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In this article:\nWhat is an independent contractor agreement?\nWhat is the purpose of an independent contractor agreement?\nDo you need an independent contractor agreement, and w\nhat should be included?\nCan you negotiate the terms of an agreement?\nHow often should an independent contractor agreement be renewed?\nWhere can I find a sample independent contractor agreement?\nFree independent contractor agreement template\nBecoming an independent contractor can be a liberating thing. It allows you the chance to work for yourself, set your own schedules, and spend more time doing the kind of work that you really enjoy. As the gig economy thrives and more people try their hand at \nfreelance or independent contractor\n work, businesses across the country are hiring independent contractors to help supplement areas where they don’t have full-time employees. \nAs an independent contractor, you may be asked to sign an independent contractor agreement by a company that hires you. You may even want to request that each of your clients signs an agreement with you. Throughout this article we’ll discuss the importance of independent contractor agreements, whether or not you need one, and how to get started.  \nWhat is an independent contractor agreement?\nAn independent contractor agreement, also known as a 1099 agreement, is a written agreement between an independent contractor and a client. It generally outlines the terms of the tasks that you’ll perform, including rates, duration of time, and basically the scope of the work that you’ll be doing throughout your time working for your client.\nWhat is the purpose of an independent contractor agreement?\nThe purpose of the agreement is often to have a legal backing for any terms of work that you and your client have agreed upon. This written agreement can help clear confusion over worker classification, your payment terms, taxes, how to resolve disputes, and more. It sets the ground rules for your work with your client. \nIndependent contractor agreements are generally requested by a company that you may work for. This is often to help them cover their responsibilities for taxes and benefits, to protect their intellectual property, and to set other guidelines they feel are necessary for the security of their company. \nAs an independent contractor, you may want to have an agreement ready for your clients that don’t require one—for your own protection. Setting terms in a written agreement holds your clients accountable to those terms and gives you some legal protection if they don’t hold up their end of the deal. \nWho can use a freelancer, gig-worker or contractor agreement?\nAn independent contractor agreement can be used by any contractor, freelancer, consultant, or other type of independent contractor who wants to have a written agreement with their clients. On the other side of that, any company wishing to hire an independent contractor may outline an agreement that must be signed before starting their services. \nDo you need an independent contractor agreement?\nIt is not a legal requirement in most places for independent contractors to have an independent contractor agreement. That being said, it is smart to have some form of written proof of the terms of your work with any of your clients. \nEven if you don’t require your clients to fill out an agreement with you, you may have clients who require you to fill out an agreement to work for them. \nNot having a written agreement can open up grounds for misunderstanding (whether innocent or intentional), and it can save you a lot of time, money, and stress just to have your work outlined in an agreement from the beginning. \nWhat should be included in an independent contractor agreement?\nYour independent contractor agreement may vary from client to client (in fact it probably should if the scope of work varies between each client or project). Whether you are signing an agreement prepared by a client or creating your own agreement, these are some terms that you should include and/or be prepared to sign off on:\nA description of the independent contractor and the client, including legal names, addresses, contact information, and the relationship between the client and contractor (it’s important to state the fact that this will be independent contractor work so that your employment status is properly classified)\nA description of the work that you will be performing—this could be a list of services that you will provide\nThe terms of payment, including your rates (whether hourly, by project, or other terms that apply to your field) and when and how you will be paid\nAn explanation of who will be responsible for expenses (independent contractors generally cover their own expenses, but depending on the project, you may get resources from your client as well)\nA statement that indicates you have all necessary permits, certifications, or licenses to perform the work for which you are being hired\nA statement that you will be responsible for your own state and federal income taxes\nAcknowledgement that as an independent contractor you are not entitled to benefits that your client offers their full-time employees\nA statement that you have liability insurance (if applicable)\nA description of the duration of the agreement (if applicable)\nA description of the circumstances under which the agreement can be terminated\nAn explanation of how disputes will be resolved (mediation, etc.)\nSome agreements may be much more in-depth than this and others may be much simpler depending on the work you are doing and the client it is for. \nHow do you start or request a contractor agreement?\nWhen you are in the interviewing process, applying for a project, or about to start work for a client, you should discuss an independent contractor agreement. This is something that should be completed before you begin the job. \nIf your client hasn’t brought up any kind of agreement of your work for them, then you should ask them about it. Make sure that when you discuss the terms of your work, you get everything approved in a written format. Even having an email agreement is better than just having verbal communication, and can be helpful in the case of a misunderstanding or dispute. \nIf you have a written agreement prepared, send that over to your client to review before agreeing to begin work for them. Likewise, if they send you an agreement, review it and make sure you are comfortable with the terms before signing anything. \nCan you negotiate the terms?\nYou can absolutely negotiate your independent contractor agreement with your client. It’s important to note that some clients, especially larger companies with corporate rules, may not be willing to negotiate or change their terms, though. \nBut you are your own advocate in the job game when you start working for yourself as a contracted hire. Set the terms that you are willing to work for and negotiate your agreements until they are in a place that you are comfortable with. In some cases, it might even mean that you give up some work because you aren’t satisfied with the terms of the agreement. Just know what you are willing to work for and be ready to set those terms with your clients.  \nHow often should an agreement be renewed?\nAn independent contractor agreement can last for a long time, if the terms are set for a longer duration. But even when you are in an agreement for a longer period of time, it can be good to review and renew it periodically. Cases when you might want to renew or change the agreement include:\nWhen your or your client’s information has changed (business name or address)\nWhen you’ve made a change to the scope of work, like adding new services or deliverables that weren’t previously discussed in your agreement\nWhen your terms of payment have changed, like if you’ve updated your rates to stay competitive or changed the method of payment you are receiving\nFree independent contractor agreement template\nAre you ready to get your own independent contractor agreement in place for your next client? There are tons of free templates and sample agreements out there that you can use so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.\nCheck out these sample independent contractor agreements from eForms:\nSimple Independent Contractor Agreement\nComprehensive Independent Contractor Agreement\n \nFor more in-depth agreement templates by state, profession, or type, visit \neforms.com\n. 

Do you need an independent contractor agreement? (includes free sample template)

In this article:\nBest features for your pet services business site\nWhat you should include on your pet business website\nAs you dive into the process of building your pet services website, there’s a little bit of planning that you should do first. Before starting any website, you should have a plan for your content, the basic layout, and any features that you want on your website. \nIf you already have a website, have a look at the content and features/functionality below and consider how you can improve your site.\nThroughout this article, we’ll share the best features that your pet services website should have and provide some examples of great websites that can help give your creative inspiration. \nBest features and content for an effective pet services website\nWith all the many different pet services out there (grooming, veterinary medicine, pet care, pet stores, etc.) the features of one pet service website to another may vary a lot. We’ll go over the best features that any of these pet services should have on their website. \nWell-written content\nProfessional-quality photos\nCall-to-action\nContact information\nBrand representation\nWell-written content\nEvery website needs to have well-written content. This is the foundation for helping you show up well in search engines. But it also needs to be helpful for your clients and written in a way that they can easily understand and get a feel for your business. \nA few tips for writing good content:\nWrite the way that you would talk to a client or customer. Keep it natural and friendly\nKeep your sentences and paragraphs short and easy to consume\nBreak up long pages of text with headings, images, and bulleted lists\nTypes of content that you should include on your pet services website:\nAbout us page—share your story, how you got started, and any other information to help build trust with your clients\nServices—what services do you offer? Share what clients can expect from these services and your experience with them\nContact us page\nThese are the very least that you should include on your website, but to take it the extra mile, keep a regular blog or share additional resources that can help your clients. \nThis is a great way to leverage any of \nyour business’s social media\n content, “pet profiles,” how-to instructional posts, or similar content.\nGo deeper: \nThe do’s and don’ts of writing an effective small business blog\nProfessional-quality photos\nThe photos on your website can make or break it for you. For a pet services business, people expect to see photos of the pets you serve, your facility, and/or your products. \nPhotos are a great way to send trust signals to your customers. You can show them how their pets will be treated in your care. \nMake sure any photos you use are professional-quality. This doesn’t mean you need to hire a photographer (though if you can swing it, that’s not a bad route). You can take your own photos on a camera or phone. With the right composition and lighting, you can get great pictures for your website the DIY way. \nCheck out this guide: \nTop 3 ways to get (and use) professional photos for your small business\n \nA clear call-to-action\nA call-to-action is going to help your website achieve its entire purpose: to get you more customers. Make sure that you have a call-to-action that is always present. This can be “schedule appointment” or “contact us,” or “call now” button in the header of your website or a relevant CTA on each page of your site. \nContact information\nBeyond just having a contact page with your phone number and address, you should have multiple ways for your customers to get in contact with you. Sometimes customers have preliminary questions that they don’t want to pick up the phone for. \nAdditional avenues for contact that you can consider:\nContact form or email address\nFacebook Messenger\nOnline chat\nBrand representation\nYour brand should be well-represented throughout your website. This means that it should be easy to tell the website belongs to your business if someone has been in your facility before. \nSome ways to do this:\nIncorporate your logo and elements from it throughout the site\nUse the fonts and colors from your logo (but keep it simple)\nAdd photos of your facility and staff \nHow to build your pet services website\nThere are many different ways to build a website, but for truly small, one-person businesses, we prefer a DIY website builder. \nA DIY website builder is a platform like Squarespace or Wix that allows you to start from a prebuilt template (or from a blank slate if you really wanted to) and build your site without needing to know how to code. \nHere is a few guides to help with your decision:\n\nHow to build your own business website (step-by-step walkthrough)\n \nTake the next step to improve your online visibility\nCreating a website for your pet services business is a great first step to helping your business show up online, but there’s a little more to it than that. \nThe next step that we encourage businesses to take is claiming all of their \nonline business listings\n and work to get regular reviews on their \nGoogle My Business\n, \nYelp\n, and \nTripAdvisor\n profiles. Online reviews help convert new customers to your business because this is often the first place they look when they are shopping for a new service. 

