I've learned a lot on this journey to get myself out there and work with the general public.  I've made a lot of mistakes along the way, but that's given me some experience to pass along to you in order for you to get out there and help minimize the suffering in this world as cheaply and efficiently as possible.

I want everyone with a passion for health to get out there and assist others with their health and wellness, and do so in a professional, sleek, and impressive manner.

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You can absolutely start a viable business/brand and look classy for as little as $1 per month (the $1 is just for web hosting).

 

All you need is a name, website, logo, e-mail, phone number, and a passion to help others.  I can help you with the first 5, but the sixth is up to you. 

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Let's get started so that you can get online ASAP and start helping others!

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Brand Vision

 

Before you even begin this endeavor, you have to ask yourself what exactly do you want to do to help others?  Do you want to interact with people online via video calls or over the phone via calls and texts?  Are you open to showing your face?  Do you have a desktop computer or laptop to engage people and create a website with?  

Think of your brand (name, logo, website) as encapsulating your passion, personality, goals, experience, and style all together.  Let the color patterns on your website, the symbol on your logo, and your name all highlight different aspects of your mission to help others. 

I went with a "key and door" motive with my logo and website color scheme to highlight Detoxing the Lymph System as being the key to health.  My own personal story of discovering Detox and the Lymph System through Dr. Morse in 2017 drove me to create this brand.  Thus, I've used the key as a symbol for the personal significance Detoxification has given to me in my life.   

 

If you're unsure of a name, logo, or direction for your brand, then I recommend looking within to find any patterns or clues that highlight your history and experiences that encapsulate who you are and your passion.  

When in doubt, you can always just use your name and plop on "Wellness" or "Health" at the end of it.  Or you can use a unique word in front of "Wellness" or "Health," but the problem is that almost every website domain with those keywords are taken.  You need to be crafty and unique, but also realistic to the idea that you may not be able to claim the exact name you'd like to have and show to the general public. 

Website Vision 

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Your website will be your biggest project to work on, and may take you anywhere from 3-6 months to have a satisfactory amount of content up to reflect your knowledge and experience.  You need to plan and have a vision for what exactly you want to display on your website. 

Do you want your site to reflect a comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of various topics?  That will take a great deal of writing, editing, and research, which will take months before your website feels full enough to support your expertise.  Do you want more of a diary or blog-like approach?  You are still going to need to write a lot pf quality content, albeit in a not-so-technical fashion.

Would you rather have your direction be more video and YouTube focused, with your website merely pointing to your many social media channels?  Maybe more photos and illustrations and less words?

Your direction for your site will also determine how soon you go live.  At some point you will need to find a happy medium of content to where you feel you are ready to interact with others.  Whether you have content on your website or YouTube channel, you need to start building today.  

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Important: Make sure you pinpoint an available domain name and e-mail address as early in the preparation process as possible.  Simply type in your desired website name into any domain website (like Google Domains) to see if it's available and if it's a premium name to acquire.  Brainstorm as many domain names as possible as any name you think of will probably be taken and held onto by someone that wants to ultimately flip that domain for thousands of dollars.  It was frustrating to see that over 2 dozen domains were all taken (and not utilized as actual websites) just for someone to flip it for easy cash.  

 

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Website Building

To begin, you don't need to learn HTML or CSS or any kind of coding.  Simply use a website builder from the likes of Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, or any other web builders.  If you're going to go with the more premium website builders, always wait for a sale whether on Black Friday or some seasonal event.

 

I personally use Wix and opted for the "Light" tier that advertises for $16 per month, but got it for half off on a sale and bought 3 year's worth of service for an additional discount.

 

Here's an example of a recent sale Wix routinely has where they discount their web builder services when you 

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I do like the ease of use of Wix's website builder, but it's definitely got its clunky bits here and there.  I don't see any reason why Squarespace, GoDaddy, or any other builder wouldn't be just as good though.  If you go with Wix, get the "Light" or "Core" options on a sale and get 3 years of service so that you're only paying around $10 per month.  $120 a year for a website builder is not too bad if it means you can help even 100 people out there.  Plus the experience you'll gain that year is well worth the small cost.

Worst case scenario is that you downgrade from a fancy website builder into a cheaper or free alternative.  As long as you have your Domain name, you can connect your domain name to whatever website builder you'd like (or even build your own website if you can code). 

If you want to go as cheap as possible with a website builder or have something to downgrade into after paying for a premium builder for a year or two, use Google Sites.

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This video by Kevin Stratvert is an excellent video tutorial to utilize Google Sites and get yourself a website up and rolling in just a couple of hours.  You can find plenty of other tutorials on YouTube as well.

For website hosting, use Google Domains.  They charge only $1 a month for most domain names and include the privacy features that hide your information from public databases.  That's $12 a year for a website domain name that's all yours with the privacy and security features you need.  Many of the other website hosting companies (like Wix and GoDaddy) charge extra for the security features, so always look out for that. 

