By Sandor Panton, ContributorESTABLISHING AN online business has never been easier. Web site hosting costs are trending lower and WYSIWYG editors such as FrontPage and Dreamweaver allow the technologically challenged to easily put together their own web pages, just as though they were typing a document in Word.
The relative ease with which you can do this, coupled with the seemingly unlimited market reach of the Internet, has undoubtedly caused a pervasive myth of guaranteed online success to develop.
The Internet is seen as a sure pathway to riches and wealth, but how can it be if every other Jamaican with an idea for an online business is thinking of doing much the same thing - selling items such as hot pepper sauce, CDs and coffee (to name a few).
If you're getting into the game to offer a product or service that many others currently offer, then your only hope of success is through marketing, product differentiation and service delivery. You will need to have a stronger marketing message and wider marketing reach, a unique and more desirable product and, most importantly, your delivery of this product/service must make it obvious that your site and what you have to offer is miles ahead of the competition.
In the late 1990s, the world experienced the DotCom boom that resulted in many overnight millionaires. In the U.S., Internet-based companies were almost always a sure guarantee of great wealth to owners and even employees. Then came the post-Y2K DotCom crash, and suddenly, many Internet companies were shutting down, declaring bankruptcy or having problems of one sort or another.
THE 'BOOM'
Strangely though, in many ways, it seems as though the 'boom' is only now catching on in Jamaica. Almost every week I come across a new Jamaican e-commerce web site. While this is a definite and positive sign of some growth and development for the island - as some of these new site owners have already discovered - running an online business is much like running a business in the offline world. And you can't get wealthy overnight by setting up a web site. If that is what you seek, a better plan would be to try to win the lottery. For those who are thinking of setting up an Internet business and believe that, (a) once you build your web site, you can relax and let it do the work for you or (b) once you build your web site, the world will beat a path to your door or (c) you don't have to spend money to market your Internet business or that (d) you can put everything on autopilot and make money while you sleep or go on an extended vacation, then maybe you should think again.
The road to operating a successful Internet business can be a long, slow and sometimes frustrating one. Your own patience, good ideas and smart decisions must be tied closely to the marketing, differentiation and delivery of your product or service in order for success to be a possibility, and hopefully, a reality.
Sandor Panton is an Internet specialist and consultant. If you have any comment, contact him at feedbackjamaica-gleaner.com. This series is brought to you by www.go-jamaica.com, the portal website of the Jamaica Gleaner.
