Kay Lam-Beattie was a godsend who appeared when I was looking to consult with a Lawyer about the legal requirements for my first online business – womeninbusiness.com.au

I wanted to talk to someone who would understand what I needed and advise me about what was required legally, while talking my language when it came to technology and doing business online.

Kay’s business website Idealaw outlined her credentials (Law & IT qualified) and convinced me this was the woman I needed to talk to.

Kay works with a variety of online businesses and here she shares with us some seasoned advice when it comes to your business online and legal requirements.

Q) What are the most common legal mistakes new website owners make?

A) People building a new website or online business are usually excited, and they have a vision that they want to create.  But they tend to gloss over boring details like having clear agreements in place with their web designers, image providers, graphic artists, copywriters and service providers etc

The agreements  should deal with intellectual property ownership/licensing.For example, a few weeks ago a couple came to me with a letter of demand from a stock images company.  Their web designer had ‘borrowed’ a few images from a stock photo site, believing that it okay because it was ‘royalty-free’. The stock images company tracked them down and were demanding thousands.

These agreements should also set out the scope of the work, the costs, timeframes and technical specifications etc of the website.

I’ve seen websites fail before they even go live because the business owner has an informal agreement with the web designer, then they have a falling out,  leaving nothing but disputes, bills, and useless half finished code.  And of course, no one really knows who actually owns the code either.

Q) What advice would you give for new online business owners regarding getting their legals in order? What will they need? When should they seek advice?

A) Every startup has a long shopping list of things to do, and usually a tiny tiny budget to do it all with!  So it is a matter of prioritising.

Some businesses are simply higher risk than others – if your proposed website has gambling, has stock tips, financial advice or P2P file sharing – then you are in an extremely high risk category and good, robust legal advice is a must, and if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford to be in that business.

But even for small and less risky start ups, it’s a good idea to find a lawyer who can work with you (and your budget) before you sink substantial funds into the business, or sign any major agreements.

You certainly don’t have to do it all at once, but most start-ups should be looking at:

• basic structuring to minimise risk, minimise tax, and give asset protection, allows you to build more later
• intellectual property advice – identifying, owning and licensing – so you don’t accidentally give away or compromise your IP
• agreements between owners of the business
• other internal agreements such as employment agreements
• external agreements with contractors, clients and suppliers etc – including website legals
• financing – loans, venture capital etc

Remember that while it’s tempting to just ‘make do’ and delay setting things up properly,  the longer you leave it, the harder and more expensive it’ll be to change over to a new model or structure later.

Q) Is it important for businesses to consult with a lawyer who specialising in online requirements? Why?

Any good general commercial lawyer will be able to help set up a business with some basic tools.  But it’s important to find someone who understands your website and the technology behind it.  Someone that you feel comfortable communicating with.

Don’t be nervous about asking your lawyer what kind of experience they’ve had  with online businesses like yours.  Especially if this is your first online business, having a lawyer who has ‘seen it all before’ means that they can also help you with parts of your business model you might be struggling with.

For example, I was recently asked to write the website legals for a business that sold ornaments online.

Customers ordered and paid  through the website, and an independent supplier shipped the goods directly to the customer.

I was able to help her refine her business model, identify risk areas, protect her payments, and  liaise with her web-designer to check where and how the terms appeared on the site.  And talk her out of offering a 30 day no questions asked returns policy – because her suppliers would reject returns unless goods were actually faulty, and then she’d have to pay the supplier’s bill, the courier’s bill AND refund the customer.

Q) Are there common legal requirements that every website should meet? Do they differ depending on what you’re offering?

An online business is first and foremost a business – just interacting with customers online rather than through a physical shopfront.  So the website needs to comply with the same local laws and industry specific regulations as physical businesses – and maybe the local laws where the customers are, too.

Websites should try to comply with best practices – being quite clear about who they are, supplying an ABN, plus issues like privacy, payments, refunds and so on.

Many online payment facilities now require you to have certain website legals in place before you can process payments through their systems.

Q) Say I’m a physical business and I want to set up a website to sell my products, what legalities do I need to consider?

The basic transaction is the same (customer gives you money, you give the customer the product).

