You don't need to be starting an “online business” for your business to need an online setup.

You might be opening a plumbing business, starting a bookkeeping practice, selling cakes from home or finally getting serious about the side hustle you've been running for a while. Somewhere along the way, you're going to need to work out things like your business name, domain, email address and where customers are actually going to find you.

The confusing part is usually knowing what comes first, what you genuinely need, and what can wait until the business is a little further along.

So, rather than treating “getting your business online” as one enormous job, it helps to look at the individual pieces.

Okay, so what do I actually need to set up?

The exact answer depends on the business, but there are a few things that tend to come up fairly early.

Do I need to register the business first?

Not every person earning money on the side immediately needs to rush out and register a company, but if you are setting up a business that you intend to operate formally, registration is often one of the first things to sort out.

Registering the company gives the business its own legal identity and company registration number. It also makes some of the things that follow easier to keep separate from you personally.

What it does not do is magically set up the rest of the business for you. You still need to deal with things like the name you trade under, your domain, email and whatever customers will use to find or contact you.

If you're at the registration stage, How to Register a Business in South Africa explains what actually happens and where people tend to get stuck.

What about the business name and domain?

This is one of those things that is worth checking earlier than people expect.

You can come up with the perfect business name, register it and start putting it on everything, only to discover that the matching domain is already being used by somebody else.

Your registered company name, the name customers know you by and your website domain are related, but they are not automatically the same thing.

Before you become too attached to a name, it makes sense to check what is actually available. The Business Name and Domain guide goes into that part in more detail.

Can I just use my Gmail address?

Technically, yes. Your business will not stop functioning because you use a Gmail address.

But once you have your own domain, a business email address such as yourname@yourbusiness.co.za usually makes more sense. It keeps your business communication tied to the business rather than to a free personal email account.

It also means you can use the same domain for your email and website, which keeps everything connected as the business grows.

If email addresses, domains and hosting all start sounding like the same thing, they aren't. The Setting Up Business Email guide explains what you actually need and how the different pieces fit together.

Do I need a website straight away?

Not necessarily.

A website makes sense when customers need somewhere reliable to see what you do, understand your services, check whether you are a good fit and contact you.

For some businesses, that matters from the beginning. For others, a simpler online presence may be enough while the business gets going.

What I would not do is build a website simply because you've been told every business must have one. A website should have a job to do.

A plumber might need a straightforward site showing the areas they cover, the work they do and how to request a quote. A business selling products online may need considerably more. Someone working mostly through referrals may need something simpler again.

The Small Business Website Design guide looks at what a useful small-business website actually needs without assuming that bigger is automatically better.

What else needs to be sorted out?

This is where the less exciting bits of starting a business tend to appear.

Depending on what you're doing, you may also need to think about:
• a business bank account
• bookkeeping
• invoicing
• tax
• customer documents
• the basic admin you will use to keep track of things.

You do not need to solve every problem the business might have five years from now. You do need a sensible way to handle the things that are already happening.

For example, once you have registered a company, it will have a SARS income tax number. That does not mean it automatically has a VAT number. If that distinction is causing confusion, Tax Number vs VAT Number in South Africa explains the difference.

What should I sort out first?

There isn't one perfect order that works for every business, but you can make the whole thing considerably easier by dealing with the decisions that affect other decisions first.

You don't have to set everything up at once

It is very easy for starting a business to turn into a shopping list of things you think you are supposed to have.

A registered company. A domain. Five email addresses. A six-page website. Every social media account. Accounting software. Booking software. A CRM. A newsletter. Before long, you're spending more time setting up systems than running the business.

Start with what the business needs to operate and what customers need in order to deal with you.

Then build from there.

If you want a broader list to work through, the Small Business Startup Checklist covers the main pieces without assuming you need to do all of them on day one.