InstantSite.MN

It is interesting for me as a business owner to see how other business owner deals with a sale rejection from a possible prospect.  There are always three reasons why someone does not purchase your services.  The first reason is money, second reason is time, and third reason you are a bad sales man.  Well we at Binary Web Design ran across the first reason; money, on a consistent level.  One might think that we may have been pricing people to high, but that was not it because we compared our services and prices to other companies.  The fault was not ours, it was the economy.  People loved what we could do for their business, but at the same time they had a very small budget to work with.  So we decided to start a sister company called InstantSite.mn to solve that problem. 

      At InstantSite.mn you will find everything that you will ever need for your website.  You will find tools that will help you optimize your website so you can have a higher traffic going through your website.  You can purchase domain name, register e-mail, hosting, or build yourself a website.  What is also great is that you can either pay right away, or spread it on a monthly payment basis.  And of course BinaryWebDesign, LLCunderstands and believes in providing quality service to everyone, not juts our high paying customers.  That is why InstantSite.MN has 24 hour support to help and guide you through any troubles that you may run across. 

What is BNI?

Just yesterday I was talking with an old friend of mine who just came back from California to live here. He mentioned that he has studied Yoga and now wants to start a yoga business here. I asked him if he has any customers yet and he said no, because he does not know anybody here, he does not even know where to start.

As a business owner myself and knowing exactly what my friend is going through I told him that there are number of great ways to let local community know who you are and what you do. One way, and perhaps the best option for his type of business is to join a local BNI chapter.

Unlike other membership groups BNI only allows one business identity per chapter. That means that if my friend joins he will be the only one who offers Yoga lessons, he will not have any competitors. BNI also is structured in a very deliberate way, it starts with 20 min. networking, followed by a time where everyone has a chance to say something about their business, and ending with networking time, and you do this every week.

This structure allows you to form partnerships, perhaps pass referral on to others, and for you to receive referrals. My chapter has over 50 people, so that means that every week I remind those 50 people on what I do. So after the meeting, it as if you have 50 sales people working for you. The whole concept is rooted in a notion that “givers gain” that is if you help, you will get helped.

Of course don’t expect that you will get referrals the very day you join. That just does not happen; it can, but highly unlikely. For instance I have been in my chapter for 7 months, and I am just starting to get my first referrals. Also some industries do better then others at BNI. As an example if you are personal financial manager, you will wait for a long time; 2 years before you get a referral. But if you own a flower shop, or a plumber, you will get a referral much quicker. So you have to decide if it is right for you, and one of the best ways of doing that is to visit couple of chapters for free. During your visits you will have a chapter representative explain the details about the chapter, and I encourage anyone who thinks about joining a chapter to ask the members if they like it, and if it has been beneficial for their business.

Making sure you get what you were promised.

I am sure everyone has had an unpleasant experience in their lifetime when it comes to receiving a product that did not deliver on the promise.  Same can be said regarding receiving a service that definitely was not worth what you paid for.  That is why it is important to make sure you chose a right company with the right kind of reputation to make sure that unpleasant experience does not happen. 

      Since I am in the web design business, I cannot stress enough the importance in making sure to choose someone who will work with you on any issues that you have.  I say this because at least once a week I meet a potential customer who tells me how bad his or her experience has been in the past.  This makes it that much more difficult to convince someone to spend more money when they have lost in the past.

      To make sure to avoid this you must set an expectation for your self.  First take a look at your budget and realistically figure out how much money to set aside for your website.  Second make sure to write out exactly what your problem is with the website, and also write out exactly what you want to accomplish with your website.  Third and the last step contact number of web design companies and get quotes to figure out what company cares the most about the project and also see if you can afford what you are looking for.  I mention this because many times people think that building or re-designing a website is 100 to 400 dollars.  Sure you can find someone for that price, but I am certain that the work will look unprofessional and you will be disappointed. 

      After you chose a right web design company make sure you look over a contract.  A great way to prevent unfinished work or any other problems, it to have a contract that at minimum states that 50% of final payment is due upon completion of work as outlined in the contract.  This helps keep both parties interested in making sure that the project gets done right the first time. 

      What about those of you that have already signed and paid, yet are unhappy with the work you received; you can always seek legal help, BBB, and other means that could be easily found using internet.  

E-Commerce

If you listen to the news during the any holiday you often hear analysts talking about our shopping habits.  That is where and more importantly how we shop, and every year more and more people are turning to internet as a way to shop.  Why?  Well it is convenient, fast, easy, but more importantly there are so many more options and variety of products out there.  So if more and more people are turning towards the internet, why would you not offer your product to the consumer that is ready to buy? 

      It is too often that I come across someone who sells a product the primitive way.  That is people just e-mail in the order and quantity and you have to then do everything else to send that package, or maybe you take your orders through the phone.  In any case, this is a slow, unproductive way of doing things. 