But think about the extra steps and issues when selling online:

• Local laws that might apply to your customers
• Export laws for overseas customers
• Technical errors – eg wrong descriptions or prices on the site
• Payments, rejected payments, exchange rates
• Cancellations or changes to orders
• Delivery, delayed delivery, damage or loss in transit, wrong address supplied
• Returns policy – change of mind, goods that are defective, inferior, mistaken, wrong quantity etc
• Privacy policy – what you can use the customer’s information for
• How you’re going to communicate or interact with the customer
• Limitation of liability
• Website usage rules – eg whether customers can post comments or reviews or ratings on the site, and whether you can edit them

Not all of these issues will apply to every physical business setting up an online presence of course.  It will depend on the nature of the business.

Visit Idealaw to learn more about Kay Lam-Beattie and online business legal requirements.

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Today we hear from traditional turned digital publisher – James Tuckerman, founder of Australian Anthill.

Q) You’ve recently stopped printing your magazine and moved to digital publishing. How did you find the response and what benefits have you found from the move?

A) It has been been exciting and slightly sad.

The reader response has been overwhelmingly positive. We fretted and gnashed our teeth over when and how to make the move. However, reader feedback was largely, ‘We don’t care how you do it, just keep doing it!’

“I love magazines, as a consumer, but I’m not convinced about their longevity, as a business owner.”

So, while it was a hard decision, we now find ourselves in the enviable position of being ranked among the Top 50 Business and Finance websites in Australia, according to Nielsen. The ASX and ComSec take the two top spots.

Not bad company, for a standing start.

Q) What’s been your biggest surprise/benefit of taking the magazine online?

A) We’ve been really surprised about what we can now do for advertisers.

We knew that our print product was generating a good result for sponsors but now we can measure and track the effectiveness of advertiser activities – and suggest new things when we see what works (and what doesn’t).

“We’ve been really surprised about what we can now do for advertisers.”

This week, we started offering pay-per-click advertising for email, starting at $190 for 100 click-throughs (something accessible for almost anyone with something to sell).

I’m not aware of any other organisation that is offering PPC for email. Digital allows us to be more innovative and trial new things.

“The biggest surprise has been the reluctance – rather, the lack of interest among PR professionals when given the option of print or digital coverage.”

At the same time, one of our digital pieces is likely to attract twice as many readers as a print article. And a digital article is more likely to send traffic to the subject of the article, right? And that’s the purpose of PR, yes? Publicity, positive sentiment, sales, customers etc.

But I guess you can’t thump a laptop down in front of a client with a beaming smile of accomplishment, like you can with a magazine – even if the numbers for print rarely compare or measure up.

Q) What effect has the integration and use of social media and networking sites like Twitter had on the business?

A) I mentioned earlier that we’re now ranked among the Top 50 Business and Finance websites in Australia.

This could not have happened without social media.

I do wonder, with a degree of apprehension, when or whether the mainstream brands will wake up and start to exploit the potential of social media.

Almost 6 percent of our traffic comes from Twitter. It’s amazing the reach that you can now give a digital article by asking and assisting others to spread the word for you.

“I do wonder, with a degree of apprehension, when or whether the mainstream brands will wake up and start to exploit the potential of social media.”

We have a LinkedIn Group, a Facebook Fanpage and a four Twitter accounts (on four different subjects). We use these to syndicate stories and, more importantly, ask for feedback and respond to unsolicited feedback.

We’re also now offering our articles to help others populate their own business websites with current, topic specific articles, using RSS as a formal syndication tool.

Q) anthillonline.com is highly interactive – people can leave comments, they can follow you on social networking etc. How has this increased personal interaction helped the magazine?

A) It means that people return daily, even when we don’t post an article or distribute a newsletter.

People will always find a fresh conversation to join. We only hope that we can augment this aspect of our site.

“Many websites use the word ‘community’. We can use the word without the self-consciousness that most people must feel when using the word.”

The word ‘community’ is massively overused because in most cases it is an aspirational sentiment – used by ambitious marketers – that is rarely achieved.

