Instagram

15/15
Instagram is something that has been applied to promote and share what is going on up to date, events, products, people and many other things. With the use of instagram you can share your business and be a photo journal. Through it you can share your timeline of what is going on in your business and show how business is going. You can also make people interested in what you are making and doing with pictures rather than talking about the problems. Today millions of people share their ideas on Instagram as a simple way of getting their idea out to the public whether it be between friends and family or with the entire world to see.

• I like the simplicity the app can be to share ideas and images of what is going on in the company
• I like how you can edit photos before you put them up so that they more appealing
• I like how it is easy to upload your pics straight from your phone without ever having to touch a computer
• I find it cool how you can share instagram photos on other things of social networks such as Facebook to expand your company and share your services.
• I like also how you can get Instagram for both your Ipad, Iphone, as well as any of your android devices. 

I will incorporate Instagram with my simple bike repair business taking pictures of the work that I will do to share with everyone that can benefit from my service. I will try to take before and after images of the things that I work on to show my skills in repairing bicycles. I think it will provide more material for my start up business and people will be able to see that I am capable of doing some of these services.

Newest and most successful update!

So earlier in this posting I had mentioned that I was going to make wallets for a simple business, turned out that it was going to be more costly than I was expecting to I found a better solution to starting a simple business.

While living in Rexburg I have noticed that a lot of people like to ride bicycles but most of the bicycles lying around are not up for riding so I am taking the initiative to repair bikes for my simple business and with this I would like to create a fun biking community here.

I have the tools necessary to work on bikes and I know what needs to be done to fix these bikes and make them useful again. I hope to also be able to make biking a more resourceful way of transportation in the community to reduce fuel costs that you would pay to drive a car.

Currently I am doing this for the Rexburg Community and the students at BYU-Idaho!

Lets get out and ride!

Facebook

15/15

Facebook was not intentionally designed for the purpose of advertising but was first made as a social network but today that has changed to be more of a social/ advertising network where you can be updated on everything that your friends to your favorite restaurants around town or anywhere in the world. It was interesting that the idea of facebook of what it was yesterday became something different today and they invested a lot of money into it to see if they can push it to be something greater.

• I liked the perspectives that Facebook showed to better the interactive connections of one another
• I liked how simple it is to promote things on Facebook whether it be a new store or business
• I liked how you can narrow your audience to get people to come to whatever it is you are promoting. 
• I dont like, however, all the advertisements it takes up on my news feed and all the constant reminders
• I like how easy it is to upload images and videos concerning the things that are promoting
• I liked how there are several ideas for people to get involved with one another.

I will incorporate these things into the Facebook page that I will make in order to advance promoting my services and products. I think that I will only make the page to expand peoples understanding of the things that I have to share and to help pull an audience into the interests they have with my business, it can also help me see the likability of what people think concerning my business. One thing that I will have to do is keep it up to date with new services or promotions.

Legal structure and DBA''s

15/15

There are many things to look at when starting a business and looking at the legal structure and DBA's to maintain your business legally operated to resist troubles and problems in the future. Most businesses that start up are normally done by a single person and for them and me the legal structure would be a sole proprietorship unless them or I would like to register the business as a corporation, partnership or non-profit entity. As a sol proprietor I would be in charge of everything for all the business decisions and financial obligations. As time goes on I personally would look to registering my business as something more than just a sole propriety because of the legal obligations that would take place if one tries to sue and it is also more difficult to sell the business in the end because the law does not recognize it as a separate legal entity.

• Things I liked was how descriptive the information was on the idahobizhelp.org site was
• I liked how simple it is to understand what type of legal structure is best for you and your business
• I liked how they have forms and give scenarios and show the benefits and challenges you would face in each different category or legal structure.
• I like how simple it is to start your business and have a simple legal structure.
• I liked that you can register everything for your business very quickly if needed to and it gives the different details what you need to do to get started.

I will apply this to my own business so that I can be registered and legal for owning and selling the services that I will apply to do and that it will be legal to run and operate without the hassle of other businesses getting in the way. I will use what I learn to help grow my business and generate clients that need my services and even help expand my business to other places. 