Pet services business website design: what features should you include?

In this article:\nFree advertising ideas for retail shops\nFree SEO ideas for local businesses\nGet involved locally\nIs the cost of advertising your store bumming you out? It’s a tough gig to start a new business, get your name out there, and start acquiring new customers. But that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, and there are even some free strategies that you can use to get started. \nThese strategies can help you advertise your retail business for free, and several of them will even help you show up better on Google and other search engines!\n1. Create and claim your online profiles\nTo help increase your store’s online visibility, it is imperative that you claim your major online profiles. Google and Yelp are the big ones here. When you claim these profiles, it helps these search engines and review platforms verify that you are a legitimate business and they are more likely to show your listings to customers. \nMake sure you add as much relevant information as possible to these listings so customers can get all of the details they need before coming into your store. \nCheck out our guides:\nHow to claim your Google My Business listing\nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\n2. Get more online reviews\nWhen you have your online profiles created, you can start getting online reviews. Reviews are a powerful conversion tool that will help sway consumers toward your store. \nTry these methods to get new customer reviews:\nProvide great customer service and ask for reviews\nPut signs up that encourage customers to leave reviews on your online platforms\nInclude links to your Google listing in email receipts\nInclude instructions to leave reviews on print and email receipts\n3. Respond to your reviews\nWhen you start getting reviews, it’s important to respond to them too. Develop a rapport with your online followers and customers by engaging with them when they leave nice feedback about your store. \nIt’s especially important to respond to any negative reviews that may come in. You want everyone to have a good experience with your store, so find out what went wrong and try to improve the relationship. This also shows potential customers that you are willing to resolve any issues that may come up. \nGo deeper: \nHow to respond to negative reviews\n\n4. Find more listings sites to post your store on\nBeyond Google and Yelp, there are tons of other free listings sites that you can use to advertise your retail business. When you do start creating these profiles, just be sure that your business name, address, and phone number (also known as NAP) are consistent across all of these. \nInconsistencies with your NAP info can make it difficult for search engines to verify your information, which could result in lower search result rankings. \nGet started with \n25 free business listing websites every small business should be on\n. \n5. Set up a free website\nWhile free websites aren’t always the most user-friendly (for the creator of them) they are a great way to get started if you’re strapped for cash. And every business should have a website. \nSome of the free resources we like for building websites include:\nWix\nSquarespace\nGoogle My Business\nThere may be some fees associated with owning your own domain and hosting the website, but these are usually very manageable and totally worth it when you consider the total cost of creating a website with a professional web developer. \n6. Boost your local SEO\nSEO, or search engine optimization, is how you get your website and business to show up in the search results on Google, Bing, and other search engines. Some of these methods we’ve mentioned, like setting up a website and claiming your online listings, can help you with this. \nWe also have \n15 free tips for better local search engine rankings\n that you’ll definitely want to check out. \n7. Start a blog\nA blog is another thing that can contribute to your SEO efforts. But it can do more than just that. A blog provides value to consumers without them having to purchase anything from you. It can help customers learn more about you and your business too. But remember, you need to keep posting new content regularly for your blog to be worth anything.