That’s an aspect of our site that we are obviously proud of. Our readers will rally to assist us and each other when in need. I can’t see that happening over at some of the other business blogs that generate daily news – yet they all call themselves ‘communities’.

Q) There’s been a lot of talk recently about how to monetise online news through paid subscriptions. What are your thoughts on monetising content online?

A) Only in very few instances will people pay for news. Journalism is built on a false economy. Publishers and journalists still believe that news is the foundation of a newspaper or news website.

The truth is that advertising has always been the foundation of newspapers.

“In fact, news articles were a late addition in the evolution of newspapers. News articles were created when someone said, “How can we get more people to read this advertising flyer we’ve created?”"

What’s happening now is that the bottom has fallen out of the advertising market – advertisers can no longer buy attention like they used to and products like Adwords have commoditised classified advertising.

This means that advertising can no longer be relied upon to support news creation – but neither can the ‘wallets of punters’.

“The future I see is a place where news is fragmented into niche categories, quite probably owned by organisations with the most interest in owning each category.”

For example, Energy Matters is a solar panel company. It is also becoming a world leader in CleanTech news. So long as it remains impartial, it will ‘own the space’ and happily subsidise quality, free journalism.

If someone asked me, “If advertisers won’t pay for news and readers won’t pay for news, who will?” The answer is clearly, “The organisation with the greatest interest in ‘owning’ the news category.”

Visit Australian Anthill.

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There’s this perpetual question of what’s there to do, or where to go? Especially for those of us that are socially active and status-seeking ‘transumers’ (those wanting to collect as many experiences and stories as possible).

We try to answer that and give style-conscious, busy people a daily email newsletter that connects them to stylish, cool and interesting events; what we hope will give the most memorable experiences. Daily Addict is about early-access, and our experience-hunting team is dedicated to uncovering the hidden lifestyle gems about town.

We cover 10 different categories ranging from culture to eat & drink and from entertainment to fashion. Our daily dose is conversational and clever, ready and waiting for our subscribers each morning in an easy to read format.

It’s succinct enough to be read before you’ve taken the first sip of your morning latté. We don’t accept payment for our recommendations – it has to be experience or useful-worthy to be featured. It’s also delivered free.

Q) How did you come up with the idea?

During my four-year stint living in London, I traveled to cities all across Europe packing in as many experiences as possible wherever I went.

When I got back to my home town in Sydney I thought how absurd it was that you make such a huge effort to experience new things in a foreign city and don’t do the same at home.

I wanted to create something for Sydneysiders that would let them get the most out of their home town.  I also wanted to give visitors a local’s guide to the best of our city.

Q) What’s the number one piece of advice you could give other women thinking of starting an online business?

The online business world is still relatively young, thriving with new technologies being introduced each day, so surround yourself with super clever industry people that you can trust.

“Be as nimble as you can to really understand how the online world works, and keep an eye on the future – what’s coming up next.”

Q) What was the toughest part about getting up and running?

In the early days I was running on pure enthusiasm; looking back I may have been blinded to how tough it was to launch a daily lifestyle email – a really new concept here in Australia.  But I would say getting comfortable with the content management system was the first early challenge.

The CMS is also a big investment decision that can lock you in for some time. My background is in communications so understanding all the technical components was a big leap.

Q) Do you have any advice about how to get people to sign up to your email list?

Around two-thirds of our new sign ups are via word of mouth, and I’m a true believer of premium content – if you show a respect for your reader’s time they’ll keep coming back for more, importantly they’ll tell their friends, and those will tell their friends, so start with a promise and make sure you deliver.

“Around two-thirds of our new sign ups are via word of mouth, and I’m a true believer of premium content”

More recently we’ve paid more attention to promotion-based incentives (you’ll need a trade promotion license). Simple things like having refer a friend links in existing emails also work.

Thanks to some good advice, connecting via social media has been key since we launched and it’s worked for us. Use Twitter and Facebook to offer customised promotions to those readers.

Before twitter became mainstream in Australia this April; we knew a lot of early adopters, creative and techie-types like using Twitter, so we would sometimes leak exclusives or invitations here first.

“Find the forums your potential subscribers are congregating in and give them a good reason to join up.”

