The moment a business goes online, there’s a preoccupation with creating a great website. It’s a good instinct, just like the one to name the band. You think, “I’ve started an online business. I need a website,” in the same way you think, “I’ve started a band. I’m going to call it ‘The Cosmonaut Monkeys.’” Aside: that’s not taken, as far as I know.
The problem is that with both these things, you haven’t really started yet. You’ve developed the idea a bit, but you haven’t thought it all the way through and you certainly haven’t tested anything out yet.
Some very helpful questions to ask yourself:
Let’s take number four. You build a website. It’s beautiful. Everything functions just as you want it to. Just before launching, you find out that 90% of your audience uses their mobile phones to check the web. Your website’s obsolete before it even launches.
For the same reason you’re probably not going to see The Cosmonaut Monkeys hitting the Billboard Charts anytime soon, take the time to think your business through before building a site. Your customers will thank you for it.