Do Small Businesses need websites?
In one word, yes!
The internet is the most effective marketing tools in existence nowadays and small businesses have the capability of reaching far more people than any leaflet drop or advertisement in the local paper ever will.
Should small business owners produce your own website?
It all depends on your skills, if you have the ability to produce a website that looks good, then go ahead, it will save you money and will work wonders as a marketing tool. However if your skills are limited or non-existent then we will have to say “NO”. Why? No, not because we want your money (although we don’t mind if you want to give it to us..LOL!), because if your site doesn’t have a professional look to it, then it is going to reflect badly on your company’s image.
Do you need to spend lots of money?
It really depends on the size of your website, if you are looking simply to get an online presence on the internet, then you can easily get something very cheap if you take the time to browse over the internet. However, if you are really getting into the idea of being online and effectively having your shop exist in cyberspace, you are going to be looking at more money, however even then, there are many self-build options around.
What content do you need?
This all depends on what you want from being online, if you want to sell online, have your products online via an ecommerce website is going to be very useful!
If you are just looking to get your company online, then there are TWO elements that we believe small businesses should look into :
a) Information about your company
b) How to contact you
Without these two, no one is going to know who or what you are, with the former being your chance to sell yourself. Remember when people look at websites, if its well designed they won’t know if they’re dealing with a multi-national company or a one person organisation, this is your chance to play alongside the big boys!!
What to do now?
So you are convinced a website is the way to go? Excellent, this can only be of benefit to you! Now you have got to find a designer (there’s one right here!!!), things to keep in mind when looking is what kind of style are you looking for, find some websites that you like then find some designers and see if they can produce something along that line! If they can, you are on the way to bringing into being what can be one of your best employees!!
To assist small businesses to save time around the internet, here are our recommendations :
a) Book your domain name and create your online identity within minutes
b) Check out our Readymade websites for small businesses.
c) Should your niche are not listed in the readymade websites listings, do contact us to discuss on your project.