\nHere are some ideas that you can use for your store’s blog:\nPhotos of new products as they come in\nEmployee features\nVideo tutorials (how to create the perfect budget outfit, how to use specific products you offer)\n8. Start social media accounts\nWhen most of your target customer base is spending at least 30 minutes of their free time on social media, it’s good to take advantage of that. Create social media accounts for your store on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter—whichever is relevant to your business that you can keep up with posting on. \nCreate lots of fun content that users will feel enticed to engage with. Here are some ideas to get you going:\nDiscounts and deals\nNew products\nOutfit pairings (for clothing stores)\nCustomer testimonials\n9. Partner with other local businesses\nGet together with other local businesses and partner with each other on social media. Share each other’s followings by doing a Facebook Live video together and tagging each other’s business page in it. \nMaybe you’re a clothing store that just got a new shipment of workout clothes in. Partner with a local gym to do a fun workout tip post. Get creative with this and have fun. \n10. Send out email newsletters\nEmail might seem like old news, but there’s still a lot of power in this. For retail businesses, send out emails that offer online specials or sweet deals. Use the subject line of the email to mention the deal and entice your customer to open it. \n11. Get involved with your local chamber of commerce\nYour local \nchamber of commerce\n is all about helping small businesses in their community succeed. Take advantage of their resources, like marketing materials and a free listing on their website. This will help get your business out in front of your community. \n12. Get involved with community events\nAnother way to get known in your community is to get involved in local events. Maybe there’s a 5k or a blood drive going on. Volunteer yourself and your employees to help out. Where your logo and display your branding to help spread awareness. \nYou might even offer some free swag to participants like pens, bracelets, or coupons for your store. \n13. Host an online Q&A\nDo you get a lot of questions from customers about the products in your store? Maybe you sell cleaning products and customers want the know what works best to get pet smells out of carpet. Or maybe you sell clothing and jewelry and customers are concerned about what goes best with their hair color and style. \nHost an online Q&A for customers to ask their questions or with a list of common questions that you hear from customers and answer them. Post this on your website, in your blog, and on your social media channels.\n14. Offer discounts and promotions\nWe all love to save a few bucks. Offer some sweet deals to your customers to entice them to come into your store and share those deals with their friends. Never underestimate the power of referrals when it comes to great deals. \n15. Start a loyalty program\nSpeaking of saving some money, loyalty programs are a great way to advertise your store and get customers to buy more items. Use a point system or punch card and after they spend so much money, give them some store credit. \nCheck out our guide: \nThe 6 elements of an effective customer loyalty program\n16. Make promotional videos\nMake promotional videos to share on your website, online listings, and social profiles. One resource we like for this is \nBiteable\n. You can create a free video that looks professional and shows off the great qualities of your store. \n17. Start a YouTube channel\nWhen you make your promotional videos, online Q&A’s, or video tutorials, share them on a YouTube channel. This is another great way to spread brand awareness, attract new customers, and build up your online reach. \n18. Put customer testimonials on your website\nReviews are powerful. And sharing a video testimonial that shows a customer who is genuinely happy with their experience at your store can go a long way. You can use these as a part of your promotional videos, add them to your social media accounts, and gain more opportunities to bring in customers. \n19. Post on the Facebook Marketplace\nTake advantage of every platform out there for putting your products in front of new customers. People are constantly searching for great deals on things they need in the Facebook Marketplace. Post popular items from your store in the Marketplace to get them in front of more people. \nYou’ll have to do this from your personal page, but customers want to connect with real people, so it’s really a win-win. \n20. Print out flyers\nSpread awareness of your store the good old fashioned way with printed flyers. Get a friend or local college graphic design student to create a professional-looking flyer with an enticing promotion and post those things everywhere! \nTest out these strategies to see what works best for your store as you’re getting started. Get new customers, and start growing your business!

