Terp Toolkit highlights resources for starting your business.
Do you have an exciting business idea or startup that is gaining traction, but not quite sure how to get started with managing your growing venture? In this installment of Terp Toolkit, we’ll cover the basics — such as web hosting, development, phone, and email — which are essential to scaling your startup.
Web Hosting
Check out Host-shopper.com for an overview and reviews of the most popular web-hosting options. Some highly rated options include:
Development
If you are looking for development help or contracted services you can search available talent at Elance. For cloud computing services, the two largest players are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. AWS is the largest and most commonly used – they also run a lot of promotions, so see if there are ways to try out the service for free. You can set up your website using a Content Management System. Some of the most common are listed below, in order of easiest to use but least powerful to hardest to use but most powerful.
- Squarespace (Basic website builder with many templates to choose from)
- WordPress (Best pick for beginners, works well for small to medium sized websites & blogs)
- Joomla (Good for E-commerce type of sites, but require at least some level of technical coding)
- Drupal (The hardest, but also the most powerful CMS)
Phone Services 
Here are some options for phone services if you are looking to set up a business number:
Some of these tools also offer the option of setting up a business number that will forward to a personal or cell phone number.
There are two options: 1) creating a free e-mail through Gmail, Verizon, Comcast, or other major service providers, or 2) using a registered domain name as an e-mail extension. 
1) This option is free but does not allow you to register using name@yourcompanyname.com; instead, you will need to create yourcompanyname@gmail.com. This is a good option for very small startups with a single founder or a small team that do not need their own e-mails.
2) If you have purchased a domain name, even if you don’t have a website set up yet, you can create an e-mail for each employee that is name@yourdomainname.com. Oftentimes, your web host will offer this option. Name.com also offers inexpensive options to create custom e-mail addresses. Founders and employees also have the ability to link these e-mail addresses to existing personal or business accounts – most major service providers offer this option.
Stay tuned for our next Terp Toolkit, which will cover office space solutions.
Interested in additional business guidance or startup resources? Come to Pitch Dingman on Fridays for feedback on your business ideas from our experienced EIRs, or consider applying to our incubator, Fearless Founders.