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Guide · Starting out

Starting an online business in Pakistan: the free first steps

Most small businesses here sell through WhatsApp, Google Maps and word of mouth long before they have a website. Everything below is free, and it works in this order. Do the first three this week.

  1. Get the WhatsApp Business app. It is free. Use a number you will keep, write a short description and your hours, and put your products in its catalog with a photo and a price each. Customers can then see what you sell without asking. How orders can come in by WhatsApp: taking orders on WhatsApp.
  2. Put yourself on Google Maps. If customers come to you, or you serve an area, a Google listing is free and it is where people look first. Step by step in Roman Urdu: Google Map par dukan kaise dalein. Then the free listing sites that still work.
  3. Look like a business from day one. A visiting card, a letterhead and a proper invoice cost nothing: make them free with the visiting card maker, the letterhead maker and the invoice maker, in Urdu or English.
  4. Decide how you get paid. Bank transfer, Raast, JazzCash or Easypaisa for people who pay in advance, and cash on delivery through a courier for everyone else. Write your prices down and show them; customers leave when they have to ask.
  5. Decide how it reaches them. Deliver yourself nearby, or use a courier that collects cash on delivery and passes it to you, minus its charge. Say plainly where you deliver and what it costs.
  6. Get an NTN when you are ready. An FBR NTN is free to get online through IRIS with your CNIC. It helps with bank accounts, marketplaces and verifications, and it means a yearly tax return, so get it when you are ready for that.
  7. Add a website when people start asking for one. It puts your products, prices, photos and location on one page, in Urdu and English, with a button that opens WhatsApp. Until then, the steps above are enough.

Ready for the last step? Sitey builds that website, and three businesses a week get it free: the free website offer.

Rather have it done for you?

Send your business name on WhatsApp. Your listing gets looked at, and you are told what could be better and what it would cost.

Message on WhatsApp

Last checked: 27 September 2026 · All guides