Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi Diana,

I was in the same as you. Not wanting to spend a ton of money on a site just yet.
I was comfortable just using one of those cookie-cutter sites to start off with. I feel that it is a good learning tool for beginners and is not near as expensive.
The one that I found and really like is called Prostores.com. They are parntered with Ebay, so you can actually list your items on your store and on the ebay website at the same time among other benefits. Check out thier website and see what ya think.

Paul

twc238,

That is what I was trying to explain earlier on one of my posting, before you go out and spend tons of money test the water, see if you are getting the response you were expecting. It`s much cheaper to spend 300-600 bucks than finding out you spend thousands and your business never took Off, Just keep in mind that once your business takes off, it`s good practice to update it, and make the changes you need as you go along. Once you have the funds coming in and your business is booming, then get a professional web site developed. At least this way you know you will get your return on investment.

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

I couldn`t even see spending 300 on the site, at least not right now.....if I remember correctly, prostores starts off at $30 a month, but has other options where the price does go up.

Honestly TWC, there are other options out there better than prostore. I`m pretty sure if that is all you are looking for, "e-commerce site",  I know resources that would perhaps help you alot, and that look much better than Prostore. email me emonroy@nuevolutionwebdesigns.com and I will give you resources.

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

i just wanted to thank everyone on this post, it`s been very informative.  i`m in the process of creating a business plan for my product concept, and i`ve had many questions along the way that have been addressed in this post.

i`m looking forward to being able to come here to the community for advice when the time is right.

thanks again!

I think Paul (twc238) hit on a key strategy without even realizing it.  eBay!  For those of you who are startups with scarce capital to invest carefully, starting your business first on eBay (for e-commerce businesses) is a great idea.  I know numerous friends that opened an eBay store to test the market and begin selling goods online.  This evolved into having both an eBay store and their own website. Now, all their business is done at their own website because they built a great eBay reputation (word of mouth) and had time to get their own site promoted.

By using eBay, you have access to their hundreds of millions of users and can work within their highly successful framework.  You will also learn a lot about doing business on the web and definitely gain a better understanding of the requirements needed before you spend big bucks building your own site.

Here are a few resources at StartupNation about starting an eBay business:

1. How to Start and Grow an eBay Business (On Demand seminar)
2. 10 Steps to Starting and Growing a Business on eBay (Radio show)
3. Starting an eBay Business (article)
4. 5 Tips for Differentiating your eBay Business (article)

And for those of you in the Las Vegas area...or with some frequent flier miles...the Sloan brothers will be at eBay Live 2006! on June 14.

Hope this offers another avenue...

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Brian Cleveland,
Web Producer,
StartupNation