Getting Started

Now that I've planned out what I need to do before the business can get going, I need to get some things together so the business will be ready to run when the infrastructure is built up. Some of my decisions will have to remain unmade until I decide for certain whether to incorporate or not, while others can be taken care of at any time. I plan to start getting everything as ready as possible so that things can go ahead smoothly and quickly once I'm home.

1) Payment Processing
There are a lot of options for this one. Fortunately, the decision is a lot easier than most because I can always add or change processing methods as time goes by. Adding is better, since it will allow customers who paid through the old systems to keep doing so, of course.

Naturally checks and money orders will be accepted for people who prefer to mail payments. I'll have to work out a plan for how to handle checks, clearing them and whatnot, but generally checks are fairly secure. The tutoring company I used to run never had problems with checks or money orders.

For credit card payments, I'm currently planning to accept Pay Pal and Google Checkout to start with. These are both big names in payment processing and offer a variety of options. If I incorporate immediately, I will also set up a merchant account and potentially be able to accept credit card payments directly. If I choose to do that, I will most likely go through the Toronto Dominion Bank. I had very good experiences with them in the past.

2) A Web Site and Web Hosting
I've already decided to use Mozilla's Seamonkey Web Application Suite to design my web pages. Now I'll just need to find a host and register the domains. I won't be doing much research into hosting for now, since it will be easier and cheaper to look into it when I'm home. Most likely I'll be looking at a local host if possible, and if I need to phone them to verify anything it'll be much more convenient when I'm also local. I have a few domains in mind for the web site, and so far it looks likely that they are available.

3) A Way to Attract Viewers
As the ideal page viewer is someone who is interested in Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror, I'm planning to add product reviews to the site, focusing on Movies, Music, Books and Games related to those genres. I already write review articles for a club newsletter, so this shouldn't be too tough. This will also allow more places for Google Adsense ads and Some reasonable Amazon affiliate ads. Given some time and effort, the ad revenue could end up paying for the overhead costs of the business.

4) Readers and Writers
Naturally, if the main business is going to be online publishing, I'll need something to publish. As such I'll be posting ads at some online writing groups looking for writers, and probably using my friends to start with to read over submitted stories for suitability. I may use some of my own writing if I need something to fill out an issue. I'll be advertising with local fan clubs and hopefully using word of mouth to sell subscriptions. As time goes on, and money comes in, I'll look at paid advertising, such as PPC ads, particularly Google's Adwords program.

5) Record Keeping Software

I'm going to need some sort of bookkeeping system to keep track of everything. This is an area I'm not that strong in so it's going to take some time and effort to research options and come up with a system I can work with and follow. It's entirely likely I'll need to hire a bookkeeper to do most of the work. I have done that before, advertising through the Canada job board for students from places like the University of Alberta and NAIT. Edmonton has a lot of colleges and trade schools which can provide low cost workers for things like bookkeeping.

6) Delivery System
At the start, this shouldn't be a problem but as my readership (hopefully) grows, I'll need a separate system for sending out the finished product, or I could be at risk of being labelled a spammer. Fortunately there are lots of programs on the net to do just this. The one I see in use most often is Aweber, and this is the one I'm planning on making use of. I'll probably sign up immediately so that subscribers won't have to reopt in to receive the materials. From what I can tell I can grow with Aweber so once I set up my account with them, I won't have much need to change.

Once I get all these things set up, I'll be ready to start the business. In the meantime, I'll be doing more research and working on getting the web page set up. I'll keep posting how things are going to this blog. Any questions or comments, please feel free to send them here, I'm still very much open to suggestions.