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If you're reading this there's a good chance that you already have a website or
that you want a website and you probably know all the reasons. Many of you,
however, would like to either obtain or at least supplement their income by
creating web pages for others. There is not often too much money to be made in
producing web sites for individuals to show off their family portraits, which
means the targets will probably be businesses. Most large businesses either develop their websites in-house or outsource the job to one of the many businesses that have been providing web site development services for some time. This leaves the smaller businesses. For every small business that has its own site, there must be hundreds within a short distance that don’t have one, but could definitely use one. With the idea of providing some food for sales thought, we take a look here at some of the reasons small business use websites.
The first reason might seem to be the most obvious; on looking closer we might revise our thought. Businesses want to sell something. This results in first
thought being that the business’s website should sell something. This would suggest “E-commerce”. Such a site might well be the answer for the business but is it really where they should start? The process of selling something has
several stages to it. You have to have a product. You let people know about
your product, persuading them of its virtues. Once they are considering
purchasing, you have to close the deal. Finally you fulfill. E-commerce can
be involved all of these steps, except the first.
In order to build an effective e-commerce site, you will need to be able to
obtain a security certificate to set up and use a secure site. You will need
scripts or software to provide shopping cart capability. You will need to
provide methods of receiving payment by either incorporating credit card
processing into your pages or by providing hooks into processing services like
paypall. Finally you will need to provide the product information, which might
well be contained in a database of items. All of these things are very doable,
and there are tutorials in our collection to provide you with assistance,
should you need it. The question is, if you are going to sell a business on
getting a new website, are you going to be able to persuade them of the virtues
of all these things, as well as of your ability to effectively provide them? I
hope so; but in case there is any doubt, you might consider starting with a
simpler approach.
There is another, very compelling reason for a business to use a website.
Image this situation. You are driving along a highway and you pass a billboard
for Joe’s Autos. The billboard indicates they specialize in classic
Chevrolets. Underneath that, you spot their address at fourteen twenty-seven
North Thirteenth Street, and their phone number is 373-555-9385. You also see
their website address at www.JoesAutos.com. As you are driving along you
remember your old buddy Bill is looking for a classic Chevy to rebuild and you
think he might not have heard of these people. You decide to tell him about
them. Can you remember their phone number? (Don’t look back now!) How about their address? Now what about their website? I know you remember that! In fact, website addresses tend to be much easier to remember than either phone numbers or addresses. In this way, the website becomes a back-up to the other forms of advertising the business is doing – a sort of extension to their business card. If you tell this story to a potential client, there is a strong likelihood they will see the virtue of what you are saying right away. If they decide on a site, you will have the advantage of only needing to build a
relatively simple one to get them started. Once they have experienced what the web can do for them (and what you can do) you will find it easier to come back and sell them enhancements to their site.
I feel that every business should have a website. I think of it as being as
important as their phone number being listed in the phone book. Every business
owner knows how important that is. No – I revise that – I think the website is
more important in today’s world that the phone number in the book because I
use the website to look up the phone number – or email address! This world is
changing!
If you are hoping to sell web development services to small business, I wish
you all the best. We are going to need a lot of people like you in the near
future!
Thanks for reading!