20 free local advertising ideas for your retail business

For ordinary consumers, paying bills with a credit card can be a great way to rack up rewards points, build credit, and get more flexibility with payments. But can businesses get similar benefits by paying their expenses, vendors, and suppliers with a credit card?\nThe answer is yes, but with some caveats. The first is that not all vendors and suppliers (or mortgage companies, utility companies, internet providers, etc.) even \naccept\n credit cards. Roughly half of American businesses still need to pay at least 50% of their bills using paper checks. (More on this later.)\nAnother “gotcha” with using your business credit card to pay expenses and bills is that you have to be very careful to pay it off on time each month, otherwise you end up paying significantly more for your expenses, due to credit card interest charges (or heaven forbid, late payment fees).\nAlso, though using a credit card to pay business bills can help \nimprove cash flow\n, you have to resist the temptation to pay bills with a credit card if you don’t have the cash to pay the bill—or won’t have by the time the credit card statement is due. Never use a credit card to pay a bill if you don’t know how you’re going to come up with the money.\nBenefits of using a credit card to pay business expenses\nNow let’s go over some of the benefits of using a credit card to pay your business bills and expenses.\nMiles, rewards, perks, cashback, discounts\nNearly all credit cards offer special member advantages and perks, and for small business owners this can be a huge asset. \nBusiness owners who rack up lots of points or airline miles using one of these cards can pay for a significant portion or even all of their business travel expenses, get discounts for business expos, enjoy free concierge service, get free car rental insurance and discounts, and much, much more.\nSome small business owners use their cashback bonuses to buy equipment, pay for employee team-building events, or even pay utilities. The uses for rewards points/cashback bonuses are almost limitless, and the more you spend, the more rewards you earn.\n\nPaying by card saves time and can improve cash flow\nMailing a check can take quite a few days—or even weeks—process the payment. When you pay your expenses, vendors, and suppliers using a credit card, you speed up the process and free up cash for other business expenses.\nNow, please note: “free up cash” does not mean you can simply put those bills on a credit card and then forget about them. You obviously need to pay them off. \nHowever, You get a grace period, or effectively a 0% interest loan, when you use a credit card… as long as you keep paying off your balance on time every month. Since you haven’t spend that cash or sent it out as a check, you can use it to run your business or whatever else you need until your credit card statement comes due.\nRegularly using your card improves your business credit\nYour business has a credit score (from 1 to 100) just like you as a consumer do. The better your business credit is, the lower your rates for business loans, financing on essential equipment, etc.\nIf your credit card company finds you regularly pay your credit card statement on time and use much of your available credit, you can typically ask them to increase the credit limit available to your business which can further improve your business credit rating (and allow you more flexibility and more purchasing power).\nAgain, you need to make very sure you’re paying your card balance off on time to keep these benefits coming.\nPutting all your bills on one card simplifies bookkeeping \nWhen you have to keep track of expenses and bills for your business in addition to running your business, simpler is better. If you can move all of your monthly business expenses, rent, utilities, supplier payments, etc. to a single card, it’s much easier to keep track of.\nSolo makes it easy to pay and get paid\nSolo is not a bank, but is a financial super-app for small businesses, freelancers, sole proprietors, contractors, and more. Solo is the easy way to pay and get paid. Your customers don't have to sign up to pay you, and can use several payment methods, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and cards. QR codes make it easy to get paid, and you can easily cash out your Solo account balance for free, or spend it using your Solo Cash Card anywhere Visa is accepted. Learn more at \nSolo.co\n.

Is it smart to pay business bills using a credit card?

In this article:\nAre free website hosting and domain services really free?\nAdvantages to free web hosting and domain\nDisadvantages to free domain and website hosting\nThe “almost free” option for web hosting\nThe importance of building a solid online presence\nIf you’re reading this article, you are likely aware of the importance of creating and maintaining a \nsmall business website\n. Every small business needs a website, even super-small one-person concerns, if for no other reason than to attract more local customers and \nimprove your local SEO\n. But a good, \nsimple website\n site can be a robust marketing, customer relationship management, and sales tool, rather than be merely informative. \nSmall business owners are almost always on a tight budget, so you may be tempted to use any of the thousands of “free web hosting” or “free domain” options available. Several of the major website builder platforms offer a free option, as Wix does.\nNaturally, like the man once said, there is no free lunch. Everything that’s “free” actually costs you something, whether in time, convenience, features, control, bandwidth, advertising space, or any number of other ways.\nLet’s go over some of the pros and cons, and some of the advantages and features, of some of the “free” domain and web hosting options, so you can make a more informed decision.