How To Choose a Platform for Your Small Business

There are hundreds of online website platforms out there waiting to be utilized by the savvy small business owner. The question is, which online platform is right for your business? We are here to show you some of the greatest platforms out there for small businesses so you don’t have to waste precious time researching them for yourself. Plus, take you through the difficult path of deciding which kind of platform you are looking for.

Define Your Business

First off, you need to define your business. Figure out what market you are in and go for the specific platform that works for you. Consider This is a big decision and can make or break a small business. If you choose the wrong platform it can lead to a world of issues with customers and money and lead to putting a halt to your business or take a huge chunk out of your business’ budget.

Do you Want to Pay for it?

This is a big decision as once you are on a platform, you can lose customers if you switch. Consider the size of your business and where you want to be in six months, a year or more. Chances are that you will want to start paying at some point. Always find a platform with great reviews from other businesses that offers comprehensive support for businesses using the platform. There is nothing worse than the time you have an issue with your page and it takes days to rectify or it gets flagged due to incompetent AI software. Plenty of platforms have free plans and free trials that can be great for when you start out, but our advice is 100% look at a free plan as a ‘try before you buy’ situation.

Check out the paid plans and see if they would work for you in the future. Some offer a lot for a low price. Others offer little for buckets of cash per month. Be conscious of this. Plan ahead and choose a platform that offers everything you need for a reasonable price.

Check that there aren’t hidden fees. Our advice is to contact the platform provider and ask them for an entire price breakdown for each level of features. This way you will discover any hidden charges they might have before you get stuck into a contract or subscription or simply have too many customers on the site to be able to consider leaving easily.

Remember that you can always run a free trial on several sites and see which interface you prefer. Give yourself some time to get involved in the platforms and check out the tools and features they have available before you subscribe to one. This means you can discover what they offer, without having to consider your customer base.

If you are just starting your small business and have a very low budget, get a platform with a free plan with good options to upgrade. This way you can leave it running as the free plan and don’t have to worry about upgrading if you don’t do well in your first year or so. It is a good failsafe option.

Platforms

Check out what is readily available for your market. Using a platform designed for your trade is crucial. If you are a shop, go with a shopping platform. If you offer a service, then go for a service-based and so on. Not only will the interface be directly designed for your business, but the customer base will be there and that is what is super important.

Customers

Choose a platform that is used by your target audience. This is where you have to do a little research. There are plenty of blogs about which social media platform is best for specific target audiences. However, there is not a lot on shopping or service-based platforms. The best way to work it out is to go on the platforms as a customer and see the reviews, profiles and style of the platform itself. You can also look up the analytics of a specific platform if you search it in Google. Always ensure that your business is findable by your target audience by first of being in the online spaces that they are. This is imperative business management for any business, especially a small one.

Branding on Different Platforms

Go on the platforms you like and see how other businesses that are similar to yours have branded themselves. Look at the successful businesses and the not-so-successful and see the difference. Chances are that those doing well will have a clear logo and name depicted on their photos, thumbnails and pages. Ensure you are at the top of your game as soon as you start using the platform by creating a logo at http://logocreator.io/.

Selecting the platform that will do the most for your business is the first step to achieving your business’s maximum success. Choosing a platform that does not work for you can have many negative implications. Make sure you take your time, shop around and get the perfect platform for you and your business.