I've been teaching a seminar on Using the Internet in Your Business for several years as a part of my SCORE volunteer work. Basically, I walk SCORE clients through the why and how to build a website. Even if they are not going to sell directly on the internet as so-called eCommerce, I strongly encourage them to at least create a web presence with what some folks call a "brochure site", so-called because it is a cheap, 24/7 accessible equivalent of the old tri-fold brochures that all businesses used to hand out. Typically, there are just five key pages: Home, Products & Services, About/Why Us?, Help/Support, and Contact Us. You've probably got most of the content that you need in the business plan that you used to get financing.
There are a variety of excellent hosting services that offer easy-to-use templates enabling anyone who can use document software like Microsoft Word to create a good-looking website. For several years, I have touted weebly.com as an excellent site that was notably easy to use and could get your business online at low cost, even free. I recently used it myself to upgrade the cosmetics of my own site, and to create a site glenlakesvets.org for our local veterans group in support of our annual Veterans Day golf tournament.
For completeness, I should also recommend wix.com and gybo.com as good, even free, hosting sites as well. Of course, the traditional hosting big boys like godaddy.com, homestead.com, and smallbusiness.yahoo.com have equivalent tools and have all dropped their pricing for small businesses.
There's just no excuse not to get started.
There are a variety of excellent hosting services that offer easy-to-use templates enabling anyone who can use document software like Microsoft Word to create a good-looking website. For several years, I have touted weebly.com as an excellent site that was notably easy to use and could get your business online at low cost, even free. I recently used it myself to upgrade the cosmetics of my own site, and to create a site glenlakesvets.org for our local veterans group in support of our annual Veterans Day golf tournament.
For completeness, I should also recommend wix.com and gybo.com as good, even free, hosting sites as well. Of course, the traditional hosting big boys like godaddy.com, homestead.com, and smallbusiness.yahoo.com have equivalent tools and have all dropped their pricing for small businesses.
There's just no excuse not to get started.