 

Note: You do not need a credit card to pay for website hosting with Google Domains.  You can merely use a Visa gift debit card you'd buy at places like Walmart (those $25 ones with the $3 activation fee are an example) and merely use that as your form of payment.  

I wanted to stress this again as it's such great news: You can literally have a website up and functioning for just $1 a month using Google Sites and Google Domains without needing a credit card or fancy high-end PC or laptop.

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If you want to spend absolutely nothing for a website and hosting, then Wix, Weebly and Canva all have a free tier option that includes ads on the page, limited bandwidth to put content on your site, and a long and ugly web domain name that you cannot change or modify.  On Canva's site, just search for "website" in the search bar to find various templates you can use, although some templates are behind a paywall. 

 

While this free alternative is an option if you absolutely do not want to spend any money, it will make you look less professional.  It is a last-ditch option to get your feet wet and get yourself out there, but I personally cannot stand ads and the minimal costs to eliminate them as well as have my own personal domain name justify spending just a little bit of money per month.  Even just a basic website made with Google Sites and hosted by Google Domains would look far more professional than a free webpage from Wix that has ads and an ugly domain name.

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Still, there's nothing wrong with actually building up a free site with Wix or Canva and simply transferring the content and ideas to another platform when you're ready. 

 

One of the best things you can do right now is create a draft of a website and continually build it bit by bit using Canva or Wix or even Google Sites.

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Start now and get building as I can guarantee you that you will have to make tweaks, changes, and altogether have to modify your vision slightly to get something function into an actual website.

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Payments and Donations

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If you want to get paid for services on your website, then you can use Paypal, Venmo, or Cashapp.  You can get the respective donation links to your account on each of those websites and link them to your website.

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If you paid for a premium or "business" version of a website builder, then you can have people purchase services or content off your website through those business features.  You can decide if you want to charge for site assess, memberships to premium content, or even for video series or programs that you develop.  You are ultimately paying for the website builder to track the money for you as well as the functionality of locking content behind paywalls.  

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If you didn't pay for the business features, then you can have people merely send you money through Paypal, Venmo, or Cashapp and keep track of those payments on your end.  

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The more payment mediums you use, the more customers you are able to service as not everyone would have access to all 3 payment mediums.

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For donations, the location of where you place your buttons for clients to donate is very important.  Placing the donation buttons at the footer allows clients to access those buttons no matter what page of your website they're on.  Having a separate page on your website with more details on donations is also preferable.

 

Logo

 

You're going to need a sleek logo to help with your branding.

 

Use Canva to design your logo for free to use on your website.  Make an account and search for "logo" on the home page to be taken to a selection of templates that you can edit.

 

You'll find that many features and designs are hidden behind a paywall, Canva Pro.  In order to have a transparent background when you download your logo, Canva also requires you be subscribed to their pro tier.  The way out of this is to sign up for a trial of the Canva pro service by using a visa gift debit card that you can buy from Walmart or a grocery store.  Even if you depleted the original amount on the card (whether it was $25, $50, or $100), you can still use that card to get your free trial of Canva pro and get your logo set up with all of the bells and whistles.

 

Kevin Stratvert has an excellent tutorial video to create a logo on Canva here.

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With logos, simpler is always better.  An easier to read font is always preferred.  Color scheme is extremely important as you'd want your website to match the colors you use in your logo.

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Try to go with a less horizontal logo with too much writing.  I've learned the hard way 

Once you've saved your logo, use it in your e-mail signature to further make your online presence more professional.

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Here are sample logos I made before deciding on my current logo.

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E-mail
 

You can use whatever e-mail domain you want, just make sure the name matches your brand as closely as possible.  If your website is "Ilovefruits.com," please don't have your e-mail be "iheartfruitsberriesandmelons@gmail.com."

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  Many website builder's like Wix charge for a business professional e-mail.  I would have to pay $6 per month to have access to "contact@goldenkeyhealth.org" so I opted for using a Gmail address instead.

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I find Gmail is the best free e-mail to use for both personal and professional contexts.  Two issues with using Gmail over paying for a professional e-mail is that it's less professional having "@gmail.com" in your e-mail compared to a website domain "@goldenkeyhealth.org," and that there's very few available e-mail names you may be able to claim as your own.

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I highly recommend before getting any website domain is to check to see if you can even grab a Gmail account using the name you want for your brand.  Both Goldenkeyhealth@gmail.com and goldenkeyhealth.com were taken much to my disappointment when I finally decided on a name and vision for my brand.  This is why I have to use goldenkeytohealth@gmail.com, which is not as easy to remember when I tell people my website in-person or over the phone.  

Learn from my mistakes and check for both web domain name and Gmail availability so you don't kick yourself for a lack of preparation.  

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Phone Number

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You don't need to use your personal cell phone for your business.

 

I am given the option of getting a Business professional "800" number through Wix for $15 per month.  While that would look more professional, it's not worth the money when most clients I find reach out via e-mail.  Plus, "800" doesn't give me a more local presence that a local area code would give me, for whatever it's worth.