\n(Please note: we have made an effort to provide accurate information as of the time of the publication of this article, but of course prices and features may change without notice.)\nAdvantages (or “pros”) to free website hosting and domain\nThere are dozens, even hundreds, of free web hosting and free domain services, so obviously there are significant upsides or “pros” to going this route.\nIt’s, well… free!\nIf cost is your primary concern when getting your website up and running, then you can’t do better than free. There are tradeoffs (see below) but you absolutely can get your domain and your web hosting for free.\nUsually quick to get set up\nMany free hosting and domain providers can get your site “on the web” almost instantly. If you want to redirect your own, previously purchased domain, that can take a little while (and most don’t allow it; see below), but if all you need is “a website for your business,” then you can get yours built and functional in almost no time.\nSimple to use\nSimple is often best for busy small business owners, and nearly every free web hosting and domain provider makes it very simple to get your website built and online. You don’t have to know any HTML or code or, really, any design principles. If you can drag/drop items around a computer screen, and maybe select/highlight/copy/replace text, you pretty much have all the skills you need.\nMany offer templatized website builders, pre-built pages, and tutorials\nWith some of the free sites, you get access to pretty impressive array of website building tools, templates, free stock images, and tutorials. Wix is a very popular choice here.\nDisadvantages (or “cons”) to free website hosting and domain\nNow that we’ve covered some of the benefits to using a free hosting and domain service, let’s talk about some of the tradeoffs.\nOn-page advertisements\nIn the digital realm, “free” always comes with a cost, and one of the primary ways you pay for free web hosting and domain is with ads that will appear on your website, pretty much on every page. \nDepending on the site you use, these can be either pretty unobtrusive or pretty obnoxious. Some sites put their ads in a banner along the bottom of each page, while some keep them prominently at the top, and make them “sticky” so they move down as you scroll through your pages.\nThese ads may be a simple pitch to visitors of your site that they should use the same free site builder you used (Wix.com does this, for example), and they may be for products and services that are related to your business’s products and services. Or, they might be completely random banner or pop-up ads, some of which might be for things you don’t want to be associated with. \n(Image)\nIf you want to get rid of the ads, many of these service providers will remove them for a monthly fee… but then your free hosting and domain isn’t free anymore, is it?\nYou generally can’t use your own custom domain name\nMost free domain and hosting options don’t allow you to specify a custom domain (i.e., www.yourbusinessname.com). Your business website will be hosted on the “cloud” via their servers and on their domain, which means your website address will typically be something like [yourusername].[thefreehostingsite].com/[yourbusinessname] or at best [yourbusinessname].[thefreehostingsite].com. This doesn’t exactly roll trippingly off the tongue and isn’t easy to remember or market.\nSome companies allow you to upgrade to a custom domain (or redirect one you already own) for a small cost, but then, it’s not actually free anymore. Are you starting to see how this works?\nBandwidth throttling and limited or no storage\nBandwidth is basically like the utilities company of your site. Data is the “water” that makes your site run, and you pay for what you use. If you have a lot of visitors/traffic to your site, you use a lot of bandwidth, which your hosting company has to pay for.\nFor free hosting and domain providers, it’s common to limit your “free” bandwidth severely, because, after all, you’re not paying for it. And if you have images or videos hosted on your webpages, they can eat up a ton of bandwidth whenever they’re streamed or downloaded.\n(Image)\nStorage is almost always capped as well, because every image and video and music file and .pdf on your website, and every item in your online store has to be stored on the free host’s server, which you’re not paying for. So if you have a good amount of content and images to store, you’ll probably bump up against your limit pretty quickly.\nOnce you know what level of bandwidth/usage and storage your website will require, you can generally upgrade to a paid plan that fits your needs.\nLimited design and template options\nThis is an issue with all templatized online website builders, but particularly for free options which sometimes can be even more limited than the basic “pay” versions. While they make things easier for novices and you can create a great-looking site using some of them, there is necessarily a limitation on the design and template choices you can choose from.\nSome, like WordPress, allow pretty robust plugin and customization options, particularly if you know a bit of code, but with most free options you’ll be selecting from a few pre-designed layouts, within which you can usually make certain customizations.\nAgain, if all you want is “a website” that looks good enough to make your business seem professional and provide contact information and current hours (which is indeed valuable), then this may not be a concern for you.\nPoor on-site performance, questionable SEO, and spam\nAll pre-built, templatized webpages can potentially suffer from website performance issues like slow page loading, poor image loading, and other problems. The fewer options you have for on-site optimization, the less control you have over page load speed and other performance of your pages.