Victor Solanoy

I’ve been noticing more and more that people who try to set-up a business on the web tend to fall into 3 categories:

• Savvy — they understand the potential that the web has to offer
• Indifferent — it’s just a means to an end
• Institutional — the web is a big scary thing and that only a select few are able to participate

What I’ve found is a safe approach is a combination of the three. There’s a bit of a ying and yang to the whole thing that requires that each of the 3 categories be recognized.

Being savvy about business on the web requires thinking beyond traditional boundaries of normal commerce. This includes being proactive in communicating both brand and product to potential customers.

Being indifferent typically results in a mediocre presence — in organizations that are indifferent, this is where brochure-ware tends to occur. There’s lots of information to present about great products, just too much of it ends up on web pages… unfortunately, most of it is simply traditional sales speak that most consumers are all too familiar with… in a bad way.

Photo by Alex Layzell

See the web as institutional tends to make people who are establishing a business on the web to be overly cautious, that every element of doing business on the web is available to a select few. The reality is that conducting business on the web can be done quite easily using existing sites like eBay if you don’t have a storefront, and/or PayPal.

While there are lots of services and businesses that are available for most people at a premium, a small business can easily get launched on the web with very little money and very little time. However, doing it right should be regarded as a task that will take time.

Setting up a business on the web will require recognizing how savvy you can be in marketing your goods, differentiating the business and the goods from the competition while recognizing that indifference leads to mediocrity. Seeing the web as an institution will prevent you from being creative — it’s not a scary place that should be feared. If the web were a sandbox, the various available services are the tools, tools that can either build a simple sand castle, or an incredible work of beauty.