Still not sure if you really need a website?
Well, let me ask you this:
When you want to know more about a company or the service they provide, or a specific product and its details, where do you go to find that information?
If you are among the 80% of north-americans that spend as much time online as they do watching television, your answer is yellowpages? Nope. There you are just a couple letters among dozens of competitors and millions of words!
If you’re still not convinced about the importance of having a “store front” for your business, then please read the following articles:
WHY YOU NEED A WEBSITE at http://entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/gettingstarted/article65204.html
Q: — I know, I know, I am supposed to have a website. That said, as I have no plans to sell online, I just don’t see the need for a site. My business has been around forever and we have done just fine without one. Am I wrong? —
A: I think you are, for reasons both large and small. Let me give you but one example:
A few days ago on a busy school night, my wife called and asked me to pick up some dinner on the way home. She mentioned a restaurant we like, even though we don’t get to it often, and asked me to look up their menu online so we could figure out what to get.
Yet try as I might, I couldn’t find their website. It finally dawned on me that they did not have one. But since we had not been there in quite a while and could not remember everything on their menu, we decided to get dinner from another place.
Multiply that multi-fold and that’s why every small business has to have a website.
Here’s another example. At one point I started thinking about having the kitchen remodeled to please my wife, since she had been nagging, er, I mean reminding me, that it needed to be updated. While driving one day I noticed two different construction work vans and jotted their names down on a piece of paper in my car. After I got home, I started to think of the things I needed to know about a company before I invited them into my home, so I grabbed a paper and started to write down some of my questions. How long have they been in business? What kind of work do they do? How experienced are the workers? Are they licensed? Insured? Do they have any samples of their work that I could see? Could they provide me with any references of previous customers? … and the list went on and on. I hate making phone calls. Usually the person on the other end sounds annoyed with all my questions, and I hate that. So, what did I do? I jumped online, of course. I looked up both companies. One had a site; one did not. Guess who ended up re-doing my kitchen?
Can you do e-commerce if you are not online? Nope. Can customers who hear about you check you out later on the Net if you don’t have a site? No again. Can customers send a link of your website to their friends who need the type of service you offer? Haa. No again! Can current customers (like I was) find out what your new offerings are if you lack a site? Not easily. Then what happens if I lose my cell phone with your phone number? Yeah…I don’t know where your card is either…probably lost in a drawer somewhere in the house…
Here are some amazing statistics:
• According to Jupiter Research, half of all small businesses with less than 10 employees do not have a website.
• 7 out of 10 solo businesses do not have a website.
What is up with that? We both know that Americans are spending ever more time than online. 80% of us now spend as much time online as we do watching television.
So you must get your business online; there’s no question about it. Having a website is as essential today as having business cards or a telephone number. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you run. Today, the way most people think is: you have a business, then you must have a website.
So the question is not really if, but when. Without knowing you I can predict, if you don’t do this today, you will surely have one tomorrow. I had friends who sttubornly insisted they didn’t need computer and internet. Guess what they just got last year? And they love it! So if you are going to have one tomorrow, why not go ahead and start building your online presence now?
The point is, today, there is no reason for any small business not to be online, and not just online, but online in a professional, powerful way. That way, when a customer wants to find your menu of products, they will.
If not, they’ll go somewhere else.
ps. Make sure you build one that really looks professional. Don’t ruin your customer’s first impression on you just to save a couple bucks. Look at your competitors websites and judge what looks good and what does not and ask your family and friends to tell you what they think of your site. The problem with most people who adventure themselves into building their own website for the first time with no skills is that, they go find a free cheap-looking template online, add a couple pictures and their eyes are startled with the result – not because it actually looks good, but just because they have done something they thought would be impossible! Give it a couple days and get back to it and you will soon see that you need to take care of your business and let webdesigners take care of theirs! So my suggestion is, If you can’t build one yourself, invest! It is pretty much a one-time cost for something that will last forever! (But don’t forget to change little things here and there in the future. That’s the secret of most physical stores: the content may be the same, but a new banner, or relocation of aisle content always give them a sense of fresh air.)
Read More:
WHY GO ONLINE — 1.FINDABILITY — 2.PRESENTATION — 3.FUNCTIONALITY
