The next step in my business adventure was to set up a website and create a logo.
The first piece was to secure a domain name for the business. I have used GoDaddy in the past for securing and managing my personal website domain (aduckworth.com) so I decided to use them again to purchase my duckworthinnovations.com domain. The process was pretty simple and I was able to secure the domain for two years at about $35.
My next step was to start building out the site. I was paying for G Suite for the business so I decided to use Google Sites to create a simple website. The process was pretty straightforward, except for adding the domain to the site. It took a little back and forth with Google Support but I was able to get it configured and running.
Finally I needed to get a logo for the business. I am pretty comfortable with manipulating graphics so I decided to search the web for any logo creation tools out there to get an initial idea started that I could tweak later as needed. The site I settled on was FreeLogo Design. Their online app had a really intuitive interface and they had a large selection of design options. I also liked the fact that you could select the kind of business you had and they were able to narrow the selection down a bit. Once I had a log created that I liked I paid $39 to get the SVG and PNG images. The SVG images are great as I could open them up in Adobe Illustrator and tweak further as needed.
All of this gave me the basic building blocks for my online presence and I was ready to start exploring how I was going to handle the financial transactions!