\nIn addition, Google and other search engines might not “see” your free site and recommend it in search results as often as you think they should, if you are using a free site hosting service. This is because free site hosting companies might be tempted to stuff too many websites on a server than it can safely handle, which can cause lag and other performance issues. Since page load speed is one of the key factors in Google’s algorithm, this in turn can induce Google to remove your site from search results.\nAnother issue is that the host company itself may be engaging in practices that search engines consider “spammy” and this will trickle down to you if you’re hosted there. Depending on what ads they run, you might be inadvertently advertising questionable products and services or even including links to malicious software or malware on your site (this is somewhat unlikely but it is possible depending on how reputable your free site host is).\n(Image)\nPotentially lower-tier support \nSince you’re not paying the company anything, they may not prioritize fixing any issues that may come up. \nOn the other hand, if you pay for “VIP” customer support on some website hosting sites, you can skip the line and get higher levels of personalized service in case of service outages, downed websites, and other broken functionality. If you are not paying them anything, you may just be subject to the luck of the draw, or even get no response at all.\nIf getting someone on the phone/chat/email quickly in the case of trouble is valuable to you, then you should make that a priority and pay for the full-service site.\nFree websites can seem “iffy”/not legitimate\nA basic webpage with a bunch of unrelated banner ads plastered all over it doesn’t exactly paint your business in the best light. If you’re trying to capture local searches and give out basic information about your business, this may be sufficient. But to truly help support your brand, your website should ideally be an extension of your physical space. \nWith some of the free options out there, this may or may not be a possibility. \nThe “almost free” hosting and domain option\nI think we can all agree that $2.95 a month for web hosting is pretty much a steal. Well, that’s what you will currently pay for a WordPress website when you sign up via \nBlueHost\n. ($2.95 for hosting, or $4.95/mo for building a website using their drag-and-drop Wordpress builder.)\nTruth be known, it’s really not that expensive to get your own custom domain registered (usually around $15 a year or so), and web hosting can be as little as $8 a month, with no ads and enough bandwidth and storage to meet the needs of some small businesses.\nIf you want to \nsell\n things via your website, you’re going to want the ecommerce functionality and shopping carts, along with the increased bandwidth and storage that go with it, and in that case we’re talking (ballpark) about $30/month for hosting (BlueHost's online stores start at $15.95/mo), and more if you need additional storage, bandwidth or features, so usually the truly free option is not the right choice for you in that case.\nWhen you consider \nhow important a website is for small businesses\n, the fairly low cost of building and maintaining a professional-looking, highly functional website seems like the biggest bargain in the world.\nWork to strengthen your online reputation\nGetting your small business website up and running is a key part of building your online presence, but it’s not the only thing you need to do. Online review sites like Google My Business, Yelp, and TripAdvisor are extremely important for local businesses.\nWhen you get regular online reviews and engage with your customers online, everything about your business performs better online, including how your website and \nonline listings\n show up in local search results.

Are “free” website hosting and domains really free? Pros and cons

In this article:\nWhy sell on social media?\nHow to add your products to Facebook and Instagram\nHow to start selling on Facebook and Instagram\nCompatible 3rd-party eCommerce platforms\nSmarter small business owners have been moving more aspects of their businesses online over the last few years. The world is strongly transitioning to a more digital commerce space, and even local businesses are having to compete with the likes of Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, and other online stores. \nLocal brick-and-mortar stores still have lots of appeal and unique benefits, primarily in a personalized customer experience and great service. But even this type of business should have a strong online presence, and ideally be selling in a “unified commerce” model where your products and services are available in multiple sales channels.\nSuper small, one-person shops, microbusinesses, freelancers, and sole proprietors can get started or even flourish by selling their products and services entirely online.\nThrough your business Facebook page, you can now set up an eCommerce store that allows you to get more visibility for your products from your social media audiences on Facebook and Instagram. You’ll even be able to advertise your products easily to reach your target customer. \nWhy sell on Facebook and Instagram?\nNow is the time for your business to take advantage of the number of people using these two social media giants. With nearly 3 billion active monthly users on Facebook and 1 billion users on Instagram worldwide, you have a lot of opportunity to reach new customers. \nWith more people opting to order online pickup from grocery stores, do their shopping on Amazon, and spend hours each day on social media, it’s more important than ever for you to be selling online. Facebook and Instagram are the perfect place to get started if you aren’t already there, and if you have an online store, it might be easier to start a social media shop than you think. \nHow does a Facebook store work for small businesses?