# Start your own hosting brand

> Create an organization, give it your brand, put a first product on sale at your price, and check your catalogue, from start to finish.

Source: https://www.coritan.com/docs/get-started/start-a-hosting-brand/

In the dashboard:

- /dashboard/organizations: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/organizations
- /dashboard/organizations/…/overview: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/organizations
- /dashboard/organizations/…/settings: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/organizations
- /dashboard/organizations/…/products: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/organizations

This tutorial sets up a hosting brand of your own: an *organization* that sells Coritan products under your name and at your prices, to customers who sign in on your storefront instead of coritan.com. You create the organization, give it your name, logo and legal details, put a first product on sale, and read your catalogue the way your storefront will. Each section ends with something you can check before you go on.

Your customers pay your prices. Coritan keeps a platform fee from what its payment gateways collect for you, and each resource behind a product you resell runs on your Coritan account at Coritan's price ([How money moves](/docs/organizations/how-organizations-work/#how-money-moves)). You build the storefront, the site your customers use, on the Organization API: this tutorial gets everything ready for it. [How organizations work](/docs/organizations/how-organizations-work/) explains the parts first.

## Before you begin

- The Coritan account that should own the organization, signed in. The resources behind the products you resell run on this account, and only this account can delete the organization.
- A *slug* for the organization, such as `acme`. It appears in every Organization API path, and you cannot change it later.
- A terminal with `curl`, for section 4.

## 1. Create the organization

1. In the dashboard, go to [Organizations](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/organizations) and select **New organization**.
2. Enter a **Name**, such as `Acme Hosting`. Customers see it on your storefront.
3. Check the **Slug**. The dashboard fills it in from the name until you edit it.
4. Under **Billing mode**, choose **Platform merchant of record**. Coritan then takes your customers' payments and pays you each month. You can change the mode later ([Organization billing](/docs/organizations/billing/)).
5. Select **Create organization**.

The organization's **Overview** tab opens, and you are its owner. The organization is `active`, and its header shows the tier, platform fee and limits that Coritan set ([Create an organization](/docs/organizations/create-an-organization/)).

## 2. Give it your brand

1. Select the organization's **Settings** tab.
2. On the **Storefront & branding** card, fill in the **Logo URL**, the **Primary colour** and **Secondary colour** as hex codes such as `#0F2A57`, and the **Support email**. Add the **Terms of service URL** and **Privacy policy URL** when you have them. Select **Save changes** on the card.
3. On the **Legal entity** card, fill in the **Legal name**, the **Registered address** and, if you have one, the **Tax / VAT ID**. Invoice PDFs print them. Select **Save changes** on the card.

Each card saves on its own, and the footer counts the changes you have not saved yet. Your storefront reads the saved details through the Storefront API ([Change organization settings](/docs/organizations/settings/)).

> [!NOTE]
> The **Custom domain** on the same card is where emails to your customers link, such as invoices and password resets. Saving it does not point it at your storefront, and the card shows **Domain unverified** until Coritan verifies it. [Contact support](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/support) after you save one.

## 3. Put a first product on sale

A *linked* product is backed by a Coritan product: when a customer orders it, Coritan creates the real resource, such as a Container Apps server.

1. Select the organization's **Products** tab, then **New product**.
2. Enter a **Name**, such as `Minecraft 4 GB`, and check the **Slug**, which your storefront uses in the product's address. You cannot change it later.
3. Under **Kind**, choose **Linked to a platform product**, and pick the Coritan plan to resell under **Platform product**.
4. Select **Create product**.
5. Open the product and, under **Plans**, select **Add plan**.
6. Enter a **Plan name**, such as `Monthly`, and choose the **Billing cycle**.
7. Enter the **Currency** as a three-letter code, such as `USD`, and the **Price**. Set it above Coritan's price for the same billing cycle, because your Coritan account pays that price for each resource.
8. Select **Add plan**.

The plan appears under **Plans**, and the product list no longer shows **None** under **Active plans**. You cannot edit a plan once you add it, so add a new plan to change a price ([Set up products and pricing](/docs/organizations/products-and-pricing/)).

## 4. Check your catalogue

Your storefront reads your brand and your products through the Storefront API, which needs no credential. Read them the same way, with your own slug in place of `acme`:

```bash
curl https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/orgs/acme/storefront/branding
curl https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/orgs/acme/storefront/products
```

The first answer holds your `org_name`, `logo_url` and colours, and the second lists your product in `products`. A change can take up to a minute to show there, because the answers may be cached ([Show your catalogue with the Storefront API](/docs/organizations/storefront/storefront-api/)).

## Troubleshooting

`Slug already taken`
: Another organization uses that slug. Choose a different one.

**Product limit reached**
: Your organization holds as many products as its tier allows, so **New product** is turned off. Reuse a product you no longer sell, or ask [support](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/support) to raise the limit.

`404 Organization not found` from the Storefront API
: The slug in the address is wrong, or the organization is not `active`. The Storefront API answers only for an active organization.

## Next steps

- [Build a storefront on the Organization API](/docs/organizations/storefront/), the site where your customers order and pay
- [Manage members and roles](/docs/organizations/members-and-roles/), to bring your team in
- [The staff console](/docs/organizations/staff-console/), where your team looks after customers and their servers