Five common misconceptions

...about small business on the web.

Misconception #1 - Don't believe the hype - not everyone needs to be online.

Enthusiasm for bringing all small business online is sometimes seen as involving some kind of snake-oil salemanship or dishonest get-rich-quick schemes. When the truth in that attitude is - the belief that some businesses should be denied a web presence because they are not likely to succeed there.

Misconception #2 - Can the business make the investment neccessary to make an effective web site, and can the existing offline business benefit from a web site?

A web site can be compared to all other routinely used business tools. Phone, fax, copier, computer. Tools we are expected to have by our customers and clients. No matter what your company brochure and business cards say about you or your level of professionalism, you are still expected to have them.

If a business doesn't have what it's customers expect they are seen as less than professional and risky to do business with. The phone company doesn't tell the struggling entrepreneur, "We don't think your business should have a phone, because you can't afford a full-page ad in the Yellow Pages, so we are not going to provide you service!" No, a simple listing is sometimes necessary.

Some companies won't even blink at spending £500 a month for a quarter page phone book ad or paying nearly that much for local newspaper splash ads yet they don't see the utility of a 24 hour-a-day 365 day a year advertising medium.

The investment necessary is negligible, unless their web developer is willing only to create a full service high-end site using all the latest bells and whistles - and consequently makes the service financially inaccessible to small business.

Misconception #3 - If a business is going to benefit from a web site, the site has to hold some sort of utility for the business. Why make a site that doesn't offer much value for your business?

The web presence is the utility for business. If a customer expects to call a business, they don't ever consider the possiblility you won't have a phone.

Nowadays people expect a business to have a web site . If you don't have a web site, potential business will just go elsewhere. It's not the utility that matters most, but the presence.

Even if that site offers only an unchanging menu or unchanging services, contact information, business philosophy or bio. The customers will ALWAYS expect the web site to be there whether you change your mind, your products or your hairdo.

Misconception #4 - Whether or not the business has the neccessary infrastructure to handle a web site. Who is going to deal with the incoming e-mails? Can someone dedicate themselves to marketing and taking care of administrative issues for the site?

You need an infrastructure to decide who is going to answer the phone, who is going to open the (snail) mail and who will dedicate themselves to doing office paperwork and filing. Of course it becomes an employees job to do specific tasks. This list of tasks is going to add a small enough responsibility to an employee or two that it is also negligible.

Replying to e-mail takes less time and expense than answering snail mail. Somebody has to be sure the filing gets done and it is no less obvious that someone must be dedicated to the task of web site maintenance and administration, but in most small businesses, that may mean only a weekly two hour (or less) task.

Misconception #5 - Some small business owners want to make a site with 3-5 products, no online ordering and minimal promotion. In a case like that what is the point of putting up a web site?

Because the customer expects it!. There should be no judgement involved about the potential success of the site. You may contend that if a business can't be successful they should stay out of business and not clutter up the landscape.

We're suggesting only that a web site will soon become expected by the public and the businesses they seek to deal with. Not that it will make us successful. Use of the other business tools won't guarantee success either - because you own a phone, it doesn't mean it must ring off the hook to be considered necessary!

 

Getting online is becoming cheaper and easier thanks to emergence of new technologies but marketing on the Internet is becoming more expensive. Take your business online now, before the marketing costs become way too expensive for small companies.

 

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