Taking a Business Online
These days, there are a great number of people who are self-employed. It’s become a popular option for people with skills and services to offer, or products to sell, to customers. Some people use their skills to provide educational services in a self-employed setting. For example people like driving instructors, sports instructors or teachers of music and the arts make their living by imparting their skills to others.
Many people in the trade industries are also self-employed. People like painters and decorators, plumbers, carpenters and electricians offer their services for a fee and operate as a business. Some people make niche artisan products like food and drink, textiles or perhaps digital products like graphic design work for sale to customers.
Some people in the entertainment world are also self-employed, with themselves functioning as a corporation and making a living as comedians for hire, band musicians for events or clowns for children’s parties. It all works as a way of getting people to work for themselves. But how do you expand, how can a self-employed business take themselves online?
Many people in the trade industries are also self-employed. People like painters and decorators, plumbers, carpenters and electricians offer their services for a fee and operate as a business. Some people make niche artisan products like food and drink, textiles or perhaps digital products like graphic design work for sale to customers.
Some people in the entertainment world are also self-employed, with themselves functioning as a corporation and making a living as comedians for hire, band musicians for events or clowns for children’s parties. It all works as a way of getting people to work for themselves. But how do you expand, how can a self-employed business take themselves online?
Why Online?
Some people, especially those who have been self-employed for a long period of time, may not see the merits of online business. However, there are many benefits that can come about from using the internet to promote and find new business in your field of expertise.
Some benefits include;
• Future Proofing – there’s no doubt that the internet is going to play a huge role in the future of society, let alone in business, so there’s a great benefit in getting yourself established whilst we are still in the transitionary stages to a new digital economy.
• Increased Exposure – a good quality website will help you to drum up new business through increased exposure. Of course it’s all well and good having an ad in the yellow pages, but the internet is no comparison.
• Cost Efficiency – there are many different ways that you can reduce expenses, and using the internet is a great way to cut costs – especially for retailers as managing the supply chain, billing and shipping can be considerably expensive, but with an eCommerce website these costs are low.
• Customer Support – by having a contact form on your website, or a dedicated website email address, you can support your customers a lot better. It’s easier to check emails and form completions with a timely response each morning than having someone phone you for enquiries throughout the day.
• Showcase Your Business – you can really get a good chance to showcase your business in a cost-efficient way, as opposed to a tiny expensive ad in the newspaper that can only fit the most important information.
There are many benefits to having your business online. It’s a great way to make sure you have a 24 hour global business, which is exactly what you want in order to have the maximum chance of success. The only real disadvantage to having your business online is the effort it takes to create it. But it’s not that hard, you just need to know what you want and what to look out for.
Some benefits include;
• Future Proofing – there’s no doubt that the internet is going to play a huge role in the future of society, let alone in business, so there’s a great benefit in getting yourself established whilst we are still in the transitionary stages to a new digital economy.
• Increased Exposure – a good quality website will help you to drum up new business through increased exposure. Of course it’s all well and good having an ad in the yellow pages, but the internet is no comparison.
• Cost Efficiency – there are many different ways that you can reduce expenses, and using the internet is a great way to cut costs – especially for retailers as managing the supply chain, billing and shipping can be considerably expensive, but with an eCommerce website these costs are low.
• Customer Support – by having a contact form on your website, or a dedicated website email address, you can support your customers a lot better. It’s easier to check emails and form completions with a timely response each morning than having someone phone you for enquiries throughout the day.
• Showcase Your Business – you can really get a good chance to showcase your business in a cost-efficient way, as opposed to a tiny expensive ad in the newspaper that can only fit the most important information.
There are many benefits to having your business online. It’s a great way to make sure you have a 24 hour global business, which is exactly what you want in order to have the maximum chance of success. The only real disadvantage to having your business online is the effort it takes to create it. But it’s not that hard, you just need to know what you want and what to look out for.
Creating Your Website
When it comes to your website, you need to determine what you need. This will depend on the nature of your business. If you’re an artisan beer seller, then you may want an online shop. If you’re a tennis instructor then you may want a booking form for customers.
There are many different types of website, and you can create almost anything to suit your needs quite easily. You could invest the time and energy to learn how to create a website yourself, however you would most likely be unable to deliver a professional website – and it would take a considerable amount of time.
Most professional businesses will use a web development company to build their online presence. This can help you get a high-quality website with a lot less hassle. This way you can get what you want. You can have the option of managing the website yourself after it’s finished, which means you will be responsible for keeping it updated – or you could use an external management service at an additional cost. If you’ve got a little bit of computer knowledge, it can be very simple to keep your website in order.
There are many different types of website, and you can create almost anything to suit your needs quite easily. You could invest the time and energy to learn how to create a website yourself, however you would most likely be unable to deliver a professional website – and it would take a considerable amount of time.
Most professional businesses will use a web development company to build their online presence. This can help you get a high-quality website with a lot less hassle. This way you can get what you want. You can have the option of managing the website yourself after it’s finished, which means you will be responsible for keeping it updated – or you could use an external management service at an additional cost. If you’ve got a little bit of computer knowledge, it can be very simple to keep your website in order.
Measuring Your Website’s Success
A great way to measure your website’s success is simply looking at where your new business is coming from. Are you getting a lot of emails that lead to bookings or sales? Then that’s a pretty good indication your website is performing well. Maybe you’re getting a lot of sales from an offline source, which shows the site probably isn’t working too well.
There are many ways of getting more detailed information of how well your website is performing. For example you can find out the number of visits, what pages people are viewing and how many complete your form or buy a certain product – as well as a huge amount of other information – by using a web analytics package. Many are free, and you can ask your developer to set it up for you so you can check it regularly.
You might determine that people click off your website at a certain point before they buy, this will give you a good insight into how each page is performing. Using an analytics package you can determine what pages people like or don’t like – and you can improve those pages using this insight to help it work better.
There are many ways of getting more detailed information of how well your website is performing. For example you can find out the number of visits, what pages people are viewing and how many complete your form or buy a certain product – as well as a huge amount of other information – by using a web analytics package. Many are free, and you can ask your developer to set it up for you so you can check it regularly.
You might determine that people click off your website at a certain point before they buy, this will give you a good insight into how each page is performing. Using an analytics package you can determine what pages people like or don’t like – and you can improve those pages using this insight to help it work better.
Business in the Future
Your business really needs to be online for it to function well and compete in a fast paced digital world. There are so many ways to improve to your business, but creating an effective website is probably the single most important thing to do.
Whatever your business, you need to keep it competitive – so always keep looking ahead to what is on the horizon and you’ll be better placed to compete as the digital world changes and develop.
Whatever your business, you need to keep it competitive – so always keep looking ahead to what is on the horizon and you’ll be better placed to compete as the digital world changes and develop.