How to Write a Business Plan that Guides Your Success!
by Bibi Liew

Your excited. You have a great idea for a profitable
online business. Maybe it is an original idea that has
not been marketed online before. Maybe you have come
up with a new spin on the ordinary. Whatever it is
that has influenced you to start your online business,
be sure that you have a plan before you begin. This is
not the time to “pick it up as you go”. These are some
basic things that should be included in your business
plan.

The business summary should give a brief description
of the entire business and is an integral part of the
overall business plan. After you have completed the
business summary you should begin to list the
objectives or the goals that you want to accomplish
through the business. Next and perhaps most
importantly, you should develop your marketing plan.
The marketing plan will address all the specifics of
the business. When developing the marketing strategy
you should consider the following:

The target market. The target market is the customers
that you expect to see visiting your site. For example
will your product be more appealing to college
students or those who are in retirement?

Consider the competition for your product when
determining the marketing strategy. Choose a product
that will be seen as unique and useful. Visit sites
that are offering the same or similar products. Find
out the cost, and how they are marketing their
product. Finds out the pros and cons of their business
and try to improve your product based on their flaws.

Research the various methods for advertising online.
You should become educated about search engines and
how they work since each one is different. Also be
sure that you know how to submit your site to search
engines. You should be prepared to spend a small
amount of money on advertising, but the profits that
you will gain from the advertisements will prove to be
money well spent.

Think about pricing. Again, look at the competition
and see what similar products are selling for. Pricing
can play a big role in the success of your product
since selling a product well below the average price
may lead customer to think that there is a problem
with the product or that it is not of the best
quality. However, pricing items too high could also
detour customers.

Determine the shipping method. Be sure that you know
how products will be shipped so that you can have
shipping details clearly posted on your site. If you
are shipping things of great value, you should
consider providing shipping insurance. Also think
about shipping outside the country that you live in.

Think about the different methods of payment that you
will accept. If your business does not accept credit
cards, you should be ready to give up half if not more
of your sales. If you decide to accept credit cards
will you use a merchant account or will you use a
third party credit card processing center? Both will
help you get started and the third party processing
center will handle all of the business so you don’’t
have to. You should decide which you will use and also
if you will accept checks or money orders. It is
essential to have a secure server when taking credit
cards.

These few things will help your online business to
become a great success and also provide you with peace
of mind knowing that you have thoroughly thought about
and planned for the opening of your online business.

• First Citizens Bank selects Tsys for credit card processing (Finextra)
  
  Tsys announced today that it has signed an agreement with First Citizens Bank to exclusively manage its commercial and consumer credit card ...
  


• Kids urge dad to start credit card processing business (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)
  
  A Rochester man, at the urging of his children, founded a credit card processing business that now has 2,000 clients.
  


• TCM Bank, N.A. Selects Cypress Software Systems' Mark IV to Automate Credit Card Application Process (Centre Daily Times)
  
  TCM Bank, a subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and ICBA Bancard, has chosen Cypress Software Systems LP's Mark IV software to automate the credit card bank's consumer credit card application process.
  


• Is Your Credit Card Information Safe? (Enterprise Security Today)
  
  Any firm that stores, processes or transmits credit card data should comply with security standards or risk great losses. Whether we buy goods online or in a store, credit card purchases are a way of life. We may worry about transactions over the Internet, but we generally assume credit card data and related personal information with merchants are secure. But are they? According to analysts, ...
  


• TCM Bank, N.A. Selects Cypress Software Systems' Mark IV to Automate Credit Card Application Process (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
  
  NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas----TCM Bank, a subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America and ICBA Bancard, has chosen Cypress Software Systems LP’s Mark IV software to automate the credit card bank’s consumer credit card application process.