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1. I brainstormed names for my business and then researched whether there were businesses with the same name.
You should avoid having the same, or too similar name as an existing business, otherwise people will be confused, or the other company may even take legal action against you. Here is a legal case concerning the use of the name The Body Shop:
2. I bought the domain, www.chatterbox-greifswald.de for the grand total of 3,49€ in the first year.
GoDaddy offers unbeatable prices for the first year but become more expensive after renewal. This year I paid 9,99 € so it’s still extremely cheap.
Namecheap also offers some of the most consistently cheap domain names.
I own 5 websites and use either GoDaddy or Namecheap. My only issue with GoDaddy is it autodetects where I am and switches my dashboard to German. For that reason, I prefer Namecheap, because it's easier to use my native language.
The price depends on the name. Names that are short, use common words or end with .com are more expensive. To check if the name you want is available, go to a domain registrar and type it in. My preferred registrars:
The most expensive domain sold in 2023 was AI.com. It was bought by the creator of ChatGPT for $11 million, who resold it four months later to Elon Musk.
3. I registered a Wix account.
What is Wix? It’s a neat little drag & drop website builder, making it possible for anyone to build a website. It’s not as flexible as building a website from scratch or building a WordPress website, unless you register for Wix Studio. This gives you much more control over website creation and was just launched in August, 2023. Either way, with Wix you don’t need any coding skills at all, but you can do some coding. Another top drag and drop website builder is Squarespace.
Here is a simple comparison:
Modern design | |
Great technical support | |
Beginner-friendly | |
Multilingual | |
SEO | |
E-Commerce | |
Booking apps | |
Free plan available. Upgrades start at 13,09 € /month | |
Modern design | |
Fully responsive themes adapt automatically to mobile devices | |
Better blogging tool than Wix | |
SEO | |
E-Commerce | |
Pricing plan starts at 11 € /month |
I admit, I am cheap, and I hate to pay for monthly subscriptions, so I chose the free version. It means you see the Wix advertising on the website and you don’t have access to online bookings, payments and a myriad of other services. I have mainly used it as a platform for people in the region to find me and contact me.
If you want to digitalise your business with online services, you can pay for a premium plan according to your needs. Premium plans include a free domain for one year. After that you have to pay an annual renewal fee. I keep my domain and hosting (in this case Wix) separate, but to keep things simple, you can just take advantage of their special offer.
For my Englischgarten website I have upgraded the Wix account to the Premium Business plan. The main advantage is for the public to book and pay for courses online. These days people expect digital services.
4. I was very lazy and simply started experimenting by dragging and dropping elements onto the pages.
The brilliant thing is everything you have is available within the software from fonts, shapes, and frames to free images and digital services. I have built several WordPress sites and using Wix is like a goodie box because everything is there. Despite the ease, I recommend taking at least a quick tutorial on the basics of how to use Wix to learn shortcuts and avoid frustration. Even without it I managed to slap together a functioning website, but I could have made my life much easier.
While building my Englischgarten website on Wix, I decided to experiment with AI and have it built for me. I was generally satisfied with the results, and it was easy to make some changes, but again, tutorials are your friend. Here is a link to some:
5. I created a Google-Business Profile and published the Website online!
I was excited when my business went online, and it was nice to have an online presence I could refer to when I met potential clients.
To create a Google business profile, simply click on the following link. It's very simple:
In summary, it cost me less than 4 € to have my own website in the first year and has cost around 10 € per year since then. As a simple read-only website with one contact form, my website worked fine. It is certainly not a match for professionally built websites but not all of us have thousands, of euros to spend on our small businesses. I operate on a shoestring and I am sure there are many others like me.
I am sad to retire my Chatterbox Sprachschule website, but it still lives on as an example for my readers.
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