At this point in the class, I have not yet made a business. Instead, one of the requirements is to create a blog in the which I will record the lessons I've learned (hence the title). As a disclaimer, I'm sure I miss a lot. The best and worst thing I've noticed so far is that when we get talking, I start thinking about the business I want to start. This is good because I'm applying what I learn to that idea, but it's bad because I don't actually hear everything because my own brain is too loud.
This is the second week of the class. The first was really basic, class-setting up kind of stuff, basically familiarizing us with what we're going to do. This week, we started in on case-studies, trying to decide which web business these fictional business people should go into. We used a program called Keyword Planner, from Google AdWords. In order to use it, you have to have an AdWords account. There are plenty of places around where you can learn how to set that up.
In Keyword Planner, you learn about average searches (how many times people use Google to search for search terms in a month), clicks (how many times they click on specific ads), and bids (how much you would have to pay if you wanted an ad). I was actually confused about bids at first because we had also talked briefly about advertising as a business model--putting ads on your website in order to get revenue. I thought the bids were how much other people would pay for you, so when I searched my own keywords (writing, editing, creative writing, etc.) and saw bids in the range of $2-3 per click, I thought that was a good thing. As it turns out, that would be not so good, actually, since I would be paying that, not having it paid to me. Bids go out, not in.
The class after all that, we talked about finding suppliers for those planning to sell inventory. We looked at manufacturers (which may not be so good for just-starting-out businesses, plus there's high risk involved), US based Wholesalers (very simple and lost cost, but everyone can get it there, plus it's often low-quality) and International Brokers (Business-to-Business sites that put suppliers and businesses in touch with each other. It kind of looks like a bulk-Amazon). We looked at Alibaba.com and discovered that buyers had better beware. There are plenty of scams out there. It's like going to a market--everyone wants you to buy their thing. Some are legit, some are just trying to con you. You can negotiate. You can sometimes get samples (doing so is recommended). But sometimes, you'll still get ripped off.
So there's that. There's a lot of thinking and research that goes into starting a business. You can't just make one without thought, or you'll end up with big problems.
