Week 6 Reflections

This week I worked hard on my website daily.  It has been fun to work on yet rather annoying as I struggle to figure small things out.  I now know that there is so much more to a website than we actually see from the consumer side. 
The assignments and materials this week were about legal taxes, fees, licenses, permits, etc. that would be required for our specific business.  As I read up on national, state, city, and county government policies, I realized there are sometimes more questions beneath the surface in order to find these answers.  Do I have a physical location?  Am I selling a tangible product?  Thankfully, I am just going with an affiliate model for now.  So, being the middle man makes it easier on me.  Amazon will send me a tax form if I meet those requirements to file taxes.  As a sole proprietorship, I can use my name instead of a business name.  I am not selling anything, so I do not need a sales tax license. 
Now, if I continue this business model and decide to start selling meal plans and shopping lists, then there will be additional licenses required since I am selling something.  So I will keep the links I have searched for reference when I want to start my own business after I complete school next year.

Week 5 - Reflections

This week there is much to think about.  I looked over some recipe/food blogs and compared Our Best Bites and Pinch of Yum.  When looking these over, I started reconsidering my choices for site builders and hosts.  Since this will be my first website, do I take the easier route with the premade templates on Wix, or do I try to spend more time and learn WordPress which will help me more out in the real professional world?  With a full load of 6 courses and an internship, along with the family responsibilities with my husband, children, home and church, I have to consider what is best for me.  I think at this time, I can comfortably go with Wix, and then if I see this developing into a true thing, I can decide to attack it with WordPress eventually.  That looks like something I would like to learn more about anyways.  So as I compared these two websites, I looked at things I would like to put onto my own site to make it stand out as a recipe blog.  I need bold and bright colors and pictures.  I need an about me page as well as an image of myself.  I need a large variety of recipes.  Eventually I would like to connect the blog to social media accounts.  I also would like to have a shop to showcase products used within my recipes.  So this may work for an affiliate model for myself. 
I then learned how to make a PayPal button to accept credit card payments.  Though I do not think this will pertain to me at this point in time, it may eventually when I want to sell meal plan options.  So this was good to learn, but still more research needs to be done on the tax amount I would put in as well as setting up the correct bank account to connect the commerce PayPal to.  It is very interesting and great to learn about all of these things now.  I think this course is really helping me to think about my future business in ways I never imagined and I am grateful for that.

Week 4 Reflections

This week as I researched website builders and host companies, I realized that my husband has definitely done a lot more in the background of our websites than I ever knew. Having had a website for many years until recently, I took his work for granted. I now know that I can help take on the load of creating and maintaining a site after I learn and grow from this class.
I enjoyed actually comparing and learning about the different builders and hosts. I really had no idea that there were so many options out there. As I compared the site builders of WordPress, Weebly and Wix, I was torn between wanting to choose something that would be a time saver for me, but still allow me to learn and grow in this new experience. I ultimately chose to go with Wix because of its ease for beginners and its support service, which I think I will definitely need at times through the process.
I then looked into host companies and compared iPage, Bluehost, and Wix. Wix would of course make the most sense if I was going with them as the site builder also since they go hand in hand. I looked at the costs, whether the host worked well with Wix or WordPress (my second-choice builder), and the support and maintenance offered. Wix actually won in all 3 categories for me, so that helped solidify my choice for the builder and the host.
I realize that if I choose to at a later period in time build a website business, I can make different choices based on the experiences I have this semester in this course. But hopefully, I will make choices that will allow this semester be a great learning experience with very few bumps and bruises along the way.

Week 3 Reflections

This week we studied about finding distributors and suppliers, as well as using an affiliate program or a drop shipper.  These are things that I had never thought of.  But having not really ever considered being in a business of selling products, I had not encountered these ideas. 
As I looked into the different wholesalers, I was quite intrigued at how many there are out of the country.  Why are there so few within the states?  And why do we continue to buy more from overseas if we want to help contribute to the economy in our own country?  As I looked at the few companies I found that were produced in the USA, I found the prices to be extremely more than the companies based in Asia.  What I would  consider next would be the integrity of the product.  Are they made with the same materials and in the same manner?  Is one stronger than the other?  Is there significant returns or damage from one or the other? 
The next thing we looked into was going with an affiliate program or a drop shipper.  I had never heard of these before, so it was interesting to read about.  I think that the affiliate program sounds like an easier idea to follow than having to choose a drop shipper and follow through with that company with all orders.  Being an affiliate would mean a lot less work, but also a lot less in commission since they are doing all of the work and you are just directing traffic to them.  In the scenario that we are looking at, I would say that this team should chose the affiliate program since they are continuing to work their daily jobs while trying to get this going and understand this business to help their current careers.  In order to truly stay on their current jobs 100%, I would think that they would not want to distract themselves from that too much so they keep on good terms with their current companies.