Are there Still Companies that Don’t Have a Website?

Today, we welcome guest blogger Brendan Cunningham, Licensed Professional Business Coach who will speak to us about the importance of having a website. Many people don’t seek the help of a chiropractor until they experience acute pain. As any doctor will tell you, pain is a symptom, in most cases, the last symptom.

As a professional business coach who works with small to medium sized businesses, I am often approached when business slows and sales slip. Sagging sales are very painful for a business and if the trend continues too long it can be fatal. But the question should be, why are sales falling in the first place? It could be many things but the first place I would look would be what the company is doing with respect to their marketing and sales.

Notice I said “marketing and sales” and not “sales and marketing.” A sale comes after marketing. Marketing is everything that happens before the sale is made and after the sales is made. These days, marketing approaches have certainly changed. The Internet, social networking, email, apps, and smart phones didn’t exist in our parents’ time. Today, they are indispensable tools to communicate with our customers. So. having said that let me make a confession.

If I meet a business owner who doesn’t have a website, it is difficult or impossible for me to take them seriously. It’s become a prejudice of mine. They don’t have to have a great website that does all the things they would hope it could do, they just need to have a website. It announces to the world that you are in business, you want people to find you, and you can solve their problems for them.

Have you looked online for a particular restaurant to check their daily specials, menu, or hours? Have you passed on the restaurant because you couldn’t find their website? Could you be losing business for the same reason?

Think of your website as an extension of your store (even if you don’t actually have a store, think of your business in terms of it being a store). Remember I mentioned I had a prejudice about this. Ok, so I talk to you and I ask you what you do, and you tell me, and I say, “Fine, let me check out your website.” (Another way of saying I am interested and I would like to come to your store.) Then you say, “Oh, I’m sorry but we don’t have a website.” What impression does that leave me with of your business? It is 2011…a website is as standard to businesses as a business card.

About the Author: Guest blogger Brendan J. Cunningham is a Licensed Professional Business Coach. You can reach him by visiting https://excelleronconsulting.com/