We’ve now just launched the first lifestyle dedicated iPhone app for Sydney.  Keep innovating and researching so you know which are the important touch points.

Q) What are the three most important factors to running a successful online business?

This question made me think about whether it would be different for a successful business – online or off line.  I think I’d still answer it the same.

Belief & Passion – Passion inspires others to get on board, keep you moving in the right direction and get you through the harder times. It’s the best source of human renewable energy. Believe in yourself and don’t waste energy doubting what you can do; research, do it first and doubt later if you need to.

People – the clever, competent, fun to grow with ones.

Product - whatever it is, make it invaluable to your target audience.

Q) What’s the wildest success story you can imagine for Daily Addict’s future?

Daily Addict is known as the ultimate insider’s lifestyle guide. We’re in major cities giving people early access to experiences and events that they would normally never have come across, they are inspired to attend or be informed, and that makes people’s lives richer.

Thanks Carrie! Be sure to check out Daily Addict.

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Jo is based on the Gold Coast – we met through Twitter and have just completed a client project together.

Working with Jo was an absolute pleasure – she was easy to work with and always delivered on her responsibilities quickly and professionally – so I thought I’d introduce you all to her today!

Her specialty is smart, feminine design – if you’re in the market for a website design or redesign it would pay to have a chat to Jo.

Q) How long have you been working online as a designer?

I graduated from a Bachelor of Design (Graphic Design) at QCA in 2004 and over the following 4 years worked with companies producing designs for online software and web development.

Although my Uni degree focused on print design the work involved at the companies allowed me to venture into online design, however I think the principles of typography and layout I was taught at Uni definitely helped me become a better web designer.

After many months of planning, at the end of 2008 I made the move to full time freelancing by creating The Darling Tree, and 2009 has seen steady growth in the business and many new and wonderful clients.

Q) As a freelance designer, what are your top tips to keeping multiple projects organised and on schedule?

• Regularly updating your clients on your progress is a good way of keeping track yourself.
• If you have promised to deliver work at a certain time, it becomes a priority to have it done by that time.
• I also allow for some leverage on when I complete the work, that way if urgent requests arise I still have sufficient time to deliver the work, and if they don’t then I can provide the work earlier than expected – happy clients either way!

My main organisational tool is the good old daily and weekly To-Do List.

Q) Good web design is an essential ingredient to a brand’s success online. What are three elements that every well designed website should have?

1. A clear focus and goal for the website, whether it be sales, inquiries or members. The website must be planned accordingly to succeed in that area.
2. A well-built site is important so a client can easily update it, or refresh the design as the business grows or changes
3. A beautiful design which is not only functional but also represents your company and it’s personality.

Q) Do you have any online projects that you’ve created for yourself?

I’ve always had a long list of side projects I’d like to do, and while it is growing I have found some time recently to launch a few small projects.

Chandeliera was launched in early May and was inspired by my love for chandeliers.

I also started a mini blog at Gold Coast Designer to showcase new work to the local market.

A while ago I started Miss Jo which I have plans to develop further later this year, among other exciting ideas!

Q) Are you available for hire?

Yes, I’d love to hear from anyone looking to improve their branding or online presence, simply send me an email at jo@thedarlingtree.com or visit The Darling Tree.

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Ann Nolan is the founder of babysitterdirectory.com.au – a successful online business started in June 2008 that connects Australian based parents with quality babysitters and nannies.

The site has been launched in beta since June 2008 and there has been no charges for babysitters, parents or nannies to use the site. But from Friday 4 April, this changes when a small membership fee will be introduced for parents to assist with administration and growth of this online community.

Here she talks about identifying an unfulfilled need in the market, fostering online communities to help achieve commercial objectives and her advice for other women thinking of starting up an online business.

Q) Tell us a bit about babysitterdirectory.com.au. How did you come up with the idea?

In 2006 my husband and I and our two kids (at the time!) moved to the Gold Coast for a year with my husbands work. It was a wonderful opportunity and something we were really excited about.

However with two young children and no family in Queensland, not to mention the fact both of us were working (I was working part time with an online recruitment company) we soon discovered we needed to bring in outside help for childcare and occasional babysitting.

