More Decision Making

This week I had to evaluate and choose a site builder and host for my website.  There are so many options for each of these, so being able to compare and contrast the options was very important.  To narrow down which options to evaluate, I had to consider what I wanted my business to be, what services I expect from a host and site builder, and what effort am I willing to put into the development of the site itself. 

Based on my lack of coding skills, I knew that I needed to evaluate site builders that were designed for ease of use.  I also had to remember that my intention is to run an online store, which meant that I needed certain functionality to be available on my site.  This ruled out the free website builder options.  Therefore, I evaluated a few of the subscription services with drag-and-drop site builder programs.

Choosing a host became very easy, although I still compared a few to be sure that I made a good choice.  Because I had chosen a site builder that offers free hosting, I am confident that I will do both services through the same company.

Overall, the main things that were important for me to consider at this stage were the skills and knowledge I have, along with the goals of the business.  Only by keeping these things in focus, as I learned last week, was I able to compare options that will work for me.  When making decisions that seem overwhelming because of so many options being available, this is what will allow me to keep on track and eliminate options that won’t work in the long run.  This reinforced the lesson I’ve learned about keeping a long-term perspective and remembering the goals I have set for myself.

Focus on Goals

This week focused on more decisions that need to be made when starting an online business.  First, where to obtain merchandise to sell, and second, what involvement to take in the merchant process.  To help make these decisions, we learned how to use different criteria to rate our options, and how to use those ratings to determine the best decision for our business.

The most important lesson I learned this week was the need to focus on long-term goals.  While choosing criteria and assigning ratings to them, it is easy to lose track of what the ratings should be based on.  More than once, I had to go back and change my assessments once I remembered to take into consideration the goals of the people who are starting this business.  Without focusing on this, decisions will be made that will not be the correct ones to achieve what I want to achieve.

For instance, during the study of affiliate marketing and drop shipping methods of business, it would have been easy to choose affiliate marketing as the correct option.  However, it was stated that the goals of the group starting the business was to gain experience about running a business.  The affiliate marketing could be seen as more manageable, because there is no customer service to handle.  It would be easy to have chosen this as the correct direction to go.  When considering the goals of the group, however, it is clearly not going to get them the experience they are looking for.  Drop shipping is the correct choice for this group, because it will better accomplish their long-term goals as a business.

This will be an important lesson for me in the future.  As I make decisions about my own business, or other aspects of my life, I need to remember to take a step back and look at my goals with a larger perspective.  That way, I won’t make the mistake of choosing something that will send me in the wrong direction.

Where do I start?

This week was focused on what decisions need to be made about starting a new online business.  The biggest decisions are deciding which business model to follow, and what product or service to provide.  Working through a case study helped me to gain some insight about the challenges and strategies that can be used to make these decisions.  Communicating with the other students in the class showed me how personal beliefs and opinions can bring people to different conclusions on these decisions, even while working with the same information.

The case study made me consider the opinions and experience of a group, rather than just myself.  I was able to take in the opinions shared and add my opinion to theirs while recommending a decision.  This made me realize that the people I choose to work with will have a great deal of influence over my business and how it is setup and what it will accomplish.  The decision of who to go into business with should be made carefully.

It was very interesting to see the difference in recommendations from other students.  There were varying opinions on what should be done first, and everyone had good reasons for making the recommendation they had.  It showed that the same information was valued differently by each student, which affected the recommendation they decided to make.  There wasn’t necessarily a right and wrong answer, just which way each of us would act based on what we thought was more important. 

Overall, the lesson material this week has taught me that creating an online business is not a straight-forward process.  It is a series of decisions that are very personal to the individuals who are starting the business, and those decisions should be made based on the experience, knowledge, and goals of those individuals.  I need to be mindful of the people I choose to work with.  They should add to my experience, which gives greater opportunities to work with, and agree with me on the goals we have for the business.  However, they shouldn’t be a push-over and agree with me on everything.  I want to work with people who will voice their opinions, especially when they are different from my own.  This way, I will know that the final decision will be the best decision possible to make our business successful.