Misconception #2 - Can
the business make the investment neccessary to make an effective
web site, and can the existing offline business benefit
from a web site?
The investment necessary is negligible, unless their web developer
is willing only to create a full service high-end site
using all the latest bells and whistles - and consequently makes
the service financially inaccessible to small business. A web
site can be compared to all other routinely used business tools.
Phone, fax, copier, computer. Tools we are expected to have by
our customers and clients.
If a business doesn't have what it's customers expect they are
seen as less than professional and risky to do business with.
The phone company doesn't tell the struggling entrepreneur, "We
don't think your business should have a phone, because you can't
afford a full-page ad in the Yellow Pages, so we are not going
to provide you service!" No, a simple listing is sometimes necessary.
Some companies won't even blink at spending $1,000 a month for
a quarter page phone book ad or paying nearly that much for local
newspaper splash ads yet they don't see the utility of a 24 hour-a-day
365 day a year advertising medium.
Misconception #3 - If a business
is going to benefit from a web site, the site has to hold some
sort of utility for the business. Why make a site that doesn't
offer much value for your business? Why should the local burger
joint put up a site that has its menu on it - when the menu
doesn't change from year to year?
Our contention at WebSite101 is that the web presence is the
utility for business. If a customer expects to call a business,
they don't ever consider the possiblility you won't have a phone.
Our belief is . . . If you don't have a web site, some
potentiial business will just go elsewhere. It's not the utility
that matters most, but the presence. Even if that site offers
only an unchanging menu or unchanging services, contact information,
business philosophy or bio. The customers will ALWAYS expect
the web site to be there whether you change your
mind, your products or your hairdo.
Misconception #4 - Another
issue to consider is whether or not the business has the neccessary
infrastructure to handle a web site. Who is going to deal with
the incoming e-mails? Can someone dedicate themselves to marketing
and taking care of administrative issues for the site?
You need an infrastructure to decide who is going to answer the
phone, who is going to open the (snail) mail and who will dedicate
themselves to doing office paperwork and filing. Of course it becomes
an employees job to do specific tasks. This list of tasks is going
to add a small enough responsibility to an employee or two that
it is also negligible. Replying to e-mail takes less time and
expense than answering snail mail. Somebody has to be sure the
filing gets done and it is no less obvious that someone must be
dedicated to the task of web site maintenance and administration,
but in most small businesses, that may mean only a weekly two hour
(or less) task.
Misconception #5 - Some
small business owners want to make a site with 3-5 products, no
online ordering and minimal promotion. In a case like that what
is the point of putting up a web site?
Because the customer expects it!. There should be no
judgement involved about the potential success of the site. You
may contend that if a business can't be successful they should
stay out of business and not clutter up the landscape. We're suggesting
only that a web site will soon become expected by the public and
the businesses they seek to deal with. Not that it will make us
successful. Use of the other business tools won't gaurantee success
either - because you own a phone, it doesn't mean it must ring
off the hook to be considered necessary!
We believe that it has become expected for a business
to have a web site, successful or not. No matter what your company
brochure and business cards say about you or your level of professionalism,
you are still expected to have them. If a client needs to fax
you a document, have you modify it, sign it, make a copy of it
for your files and overnight a signed copy to back to them, you
had better be able to do all that and call back to verify you've
done it. If you don't have the phone, fax, copier and word processing
software to handle that - you look unprofessional. We believe
that a web presence has become a part of that mix - and probably
at some point soon - streamline the whole process to be handled
online!
Maybe we're dreamers but that's our sincere belief. We love
the technology and it's potential and believe it affects us all
in ways we can't even begin to imagine yet. Necessary or not.
Successful or not. Unchanging or not.
Get
your Business Domain Name for $7.95,
Right Here, Right Now!
You MUST Expand to the Web!
by Mike Banks Valentine
Many web developers have developed a rather haughty attitude toward
who should be and who shouldn't be online. I believe this stems
from the frustration encountered in explaining to those clients
new to the web, that they must take very seriously the responsibility
of being online. That responsibility includes
- You MUST answer all e-mail within 24 hours and preferably
sooner. Web savvy customers want response almost immediately!
- You MUST keep your site information current and update often!
There is no excuse for stale, inaccurate information online!
- You MUST make a solid and continuing commitment to your site
and assign the tasks involved to an employee or commit to spending
the necessary time yourself!
Just as we have gone from "Do you have a fax machine?"
to "What is your fax number?", so too are we moving rapidly
away from "Do you have a web site?" toward "What
is your web address?". How is it that we accept the need for
the fax machine, the copy machine, the phone and the computer, but
not a web site?
I like to compare the argument to the emerging days of that new-fangled
invention, the telephone. I can see business owners in the first
half of the century grumbling that they don't need a telephone because
their customers have to come in to buy stuff anyway. "Why would
they want to ring me up and talk to me from a distance on that contraption?
I can't afford to have it anyway! Who will answer the thing when
I have customers in the store? What if it breaks down - who will
fix it? What if I can't get the phone when it rings because I'm
occupied with work?"
I know an attorney with a quarter-page display ad in the yellow
pages. She pays $1,000 a month for that privilege. She has one employee
who answers the phone, takes messages and screens calls for her.
We've discussed doing a web site for her business and she is reluctant
to make that move because it means she has to answer e-mails and
keep the site maintained. I just don't see the difference in having
the employee answer the phone and answering e-mail, maintaining
client files and maintaining the web site!
Those small businesses that post ANY kind of web sites and DON'T
maintain them and DON'T answer their e-mail are foolish and it WILL
hurt their business just like ignoring phone calls and doing without
an answering machine will hurt their business. But inattention to
business will destroy any entrepreneur, no matter what else they
do. The web presence has become as common and as expected as a telephone
to small business.
Having a professional look with interactive pages and fancy graphics
are bonuses, not requirements. What IS required is that the web
site be maintained and that e-mails are treated as just as important
as phone calls. Don't get a phone if you don't intend to answer
it. Don't provide an e-mail link if you don't intend to respond
to e-mails. DON'T have a web site if you don't intend to keep it
current and aren't prepared to provide the utility your customers
demand.
Every business is expected to be online, just as they are expected
to have a telephone and a fax and an answering machine. Size will
always determine resource allocation. Hire a professional if you
can, but get online now!
Get your Business Online!
The first step to getting your business Online is
a domain name, which is typically your business name or generic
word or phrase and includes the famous dot com, dot net, and .org
extensions. Here's a complete tutorial
on Domain Names to help you learn everything about choosing
a name for your web site and how domain names work to help you navigate
the web.
You MUST get your Small Business Online Because Customers Expect It!
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