I started asking other mums for possible babysitting contacts at the local playgroup I was attending but noticed people were reluctant to share the details of their wonderful babysitters!

I rang up some agencies but for us we found the cost prohibitive. By the time you had paid the babysitter and the agency fees it made for a very expensive night out.

Eventually I turned online and discovered that there was only one website (at the time) offering a facility for parents to directly contact parents and babysitters but I felt the payment model it offered -  a subscription – wasn’t something that enticed me as a parent.

It was expensive, restrictive and not very Web 2.0 friendly.

This made me think there was a gap in the market to create an online community for babysitters, nannies and parents where they could connect with each other, where the membership fee was not cost prohibitive and where greater use was made of social media, forums and blogs to allow members to interact with the site and each other. And so Babysitterdirectory.com.au was born!

Q) You describe babysitterdirectory.com.au as “an Australian online community connecting parents with babysitters and nannies”. In your opinion what place do online communities have in today’s business development?

You could say the very fact you are asking me that question indicates how important it is!

In any business spending time creating a dynamic and active online community is money well spent I think.

Fostering online communities can help businesses achieve commercial objectives and also increase growth and brand recognition.

One of the key tools I think in growing an online community is providing a forum. Forums are  a great way to bring people with a common interest together and to allow you as a business to you  keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on with your market, what’s concerning them, what’s hot and what’s not.

I also think forum are excellent for assisting you with market development, product development, customer service, brand growth and of course the all important connecting with your industries “influencers”.

Q) What’s the number one piece of advice you could give other women thinking of starting an online business?

If you think it’s going to be hard. Multiply that by ten!

But seriously… I think there are three important things to remember when starting an online business.

1. Do your research
2. Know your competition and
3. Know what your unique selling proposition is.  It’s no good repeating what the competition is doing you have to look at ways you can do it either differently or better.

Finally with the growth of social media it’s vital if you run an online business you are also tapped into social media.

Of course it’s difficult to do it all – Facebook, Twitter, blogs, articles etc etc especially if you are starting out and it’s just one person – you.

But if you are not making an effort to connect with your customers on different points its a bit like opening a shop down the back of a lane way and hoping somehow that people will stumble in!

Q) What was the toughest part about getting up and running?

By far it was locating a web development company that was highly skilled, reasonably priced and with excellent customer service skills to build the website!

I found that many web companies were great on the customer service skills but were also very quite high priced which is great if you are a large company with a big budget but not so great if you are a start up with limited resources.

Those that were reasonably priced many times had no idea of customer service and would barely return your phone calls.

I ended up going with a large web development company who positions itself as the online solutions provider for SME in Australia.

I was very clear about what I wanted with an extremely detailed brief. It was probably the worst decision I’ve made so far and in hindsight Id say to anyone looking at building a website to only engage a company who you have a recommendation for.

That way you know that the company can come up with the goods. But you learn by your mistakes is what I say!

Q) What are the three most important factors to running a successful online business?

There are lots but here are just some of the ones I think are important!

1. Be passionate about what you do. If you aren’t passionate you’ll never last. Running an online business is basically living and breathing it 24/7 so you need to have the energy to go on even in the bad times.
2. Put your networking hat on! When you are a start up it’s vital you network to get your name, your brand and your products/services out there. More importantly though networking is about learning from what other people are doing, being open to new ways of doing things and new happenings in the industry.
3. Recognise your personal weaknesses and strengths and be prepared to ask or bring in outside assistance for the business areas that you are just not strong on.

If you are fantastic at concept development and web design but not strong on business development or marketing you’ll soon find you have a great website but may lack the skills to monetise it and take it to the market successfully.

Admitting this and knowing when to bring in outside assistance or support is important and will help your business grow.

Q) What’s the wildest success story you can imagine for the future of babysitterdirectory.com.au

As a Work At Home Mum my key aim is to be able to establish a business that is financially viable, profitable and allows me to be master of my own destiny!

That being said the aim for the site is to build a large and dynamic community  of Australian parents, babysitters and nannies.

The forum that we are launching later this week I see as an important feature that will facilitate this, as is the establishment of a unique directory especially targeting parents as well as nannies and babysitters that we will launch later this month.

