying from you, utilizing your funnel.

Whether you again, have a brick and mortar business or an online business funnels are going to be important for you.

Now they consist of having an email-marketing list, having a couple of web pages set up, and then also being sure that you have an offer to sell. That’s probably the most important thing is having a really tight and good offer that you’re trying to push people through with content and information that is again, going to get them to know, like, and trust you to getting them to purchase from you which is the ultimate goal in business is to have clients and customers that are purchasing from you. They’re raving fans that come back every chance that they get.

Now I’m not saying that all three of these areas are the end all, be all, but I am saying that they are three top things that you must start off with to get your business online and get sales coming in.

Have fun putting your business online and creating these areas.