Thoughts on Building a Business

I believe the obvious place to look at for spending your Marketing Dollars, is the Internet. But then I would, wouldn't I. Afterall, one of the Services we offer is Website Design. But hear me out.

When you look at all the Marketing Channels you can choose from, the Internet is easily the fastest growing. More and more people are now using the Internet to not only look, but to review, Products and Services they want. On top of that, in most cases it is also the cheapest form of advertising - particularly when you take into account it's reach. So why wouldn't you want to be part of that.

Up until about 2 years ago, I knew very little about the Internet. As a Business Advisor, I knew that it was a valid marketing strategy and told my clients that they should not neglect it. But over the last 2 years, I have learnt a great deal and am continually being surprised by the opportunities that can be found. But let's start with the basics.

A simple website is a great way to give additional information to a Prospect and to build credibility. The simplest way to view it is like an online brochure. The advantages though of the website over the brochure is that you never run out and in many cases, you can update it regularly to keep it current. So not only is your website more up to date, but it is cheaper in the long run then those Brochures.

From here, you can look at a more advanced website (latest technology). These take you beyond a simple online brochure website, to a website that allows you to interact with your visitors. This can be something as simple as a Newsletter Subscription Form, or something as involved as a Members Only Area. The advantages of these types of Websites, is that it becomes stickier. By this, we mean that potential customers will come back to your website more often. And research shows, that the more contact we have with a business, the more likely we will choose it over a competitor. Not only will they come back to your website, but you can also email them info.

Then we have the Online Shop. This enables you to sell products on the Internet. The main advantage here is that you can suddenly reach a lot bigger marketplace. If you where a traditional store, you would only be pulling customers from your surrounding area (how far out you go depends on the uniqueness of your product or service). With an Online Shop, you could potentially sell to the world. Better yet, you can automate most processes, so that not only can you sell every hour of every day, but you can minimise the number of staff that you need.

Lastly, you can start looking at the host of other opportunities on the Internet. Examples of this would be: Affiliate Programs, Social Media and Online Communities to name a few. However, these are areas for us to discuss at another time.

Today I wanted to write a follow up to my last post on my frustration with the media and the "Financial Crisis". Specifically, I wanted to write about what I believe you should do if you are a Business Owner.

Firstly, as I stated in my last post, there are always people who make money during a recession. It is also true that there are always people who will lose money and become bankrupt during a recession. If you are like me, you should be excited by this news. Why I hear you ask?

Downturns in the economy are a good way to separate those businesses that are well run with solid foundations from those businesses that aren't. When the economy is booming, there is always a flurry of new businesses that make money in spite of themselves. These are the sorts of businesses that can (not always) give your industry a bad reputation and make it harder for you to make a sensible profit, by continually undercutting and providing poor service. As the economy slows, they are generally poorer placed to handle the lower revenues and go "belly up".

So even though the industry spend may drop, there are fewer businesses sharing in it. So in fact you can still turn over the same if not more. Furthermore, some of the businesses that do survive, start cutting all of their expenses (including Marketing) and go into their shell to try and weather the storm.

So what we need to do is make sure that we are the businesses that not only survive the slowing economy, but prosper in it. My suggestions would be:

• Focus on your fundamentals to ensure that they are solid (ie: cashflow forecasting and reporting)
• Review all your expenses and look for opportunities to lower them (as long as it doesn't impact on your products or services)
• Continue spending money on marketing (or even increase it). It's easier to be noticed when your competitors are all cutting back on advertising
• Keep an open mind and look for new opportunities
• Whatever you do, do not blame the economy. It is an easy cop out and may make you miss what the real underlying problem is
• And lastly, choose not to partake in the "Recession", but focus on achieving your goals.

The MYOB Small Business Survey for July 2008 found that only 41% of Small Businesses have or utilise a website. With the growing usage of the Internet, I find this amazing. I honestly thought the figure would be up around 70%.

Even more of a concern, is that only 45% of Small Businesses have registered a Domain. This means that rather then using email addresses that promote their business (like info@yourbusiness.com.au), they are using email addresses that promote the Internet Service Provider they are using (eg. yourbusiness@bigpond.com). I believe that using an email address that uses your unique domain, portrays a more professional image. More importantly, there is no excuse for not having your own domain and email addresses, as it takes all of 30 minutes to set up and will only cost you $54. So if you don't have your own domain name and email accounts, contact me and I will tell you how to go about it.

But I get sidetracked! The same survey found that many small businesses are using the Internet more and more. Of particular note is that 91% of you use the Internet for Online Banking and 79% of you pay Supplier Bills online. Yet only 41% of you have your own website. Shouldn't you have an online presence!! Shouldn't you be one of those Suppliers that other Businesses pay online. After all, it makes sense to make paying you as easy as possible, and the number of people using online payments shows that this is becoming the preferred option.

To find out more about the MYOB survey, click here.

As I have discussed in previous Blogs, Web 2.0 is now here.

But what is it?

In a nutshell, the Internet used to be about information. We used it to find out information on any topic. This may have been information on the "plight of the small footed bandicoot in Central NSW' or maybe on a good Personal Trainer in your area. So from a business sense, people would look for information on our business to decide if they wanted to use us for our product or service.

Web 2.0 has evolved beyond pure information, to where we use the Internet to connect to other people. The obvious areas here is with the various websites like Myspace and Facebook. These are sites where people post their information so that other people can contact them.

This is an area that is growing rapidly, so if we are serious about growing our own business, we need to work out how we can use this.

I recently came across a great little video on Youtube, that explains what Social Media is. Better still, it explains it in a Business Scenario. So if you would like to start understanding Social Media better, check out the video.

How do you have an effective website?

Many websites have been put together with no real thought to what you are trying to achieve. It's all well and good to have a fantastic looking website, but if it's not making you money, then it is a waste of money.

The 4C's are a great way to look at your website to ensure that you have designed it to be effective. They were developed by Bardia Housman who is the Founder of the Web Development Company that we use for our websites. And they are:

• Content
• Credbility
• Conversion
• Customer

In a nutshell, you need good content to attract people to your site, which will then give you good credibility. This credibility will then help you convert these visitors into customers, who you must now look after to keep as customers.

This is a simplistic explanation. Download the full article on the 4C's, to learn more. It's a great read.