If we build this community well who knows where the site may end up!

I’ve got another website project in the works which is totally unrelated. It’s only at concept stage at the moment but I’m incredibly excited about it as it would be the first of its kind in Australia. There are plenty of possibilities on the horizon for 2009!

Please visit babysitterdirectory.com.au to find out more.

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She is a young entrepreneur who had the vision and drive to create one of Australia’s leading luxury online shopping destinations – Le Black Book. Having been recently named a Clinique 2009 IT Girl,  here she talks about the challenges and triumphs of running a successful online business.

What was your motivation behind starting Le Black Book?

I was passionate about fashion and looking to make a difference in the Australian fashion industry. I had worked for an Australian designer and alongside leading industry members and felt I was ready to start my own business.

I registered the company at 21 and launched it at 22 years old.

What’s the number one piece of advice you could give other women thinking of starting an online business?

Do your research! It was crucial to research every element of the online business.

There are so many options available when creating an online business and it is essential to find the best systems for your businesses. With sufficient market research you will also understand the wants and needs of your customer.

It is also essential to have contractors that are ready to grow with you, are reliable and hardworking. If you create a great external team, the business with thrive and grow without distraction.

When starting an online business it is also essential to be passionate about the industry you are in. If you are passionate about something, success will come naturally

What was the toughest part about getting your website online?

The hardest part of getting the website live was having contractors that worked to the same deadline.

Often the elements of the website that the customer will not see such as CMS are the toughest and most time consuming.

Do you have any advice about how to get visitors to your website?

• Online Marketing
• A presence within Social Networking websites
• Web editorials

What are the three most important factors to running a successful online business?

• Passion
• Organisation and
• Innovation

What is the wildest success story you can imagine for Le Black Book’s future?

I would love Le Black Book to be a top 10 website hit wise around the world.

I would love to know that everyone in Australia has visited Le Black Book and purchased something, if not for themselves then as a gift for someone else.

I feel I have created something innovative and it is rewarding taking Australian designers to a global customer base.

Visit Le Black Book

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Alicia’s background in jewellery retail management and customer service is reflected in her user-focused website with all the essentials (FAQ’s, Privacy Policy etc).

With customer centric features like “Product Care“, “Wishlist” and the “Look Book” along with a clean, easy to use website I’ve got no doubt that her online business will be a smashing success.

Tell us a bit about your online shop and why you decided to start it.

Alegorie is a concept accessories store based on the idea that the accessories you wear are a reflection of your personality.

I’d always dreamt of owning my own store. I spent five years in retail management at an amazing little jewellery boutique. The owner of the business was an amazing support and inspiration, he let me run the store as if it were my own.

He eventually decided to close the store and move his family to Margaret River in W.A. where they now own a gallery – we still keep in touch!

I had really found my niche working in that store, and knew that I would never really enjoy any other job as much as that one unless I was self employed.

I continued working in retail for a very well known Australian designer accessories company while I began the preparation for what eventually became Alegorie.

My initial intention was to open it as a physical outlet, but my qualifications in Multimedia and the current economical state really lent itself to starting Alegorie online.

Did you have any related experience before you started?

Unlike a lot of online business owners who often have backgrounds in media, marketing and IT, I come primarily from a retail background – six years of which were spent in fine jewellery and fashion accessories at management level.

I have a qualifications in Multimedia Design and in Small Business, but it’s my experience in retail and love of customer service that is the driving force behind the business.

What are the top three things you’ve learnt so far that you’d like to pass on to other women starting up?

1. Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish! Don’t be scared to spend money on your business.
2. Take the time to conduct as much market research prior to starting your business as possible. It’s amazing what you’ll learn.
3. Make sure you check that your intended business name isn’t trademarked!

What were the challenges you faced while developing your website?

I was under a huge time constraint which was a constant burden while the site was being built. I literally did everything myself – graphic design, development, programming… I was working 16 hour days.

The biggest setback was when I was waiting for the studio photography equipment to arrive. I found out five days before I was due to launch that it was going to be delayed by a week! You can’t have an online store without product photos so I was forced to push back the launch date. It was a very tense time at Alegorie HQ!

