Apart from the good advice above from Rollo I would add:
I would research your competition.
1.Search for the business you will be in. (my preference Google)
2.Change your search phrase until you reckon you've hit the right search phrase - if you are targeting local
customers
(Ireland or region within
Ireland
) then include that in your search phrase.
3.Look at the how many sites are advertising in paid search (good sign of how competitive your niche is). Look at how many pages of results actually are for what your looking for (low competition niches might have less than a couple of pages with results that are actually relevant, high competition niches might have thousands of real results).
4.Search for "
allintitle
:[search phrase]" to see who is targeting your niche.
5. Analyse the sites you find to see how they are structured and designed. Look for methods used to convert eyeballs to customers. Use their sites and take note of the features you find useful. Note the bad points also.
6.Learn from those already doing what you are trying to do.
7.Create as much publicity/buzz about what you are doing as possible because 'build it and they will come' does not apply.
Rgds
Richard