Monday 3 May 2021

DreamHost’s Ultimate Small Business Resource Guide

We see you, small business owners! You bring character and diversity to your hometowns and spice to your niche on the internet. You create jobs. You build local economies and provide unique products and services with a personal touch big corporations can only try to replicate. Plus, you are living your dream, turning your passion into a money-making venture that improves the world and gives you the chance to be your own boss.

We know how hard you work to make this dream a reality. It’s never easy to run your own business, but the COVID-19 pandemic has been a particular plague on small businesses. 

Thankfully, the strict social distancing measures aimed at slowing the virus’s spread are now easing as the vaccine rollout heats up. Of course, there’s a long way to go before it’s “business as usual” again, but it finally feels like there is a light at the end of this economic tunnel.

Here at DreamHost, we believe in small business, and we are proud to provide a platform and digital home for so many of you. To help you get some ideas for how to build and boost your business, we’ve collected our best advice for small business owners — all in one place. 

Read on to find essential tips about:

Feel free to use the links above to jump around to the most pertinent articles for you as a small business owner, or read straight on through for an overview of all the advice we have to offer.

You Can Build a Website

Whether you want to start a blog or run a small business, DreamHost makes it easy to begin your online journey. Our shared hosting plans give you everything you need to thrive online at an affordable price.

Learn More

Building a Small Business Website

In the small-business world, your website is everything. It’s your homestead on the frontier of the web. It declares your brand to the world and is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. 

For many of you, your website is your business.

Even if your business is a brick-and-mortar operation — such as a restaurant or antique store — your company’s website needs to be helpful, optimized, and updated and maintained regularly. Your website provides valuable info, including where to find you and when, and drives customers off their couches and into your stores.

The internet is where your customers spend most of their time. Use these resources to learn how to build a beautiful website from the ground up and tailor it to fit your own business.

Website Setup

Hosting Helps

Domains, Explained

Create a Site for Your Niche

Related: 16 Ways to Stay Focused When You’re Working from Home

Building an Online Store

If you have an online business — or if you want to start selling your products online in addition to your physical store — a reliable and attractive online shop is what you need. Your customers want to browse, find the products they want, and check out without a glitch. To make that happen, you need to build an online store with a trusted platform in addition to your business’s WordPress website.

It’s surprisingly easy to get an online shop up and keep it going — you just need the right tools and tips. We love WooCommerce and Shopify, and you’ll learn about both, plus more tips and tricks for selling online, in the helpful guides below.

Online Store Setup

E-commerce Tips

Small Business Advice

You small business owners are a scrappy bunch, and much of what you know you learned through good, old-fashioned experience. There’s no education like the one that comes from getting out there and making your own mistakes. 

As valuable as mistakes and failures are, we want to set you up as much as possible for success. In this section, you’ll find a roundup of our best advice for entrepreneurs and from entrepreneurs who are using DreamHost to build their biz. Learn how to manage everything from your stress to your small business website and beyond.

Small Business Guidance

DreamHost Entrepreneur Stories

Related: 10 Ways You Can Create ‘Watercooler Moments’ While Working Remotely

Small-Biz Tools and Resources

You want your small business to reach its full potential — and so do we! No person is an island, and the same goes for businesses. We all need a little help and support sometimes, and when we use available tools, we can get more done in less time.  

There are so many tools out there to help you manage and grow your business and optimize the whole enterprise for success. Stop doing things the hard way. Here you’ll find all of our favorite tools, apps, plugins, and more for making the work of running your business a little easier. 

Related: 20 Ways to Stay Social in an Age of Social Distancing

Ways to Make Money Online

Thanks to the internet, there’s never been a better time to start a side hustle. Money-making opportunities abound online, from blogging to affiliate marketing. 

Whether you want to build up an extra income source on top of your full-time gig or are looking for ideas to build up your business, we got you. Let’s walk through our favorite — not to mention lucrative and legitimate — ways to make money online.

Small-Biz Marketing Tips

There are more than 1.8 billion (and counting) websites on the internet today. So how does your humble food blog or photography portfolio get noticed, by the right people, amid all the noise? 

One word: marketing.

“If you build it, they will come” is an adage that doesn’t hold up so well when it comes to your business’s presence online. Merely having a website just isn’t enough; you need to draw people to it to do any good. You need some smart strategies to bump your website up to the top of search results, find and engage social media followers, and encourage positive reviews.

Do you want your brand to get noticed? Find your target market. Drive traffic to your website. Do some smart social media and email marketing. Create killer content and optimize your site for top search engine results. How? We thought you’d never ask. Learn or brush up on these skills with our handy dandy guides to marketing your small business.

Marketing Strategy

Analytics

Email

On-Site Tips

SEO Guides

Social Media Tutorials

Want More Small-Biz Hacks?

Whether you need marketing advice or a heads-up on the latest web design trends, we’ve got content for that! Subscribe to our monthly newsletter so you never miss an article.

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You’ve Got This

There you have it — everything we’ve ever written to guide, inform, and inspire small business owners in one handy guide. We know that you’ve got what it takes to succeed even in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, and we hope these resources can help you get there.

Now, we have a question for you: How can we help? What small-biz-related questions are keeping you up at night? Holler at us over on Twitter or join our Facebook community to let us know which additional topics and resources you’d like us to cover for small business owners.

Are you a business owner wondering where to get started? You can easily build an online presence for your small business with shared hosting. Our affordable plans offer all the tools you need to reach your customers

The post DreamHost’s Ultimate Small Business Resource Guide appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.



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