💡 Spinning Up a New Online Business (Issue 133)
The order of these 10 steps matter
I recently helped a solopreneur launch a new business from scratch.
As I documented the steps and the services used, I realized it may not always be straightforward. It’s not necessarily difficult to do, but it can be a bit tedious, and the order of operations matters somewhat. Of course, you can go back and edit things later, but it’s easier to do it right the first time.
When you create a new business, you will sign up for a lot of services, and that means using several new usernames and passwords. If you want to make your life easier and your business more secure, I recommend using a password manager like 1Password. That will make it simpler to sign into your services from your laptop and phone later.
Anna and I will delve into this topic in more detail for the podcast episode we’re recording later this week. But, I wanted to give you a quick overview of the steps I took to set up this new business. You may find it helpful as you build your own online business!
Sequence of operations
Email: Create an email address for your business using a trusted email provider. For example, you can set up a new business email address using Proton Mail (e.g., yourname@proton.me) and purchase a plan that provides at least one custom email name (e.g., yourname@yourbusinessdomain.com).
Domain Name: Now, you can use that new email address to sign up for domain name hosting (e.g., Namecheap) and secure a suitable domain name for your business.
Calendar: Unfortunately, I haven’t found another calendar service that integrates as easily with so many other services as Google Calendar does. So, you’ll have to set that up for your business, too.
Cloudflare: I love using Cloudflare for its ease of managing DNS records, improved website performance, and enhanced security (e.g., blocking attacks). You will have to update your nameservers with your domain name host (step 2) to use Cloudflare to manage your DNS records instead.
Custom Email Domain: Now that you have your domain name, you can set up a custom email name with Proton (e.g., yourname@yourbusinessdomain.com) and update your DNS MX records with Cloudflare. Please verify that you can send and receive from this new custom email before you use it to sign up for any other business services.
Website: Use your preferred website builder and hosting service to set up your new business website (e.g., I like Carrd). You will want to publish this new website using your new business domain (e.g., www.yourbusinessdomain.com).
Booking Meetings: There are numerous services available for this (e.g., Calendly), but I’m a fan of TidyCal for its “buy once, use forever” model. Once you configure this service, you can set up both free and paid appointments.
Getting Paid: You’ll need a payment service to configure your paid appointments (e.g., with TidyCal) and accept payments from customers and clients. The easiest ones to set up are Stripe, PayPal, and Venmo; however, there are many others available as well, if you already have a preferred option.
Banking: Set up a separate bank account for your business. This will make your life much easier for accounting and tax preparation in the future.
Meetings and Calls: Most of us prefer not to share our private phone numbers with clients and customers. So, set up something like Zoom or Google Meet so you can have audio calls or video chats with them.
Of course, there are lots of other services you’ll use for e-commerce, content creation, document management, legal forms, social media, marketing, advertising, etc. However, these 10 steps should help you establish a basic business framework quickly to start attracting and signing up new clients and customers.
After that, tune and tweak your systems to your heart’s content!
Larry Cornett is a Freedom Coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become invincible, and create new opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate! Check out his new Invincible Solopreneurs Daily Journal!
