8 Ways to Launch Your New Online Startup Idea in Less Than a Week

You’ve spent months mulling over your great new startup idea and prepared the business plan plus done all the initial groundwork. Now, it’s time for actual launch.

By leveraging all the incredible tools and technology out there, you can actually launch your new startup idea in less than a week.

Here’s how to make this happen:

1. Corporate Identity.

Create a logo and possible tagline for your startup. This will take some thought and may require the use of a freelance artist to make your brand’s defined attributes come to life through the graphics.

You will want to spend some time reviewing the various designs that the artist creates and even send the options around to your network to get their vote. Having others provide their impressions can be a good way to gauge how your audience will react.


2. Domain and Hosting.

Secure your domain name so you can set up your website. If you can’t get a .com, there are plenty of other extensions that are now perfectly acceptable and often can set your brand apart from the rest in your industry.

Try a company like Yola that gives you a free domain name and free website hosting.


3. Social Media.

Since you are putting your website together, you will want to have buttons on your site for all your social media profiles in an easily accessible location. This means setting up an account with sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

It is also a good idea to have a LinkedIn company page that links to the individual profile you should already have on the LinkedIn site, as an entrepreneur.

You most likely have some contacts in your network that would love to hear about your new business and get a link to your new website and social media sites.


4. Website and Graphics.

While it used to take weeks with a crack graphic designer to get your website done, new companies like BoldGrid have an intuitive, attractive site ready for you quickly so you can start on your marketing efforts immediately.

As Todd Robinson said “BoldGrid allows Entrepreneurs to focus on what matters most, their business. A website should not be a hurdle to launching the next great idea.”


5. Initial Marketing.

Create an initial email that introduces everyone to your new business and shares the key benefits you offer that set you apart. Use a service like MailChimp to send and track your email marketing campaigns as you will be doing more in the coming months as your business ramps up.


Any responses received can form the basis of future emails and marketing campaigns so it’s important to seek out a CRM software solutions that let you build a database of contacts and record specific insights about each prospect to personalize and craft better marketing content.
This particular solution also offers a project management tool that gets you organized from launch point to keep you focused and organized.


6. Automation and Tools

It’s time to set up very necessary tools that help you automate a lot of the work going forward so you can focus on prospects and customers. Some ideal technology to add to your business launch includes things like Hootsuite where you can schedule all your social media posts as well as Mention that tells you when people are talking about your company and what they are saying in real time so you can get involved with your burgeoning audience.

You may also want to consider adding a chatbot tool to your customer conversations to handle some of the basic inquiries. Tools like ChattyPeople can be integrated with various instant messaging systems like Facebook Messenger, which saves you time and labor costs while offering round-the-clock customer service features.


7. Adding to the Team

Despite automating much of what you have to do, this may be an opportune time to look into adding to your team by bringing in freelancers to handle marketing content, social media, and any of your IT needs. Sites like Upwork, Remote, and Toptal are great places to find some of the world’s best talent that are eager and passionate about working with new companies on all types of projects as well as offer budget-friendly pricing.


8. Invoicing and Payments.

It’s important to have a process for invoicing/billing and payment acceptance in place from the beginning to encourage purchases immediately from your audience. The best option is to use an online invoicing platform like Due Invoicing or Flint that also provides a low-cost way to process credit card payments, which will draw more customers from the beginning because of the convenience and security of this payment form. Having this system in place will help you gain that immediate cash flow you need.

All these startup launch tasks can be completed within days on a minimal budget and don't require a significant amount of technical knowledge to check them off your list. In return, you'll be able to start generating interest and dollars.



https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2017/04/20/8-ways-to-launch-your-new-online-startup-idea-in-less-than-a-week