      Now think what if I had a power for people to find me on the web and purchase what they want as often as they want and they can do it all on their own without your help.  All you have to do is make sure that you keep enough inventory in stock.  There are a lot of web designers out there that can do this for you, so when you are looking for someone make sure that set you up with some of the following capabilities.  An e-commerce website should be able to have a simple one page check-out, a frequent shopper rewards program integrated, a tracking system for tax records, and it should have automatic shipping cost calculator.  There are a lot more options for you to chose from and take advantage of. 

      So the bottom line is if you have products that you sell and do not have an e-commerce website you are missing out on a lot of money as well as you are wasting time. 

Web Site Analytics, DO You Know Who Is On Your Site & What They Are Doing?

 Assuming that you have a website, how would you determine if it is actually helping you potential customers?  You can’t call everyone that clicks and ask them if your website was helpful; because after all, if your website is not helping your business, you should ask for your money back. 

      One of the easiest ways to know what people are thinking when they are visiting your website is to look at your analytics.  That is done by logging in administrator or contacting your web developer and asking for him or her to analyze webpage views, hits etc.  BinaryWebDesign.com utilizes and highly recommends using Joomla as a content management system because it gives you power to easily look at analytics yourself instead of paying your web designer $200.  Joomla allows you to look at what pages were hit, how long they stayed on that page, what search engine or link they used to find your website, etc.  Seems like a lot of info, but how can it help you?    

      By knowing how much time is spent on average on any particular web page allows you to see if the content is helping people.  For instance if you see that people are spending a lot of time on your home page and service page, but when they click on contact page they right away leave, means that there is something wrong with your content on contact page and needs to be changed.  Information like what links or search engine that people use to find you allows you to market one place like Google more then any other search engines.

      By looking at all of this information, you can slowly update your website to be more efficient in a way that it presents your business on the internet.   
 

By Eugene

You working with the right web developer?

How do you know whether you are working with the right web developer? Do you look at their previous work, testimonials, experience or something else? Well probably all of that and more. That is a good approach before making an educated decision but may lack a fine detail that will make your return on investment that much better.

For instance when you meet with a web developer you need to hear them ask you the following key questions:

• Who is your target market?
• What industries are you having most success with?
• What is the age group that you are dealing with?
• What is your goal for your business?
• Are you thinking of targeting a new market?
• What problems are you having right now?
• What is your past experience with a web developer?

As you may have noticed not one question is about what functions you want your website to have, and that is for a specific reason. A web developer needs to know as much as he can about your business before he builds a website for you. This is a vital detail that should be the basis when making a decision between web developers. Why you may ask? Well because 50% of internet users are between 35-64 years old, and a little over 70% of that age group are dissatisfied with internet experience because they feel that it is mainly targeted for younger viewers. These numbers are the precise reflection of what this blog is all about. If your web developer does not understand what your business is all about, who you are trying to target, and who is your market they will build a website that reflects their personal idea of what your business is all about resulting in a website that is not a good investment from a ROI stand point. That is the very reason why we see those statistics.

Binary Web Design makes sure that when we meet with you we ask those questions and so much more. Our idea of a great website is when your business identity is reflected by your website instead of other way around. It should not look like your competitors, and it should not be a carbon copy of every website that is out there.

-Eugene Y

Economic Effect

This week I would like to talk about economic effect on small business sector. As you watch the news and listen to congressional leaders you can’t help but to notice all the doom and gloom rhetoric that is backed up by the stock market that lost over 40% of its value just in the matter of months. You might say “don’t scare me more” but the facts on the Wall Street are what they are. Yet if you look around, people are still shopping, in fact Mall of America had a 5% increase in sales, people are still going out, people are still going to sport games etc. So why is there such paradox? The reality is that only one sector of the market is responsible for the conditions that we face and the government as well as the world is putting out the fire before it spreads to us. Will the taxpayer pay for this congressional mishandle? Of course, how much? Nobody knows but we will eventually find out. So what does all this have to do with websites and your business?

During times of uncertainty it is easier to get scared, hide in the bunker and just wait for this mess to go by. This is a safe alternative but may cost you a lot of opportunity that may actually give your business a boost over your competitors. Think about it, during time of uncertainty people still need services that they used before the housing collapse, it is just now they will shop wiser by shopping around. That is why during this time you should look at over your business and your goals. Then draw out and highlight why people should chose you over your competitors. This may require you to come up with unique products and new marketing plan. Then update your website with these features, or if you need help seek a good web developer who will work with you and offer his or her opinion. Also if you do not optimize your website, this is a great time to do that; outshine your competitors that might be hiding in the bunker because of the economy that is perceived to be so bad.

How much can a website really help me? This is a question that I find myself having to answer very often. So I got some statistics to answer that. For instance, if you are a florist you can generate 26% of your business using internet. If you sell supplies for cars, printers, computers you can average 23% of revenue using internet. If you are offering interior design services you can generate 15% of revenue on line. The list goes on and on. The bottom line, if you have a good web developer you can expect to generate or increase your revenue anywhere from 10% to 50% depending on your business. How nice is that? And this is all attainable if you just take action.

-Eugene Y