But a website is too expensive. This is something I often hear from friends and clients. A personal website might have been out of reach in the old days, but now you can create a website that fits almost any budget and niche. Not only that, if you only had one new customer a month for a year, wouldn’t the relatively small fee for a domain name and website of your own be worth it?
but I don’t know much about computers
This is another one I hear often. The good news is that even if you don’t know much about computers, you can find someone to train you and help you set up your site. Here’s a real-world example for you: I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance of mine, a man named Pat who owns a distribution business. Pat is 70 years old and ready to enjoy the retirement he has worked hard for his whole life. However, to retire, he needs to sell his distribution business and sell it for a healthy profit.
He has a potential buyer for his business, but this buyer won’t give Pat the price he wants unless he can get three or four more customers. I have been telling Pat for a while that his business needs a website, but he has resisted. I understand his hesitation, because he has run his $50,000-a-year business out of his basement for years without the help of a website. Not only that, since he’s not a web user, he really doesn’t understand how many people could learn about his business if he just put the information online. However, he recently bought a computer, so I decided to try to convince him one more time that he needs a website if he wants to get more clients quickly and profitably. So I offered to go ahead and make a simple website for him for free (he would only have to pay $10.00 per month for the hosting fee), but he still wasn’t sure.
Why do I need a website? she asked her. What will he do? I told him how a website would allow him to advertise his business on the Internet and grow his business faster and more efficiently than was possible in the days before the Internet.
Well, can’t I hire a salesperson for that? he said.
I admitted it. I laughed out loud a little when he said that. I realized that I needed to explain myself more and teach him from the ground up about the reasons why some companies are not surviving in this failing economy, and about the fundamental economic changes that the Internet has brought to the business landscape.
After explaining all of this to Pat, and that using the internet and having a website is a must to make a decent living in today’s economy, she agreed to let me make her site. He admitted that he didn’t understand the Internet, but he believed me when I told him that it was necessary to make a business work and be more profitable these days.
I’ve been working on it, and it will be released next week. We hope that Pat can enjoy her retirement soon!