Is My Business Too Small For a Website (or Blogging)?
You already know the answer – of course not. The web is full of small business sites and it’s actually a great way to level the playing field with larger competitors. Large companies can afford to spend thousands of dollars on gaining web presence, but they are unable to change the web’s conventions or the behavior of human beings. You have the same space and the same tools at your disposal to get your business online and capitalize on those millions of eyes out there looking for something… anything at all. If your business has something to sell – you can find customers on the web. That’s it. That’s the whole secret.
With knowledge, planning, and attention, you can develop a site that will perform marketing, sales, informative, documentary, and even entertainment functions. Presumably, your small business is developed from an idea or a passion, or maybe even just some practical experience. Whatever product or service you sell, there is a market for it.
In the future - do you think people will look for services/products in the yellow pages? By driving to the mall and shopping? Well, that’s a simple question; the statistics already prove the efficiency and ubiquity of the increase in web commerce.
So you’re worried about the cost or necessary expertise of setting up a site? Or you already have a site that doesn’t bring you any business? Well the bad news is that it’s not free or super easy - but the good news is that it’s not still 1999. You don’t need cadres of programmers or slick-suited advertising sharks to be able to compete on the web like you did back then. Hosting, video, blogging – all these things can be set up quickly and inexpensively by someone who knows what they are doing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is nothing more than a few simple concepts, some practical common sense, and care and attention paid to your business. The pace of technology development on the web has slowed a bit – and the famous stories of people getting rich on the web are not prevalent or important (or long-term). They don’t represent the deeper, more democratic nature of the web. There’s no need to give up and think that “it’s all been done before.” Did people stop increasing their business through print media after a few years? No! – it’s a few hundred years later and printing is still going strong.
Look in your hometown for the little guys – they know what it’s like to do more for less and that’s the goal of your site right? I’m not saying to hire “Fred in the shed” – you know, the badly dressed, sulky techie that “does web sites”? There are many small web marketing and web development businesses that know their customers are in the small business market; they are comfortable in it and they rely on service and repeat customers in their cities/towns. The small professional web company isn’t trying to make a killing with each site – they are more interested in developing your business, because if your business doesn’t grow, neither does theirs. Look at sites they’ve done and talk to some of their customers. If you get attitude about a “small” job, you’re talking to the wrong person.
Small business web professionals are out there. Find them.