How have you tried to get visitors to your website to this point?

I have a freelance media and communications consultant handling public relations for me, she’s been sending out press releases and keeping in touch with a lot of print media. I also keep a keen eye on social networking sites and relevant forums.

What is the wildest success story you can imagine for Alegorie’s future?

My vision is for Alegorie to be the leading source of fashion accessories on the internet. A piece of cake, right!

Visit Alegorie.

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Their website is a great example of success through fulfilling a market need supported by excellent customer service.

Another thing to look at is the branding of their self made products. Presenting your products and brand in a professional, attractive and consistent manner builds trust and confidence – and that is vital for making a sale on the Internet.

As a very special offer for my readers only, Ciao Bella Travel are offering you a 10% discount, valid until the end of this month. To redeem the discount use the promotion code Online Bella at checkout.

What was your personal motivation behind starting Ciao Bella Travel?

We had both always wanted to start our own business and were always on the look out for business ideas and opportunities.

The idea for Ciao Bella Travel was born in a Hong Kong Hotel room when Kirsty, on a quick business trip, didn’t have the luggage space to pack her full size skin and hair care products, but did not want to use the hotel’s poor quality products either.

We thought ‘there has to be a simple way to provide high quality, single serves of shampoo, conditioner, cleanser, toner & moisturiser’.

This thought lead to the development of our Ciao Bella Travel Single Shots range. In the process we discovered that there was not one, easy place for girls to shop from a wide range of gorgeous travel accessories so we created www.ciaobellatravel.com.au

When did you launch Ciao Bella Travel?

December 2006. The night we switched the site on we sat at the computer with a bottle of champagne waiting to see what would happen. Bless our family and friends who were our first customers!!!

What’s the number one piece of advice you could give other women thinking of starting an online business?

Take the time to research your market thoroughly before you make the commitment.

What was the toughest part about getting your website online?

Probably the time involved, it took six months to bring our site online which was two months more than we first expected.

Do you have any advice about how to get visitors to your website?

We have found the highest contributors to our site traffic are:

• SEO
• Editorial and
• SEM

The best thing about SEO and editorial is they are free if you do them inhouse.

What are the three most important factors to running a successful online business?

• Excellent customer service
• Continuously working on ways to increase (qualified) site traffic and
• High SEO rankings

What is the wildest success story you can imagine for Ciao Bella Travel’s future?

We want Ciao Bella Travel to be the number one destination for all female travelers to shop for travel accessories.

We aim to achieve this by delivering our customers an exceptional buying experience through excellent customer service, a fantastic product range and additional complimentary services (such as our Travel Planner, Travel Tips, Remind Me Before I Fly service & Gift Wrapping service) to enhance their experience and their trip.

We also have plans to take our brand and business model overseas when the time is right.

Visit Ciao Bella Travel and use your 10% off voucher to buy yourself something special!

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Kate is truly an online business pioneer, launching her shopping website adorebeauty.com.au in April 2000.

As the owner of Australia’s most successful hair and beauty shopping website, Kate’s experience and advice to others thinking of starting up an online business is inspiring and insightful.

Enjoy and learn!

P.S. Pay careful attention to Kate’s statements about attracting customers, not driving traffic.

What was your personal motivation behind starting Adore Beauty?

I’ve always been fascinated by cosmetics and beauty products, since high school when I lived in Launceston, Tasmania.

I always hated it that most of the products in the glossy magazines weren’t available where I lived; so when online shopping first came about, I figured it would be a great way of enabling my fellow beauty junkies to get their hands on the best products.

When did Adore Beauty launch?

April 2000. We were in development for about 12 months before that.

What’s the number one piece of advice you could give other women thinking of starting an online business?

Just remember that the basic principles of an online business are the same as any other type of business.

For example, retail = selling your product to a target market for more than what it cost you – regardless of whether you plan to do this in a store or online.

Go and buy yourself a copy of The E-Myth by Michael Gerber – a must-read for anyone in small business.

What was the toughest part about getting your website online?

The hardest part was convincing the brands to allow us to sell their products. Cosmetics is a very image-focused industry and everyone was a bit frightened of the internet back then (and unfortunately many companies still are!).

