Starting a Business Step 3: Online Setup

For Online Setup, You Need To

Build a website using Shopify, Hostgator, or by hiring someone on Upwork
Setup your Business Email You can use the free business email provided by HostGator, but I highly recommend using Google’s G-Suite*
Setup your Business Social Media Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Pintrest, etc.

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Everything I recommend is here because I truly believe in it. That’s why you’ll see services and product recommendations without the star too!

Building a Website

If you’re building your own website with Shopify, they should have all the tutorials and resources you need!

If you opted for WordPress, hopefully you’ve already purchased hosting from HostGator. The next steps are to Install WordPress using HostGator’s back end and get the Divi WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes. Elegant Themes* has all the tutorials you need to build your own WordPress site.

If you’re short on time and need help building your website, there’s tons of affordable talent to help you design and build your site on either Shopify or HostGator on UpWork.com.

Business Email

Optional: Register the free gmail for your business (youbusiness@gmail.com). I don’t recommend using this email. It’s more of a being thorough move. Customers take a yourname@yourbiz.com email a lot more seriously.

To setup your professional yourname@yourbiz.com email, you CAN use the free email hosting that included with your HostGator account, but you’ll quickly find it a little janky and feature poor. I highly recommend using Google’s G-Suite to host your business email. Migrating to G-Suite* later on is doable, but it’s a good amount of work.