\nSetting up a Facebook shop will allow you to sell products directly from your business Facebook page. You’ll have two main options for getting your page set up: upload your products directly to Facebook or import your products through a third-party eCommerce system. We’ll go more in-depth on each of these options below.\nSet up a your business Facebook page\n if you don’t already have one. \nOnce your products are loaded onto your Facebook page, visitors can click on your “shop” tab in the menu on your page and start purchasing from you like any other eCommerce site. Make sure that you continue to grow your Facebook audience in order to gain more opportunities to get new customers. \nHow does shopping on Instagram work?\nMost companies that have a Facebook page also have an Instagram account because the two are so closely connected (Facebook owns Instagram and many of the features and demographics interconnect between platforms). You can link your Facebook page to Instagram and easily cross-post content without having to heavily manage each platform individually. \nSet up your business Instagram account\n if you don’t already have one. \nWith the eCommerce options on Instagram, there is a little bit of this integration with Facebook as well. In order to set up an Instagram store, you’ll need to have your Instagram profile connected to a Facebook catalog, which comes back to those two options we mentioned previously: uploading directly to Facebook or using a third-party eCommerce system. \nOnce your page is connected, you can share posts and stories that tag your individual products and link back to them on Facebook to allow followers to complete their purchases. \nLet’s go over how to get this started. Before you can ever sell anything, you need to get your products uploaded properly to each of your accounts. \nHow to start selling on Facebook\nThe first step is to upload your products to your Facebook page. Now’s the time to dive deeper into the two ways to do this. \nOption 1: Add your products manually\nGo to your Facebook business page and click on Shop in the menu bar. If you don’t see this, follow these \ninstructions to change your page template\n.\nClick “Go to Commerce Manager” where you’ll be redirected to Facebook’s Commerce Manager to add your products and manage your store. \nNext, follow the prompts to link your business accounts, set your shipping and return options, and set up payouts. \nOnce the shop is set up you can add a catalog of your products. Select “Create Catalog” in the eCommerce manager. If you don’t see this option, go to \nhttps://www.facebook.com/products\n. \nSelect the category that best describes your business: ecommerce, travel, real estate, or auto. For most businesses, you’ll likely select ecommerce. 
\n(Image)\n\nClick next and then select “Upload Product Info.” Under “Who owns this catalog?” make sure that the correct Facebook business page is selected. And then name your catalog. Click “Create” and then “View Catalog.”
\n(Image)\n\n
\n(Image)\n\nIn the menu on the left, select “Products” to start adding products to your new catalog. 
\n(Image)\n\nFollow the prompts to add your products. Click “Add products.” From here you will have the option to add each product manually or to create a Google sheet to bulk upload your products (recommended if you have a large inventory that regularly changes). We’re going to walk you through the individual product loading in this guide. Select “Add Manually” and click “Next.”
\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nUpload an image for your product and add the following information: name, description, content ID or SKU (if you have it), link to product on your website, and price. Repeat this process for each product.
\n(Image)\n\n
\nOnce your products are uploaded, click “Use Cases” on the left menu bar.
\n(Image)\n\n
\nSelect “Get Started with Page Shops” and connect a Facebook Business page to your shop. Once your page is connected, your shop items will automatically be generated in the “Shop” section of your page. 
\n(Image)\n\nOption 2: Use a third-party ecommerce platform\nSeveral third-party ecommerce sites are partnering with Facebook to help their customers easily add their products to their business pages on Facebook. If you are currently using a third-party service to sell your products on your website, find out if your provider is offering Facebook integrations that will allow you to automatically add each of your products to your page. \nHere are some of the ecommerce sites that are working with Facebook on this:\nEcwid\nShopify\nBigCommerce\nWoo\nChannel Advisor\nCedCommerce\nCafe24\nTienda Nube\nFeedonomics\nMake sure your Facebook page has a shop section and follow the instructions from your individual ecommerce solution to upload your products to your Facebook page. \nHow to start selling on Instagram\nIn order to sell and advertise your products on Instagram, you’ll need to get your products added to a Facebook account that is connected to your Instagram account. Follow the instructions above for adding your products to Facebook. \nOnce you have your products added to Facebook, go to your Commerce Manager and click “Use Cases” in the left menu bar. Click “Get Started with Instagram Shopping” and connect your Instagram account to your Commerce Manager. \n(Image)\n\nWhen that is done, you’ll be able to tag products from your Facebook catalog on your Instagram posts and stories for users to easily click over to your Facebook store or website to make their purchase. \nDon’t wait to get started. It can take a little time to get everything verified on your Instagram and Facebook accounts, so get the process started as soon as possible so you can reach your customers with this new method of shopping online. \nAs you begin selling on Facebook and Instagram, these pages are going to become online extensions of your business, much like your website, so make sure you stay on top of it!\nSources:\n
\nhttps://techcrunch.com/2020/05/19/facebook-shops/\n

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