Benefits of a Web Presence

Just ten years ago most people had not even heard of the Internet. In just a little over a decade it has grown from a very simple way to send email to a sophisticated form of communication. Today everyone is at least aware of the Internet and the majority of people use it on a daily basis.

A few of the benefits for a small business with a business website include:

Increased Market Size: A business website presence broadens the market reach for your business from local to global.

Reduced Information Distribution Costs: Practically every business distributes some sort of information -- product sheets, technical specs, catalogs, brochures, order forms, proposals, etc. A business website allows you to provide that information to your customers in real time when they need it.

Expanded Availability to Customers: Your business website gives your customers access to your business 24/7 with very little increase in overhead or employment costs. Having your information available allows the customer to review the services you provide at their convenience.

A Step Up on Your Competition: As a business owner, the last thing you want to do is to give your prospective clients a detailed list of your competitors, including addresses and phone numbers. But that is exactly what the Yellow Pages do. Using the internet, you can differentiate yourself from everyone else, so that when your prospective clients come looking for what you do, they find you, not all your competitors.

Increased Sales: If your small business website includes an online shopping cart or e-commerce solution, you can increase your sales with little additional cost. Photo galleries, portfolios or samples of your work and the services you provide gives potential customers increased confidence in the support you can provide for them.

Customers Require It: This is probably the most important benefit of having a business web site. If you own a business today, your customers EXPECT you to have a web site. This expectation almost requires you to have some sort of interactive, dynamic web presence.

The Internet makes it possible to communicate with your customers on their terms, within their time-table. It makes it possible to automate the distribution of information and provide your customers access to 24/7 customer service. Even if you don't use the Internet to increase your market reach and revenue, the Internet has made it possible to keep your customers happy.

Why Hire a Web Designer?

Many on-line business owners start with very little money. They have to do everything themselves; preparing their product, developing a marketing strategy, building their website. However, they often find that their simple "homemade" web site might not be enough to cover everything, and they will have to take days or weeks away from their business to dedicate to website expansion.

How many business owners have the ability to take that much time away from building and running their businesses?

When you hire a web designer, you are doing more than just handing over work that you do not have the time or inclination to do. By investing a little money in a web designer, you will be more focused and have more time to spend on your actual business strategy.

The designers you hire are professionals, and should be experienced at what they do. By outsourcing your web design projects to them, you won't have to worry that you will spend time away from your business when problems surface; you have someone that will fix them for you. They have the expertise to pin point any problems that may come up, and will be able to fix it in a minimum amount of time.

The most common aspect of marketing your business online is to brand your company, and to look professional as a business. The problem with starting a business online is lack of resources, such as creating a website for your business, and other essential resources that you need in order grow your business further.

When you hire a web designer, you are hiring him to do what he does best, a professional job that can have a dramatic affect on your business. A designer will save you the time in creating and putting your web site online, and provide you with the originality you desire.

Experience and knowledge is what the average person lacks in designing, building, and maintaining a web site. Hiring a web designer saves you the time you would spend with trial and error design -- Such as learning software, html, css, SEO, and other coding required.

Web designers wear many hats -- Web Design, Development, Programming, Graphic Artist, Management, Maintenance, Marketing and more; skills and services that you may or may not have the time and expertise to perform.

Can you do it all yourself?

Maybe. But how much time do you want to invest before you decide that the answer to that question is no?