Quick Guide to Starting an Online Business in India

If you're looking to start an online business while based in India, you likely have some questions. Starting up a business anywhere is challenging, whether it be a photography business or an Internet marketing company, but there are specific challenges related to India that you'll want to consider. Below is a quick guide that will hopefully answer some of your questions and point you in the right direction to learn more.

Take Care of the Paperwork

The first thing you'll want to do is get all the paperwork out of the way. It's important that you get your new business started on the right foot so that you don't experience any problems down the line. Some of the things you'll need to take care of might be obtaining a Director Identification Number, obtaining a Digital Signature Certificate, reserving a company name and obtaining a Permanent Account Number, among other things. For a full list of paperwork items you'll need to do to start a business in India, you can check out this guide.

Set Up a Website

Once you've gotten all the legal stuff taken care of, now you can get started with building your online presence. For this, you'll want to build a website. You can't have an online business without a good website, so this is where you'll want to spend most of your time to start.

There are many ways you can go about building a website. You can hire someone to do it for you, you can look into optimized WordPress hosting, or you can buy an existing website and turn it into your own. If you're just starting out, and you don't have much experience with running an online business, your best bet may be to use a tool like WordPress, as they make the process simple.

There's a lot that goes into building a good business website – more than we can cover here. If you'd like more information about this, this guide offers some good advice.

Set Up a Product or Services System

Now that you have a website, you have to think about how you're going to deliver your products or services to your customers. Do you have a system in place to make deliveries? Or to send products out in the mail? Are you providing a service, and if so, do you have a way to fulfill your orders? The last thing you want is for your new customers to make a purchase before you're ready. Think about what the best way is to deliver for your customers, then take steps to put a system into place.

Manage Your Customers

One of the best things you can do during this time is find a good CRM tool. A CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, will allow you to keep track of information about your customers. With this tool you can learn about customer habits and reach out to them. Once you get your business going, you'll likely find that you need to bring back old customers in order to keep growing. A good CRM is essential for this, so take some time to find one that works for your needs and your budget.

Start Marketing Yourself

Now that you have your paperwork done, your website set up, and a system in place to deliver to your customers, it's time to start marketing yourself. There are many ways that you can market your new online business, and when you're first starting off it's a good idea to try them all and see which ones work best for you.

For starters, you should learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), then put those practices into place on your website. This will help you rank higher within search results and start bringing in some web traffic that way.

After that, start using social media. Social media is one of the best ways to market any new business, as it allows you to quickly connect to millions of other people. Create social media accounts for your new business, then start interacting with other accounts within your niche.

Finally, consider using some paid advertising. This is when you place ads on other sites with the hopes that they'll lead customers to your own site. It costs money, but if you have the budget, it can become a great tool for bringing in new customers. Or, if you don't have the money just yet, consider posting ads on popular India classified sites like Quickr or Olx India.

Get Your Business Started Off Right

Hopefully the above guide was able to offer you some guidance on how to start your new business. Starting a new business is tough, but if you can get started on the right foot, you give yourself a better chance at success. Good luck!