Why your small business is crazy not to have a website

Small businesses are missing out in a very big way. Whilst most medium and large enterprises have a web presence many
small business owners are ignoring the opportunity citing lack of knowledge and high cost as excuses. Today with
cost of websites plummeting thier is no excuse for small businesses to provide thier custumors with a level of service
many have now come to expect. Many companies even specialize in Small Business
Web Site Design. In addition the benefits of having a website can be enormous. Below i have outlined 8
key benefits:

1. Reach Wider Audience

By having your own web site you are making your business, its products and services available to any web user across the world. This
increases your market availability exponentially. This is particularly beneficial if you have a niche product or service where
geographic isolation will never allow market capitlisation.

2. Showcase Products

There are two groups of consumers growing at the moment. The first is the consumer who wants to research the product,
see the product and compare prices before even heading out the door to purchase it. This market can allow be serviced
if your business has a web site, without which your business will completely ignore an entire potentially lucrative market. The
second group are the lazy people and/or busy people (Of which i am apart). They want to purchase the product without having
to find the shops, park get out of the car, find the product, wait in queue and drive back home (a time consuming process). By
having a secure and safe web site you can tap into this market and move more inventory.

3. Showcase Services

Perhaps the businesses with the most benefits from a web site are service industries. Photographers, artist, graphic
designers, architects etc can showcase their work and their services. This is the holy grail for service industries
as custumors can now compare peoples abilities and its an opportunity to give potential custumors confidence
in your abilities. Gone are the days where if you don't know someone in the industry that you had to hire service
professionals on blind faith (thank god).

4. Sell Products or Services

One benefit of a web site is that you can include a payment gateway for your business. Many businesses particularly
in the service industry would not be able to accept credit card payments. "I see businesses everyday that make it hard
for custumors to buy. They don't accept electronic payments, don't easily display where to purchase and this scares off
the custumor. Its Ludicrous" - Brian Sher. This is a situation that is just too easy to avoid. Cost of accepting credit
cards is negligible in comparison to the benefit to your business.

5. Multi level marketing

For a new web site or a business that utilizes traditional media this is an incredibly good way to increase its
effectiveness. If you advertise on TV you have 30 seconds to cram a tiny bit of information to the custumor. Radio doesn't
allow images to market to your custumor, newspapers and magazine ads are too brief to have ultimate impact. Whats
the solution? Use your web site as the ultimate marketing tool that it is. By referring to your web site from traditional
media you can convert the interest created to a sale. Eventually you will have traditional media adverts that are teaser to
search your web site where the proper information is displayed and a well written site can convert this interest into sales.

6. Image
The image of a business in more important than many people think. Personally my buying decisions are almost solely based on the
image of a business. For example when i buy food if the business doesn't have nice carpet, tables, colors, look clean
this reflects on the food i am about to buy and if it looks anything less than excellent i will be eating elsewhere.
This can apply to any business, whats less professional than a business with no web site and a hotmail.com account? Also
a web site can very easily create your image to whatever market you choose. Sleek white designs for professional or a
flurry of color for the hip, youth market a web site can reflect your image or create it.

7. Extra Revenue
For businesses that can drive large volumes of traffic to their web site (or little volume for that matter), you have
an opportunity to create new revenue streams. You can sell advertising space or affiliate with other companies where you are paid commissions on
their sales. You can sell and market your products and services overseas or even subdivide your domain for lesser
companies. The opportunities are endless.(their is a wealth of information available on this topic)

8. Cheap repeated Marketing

Increased custumor loyalty is the cheapest and most effective way to raise revenue for any business. With your web site
you can set up a forum, blog or email list that will provide your custumor more information, special deals, release
dates of new products and services. Custumors appreciate having their opinions heard and this is a gold mine of
ideas to improve your service and your business. Companies spend millions on market research and your business
will have everything it may want to know about its target market. (A good idea is to send a thank you email
after any purchase and include a short questionnaire. This can be fully automated and the benefits are priceless.)

This is just the tip of the iceberg the benefits and possibilities are endless. Hopefully Small Business owners can realize the importance and the possibilities available
to them and the business. Its easy, cheap and vitally important in giving quality custumor service.

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About the Author: Adam Diver
Small Business Website Design
Owned and managed several small businesses. Has a range of qualifications including Business Marketing, Web design, person management and business consulting. Been part of the web industry for 10 years.
Cheap Web Designer