Taking your business online
Michael asked how to begin building a website for his business. Have you started a website for your business? Did you hire a company to design it for you? Share your experiences here.
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DiggMy mom built a website for her business a couple months ago and it literally took her 15 minutes to complete and it looks great! She knows how to work a computer, but website design is something she has never done before. She went to http://www.myABCspace.com and it is a a site dedicated to providing small businesses with an easy-to-use website. It offers tools and services that help you tap into the Web to compete more effectively and win more business. Your myABCspace page can be used as a stand alone webpage or as an effective way to supplement your current website while avoiding costly updates normally associated with using outside help.
If your small business does not have a website, you are probably losing more customers than you can possibly imagine.
With your myABCspace account you can:
• Allow customers 24/7 access to information about your products and services.
• Connect with the over 90% of people under the age of forty who use the Web almost exclusively to find products and services that they are looking for.
• Easily post coupons, announcements, promotional items, pictures, videos, and just about anything you want to help promote your business!
We initially built our website,but after a very short time we knew we were not experienced enough to create a professional site.We then turned to a company that did nothing but upload a canned program which we had to fine tune. Now we have hired someone to create a site from scratch and we are constantly improving the look,feel,and the usability for the customers. Shortly we will have a site our customers will enjoy using.
Thanks!
http://www.sellmyinventory.com
I started my first website with a partner. I was not the one who built it, he was. He had taken a class in highschool but for the most part taught himself how to make a site. Our site is gives rebates for web hosting and will be providing articles about web hosting. Our site is http://www.RebateRabbit.com Online business is the way to go it is cheap to start and w/o a doubt has a great amount of potential to grow
My wife and I started our online custom jewelry business http://www.custom-silver-jewelry-by-liad.com about a year ago.She already had a existing customer base but out goal was to make it a fulltime business.We hired a company that built front end and backend system for us.I think that if you are serious it is better to spend the money to have it done right by professionals so you have the time to concentrate on what you know best.
I am active duty military and I own http://www.Off-BaseHousing.com. When I first developed the idea I had no means to have a website built. In 2004 the cost was thousands and I didn’t have a budget. So I found an off shore programmer that worked for $300/mo. His knowledge was poor but after 8 months I had my first working website. That is what got our business off the ground. Had it not been for cheap off shore programming my business plan would be collecting dust on the shelf.
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Michael: your decision has to be driven by things like: the nature of your business, your expectation with regards to building your business’ website, your web skills, the size of your team, and your available budget.
Be sure to read a lot before undertaking in this task that indeed requires a lot of work and commitment and is time consuming.
My first suggestion is to ask yourself: does my business requires an online presence in fact?
I would like you to read
this article where you can learn about what you need and what your options are.
Good luck!