How Even A Small Business Can Profit From Having A Website
The value of the internet as a sales and promotional tool is often overlooked by small businesses. They mistakenly think that the world wide web is only for businesses with a global reach. The internet, however, is for all kinds of businesses, both large and small.
To demonstrate the point, we’ll make a hypothetical example of a small picket fence manufacturer. We’ll call the business ‘Stan’s Picket Fences.’ Stan has a small factory in a big city. He manufactures custom made picket fences and installs them within a fifty mile range of his premises. He had no desire to expand his range beyond that distance because going out on the road was already a time consuming chore and he only sold to about 25% of his leads.
He and his handful of employees got together for a brainstorming session one day and one of them offered to make a website for him. Stan agreed to give it a try, so the employee went around and took photos of some of the fences they had built, of the factory and of the manufacturing process. The website he made was just a simple one, kind of an online scrapbook album. It was simple, but it was very effective.
Once he was online, when people called Stan and asked him to come to their homes to show them his portfolio, he suggested they look at his website first. Those who saw his work and wanted fences of similar quality always called him back. The result for Stan was a large increase in the percentage of sales after his first visit. While he wasn’t making more sales, he was saving time and money.
Deeply impressed, Stan asked his employee if he had any other ideas. The employee suggested that Stan get in touch with other local businesses and, if they agreed, exchange links with them.
Stan made a few phone calls and it didn’t take long before a nearby home decor accents business nearby happily agreed to do a link exchange. To Stan’s surprise, within a short time he was getting quite a few more leads. Over the course of a few months, he saw his profits increase by ten percent, thanks to an inexpensive website and a single link exchange.
Then he got his big break. A home developer was just getting ready for a new property launch and agreed to do a link exchange with Stan. They had nearly completed a development of over a hundred homes. Everyone who went to their website saw Stan’s link and when they purchased their home, they remembered him and called him first when they wanted to fence in their house.
Stan never made any big changes to his website, but it continued to pay off for him. His business doubled in size and profitability. That’s how the internet can help even small businesses!
This article was written by admin on March 14, 2010