If 4 individuals were to get together to form a company dedicated to online retail..?

[Paul]

..across multiple selling channels i.e. ebay, amazon, e-commerce sites, etc. where (in an ideal world) would each individual's expertise be, for example would it be best for one guy to be knowledgeable in digital marketing, one in online retail, one in website design and one in book keeping or would it make more sense for one to be knowledgeable in video production for youtube marketing and one in SEO etc.

I'd really like to hear the opinion of someone more educated than me on what they think, please for this particular question name the ideal skills that guys 1-4 would "each" have to make the ideal team.

Thanks much appreciated.

[Jo W]

You'd need more than 4 if you plan to do this on a grand scale - or at the other end of things, could be pretty much a sole enterprise.

[Jake]

Dividing the revenue based on the relative contribution would be a nightmare. More typically a lot of the one time development work would just be outsourced. Concentrate on the team needed for everyday operation, if 2 people divided 80 hrs a week of operation support what would they do?

I know some larger sites have full time promotional people participating in social media, beting backlinks, etc.

[Andrew]

For SEO alone you'd want a couple employees for sure. Even on a small scale it's important to have the focus of SEOs segmented some.

My name is Andrew and I work with SEO.com

[Jose]

my insight for online marketing is that the individual designing the website and the one in charge of digital marketing have to work together. If you have SEO in mind when building the website you will improve your positions in search engines by leaps and bounds. This can be the job of only one person though, as digital marketing is a slow process, you dont want to be first position for your business in the first few months as it is unnatural. I think the ideal is having two individuals, as the business is growing your employees will be able to do all the online activities, and you could even hire an accountant to make sure everything is up to date.