What do you need, as a startup?

Starting a new business can be, for some of us, a headache. Thinking of what kind of systems to use, what type of email, where to buy it and how to connect different systems can be overwhelming.  

So, What do you need, as a startup, if tomorrow I will start being an entrepreneur, from the IT point of view.  

Step 1: Buy a domain

If you want to show that you have an identity and want to build a brand for yourself, you must have a unique identity on the Internet. This will be your online presence. Having a page and sending emails from your domain will give a more professional look of what you are doing.  

Some good places to buy domains from are your local registers (you can google them) if your target is a domain from your country like .us, .Uk, .de etc. If your business is oriented on global markets use a .com, .eu or any other type of domain suited for your needs. Most of these domains can pe purchased also from a local register but if you want a bigger selection you can find on platforms like eurodns.com or godaddy.com (no sponsored links). 

Step 2: Hosting selection

After we have our domain purchased the next step is to create our website and email address. This information must be stored somewhere on the internet in order to be available all the time. In this case we need some services. I would like to say that this area should always be divided into three parts.  

1. DNS Hosting is that area of a service that connects your domain to your services. It points the internet in the direction where you host your service. This service can be hosted in a free and more professional way on Cloudflare. 
2. Via Email is the way that we communicate from our business so we need to have a good service that can offer us performance. From my point of view, here we have two major players on the market, Microsoft and Google. These two offer great storage capacities for our email and in some cases (depending on the subscription plan) for our documents, as well. Let’s say that a good plan, we can find around 6 Euros per month per user. 
3. A website is like our online business card, Is the way people know we exist and what we do. Today if you need to find something, you Google it. We need to be present online, to appear on those searches, with our website. It’s a great way to tell our unique story, create new selling opportunities, boost brand awareness, increase credibility, have a wider demographic reach and much more. How to start with it? The most popular platform is WordPress. If you are a technical person, you can build your own website, if not, hire a web developer. A good starting price should be around 300 Euros, depending on the features, complexity and size. Another cost for our websites is also the hosting that can start from 4 Euros per month. 

In total for professional look and services you will need to pay around 500 Euros on a website (one-time fee) 10-15 Euros on a basic domain (per year) and around 10 Euros per month for hosted services (one email address and website). If you would like to go on a low budget starting, you cand build the website yourself, and host everything on a single platform, without most benefits and pay just 5 Euros per month. 

Hope this helped you and good luck with your new business.