1. Interacting with your clients 

Social media 
Many small businesses now rely heavily on social media to locate, interact with, and sell to their clientele. Social media profiles for your company are easy to set up and maintain, and they offer a variety of tools to help you interact with and connect with potential clients. The primary platforms to start with are: 

Facebook: Facebook might be a good option if you sell to individuals rather than businesses, have a diverse clientele, or have local clients. It can also be helpful when you need to respond to inquiries from customers or provide some background information prior to a sale. Facebook is a user-friendly platform with an excellent ad offering. It can also be used by small or local businesses in place of a website and is effective at handling customer inquiries. 
Instagram: Instagram may be a good fit if you sell to individuals rather than businesses, have a lifestyle brand or product, or run a business that relies heavily on images or videos. In addition to having a good ad offering, click-to-shop functionality, and a variety of content types, Instagram is a great place to showcase your business projects or products. 
LinkedIn: If you sell to businesses, creating a personal account and LinkedIn page can help you connect with and reach your customers. It has an advertising offering and can help with networking, sales, and brand engagement. 
Pinterest: Look at Pinterest if you sell to people, especially women, and you have original content to share. If you run a craft business, sell lifestyle goods or services, provide coaching, work in the hospitality industry, provide creative services, or produce how-to content, it might be a great fit for you. Pinterest offers click-to-shop features, an advertising platform, and the chance to reach new audiences. 
As with any platform, make sure the social media site is appropriate for both your audience and your company. Use the platforms yourself to become familiar with their functionality before you start.
Web page 
Possessing your own website allows you complete control over the information you wish to share with prospective clients and can increase the legitimacy of your company. It can help turn your audience into paying customers and introduce your brand. 

A well-designed website can be created quickly and affordably with the help of one of the many website builder platforms available. Among the most well-known website builders are 

Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Shopify 

2. Online sales and reservations 

Whatever strategy you choose, delivery logistics will need to be taken into account if this is your first time selling online. 

Here are some strategies to think about. 

A short path to selling online 

The quickest way to start selling if you don't already have a website is to use already-existing marketplaces, like:
- eBay 
- Etsy and Amazon 
- Marketplace on Facebook 
- Learn more in this overview of online marketplaces. Be sure to review all fees and terms of use and weigh the advantages of having access to a larger market against the disadvantages. Naturally, you should also think about how you will deliver your goods after they are sold. 
Your own web store 
You must set up an online store if you wish to sell directly to consumers via your own e-commerce website. 
With your website platform, you might be able to add shop functionality to your current website as an add-on. You can accomplish this with platforms like Squarespace, Weebly, or WordPress. 
Alternatively, if this is your first time setting up your shop, you can use a specialized e-commerce platform like Shopify to create an online store. 
Processors of payments 
Even after opening an online store, you will still need to collect payments from your clients. Among the payment processors are: 
Stripe for PayPal 
Please refer to our Business Gateway eCommerce guide for additional e-commerce information. 
Taking online reservations 
To make things easier for both you and your clients, think about implementing an online scheduling tool if your company accepts appointments, reservations, or booking slots. Several tools are available, including:
Acuity Scheduling Appointed 

3. Offering a service for online remote meetings using OpenTable ResDiary 

Businesses that provide advisory services and client consultations continue to use video conferencing and video calling. These can be utilized for workshops, hybrid conferences, and remote meetings. 

Many tools are available for this, such as:
- Microsoft Teams 
- Zoom 
- GoTo 
- Delivering classes 
Delivering classes online allows you to reach a wider audience than you would be able to with physical classes. Many types of classes-—including music, dance, exercise, martial arts, and arts and crafts for adults and children - can work well online.
(This can be restricted to paying customers by creating closed groups, and granting permission to individuals to access them, giving details and links to paying customers only, or hosting content behind a password-protected page on your site.) 
Some tools to consider include: 
- Facebook Live 
-Instagram Live 
- Zoom 
-YouTube 
More help is available on selecting online platforms to run classes. 
Online training courses 
The number of online training courses has boomed in recent years, with more customers turning to online platforms to learn new skills or gain qualifications. If you offer training to your customers, produce 'how to' content, or have a skill you could teach others, consider whether an online course could be right for you.
There are a number of platforms that allow you to create and sell online courses, including:
- Teachable 
- Udemy 
-Thinkific 
- Skillshare 

4. Terms, conditions and costs 

When using any platform or tool, make sure that you check the small print before using it to ensure it meets the standards you need for data security and backup, that you agree with the terms and conditions, and that you have chosen options licensed for business use.

Looking at costs, even with free trials, pricing packages of digital tools can be quite complicated. It’s worth checking: 

Will payments be taken automatically when any free trial has ended? Diary a week before the payment is due so you have time to review and cancel or continue as you wish.
Is there a discount for an annual subscription? This could be worth taking if you plan to use it in the long term 
Does the cost change if you have more staff users? Before committing to a tool, make sure you understand the costs if all your staff are using it. 
You can access free online and virtual adviser support through our DigitalBoost program.