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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 fine 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.
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 current customers (like I was) find out what your new offerings are if you lack a site? Not easily.
And is it hard to get one? Happily, the answer again is no, in fact it's easier than ever. (More on that in a moment.)
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.
So the question really is, how do you do it easily and affordably?
There are three ways, but for most small businesses, the third is almost always the best:
1. Hire a web developer 2. Use a software-creation program 3. Use an online service
Online services are great because, not only do they point and click you through an easy process, but the best ones will also help you grow your business.
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