Time For “yoursmallbusiness.com”
It seems every other ad you see on television these days
ends with “dot-com.” There’s a lot of talk
about how many people are becoming millionaires through e-commerce
on the internet. Everyone in the world must be on-line and
every other business likely has a website, especially your
competitors. That’s not quite true, of course, but the
future seems to be happening very fast. After all it is the
year 2000, time to jump in and get your small business a website.
It’s easier, and less expensive, than you may think.
So, where do you start? Don Adair has some good advice..
His small business, Herriman/Adair Interactive, is a Spokane-based
web consulting and development firm that has worked with many
companies, including the Journal of Business. Adair says before
you get on the phone and talk with internet website developers,
do some research on your own by spending some time on-line
yourself. Learn how to navigate the web and become comfortable
with it. Visit some search engines like yahoo.com, altavista.com,
excite.com, lycos.com and others. Enter your business category
and your locality to see which other similar businesses in
your area have sites. Then visit them on-line. Look up websites
you see in advertising, especially those who have a target
market similar to your own. Check your industry trade associations
and publications for companies in your category who are doing
business on-line.
You’ll find a vast array of graphics, interactive devices
and messages on the web. When you see what others are doing,
you’ll begin to learn the potential of internet marketing
for your own business. The next step is to determine your
objectives. What do you really want from your on-line presence?
There are several opportunities: you can have a limited presence,
basically a billboard that gives information about your business;
you can have a “brochure” on-line that has ten or
more pages detailing your company profile, products and services;
or you can have an actual “store” presence that
offers products and takes orders on-line.
Getting started now with a small website is a good idea,
but Adair advises to build-in flexibility from the beginning
so you won’t have to start over if you want to add to
your site later on. Maybe all you can afford right now is
a small “brochure” on-line, but don’t box yourself
in by limiting the technology. Make sure at the outset of
your website development that the technology can easily be
upgraded. As time goes on, you will want to add pages, interactive
devices and perhaps even e-commerce capability, so plan for
future development.
You can search for your domain name by logging on to networksolutions.com
and seeing what is available. If the exact name you want is
not available, keep looking at variations until you come up
with something that will work for your business. Try to develop
a name that explains your business; instead of clarkcompany.com,
be more specific and descriptive: such as clarkcoadvertising-pr.com.
After all the research, the goals and objectives, begin to
interview web site developers.
You can find as many as 40 in the yellow pages, but it helps
to ask business associates for recommendations. In many cases
your internet service provider may be able to develop a website
for you or to suggest someone who does. In any case, get a
list of the sites potential developers have created, log on,
look them up and check them out. You’ll readily see the
differences in developers’ capabilities.
Web site prices range from as low as $500 for a simple site
to several thousand dollars. Other costs related to websites
include domain name registration $70-75 for two years; set-up-fees,
from as low as $20; monthly hosting fees, approximately $40
(up to $100 and more for e-commerce sites); maintenance and
upgrade retainers, at least $35-75 a month; “shopping
package” for an e-commerce “store” site, approximately
$500; e-commerce secure site registration, $250. Be prepared
to invest more than your initial development fee.
Some developers, like Pegasus Media Group, offer low cost
photography and photo usage services. Others, like Lon Gibby
Productions, offer images from a vast video library. But,
be careful not to make your website too complicated. Internet
users go on-line with a task in mind. Be sure your site helps
them accomplish that task without wasting their time. One
important thing to know is big designs may slow your site
down, causing users to have to wait for images to appear.
The number one complaint of internet users is “information
takes too long to download.” Your logo spinning may look
nice, but it may actually drive customers away because of
the time it consumes. Adair’s partner, Theresa Herriman
likens this to having a beautifully ornate door on your store,
that is too heavy for customers to open. She advises limiting
large graphics and taking advantage of information design
to make your site as user friendly as possible.
Once your website is up and running, don’t expect an
avalanche of business. Keep your expectations in perspective
because the competition is huge. There are millions of other
websites out there, with tens of thousands being added everyday.
This massive new marketing opportunity is effecting advertising
media, too. In Seattle, “dot-com” business is driving
the price of radio advertising so high that there is discussion
about limiting their number of commercials per hour, similar
to political advertising.
The internet is an excellent way for small businesses to
expand their marketing opportunities. It is possible to build
an inexpensive, new location for your business that is open
24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing information and
products to a huge, growing number of on-line shoppers. Now
is a great time to become part of this major paradigm in American
business. Put your company on-line and join this business
revolution.
12/8/99
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