Some of today's business owners, i regret to say, still don't see the benefits or needless to say, the use, in getting a website for their business. This article is dedicated to you, the people that don't realize is that the e-business market is now the leading market. Be it in general sales, community growth, publicity capabilities, or anything else that's possible to translate onto the web, the internet is the place to grow yourself, your business, or your ideas. Just by doing daily searches anyone can easily see that new
businesses are flourishing every day by easily promoting themselves on the web at minimal costs. It's said that the internet market has grown over 400% in sales in the last 4-5 years. What does this tell us?, it seems that your competitors may have already discovered the secrets of internet marketing. Your next goal should be to make that obviously necessary merger and get yourself online.
One of the main and obvious benefits of opening a web based business or extending your business onto the World Wide Web, is that it will give your business instant credibility with your new or already existing customers. I mean, not only are you providing your existing clientbase with a new and more convenient storefront, you're also giving these same people that "warm & fuzzy" feeling of knowing that you're store's presence is there and available whenever they need it. Now, once you're online, those people that may have never even stepped foot in your store, seem to become your top consumers. All in all, you open another doorway; a doorway that in it's most literal terms, "is always open."
Another great benefit of owning an online business, is what I believe to be the main reason for the 60% increase in "Baby Boomers" in the last few years, the ability to fake a bigger presence. What many small business owners and new entrepreneurs don't quite grasp right off the start, is that you're business can be as large as you want it to be online. Here's an example; Maybe you have a small "Mom & Pop" store that gets no more than just over a few hundred unique customers per year/month, well, start to prepare yourself because once your business presence hits online, your audience has potential of growing intercontinental. Let me be more specific, the well known Google was founded by a couple of college students doing a research project. How about Craig's List ?, well, read for yourself
(as posted on his site http://www.craigslist.org/about/press/craigsonlinelistofstuff.html):
"I saw a lot of people helping each other out on The Well (a pioneering online community in the Bay Area). I said, "Hey, I can do that." I saw the San Francisco housing shortage and asked people to send in housing notices. People asked for more categories, things kept getting better." "
In Short, even a online business that is run from your home while you conduct your daily work in your pajamas, can make a corporate impression in today's market. Just like many others before you have had the dream of walking on the profit path of the WWW, you to, have the ability to grow your presence at an amazing rate, all, if you want, at your leisure from the comfort of your home computer.
In addition to this new, and unlimited publicity, when online, you have the tools to reinforce and upgrade your existing sales force and better than that, your customer service and company contact methods grow a whole new front. With all of the possibilities for you in obtaining tools and resources to aid you in achieving your businesses goals, you almost become overwhelmed with what prosperous ventures are to come, after all, now you even have tools that will have consistent tracking of your market with no extra work for you. Other than the already mentioned tools though, capabilities such as the obvious availability of 24/7 on-line purchases, reduction in stocking / restocking labor, reduction in costs involved in having to hire so much people, the possibilities are truely endless...
In all honesty though, you as a business owner, need to realize this one thing, buyers are now expecting their favorite stores to have websites. That is the main point, you should make it a point as an entrepreneur to promote your business in all ways possible, and more recently than ever, buyers are becoming strict web buyers. This means that many of the people that might have been an addition to your walk in clientbase in the long run, may now never find you and your location in the economic jungle that we're all dealing with today, without you having a web presence.
In the business world of today, we have to please our client crowd and general audience, this can be achieved in one main way... E-Commerce. Give your customer the ability to purchase at their convenience and from the comfort of their own home, help yourself to the profits of the proven to be successful internet market, otherwise, miss a large portion of possible prospective customers. "Those who mainly buy online.". If you don't take this article to heart as a business owner, at least keep in mind that online sales, within the last 3 years, have proven to have higher net dollar / sale amount than in-store purchases. That it itself should show you, the economy is merging to a new economic style, a style that has endless capabilities. Join in and flourish.
