But... listen up business owners... you get what you pay for. And in the web development industry, if you're trying to be cheap, you're not going to get much web site.
From hiring cousin Owen to build the site, because he knows lots about computers, down to domain names about 30 characters long, horrible mistakes are made in the name of "cost consciousness".
The biggest mistake I see made is crippling the web site before it ever gets a chance to be an asset. To keep costs down, small business owners usually opt for static HTML. About the only functionality they'll spring for is an animated GIF.
If you're not a web guy, you should still giggle at that. It's funny.
Is it surprising, then, that so many small business owners are unsure about "applications"? Hey! More than a few web designers out there would have a hard time with that, too.
My web development company, eStar Professional deals with it every day. But, we have a standard approach that makes explaining it just a little easier.
Here's what we tell them:
Evaluate your business processes. Pay particular attention to repititious tasks having to do with information management, and to processes where clients directly interact with data.
Where tasks are repitious, there is probably an opportunity to automate, which reduces wage-hours spent on sink holes like documentation or information distribution.
Where clients directly manipulate data, there is an opportunity to provide a "Value Added Service" online - a service directly related to your business that other small business web sites in your industry probably aren't doing.
Imagine how your value will be increased - to your web site visitors - because you save them significant time and money. Imagine them finding another business like yours online, but returning to your site because of the added value.
In this example there's a bonus: It reduces paper work for you staff!
Now, every business is different, and not all services will be portable to the web. I mean, brain surgery probably won't go online at least until 2008 or 2009. But the idea is solid.
How do you make your web site more valuable?
Value Added Services.