Google Analytics

15/15

With Google Analytics you can see many things behind the scenes of the websites that are on-line and see how well they are doing compared to other websites. You can also see what statistics represent people visiting your website and how effective or likable others see your website. I feel that this could help you understand how well your website is out in the public and what potential you have to keep your site up to date to draw more traffic to it. I feel like it could also push you to expand or explore new approaches as to how to get more people to visit and stay on your site.

• I like how simple it is put to see the stats of your site even compared to others
• I like how you can see everything clearly laid out to the T, it's easy to read and uses lots of charts to show the data
• I like how you can see how long people stay on your site looking at the things that you have to show or offer
• I like how you can tell what pages and content your visitors look for in your website

 I can use Google Analytics to help me better my website and find uses to help me attract more people to what is being offered and searched for. I will also use it to find information about people who visit my website.

After much deliberation I have chosen my business idea!

I have been changing my mind like crazy looking into one thing and then into another and I have noticed that I want to do something that is in my budget and not out of this world and design something that everyone uses from day to day. So my idea is to create a small business designing and making wallets from anything that you'd like to use for one. It could be from recycled materials to the skins of animals. I just want to start a simple business to help me get through school and enjoy life. That is my plan for an idea to start a business for my class needs.

Designing Your Website

15/15

We are asked to look through the following two websites and look at the similarities and differences between the two. I chose the following:
1. http://www.allfreesewing.com/ 
2. http://www.fossil.com/en_US/shop/men/wallets.html

These sites are quite different but they are both appealing to what I want to create and sell and those are wallets for men. I want to design and sew wallets together using customization.

Five similarities between the two website designs are
1. They both have simple navigation bars at the top and left side for convenience.
2. They both use a white background with black font with light colors entice you to look at their website.
3. They each have variety in what they are trying to display and show or advertise.
4. They both have search bars at the top of the page making it even easier to navigate through the list of items they have available to look through.
5. Both keep their company logo in the top left of the page with contact information in the top right hand of the page.

Some differences are: One is a service providing ideas and patterns in wallets and accessories of many kinds and the other  is more of an ordering provider to buy wallets and other things that they carry. I like how one gives examples and uses words to describe things along with pictures while the other site uses just images. Both are great because they display enough information to draw your attention to what they are showing.

Choosing a Host

15/15

It is important to do research into hosting sites to make sure you know what you are paying for and what functions that apply with that hosting with web builders and what not. Some provide more features than other. I looked into hostgator.com for my hosting services and found the following...


1-2. What is the monthly cost for your host? What is the minimum number of months required for the price stated? The monthly cost for hostgator.com depends on how long you want to stay with them and also the type of hosting that you want to have which can make your price go from about $3.96 a month with a 3 year service on the cheapest plan or if you go month to month it is $7.16.  The most expensive plan is $11.96 per month for the highest plan going month to month.3. Is the domain name included? The first domain on the cheapest plans allows one included or it you buy the higher package deal you can get unlimited. 
4. Is there an AdWords Credit amount?With hostgator.com you get $100 credit of AdWords with Google.
5. What type of support do they offer?  Local? Phone? Email only? Etc.   They offer phone and email but limited to what type of hosting plan you go with.
6. Will the host easily support your chosen site builder? What site builder did you choose? Gatorhost.com will support the site builder that I plan to use and that is going to be word press.

 

Website Builder/ Comparison

15/15
Website editors are quite unique and important for a simple business and they can be as simple and creative to difficult and complex depending on how you would like to use it. Thankfully there are easy website builders such as the drag and drop weebly.com ( which I have used in the past) and there is wix.com for those that like to design and build websites using a mac computer and there is webstarts.com which is similar to weebly in the drag and drop form but seems to have more template designs to choose from. There seem to be a lot of drag and drop website builders because no one wants to go through the difficult tasks of building a website with html and css and php and all the other applications that is needed to code a website.

• I like the drag and drop features of website builders because it makes it simple to create a site the way you want without having to type in a bunch of code to get it the way you want
• I like how with the web building sites that you can choose from a variety of templates and layouts to almost however you would like the page to look like.
• I like how you can build a nice website within an hour and have everything outlined the way you want it very quickly. 
• Normally the website builders are pretty affordable and worth the money to start the business
• Some websites have more functions than others and are easier to use than other.

It is important for me to know what website builder I will use because it can help promote what it is I want to sell or create. With this knowledge I will be able to determine what I can put on my page and the limitations that these web builders have between one another.