I use Google Voice for my business number (770-904-9143) and it's the only free option with no ads and with clear and stable call quality.

You can call, send and receive voice messages, and text with Google Voice. And the app is free to download even on older Android phones.

You need to have access to a personal cell phone number to acquire a Google Voice phone number.  You cannot use a VoIP from something like Textfree or Textnow to get a Google Voice number.

 

Keep in mind that you will also need a personal cell phone number to access Whatsapp.  You can use a Google Voice number to access Whatsapp, but that Google Voice number will still require a personal cell phone number to register.

If you do not have a cell phone number and no one is willing to lend you access to their number to set up a Google Voice account, the cheapest option for a phone plan is T-Mobile Connect at just $10 per month for 1 Gb of data and restricted minutes and texts.  I prefer T-Mobile Connect over Mint Mobile as you can merely visit any T-Mobile retail store and get set up with a phone plan with a sim card that same day rather than deal with Mint Mobile online.  You also do not need a credit card or even need to use credit to get the pre-paid T-mobile Connect line for $10 per month.  You could also just use this phone plan to conduct your business and for friends and family and not have to rely on an app.  It's your choice on how integrated you want your phone communications to be.  I like having Google Voice as a separate app for business purposes that separates my personal contacts directly on my phone with my business contacts on the app.  

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I do not recommend the Textfree or Textnow Wifi calling/texting apps for Androids and iPhones given the bad call quality and the sheer amount of ads for their corresponding free tiers.  They're good in a pinch or when you just want a texting platform separate from your personal number that only requires downloading an app and using Wifi.  You can merely text people your contact info to your Whatsapp, Skype, or Google Meet accounts and conduct your business on those platforms if you don't have access to a phone line (or have poor reception/bad internal phone microphone).

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Video Content

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I highly recommend both Capcut and Clipchamp for your video editing needs.  Both video editing platforms are completely and can be utilized in a browser (in case your pc/laptop isn't too powerful).  Downloading both software platforms does afford you more editing options (such as narrating your voice in Capcut).  

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Kevin Stratvert has excellent tutorial videos for both Clipchamp and Capcut to give you some inspiration on how you'd like to edit your videos.

You can skip using an Intro and Outro if your Video content will be excusive to your website (whether paid or free).  If you are going to be making YouTube content for the general public for general marketing of your brand, then utilize an intro and outro.

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Use Canva for templates you can easily download.  Simply type in "intro" or "outro" for a series of free video templates you can easily modify by inputting your brand logo and website details.  Many of the templates are behind the Canva Pro paywall, but if you signed up for the pro tier trial for your logo, then you can use that free month trial to make your intro and outro for your brand. 

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Absolutely make an intro video for yourself and put it on the homepage of your website.  Write a script and keep the video around 2-3 minutes long with some captivating music in the background. 

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You can export your video creations directly into YouTube or TikTok to build your brand and exposure on both platforms.

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You can also easily embed your YouTube videos into whatever website builder you decide to use with those respective tools.

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You don't need to record yourself on camera or even engage clients over video (especially if you have a face for radio like me).  Use OBS to record your screen so that you can record response videos to YouTube videos or website content in general.  You will need a decent set of headphones to record your voice as well as use for your consultations on Google Meet, Skype, or Zoom.

I recommend this headset for the best bang for your buck in terms of sound quality and durability for under $25.  Always look for a sale when it's $20 and buy the 2 year Geek Squad protection to protect the investment and minimize losses.

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Health Assessment Form

 

Regarding the Health Assessment to use with your clients, Dr. Morse stated that anyone can use his clinic's assessment form as long as they take his logo off.  You can download my client assessment form that I took from Dr. Morse's clinic and modified myself and merely edit the top part with your company's name and logo.

You can edit PDFs by paying for Adobe Acrobat Pro, or go the free route (which is what I did) and use LibreOffice to edit PDFs for no cost.

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Here's the client form for you to edit the top part for your website:

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Final Thoughts

 

That about wraps up all of the essentials to get you up and running.  Once you have your brand and vision dialed in, everything else will simply fall into place.

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As the financial number breakdown shows, you can spend as little as $1 a month just for Domain hosting if you Google Domains while using Google Sites as your website builder, or you can spend around $10 per month with a more elaborate website builder like Wix as long as you get a sale and go for a longer term agreement.

 

I've done most of the leg work to find the most seamless and effective software options to get you looking professional and effectively working with the public.  As you can see, Google has absolutely made life so much easier for people to get out there and start their own business.  We are truly blessed with the free options accessible today around the world.  We definitely didn't have these options 10 years ago.  Whether you're in the States, Canada, or anywhere else, you can use these resources and help people anywhere on the globe.

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If you ever have any questions regarding any aspect of building your brand, do not hesitate to reach out.  

I'd be happy to review any logo designs you may have on Canva, any websites in progress, or even help you get started practicing working with a client over the phone or video chat.

I look forward to seeing all of your beautiful creations very soon!