(... and just so that we don't have to turn this whole article into a sales pitch, please bear in mind that Brand Labs offers every single service mentioned herein and we can also be hired as consultants to help you make your business plan.)

1. Have a Plan

Let's be clear.  A product is not a plan.  A product is a product.  If your product were so compelling that it didn't require a plan, the world would have already beaten a path to your door.  You have to assume that no matter how excited you are about your product (or service or group of products), no one else in the world is that excited about it.  Period.  You are the best customer for your product and everyone else who sees it will have seen a thousand other products that day and will need to be convinced that the acquisition of your product is important to them.  The comparison we like to draw is this: no one is ever excited to see pictures of someone else's kids.  (Sorry, parents.  It's true.)  You need a plan to convince your potential clients that they need what you're selling.  So how do you go about making that plan?  Well...

2.  Have a Goal

You think you have a goal already.  You want to open a Volusion store.  That's not a goal.  It's a means to an end.  A goal is something more like: "I'd like to support myself and my family with my Volusion store within three years" or "I'd like to become the world's largest online retailer of coconut brassieres and grass skirts" or "I'd like to earn enough from my online store to buy some Kryptonite and defeat Superman once and for all."  Your goal doesn't have to be entirely realistic.  It just needs to be a goal.  Without a goal, not only will you lack a clear sense of direction, but you'll never feel any significant sense of accomplishment.  With your ultimate goal should come a set of mini-goals you'll achieve along the way.  That way you keep moving forward and you get to feel good about your progress.  Now, about meeting those goals...

3. Assess Your Resources

What do you have in place that will help you to meet your goals?  We suggest money.  Of course that seems obvious, but the problem is that when most people start to look at the expenses involved in hiring qualified people to help them build their business, they start to look around for ways to cut costs.  We don't blame them, but there's a harsh truth to face here: anyone can open a store.  Anyone.  There was a time when many stores didn't even have an online presence, so all you had to do was show up to the party to be the belle of the ball (double metaphor - Pow! Pow!).  Those days are over.  Even "adult entertainment" (or "porn" if you're less delicate) has begun to feel the pinch of our tightening economy <insert your own inappropriate joke here>.  You simply can't have your nephew (who's "good with computers") throw together a store and hope to be rolling in conversions.  There's a place in your new business for unskilled (or semi-skilled) labor, but that will come later.  These days, the competition at every level has been cranked all the way up and if you don't bring your A-game from the beginning, you may as well stay home.  So make sure that you're utilizing what you've got, but be prepared to hire people to do what you can't.  Which brings us to this...

4.  Hire a Designer

You know the "good with computers" nephew we just mentioned?  He will kill your business.  Those "design a website for $500" people?  They will kill your business.  Be honest.  You know this already.  You know that there's no possible way that a $50 logo and a $500 website could ever possibly be a proper foundation for something that you're hoping will grow into an empire.  Even if the above-mentioned business killers were able to provide something that, at first, seemed sufficient (and that's a pretty big if), there's little chance that it would do what you need it to do as you move forward.  There's also a pretty darn good chance that it would be riddled with technical errors that will cost you time and money to address... while you're trying to run your business.  Even if you decide to play it safe and use a canned template design, you've diminished your store's potential impact from day one.  Twelve-year-old kids can spot a template from a mile away and without a clear and well-expressed brand identity, your chances of distinguishing yourself from your competition are completely blown from the get go.  These days, your consumer wants a brand they can connect with; a well-developed vision that speaks to them.  Which brings us to...

5. Trust Your Designer

Bad news.  You're not a web designer.  If you were, you'd be starting a web design company instead of an eCommerce site.  Even if you're "good with color" or you "have a flair," you have to find a company you believe in based on their portfolio and then trust them to express what you can't.  A good designer will expand on your desires in ways that never occurred to you, while maintaining all of your original intentions and bearing in mind best eCommerce practices.  If you want proof of this, you don't have to look any further than our portfolio.  Without naming any names (because we love all of our customers - honestly) we can guarantee you that the best sites in our collection are the ones that were left largely to the talents of our in-house design staff.  Be open minded and if you ever find yourself about to engage in any conversation similar to any of these, stop yourself.  Imagine hiring a plumber, then standing over him/her, suggesting better ways for them to fix your pipes, or going to a restaurant and going back into the kitchen to direct the chef.  With all of that said, you still have a critical part to play in the site creation process...

