Q:  Okay, Okay... I know everyone tells me that I am supposed to have a website. But why? I have no plans to sell online, I just don't see the need for a site. My business has been around for years and we have done just fine without one. Am I wrong?  - A.R. Lanashire.

A: I think you are, for reasons both large and small. Let me give you but one example:

A few days ago I was suddenly aware of the fact that I had not booked a hairdressers appointment for a dinner party I was going to the following evening.  I was at a friends and I was telling her how I was not really happy with my current hairdresser at the time… and she had mentioned a great hairdressers that she had been to only a week earlier, and she gave me their name, but she did not know the number.  It was literally just 5 minutes from where I lived and I knew it. 

I decided to pop online, get the telephone number and call them.
Yet try as I might, I couldn't find their website.

               -      It finally dawned on me that they did not have one!!

So, I resorted to going to one of the big brand name hairdressers in town that have websites.
- Now – there’s another point for you… Toni & Guy, Vidals etc… none of them sell online, nor do they ever intend to – everyone knows about them, but yet even they have websites – why?

- to extend their brand,
- provide a local telephone number for customers wishing to contact them
- and as an additional marketing tool
- a whole bunch of other reasons like staying ahead of the times, showing off their work, and more....

… Therefore, even though this new prospective hairdressers I was hoping to try came with a glowing reference, they lost a prospective new customer. 

An online website would have resolved a problem for both me and them!  Multiply that multi-fold and that's why every small business has to have a website. And for a cost of a mere £20 a month its an absolute must!

Can you do e-commerce if you are not online? Nope.
Can people that hear about you check you out online if you don't have a site? No again.
Can current customers find out what your new offerings are if you lack a site? Not easily. 
Can current and prospective new customer (like me) find you – No again!   

And is it hard to get one? Happily, the answer again is no, in fact it's easier than ever. (More on that in a moment.)

Here are some amazing statistics:
• According to Jupiter Research, half of all small businesses with less than 10 employees do not have a website.   7 out of 10 solo businesses do not have a website.  What is up with that? We both know that people are spending ever more time online. 80% of us now spend as much time online as we do watching television.

So you must get your business online; there's no question about it. Having a website is as essential today as having business cards or a telephone number.

So the question really is, how do you do it easily and affordably?

There are three ways, but for most small businesses, the third is almost always the best:

1. Hire a web developer – this costs thousands
2. Use a software-creation program – this requires a lot of technical knowledge
3. Use an online service – like us – we are both affordable and easy.

GoCommerced Online services are great because, not only do they create websites for a very low fee, there are also simple ways to show you how even YOU can change the information on the site easily if you want to at a later date.
There is no need to advertise specically online either – just the fact that your website exists is important – but we will also help you to understand the logic of the internet (if you don’t already) and explain the various SEO options – if you want to know them.

What is great about GoCommerced is that it allows you to get a web address, create a site, market that site, and even sell on that site, all in one place. Most similar web services might offer a couple of these services, but not all of them.
The point is, today, there is no reason for any small business not to be online, and not just online, but online in a professional, powerful way.

That way, when a customer wants to find you, they will.

If not, they'll go somewhere else.