Why does your business need a website? More and more business owners are faced with the decision as to whether to have a website for their business, and if so, what are the pros and cons of having a website? If you’re in this position and you’re wondering whether a website is for you, then let’s consider the advantages, and also the disadvantages of having a business website. Advantages Most business owners decide to have a website because it can generate more business for them. While this is true, sometimes a new website owner can expect their new website to perform miracles and bring them all the business enquiries they will ever need. In reality however, this is rarely the case. But that doesn’t mean it is any less important to the marketing of your business. Even just a few extra enquiries per year can easily pay for your website and website hosting many times over. When you have a website people can find your contact details easily, so if necessary, they can contact you via email, telephone, fax or write to your address if they need to. Having a website means that your customers and potential customers can contact you at any time of the day via email. Even if it’s the middle of the night. This is a huge benefit to your business and should not be underestimated. Although you could probably get by with just a free email address, (which looks a little unprofessional) you would be missing out on the other main advantage of having a website; the ability to show what your business can offer new customers. A website is like a colour brochure for your business. It promotes a professional image for your company. If designed by a professional web designer it can look great! It can give potential customers a feeling of confidence in dealing with you and your company. When you have a website built you only pay for the design once. The only ongoing costs involved in keeping your website alive is a small monthly or annual web hosting fee. On average, this works out at little more than £1 per week for a UK based website. So the cost is negligible, especially when you pay via monthly payments. If you need to keep the website updated regularly with details of new products or services, then obviously there will be extra fees involved for the work carried out. Most small businesses however do not require this. Every year tens of thousands of more people are getting connected to the internet. In the not too distant future nearly every home and office in the UK is likely to be connected in some form or other. Connecting via mobile phones is also dramatically on the rise. And more and more people are going to be using the internet to find the service they’re looking for. If your business is not on the net then you could be missing out on this incredible opportunity. Do not underestimate the power of the World Wide Web. People almost expect your business to have a website these days. Disadvantages Being a webmaster who designs and hosts websites for small businesses, I may be a little bit biased, but honestly, I can only think of two reasons why any business owner would decide against having a website built for their business. 1. The cost. This is probably the main concern of any business owner. Does having a website justify the cost involved? Personally I believe that the advantages, as outlined above, far outweigh the relatively small costs involved. 2. The need to check emails every day. Yes, this can be a bit of a chore. Having to sift through messages and checking to see if anyone has sent you an enquiry, and then having to reply to them, can sometimes be bit time consuming. But if communicating with a customer or potential customer is an essential part of running your business, then reading and replying to emails is unavoidable. Besides, if you prefer to talk to your customers you could always request a contact number and phone them instead.
Small business websites
|
