Now don’t shoot me down just yet, but unless you have a ton of money that you don’t mind blowing unnecessarily, you might want to take a few tips on how to best use your resources. As a start up business we generally appreciate every cent we can save. Don’t get me wrong – I am by no means “cheap”. After all I am trying to create a good impression with my business. But I do appreciate it when I can do everything I need, excellently, and I don’t have to throw money at it.

First up! You need a computer / PC. You need a PC for all your office stuff – email, correspondence, accounts, marketing bits and pieces, etc. If you’re shopping around for a second hand PC – don’t! A really good entry-level PC these days is relatively in-expensive. Buying a new PC gives you a bit more reliability and of course it should come with a warranty. The last thing your business needs is a dodgy computer. A computer crash may seriously affect your professional image. If you get a “desktop” PC, you have to get an LCD screen, even if its a small one. This is not because it looks cool, but because it’s significantly less harmful to your eyes. (You’ll thank me in a few decades from now!) Your personal well being is more important that of your business. Your business depends on it.
Depending on your type of business, you may consider getting a “laptop” instead of a “desktop” computer. Again, these are not that expensive these days. You could pick up a really neat Netbook for under R4000, or a not-too-shabby notebook for around R5000. (check out our online shop for more)

More often than not, your PC will come with a Microsoft Windows operating system (in some form or flavour). Even so, it’s a good idea to ditch it! Some stores will sell you a PCs without an operating system. This is good because the price will be less than if it has Windows. Linux (in various flavours) is free and is arguably every bit as good (if not better) than it’s Windows counterpart. So why ditch my perfectly good Windows if it comes pre-installed on my PC, you might ask? Simply because of what comes next. Not only is Linux more reliable and secure, but unless you’re just planning to play card games (read Solitaire) on your PC, you’re going to need additional software to do your email, documents, spreadsheets, accounts, etc., all of which on a “Windows PC” is probably going to cost you more money – a lot of it, whereas with Linux, almost all of the software is free and freely down-loadable off the Internet. Also quite significantly, Linux isn’t plagued by viruses as Windows is. In fact you’d be hard-pressed to find an anti-virus application for Linux. I can’t name a colleague that hasn’t had to re-install their whole system because a virus has just messed things up so badly that being reasonably productive became all but impossible. So save yourself some cash and hassle.

Later I will talk about access to the Internet – a vital necessity for business today, even for plumbers!

Many of us would like to sell our goods “on-line”, after all the Internet and on-line consumer shopping seems to be gaining in popularity as more and more South Africans are “getting connected” at work, at home, and now even pretty much wherever they are – making use of mobile Internet access. It’s also a perfect sales outlet for those of us who work from home, who don’t have brick-and-mortar shops paying “crippling” rents.

But you might find that setting up shop is not as easy as it seems. It’s also not an “easy way to make money” – just a “more accessible” way. In other words, you still have to work very hard at it to make it work!

On a practical note, you are going to need the following:

• Goods to sell!
• A good eCommerce website, a domain name, a place to host your site, etc.
• A payment gateway
• A merchant account with your bank (and/or a PayPal account)
• Exposure

Assuming you’ve thought about what you’re going to sell, how you’re going to deliver the goods, how you’re going to handle returns, etc., you’re going to need to set up your on-line shop. This “can be” a pretty expensive (and frustrating exercise). Let’s just consider some costs for a second: If you’re going to accept credit cards through your shop, you will need to apply to be a credit card merchant with your bank. Assuming you qualify, they will no doubt charge you a service fee every month in the order of about R500. Once you are a credit card merchant and you have a merchant account, you need someone to be able to process the actual credit card sale (i.e. handle the process of accepting the visitor’s credit card details and “transferring” the moneys from their credit card account to your account). This is called a “payment gateway” and these guys will also charge you a monthly fee for their service (in the order of about R600 per month depending on who you choose). Then there’s the actual design of your site. You’ll need a specialised web designer to develop an eCommerce website for you. This can cost you upwards of R10,000. Then you need a domain name (e.g. MyCommerceSite.com or MyCommerceSite.co.za). You need someone to register it for you, etc. (and they’ll no doubt charge you for that as well – over and above the annual cost of the domain name itself). Then you’ll need a place to “host” your site – a place (server) on the Internet that can serve your customers day and night (even when you’re offline doing something else).

Clearly this all sounds very very expensive – BUT – the good news is that there are simpler ways of doing things! Having personally gone through the exercise (and not only for my clients), I have put together a “package” that is aimed at anyone wanting to set up an eCommerce shop but particularly for our budding South African business, and this is how it looks:

Firstly, if you have a merchant account already – great – we can work with that, if not, there are a number of “cheaper” options. There is of course, PayPal. Now PayPal on some level is becoming a regular scene on the block. People recognise PayPal and more and more people have actually taken to using PayPal for on-line purchases. There are of course pro’s and con’s with using PayPal, most notably, PayPal will charge you a commission in the order of about 3.9% for each transaction they handle for you (plus $0.30). The up-side of this is that there is no monthly fees and you’re only paying when you actually have a sale! With PayPal you don’t need a merchant account and PayPal will be your “payment gateway”. In South Africa you will need an FNB account though in order to link your bank account to your PayPal account. There are a few other options but I’m not going to discuss the merits of those in this article.

With your “payment gateway” in place – which should cost you next to nothing to set up, you need a domain, eCommerce website, etc., etc. – all that stuff we’ve already covered. Our eCommerce package costs a mere R499 per month and doesn’t include any set up fees or capital outlay of any sort. It’s a flat, fixed monthly rate which includes: a domain name, email if you don’t already have, an eCommerce website, a degree of customisation (your company logo, etc), hosting and connection (interface) your payment gateway. The catch? None really except we will require a 24 month contract, but then we do need to recover development costs, etc. But don’t let that throw you off! Our mission is to help you success as best we know how. Think of it rather as a business relationship. It’s in our interest that you success and when you do – we all benefit!

The package has been specifically developed for up-coming South African businesses wanting to break into the world of eCommerce and at R499 per month I don’t see good reason to pay more.

Let’s start the ball rolling. Contact us now. It’s just another way we’re empowering South African business!