Showing posts with label Small. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Small. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Monday, 14 January 2013
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Website Prep 101 For Small Business
When a person is starting a new business, whether it is a small business, a medium sized business or a franchise, it is usually a fast realization that there are not enough hours in the day for the business owner to make the business a success. Marketing and advertising comes into play, and realizations that technical aspects of advertising and internet marketing will require, at least, the guidance of a professional.
There are several services that offer online directory listings and micro sites, like a local chamber of commerce, or Yelp. It is always a good thing that any business's online presence includes these things, but a custom website design is a marketing tool that your business will own, and have complete control over, forever. Most advertising is static and temporary. Websites are custom made, can be updated anytime, and don't run for a specified amount of time.
When considering website design for your business, there is preliminary research involved, coming up with answers to questions such as "Why does my business need a website?", or "What will I do with my website once it's built?" are important, as are realizing the cost of website design, and other online marketing services.
Many people feel like they don't need a website because they run a small business that is based on word of mouth advertising and a personal touch, and a website as a marketing tool wouldn't work for their type of business. While this is a valid concern, and many businesses have a client base that doesn't much use a computer, or search for businesses on the internet, a business without a website is excluding their customers (and potential) customers who do use a computer. Studies show that 85% of Americans use a computer daily, that number has not gone down since the inception of personal computers. Another interesting statistic, is that the fastest growing population of computer users are those between 50 and 75 years old. My website reaches more and more people from that age group each day. Remember, 75 years ago, many Americans thought the telephone was an expensive luxury that wouldn't be necessary for business growth.
When looking for website design, or a website development firm, there are several things to consider. A website professional who can display several graphically impressive works is important, but not the end all. Flashy graphics and impressive text only compose about 20-30% of any website, and behind them is coded tags and scripts that gives the website functionality, cause it to rank higher with search engines, load quickly, etc. Many beginner or amateur website designers do not have a firm enough grasp on website development to make your site perform as well as it needs to, usually to return on itself as an marketing expense. Another important offering you should expect from a web design company is control over the content of the website. There should be a feasible option to update and change the websites content, or pictures/text/video etc. Many companies offer monthly or as-needed maintenance plans for regular website updates and website redesign. Great web development companies may be able to create a back-end, back-office, or content management system that allows you (or someone at your business) to log in to the website to make changes and updates independently.
Website design is something almost every business has to consider during its start up or early phases. Like any other service oriented company, there are dishonest and unqualified companies and contractors who look for the opportunity to sell a sub-par service. Consider carefully and as an informed consumer when choosing your website design professional.
Monday, 24 September 2012
Where The Real World Hits The Virtual One In Small Business Networking
If you are a small business and you are engaged in social networking online, there is a time for personal socializing, and a time to get busy and do business networking. They aren't the same. I find far too many small business owners are mixing the two because perhaps they have a page on Facebook, and they have grown up in an era alongside the social networking venue. Then they try to slightly change their style to help their business, and that's when the trouble starts. Let's talk.
There is a time for social networking, and a time for business networking. No, I'm not suggesting that you push too hard in the business networking venue, but you need to make it clear that you are business networking, and not try to hide the fact, or get people to assume that there is no profit motive, when there definitely is. Otherwise you spent all of your time trying to manipulate the emotions of others under a falsehood, one which is easily read, and therefore makes you look as if you're hiding something and becoming disreputable.
If you are charged by another person online as being all business, admit the fact that you are in business to make money, and that you'd rather do business with friends if at all possible. Let them know that it's okay if they never purchase a product or service from you, but to please be good enough to refer you to their friends if the topic or subject comes up. That's how you handle that. Further, if you want to do business networking correctly, especially if you have a small business where most of your clientele is local, then you need to encourage your customers to participate with you, and reward them for doing so.
How might you reward them you ask? Well, that is a decent question, and it should be in the same vein as customer loyalty programs, or customer discount cards, or special offers that you explain or offer only online, or only to those folks who frequent your social networking page. You might find that people come more often if they know there is a personal gain for them. At that point they realize that they also have a profit motive as well, therefore it's much harder for them to charge you with not caring and only wanting to make a profit.
Lastly, the best thing you can do is try to merge the two worlds, that is to say as you do with Chamber of Commerce networking, and engage in other local business activities, you should be inviting people to your social networking page, and corresponding with them and their business and cross referring as much as possible. If you do that, you can expect good referrals in the real world where people are purchasing real products and services, along with continued interest and growth on your social networking site.
Indeed, of course I wish you the best of success, and I hope you will heed this advice, because it is quite apparent to me that far too many people are doing it wrong, and spending countless hours on social networks without getting any benefit. They are trying, but it's not working, and they may even be jeopardizing future sales without even knowing it. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Business Networking Strategies. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