Do you have any advice about how to get visitors to your website?

We focus on attracting customers rather than driving traffic. I don’t care about visitors just for numbers’ sake.

You can spend as much as you like on driving 10,000 visitors to your site, but if none of them buy anything it’s a waste of time and money; conversely if you attract just five customers who all buy something, you are much better off!

I believe the best way to attract customers in the long run is:

• To have a product that people want;
• A site that is attractive, informative and easy to use;
• And customer service that people want to tell their friends about.

What are the three most important factors to running a successful online business?

1. Persistence. In the immortal words of Rachel Hunter, “it won’t happen overnight but it will happen” – but only if you stick at it.
2. Good customer service – because the internet makes it really easy for them to tell everyone about their experience, good or bad.
3. Having a good web developer – because the bad ones will make your life very difficult.

What is the wildest success story you can imagine for Adore Beauty’s future?

I’ve actually already surpassed any imaginings I had when I started about Adore Beauty’s success!  So I plan to continue along this path, further expanding our stable of brands, and continuing to cement our position as the #1 online beauty destination in Australia.

Visit Adore Beauty.

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I’m so excited to bring you the first online businesswoman profile. Bianca Kristallis is the owner and director of Pamper Hamper Gifts, a successful Internet business founded in 2004.

Based on her own gift experiences, Bianca knew that there were many time poor consumers who she could help.  She created Pamper Hamper Gifts to counter the tedium of going out to the shops, to combat the stress of shopping and to help make people’s lives easier.

Bianca’s wish was for the frazzled mums, time poor businesspeople and clueless men to turn to her site and have all their gift-giving woes solved in one stylish place. As a mum of twins, Bianca loves the flexibility that working for herself online has given her.

Q) What was your personal motivation behind starting Pamper Hamper Gifts?

I had noticed the lack of luxurious hampers on the Internet and was mortified by the dated and daggy options available.

I wanted to get away from cane baskets, shrink wrap and curling bows and bring the ‘wow factor’ and style back into gift giving. I have always looked up to people like “Martha Stuart” for her creativity and flair. She makes me think outside the box.

When it comes to giving gifts to family and friends I love that I can make a pair of socks look amazing, simply by the way I box and wrap.

I had also received many hampers over the years at work, for birthday presents etc and always mocked the presentation and quality, hoping that one day I could learn from other people’s mistakes.

I have made an effort to support Australian wholesalers like MOR Cosmetics, Simon Johnson, Maggie Beer and Urban Rituelle just to name a few. These companies offer quality and have a great reputation in the market place.

I have made a point not to go offshore and mass produce products, I let the experts handle that, and it is why I love being a retailer.

I can choose the direction the business goes in and concentrate on important things like my shop front “the site”, database management, packaging, customer service, buying from the wholesalers and loads more.

Q) What’s the number one piece of advice you could give other women thinking of starting an online business?

Don’t think for a second that you will succeed overnight, it’s hard work – very hard work.

Before starting you must:

• Have an idea to play with
• You need to research
• Ask questions
• Network
• Don’t tell too many close friends your ideas
• Register a business name
• Register a web address that will be remembered
• Understand Google and
• Find an amazing web developer that does not offer template websites (an original website is best as there are too many sites that keep popping up that look the same).

Q) What was the toughest part about getting your website online?

Everything was tough about getting the site online as there are many things that need to be organised.

You need to plan ahead and take your time. Although I like to be thrown in the deep end as I work better. It was all fun and challenging really, I loved every minute of it and still do.

Q) Do you have any advice about how to get visitors to your website?

• Have an amazing site that is different to others in the same field
• Network
• Learn to optimize
• Learn about Google

Q) In your wildest dreams, what do you see as the future for Pamper Hamper Gifts?

In my wildest dreams I see Pamper Hamper Gifts as the most talked about hamper company on the net. I would love to expand and perhaps have a shop front. That depends on many factors – first I have to find a business partner who has the same drive and tenacity! I have many dreams; I’m approaching them slowly and at the right pace day by day to achieve each one.

Visit Pamper Hamper Gifts.

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