Does My Business Really Need a Website?
by Stuart Livesey
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For web designers and production companies it must have seemed like the old gold rush days were with us once more. Businesses wanted a piece of the action on line and they were prepared to pay a premium to get there.
It didn't matter what the business was, or how it operated, if it didn't have an on line presence then it just wasn't a real business.
That sort of attitude is still quite prevalent today but the recession has done something to cool the on line frenzy that common sense could never do.
In the current economic climate, where every business dollar is expected to work harder, the need for a business to have an on line presence is coming under closer scrutiny and that is undoubtedly a good thing.
There are two questions that any business needs to answer before they rush off to the designers waving attaché cases loaded with cash.
The first question is why.
Why does my business need to be on line?
The stock answer to that question is, to extend my market coverage. That is, to take your product to a wider market, but is there really a wider market for the products you sell?
For example, your business is selling good old-fashioned widgets and you sell them from a shopfront downtown. Your market is your town or even your city and you reach that market through normal advertising methods. You use radio and newspaper advertising and your business details also appear in the local phone directory. You also advertise outside your business to pick up the passing trade.
You decide to go on line and you part with a sizeable chunk of change for all the things necessary to get your business on line. But does that really extend your market place?
Somebody in the next town or even the next state sees your site on line and decides to order some of your widgets but then they realise that shipping costs are going to push the cost of your widgets well above what they can buy locally. Obviously they are not going to go ahead with the order.
Now if your widgets are genuinely unique and hard to obtain elsewhere then you will find a market for them outside your own area and a website is a valuable marketing tool. However, if they are not unique will anyone outside your own area buy them?
You already have your local area covered with more traditional means of advertising so why do you need to set up a web site? Will you really be extending the area that you can market to or will you just be wasting your money?
That is only a question that you can answer but the answer can make a big difference to your bottom line.
The second question that you should ask yourself is, will my website save me money? Should I really expect a genuine return on the investment that I will have to sink into a website?
Now that may seem a strange question especially when you consider that most commercial websites cost a lot of money to set up but think about it.
By expending money on a website will you really be saving money in other areas?
That is a question that no one bothered about even as late as a year or so ago but more and more big businesses are now asking. Will their website enable them to reduce the number of sales staff and so save on salaries? Will their website have the same reach as advertising in other forms of media and so enable them to cut their advertising budget?
Those are just a couple of ways that a website could save a business some money and they clearly show that big business wants a genuine return on investment from their websites.
If big business now sees that as an important consideration then how much more important is it for a small business?
Gone are the heady days when vanity over-ruled economics. Vanity required a business to have a website while economics requires a business to justify the expense of a website in terms of savings in other areas.
So does your business genuinely require a website? Will it really take your business from the local area out into the wider world? Will a website save you money and add to your bottom line?
Or is it necessary just because you feel you need the bragging rights that still seem to be associated with having a website?
Careful evaluation
of you business might just show that having a website is a total waste
of money. If it does then accept the fact that the web is not for you
and move on to more cost effective ways of promoting your business.