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A Website - that’s not for a Small Business Surely?
Written by: Lee ListerArticle Overview: One of the great wonders of the World Wide Web is that it is a great leveler. It gives access to millions of people to fantastic information and purchasing potential. Over 250,000 people per month gain access to the web world wide and many of these enter the internet for less than $1,000 a year
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Free Download - What Type of Business Should I Start? By Lee Lister |
A Website - that’s not for a Small Business Surely?
One of the great wonders of the World Wide Web is that it is a great leveler. It gives access to millions of people to fantastic information and purchasing potential. Over 250,000 people per month gain access to the web world wide and many of these enter the internet for less than $1,000 a year
The internet market, thanks to the greater ease of access is surging ahead exponentially. So how is it a leveler? Web pages are presented in virtual space. The browser, or surfer, is not interested in where the company is based or how large it is, all of these are transparent to them. With a visually effective web page a small to medium company can compete with other larger companies.
So
The recipe for an attractive website consists of: a web programming tool, a domain name, a company to host your web, an effective design backed by a good business strategy, some time each month to maintain and update the website and, or course, something to say or sell.
Take care not to economize on your domain name. This is the address that your website is known by. Whilst it may be tempting to take the cheaper option and use the free space offered by most internet package providers, don't unless your budget is really tight. The web address www.hostsite/yourcompany.co.uk does not look as impressive as www.yourcompany.co.uk . The cost of the latter starts at about $9 per year and hosting your site is about $100 per year. There are free web hosters available but these will subject your visitors to annoying adverts and more importantly – usually poor support.
For your hosting – this involves undertaking an informed choice. To start with, you need simple, reliable hosting. You obviously need email – but I have yet to find a hosting company that does not offer this. Bandwidth – the amount of traffic allowed to get to you site is the most expensive part usually. Think of bandwidth as a water pipe – the bigger it is the more people will be able to see your site. Next you need web logs – which tell you how many people have visited your site, where they came from and what pages they looked at. As you get more proficient – PHP and MySQL would be useful – this is a database and software combination that will help you with put functionality on your web site.
Do a simple search or buy any internet magazine and there are a considerable number of companies that will host your website and offer e-mail forwarding and other goodies. The best way of finding your ideal host company is to detail your requirements and then send them to a few likely companies. The best reply (that you can understand) is the company for you.
Now to the area that puts a lot of people off - the design and build of the website. This is not as difficult as many people think. Templates with simple click and build facilities are readily available or you can visit a web site such as elance or guru and get your site built quite cheaply. The key points to remember are that the web is a visual arena, and users have a very limited attention span. Make the loading of each page quick, especially the first page, which should just fill the screen. You can then offer links to other areas that you want your customers to view. If you want to sell from your site, most credit card merchants now offer shopping carts and easy set up.
Keep changing your web site in order to encourage repeat visits. Add competitions, special offers, jokes or information. Keep adding content – many people visit web sites looking for information.
Now the vital lesson. If you are going to sell on your website then you need the supporting business facilities to support enquiries and the selling and delivery of your products.
You've set up your website, now you have to let the world know that you have arrived. There are four ways, in order of effectiveness: Search Engines, Portals, Market Sites and Marketing.
• Search Engines are used by surfers when they want information on a particular subject. Where ever possible, go to "add URL" on each site and follow the instructions. The major search engines usually require a payment on submission. Don’t fall for the top ten listing in Google adverts – it is impossible to guarantee this.
• Portals are groups of like-minded sites that can all be accessed from one major site or portal. Examples are sports information or small business information.
• A Market is a group of merchants, usually grouped geographically or by product or service, who all use a central website to advertise on. Examples are groups of realtors/estate agents, medical services or “Our Town”.
• Marketing can be via banner exchanges, complimentary links, quoting your website on all your correspondence or the most effective of all – pay per click advertising.
Most importantly, before you set your website up, decide what your business strategy is going to be. Are you going to: inform, sell, seek AdSense or similar revenue, or a combination of all three. Make sure that this strategy fits in with the rest of your business. A website can be time consuming but it can also be very rewarding. Good luck.
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Article Tags: annoying adverts, attractive website, business strategy, effective design, free space, good business, informed choice, internet market, internet package, larger companies, leveler, market thanks, medium company, programming tool, virtual space, water pipe, web hosters, web logs, web programming, web world
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About the Author: Lee Lister RSS for Lee's articles - Visit Lee's website  From an early age she began an unparalleled journey through business consulting that continues to span across the UK, USA, Europe and Asia. She has consulted for a considerable number of companies all over the world. Specialising in business change management, start up consultancy and trouble shooting. Lee's experience in marketing and internet marketing is also keenly sought after. She is a prolific published writer of books, ebooks and articles and can easily be found on major search engine and Amazon. Her books include: FastTrack Bid Management, Proposal Writing For Smaller Businesses, How Much Does It Cost To Start A Business, Entrepreneur's Apprentice and a series of Start My New Business books that do as they say in the title! Her major web sites are: Click here to visit Lee's website   Entrepreneurs How Much Does It Cost To Start A Business Venture Capitalists What Makes Them Tick What Can Britney Spears Teach You About Marketing Lessons You Need To Learn For A Successful Business Staff Management the Effective Way to Get Things Done by Other People |
Related Forum Posts
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: what position to request?
- Hi Michael,
Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy,
How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant.
Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future,
Mal.
These maybe the coldest franchises out there:
- Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops.
WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure %
1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56%
2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94%
3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18%
4 COPY CLUB 36.36%
5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71%
6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71%
7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59%
8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78%
9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48%
10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33%
11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33%
12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33%
13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33%
14 BLIMPIE 31.39%
15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77%
Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
Exclusive: Interview with Results
- Hi Forum Members,
I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles).
As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business.
This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business.
I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months.
At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews.
I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum.
If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM.
Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: Biz Plan Competition
- i just wanted to say that posting Small Business Events on CanadaOne is a great resource. Thanks Julie!
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