6. Express Yourself

Though this may seem to be in direct conflict with point #5, your ability to express your desires is critical to the creation process.  Yes, you should trust your designers, but you must also give them enough to work with.  Don't say that you like "blue."  Say that you like pale sky blue because it speaks to the freshness of your product.  Don't say that you want something to be "edgy."  Show your designer an example of how you see "edginess" (which is a completely subjective thing).  This advice applies to site functionality as well (and it brings us back to points #1 & #2).  If you have a specific goal in mind (and you definitely should), be sure that you've expressed it clearly to your designer (and your developer, if they're different people).  It sounds obvious, but you would be absolutely amazed at the number of people who fail on this simple point.  They believe that the vision in their head is so fundamental that it doesn't need to be laid out in any sort of point-by-point fashion.  This is your opportunity to protect yourself and save yourself quite a bit of grief down the line.  If you've made yourself clear from the beginning, then there's less potential for trouble later on.  Tell your designer/developer what you'd like the site to do.  You should also be prepared to entertain their suggestions.  You may have something in mind that can be achieved easier (and therefore, cheaper) if completed in a different fashion.  In other words, know what you want... know your goal, but be flexible about the route you take.  And while your project is en route...

7. Learn About Volusion

While you're waiting for your designer/developer to complete your site, you've got plenty to do.  Number one on the list is to learn about your chosen platform.  Lucky for you, Volusion provides a wealth of info in easy-to-consume video format.  Volusion's training videos may be found here.  We simply can't recommend this particular step highly enough and this is also one of those tasks we mentioned earlier, wherein you can put some of your unskilled and semi-skilled labor resources to good use.  Make sure that everyone associated with your endeavor has as much knowledge about Volusion's back end as possible.  There's a lot involved in running an eCommerce site well and you'll want a lot of backup.  Plus this is something you can do for free that saves you money!  The more you learn, the less often you'll have to hire folks like us.  I think we can all agree that free is better than not free.  In addition to learning what you'll need to know to operate your store, you'll also be more educated about Volusion as a platform, allowing you to ask better questions and understand the answers you're given on a deeper level... and it's free.  It will also allow you to utilize your newly-skilled laborers for the next big step...

8. Merchandising

Now that you know all about Volusion's back end, you're prepared to start the process of merchandising your store.  There's some confusion about the term "merchandising," and rightly so.  It's a term that encompasses several practices, including establishing a proper category structure, populating your site with product information, creating relationships between those products, and image management.  Depending on the number of SKUs you've got, this can quickly become a monumental task.  It's best to start early.  This work can be done while your design/dev team are creating your site (provided that you're all working with the same category structure).  Bear in mind best SEO practices when creating your product descriptions.  Nothing can quash an eCommerce site's organic searchability quite as well as inadequate product descriptions.  Be detailed and creative.  Take your strategy beyond keyword-stuffing.  Search engines are attracted to quality content as much as anything and that applies to your product descriptions.  Speaking of SEO...

9. Search Engine Optimization

Here's another topic loaded with controversy and confusion.  There are those who solidly believe that there are clearly definable formulas to ensure a high organic ranking for your site.  There are others who believe it's all luck and voodoo.  We're somewhere in between, in that we know there are things you can do to increase your chances of getting lucky. Search engines are designed to be a moving target and anyone who claims to have them figured out is lying to you, but there are things you can do that definitely tend to return solid results.  Number one on this list is to fill your site with excellent content and update frequently.  Write articles.  Create a knowledgebase.  Pretend your site is trying to get a date with the entire world.  Flirt.  Share your knowledge.  Be interesting and outgoing.  Be The Whole Package.  The search engines will fall for you completely.  But in case they don't...

10. Marketing

Even the most flawless SEO campaign can never replace the need for online marketing.  You simply can't expect the world to come to you if you don't even go to the trouble of announcing yourself.  Pay per click can give you a nice boost in the beginning, but you'll have to manage the program closely to keep your bids adjusted for best possible ROI as your targeted search terms become more competitive.  Affiliate marketing is a nice variation on the paid search model because you only pay when a transaction is completed, eliminating the need for competitive bidding entirely, but then you've got to concern yourself with affiliate negotiation and agreement enforcement (it's always something).  Comparison shopping engines have emerged as an extremely powerful tool, but at the same time, they're being challenged by the rise in online coupon sites.  All of this is a lot to consider, but you ignore it at your own peril.  We've seen people pour tens of thousands of dollars into the design and development of their eCommerce site, only to neglect the need for marketing, finding, in the end that the best store in the world can't convert customers who never arrive.  Don't make that mistake.  Create and maintain a well-balanced marketing plan that works in conjunction with your SEO campaign.  You've come too far to neglect the final step.

... so now you've done your due diligence and your professional designers/developers have done theirs.  Your site is ready to launch, and better than that, you'll know what to do with it when it does.  Heed our advice.  We've seen a great many clients who failed to properly prepare for the moment when we flip the switch and the store moves from being our responsibility to theirs.  We've heard the panic.  We've seen the fear-induced paralysis.  Granted, there's a lot to do to properly prepare for your Volusion store launch, but it's our opinion that it's better to be burdened a manageable amount over a long period of time than to be buried in a second.  One way involves digging your way out before you suffocate.  The other way builds your strength for the battle ahead.  Here's to a long, profitable battle!