Consider Starting a Web-Only Company

Many B-to-B catalogers are looking for ways to increase their online businesses. Most are currently spending significantly on some form of paid online advertising, improving their organic search efforts and improving their conversions of site visits to orders.

Another idea you might want to consider is starting a new company online. If you believe every successful endeavor starts with a consideration of your potential market and products, consider examining the following points.

* Take a look at your 10 best-selling products and ask yourself, “Could any of these become a stand-alone business?” Examine how your products might serve a new market if they were repositioned in some way.

* Determine if there’s a market on the Web that might respond to any of your top-selling products if they were presented and positioned differently. For example, might simple “office supplies” with a few minor changes in product mix become “church supplies?” Or could “employee awards” easily become “high school awards?”

* Identify your top producing keywords online and who your competitors are for each. Are they selling your products in a different way?

* Look at what the “net gnats” are doing in your competitive space. Often you’ll find innovative ideas from such entrepreneurial startups.

The great benefit of the Web is that you can test your new concept with a controllable investment and less risk than you could with a paper catalog. Presumably, your operating systems provide the functionality to develop a repositioned offer, a new brand or even a separate company.

If you have an idea for your business that you’d like to share, please e-mail me at TJukes@b2bdmi.com and/or post your comment on this site.

Terence Jukes is president of B2B Direct Marketing Intelligence Inc., a strategic consultancy based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that services clients in the U.S., Canada, France, the U.K. and Germany. You can reach him at www.b2bdmi.com or (954) 566-4451.