By Kelly Meeneghan
Within the past decade, advances in technology continue to exceed the expectations of today’s generation. The ability to arrange travel, network across multiple industries and communicate with colleagues around the globe with a simple click, solidifies the role the Internet will always play within the business world. Therefore, it is surprising to see that although 97% of consumers go online to search for local services, 52% of small and medium business owners still do not have a website according to Yodle’s Small Business Sentiment Survey. While business owners can blame a wide range of factors for not making the leap online, the hosting industry has recently introduced solutions to put an end to the excuses.
“But I don’t have time”
A favorite excuse among busy SMBs is the amount of time it requires to create and manage a website. And rightfully so. On average, a start-up or small business only has 1-4 employees wearing multiple hats throughout the day, from Chief Financial Officer to Receptionist. A valuable solution for these business owners is using a website creation application based on a “do-it-yourself” (DIY) model. These solutions offer pre-defined content, navigation and images specific to their website category, which provides a starting point for an online presence. Creating a website from scratch requires hours of coding, software installs and routine updates. These DIY options save users from this time requirement, providing more time to be spent on the business. A common misperception of saving time for SMBC is hiring a Web professional to create a professional website for their business. However, it is surprising to discover the time is takes to get a website online. Depending on a developer’s workload, wait times could be days before getting a site up and running or updates made. By creating and managing the website yourself, SMBs have more time to dedicate to their daily business operations as well as the freedom to make timely decisions with their online presence.
“I don’t have the technical knowledge to manage a site on my own”
Although the technical backend work is completed for you when working within a DIY application, daily edits, system updates and routine maintenances still have to be performed in order to ensure that a site remains running smoothly. For the business owners that are lacking a technical expertise, the hosting industry recently introduced a completely managed solution. As one of the first responders to this need, 1&1 Internet launched 1&1 MyWebsite Maintained by Experts package. This is a great solution, which not only creates a unique, customized and professional website for your business, but it is managed and looked after by industry experts. Offering 24/7 support, users will not have to worry about making daily updates, dealing with outages and overall maintenance. A managed solution frees SMBs of the need for an extensive technical background but also gives them peace of mind that expert support is just a phone call away. No technical knowledge required and the confidence that their website is running error-free allows business owners to focuses purely on the important aspects of their daily business needs.
“No budget”
A completely managed solution is a need within the business market that SMBs have long been waiting for, but at what cost? On average, if a professional designer or agency is hired to create a customized website can be expected to take upwards of 15 hours. This results in anywhere from $400-$1,400. These are big portions of a start-ups already fragile budget. Do-It-Yourself options offer the same flexibility and freedom, without the weight of a high bill. Managed solutions and DIY online options provide SMBs with great exposure throughout the World Wide Web at a small investment. Taking online exposure a step further, social media is an excellent cost effective solution. Creating a presence on popular social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ offer businesses unlimited space to communicate and engage with their audience. Experian Marketing Services found that consumers spend 16 minutes out of every hour online on social networking and forums. This is a great opportunity for business to cash in on consumers attention without the need for a financial commitment. Completely free and user friendly, social media is key to attracting new and current customers to your business.
Not wanting SMBs to miss out on the many advantages on online presence can bring to a business, the hosting industry has created solutions to make getting online easier than ever. Answering every excuse with a cost effective and efficient solution, now business owners from any industry or technical background can find success online.
Go to the full article.
Article Curated From…: Business2Community