Good Web Design can be quite a hazy concept to understand. If you're a business owner and have lost sleep over deciding whether a professionally-designed website is truly what you need, this should clear things up for you once-and-for-all! Read this document if you have asked yourself the following: Why do I need web design? Can I afford web design? Should I just build it on my own with a site-builder? Will my new website actually bring me leads? How do I determine what kind of website I need?

1. 10 Reasons Your
Business NEEDS
Web Design --
Reasons 4 & 8
may surprise
you!

2. There are three sorts of people in the business world as we
know it today. The first people are the ones who have an
active, dynamically designed, mobile ready website. The
second are those who have a website that is grossly outdated
and has not been touched in several years. The third are
people who still do not have nor want a website.
If you are reading this, it is a hope you are looking actively for a
website or to have yours updated and brought to 2020
standards of the Internet. There is an adage in business, found
on one of those old motivational posters. It goes like this:
Each day, the prey wakes up and must run faster than the
fastest predator to survive. Each day, the predator wakes up
and must run faster than the slowest prey to survive.
Either way you look at it, you must wake up running.

3. What this means to you in the business world is simple. If you
are not hustling daily to bring in customers, raise profits and
keep the doors open, your business is doomed to fail. Period.
This may sound harsh. This may hurt feelings. It may make
you want to curl up into a ball and weep.
That is exactly what your competition wants you to do.
If you have made it this far in your career as a small business
owner and have not needed web design, wonderful. This is a
great thing, indeed. It is, then, my understanding that you do
not need one more customer, one more sale or one more
dollar. Everything is great.
Consider this: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (The guys who own
Microsoft and Apple) never stopped trying to get the next
dollar. The only reason Jobs has stopped is because of his
passing. Otherwise, he would be trying to earn one more
dollar than he did yesterday.
This should be reason enough why you and your small business
should have a website and have web design as your single most

4. important asset. If you are still in denial, (and I do not mean a
river flowing through Egypt)...

5. Here are my 10 reasons why
web design for your small
business is an asset for you.

6. 1. The Yellow Pages are extinct – Yes; people still get a phone
book. Yes; there are a handful of people who still use it. The
vast majority of people today if they want or need something
do not immediately dig through the drawer (you know which
one in the house) for the Yellow Pages any longer. They grab
their phone, open a search engine and start typing. Results
appear. They click on the link, go to the page and find the
phone number. Total time spent: less time than it would take
to dig out the Yellow Pages book, open it, find the appropriate
listing and call.
The Internet has changed 100 percent of how people find
information, services and especially niche products they may
need. After all, if you are looking for sushi grade tuna or
salmon, digging through the Yellow Pages will take a good bit of
time, and quite frankly, is tough to do when you’re driving
around hungry. A website, however, appears in less than a
second on a mobile phone, tablet or computer.

7. 2. People need you out there – People come and go to cities
and neighborhoods. As long as people are going to be around,
there is going to be a need for a service or product. Someone
who is going to be looking for an HVAC repair person, plumber,
specialty shop or pretty much anything you can think of will be
looking online for a business to meet their needs.
Your business could be the one they need and want. If there is
no website for them to visit and see what you have to offer,
you are dead in the water. It will not matter if your service or
product is priced the most reasonably or considered the best in
the area. A customer who cannot find you online will not be
your customer.

8. 3. Show what you have – Potential customers don’t know you
exist, so show them. Here is a perfect situation to consider:
You are moving from Miami, Fl to Spokane, WA. This is about
as far across the country as you can realistically go. You will
need to find a place to live when you arrive. What steps will
you take to find a house or an apartment?
The Internet is loaded with pictures of properties across the
nation. Real Estate agencies today cannot realistically survive
without properties on line. Pictures sell. This is why so much
money is spent on advertising budgets. A picture moves
services and products much more quickly than a simple blurb of
text. After all, do you really want to take a chance on a home
in Spokane without looking at it first?
Another thing to consider: If you are a restaurant owner, you
may have special dietary items you offer before customers
come to visit. This way, certain dining lifestylers and those
with allergies can know beforehand if your restaurant is
suitable for them and their specific needs.

9. 4. Word of mouth that lasts – It is no secret that word of
mouth advertising is one of the most powerful types of
advertising that exists. Most people who need a specific
product or service typically start with friends and family, asking
“What/who is a good mechanic, hairdresser, physician, judo
instructor, massage therapist etc. in the area?”
What happens then?
As per the statistics, people still visit the referred business
online before making a final decision. You should probably be
there to solidify the sale.
Testimonials and reviews posted from real customers on a
website drives traffic to businesses. The website (See how
effective a website can be?) Yelp, for example, has plenty of
reviews from customers. Businesses with enough bad reviews
can certainly feel the fiscal pinch-- up to and including closing
for good.

10. 5. Websites work when you don’t – The days of living above
the office or business are long gone. You have set working
hours and times for your customers. You will not be at the
office 24/7 to take phone calls, answer questions or give any
prices or quotes. A website, on the other hand, is always there
for you.
The chances of a website not working is very, very slim with
today’s technology. This means your website is working,
providing customer information, allowing them to contact you
and more when you are not at work all of the time. Websites
do not take weekends, holidays, personal days, bereavement or
anything else. They are there 24/7 and 365 (366 in leap years)
without fail.

11. 6. Websites find you customers – Marketing is
expensive. Buying ads on television and radio is great provided
there is a budget for such. If you are a small business, every
penny is accounted for as closely as possible. This is why you
turn the lights off at the end of the day after all.
Think back to my analogy of Miami to Spokane. Those new
people arriving in the city are going to be looking for various
services from grocery stores to barbers. If they are in
Oklahoma on the way to Spokane, how are they going to find
you unless you have a website? Hint: They won’t find you
unless you have a website.

12. 7. Learn what your customers need – Here is something many
people may not know: When you shop, the reason so many
stores and businesses ask for your phone number or if you have
a membership card is so they can find out what your spending
habits are and use that information to provide more of the
things you want.
There is no reason you cannot do the same with YOUR
website. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn that your customer base
prefers one particular product over another? It would make
sense to know this so you can provide more of what the
customer wants and less of what they do not
want. Remember: pennies add up, unsold products get taxed
at the end of the year and inventory is a pain.

13. 8. A website pits you against the big boys – Small businesses
will always have competition from large corporations. Do you
sell grills and outdoor equipment? So does the big box store
down the road, along with a host of other things.
A website, however, can even the battleground because you
can leverage your specific offerings that a big box cannot offer
its customers. Big box stores cannot/will not go to a
customer’s home to set up a grill, computer. Nor do they have
in-depth knowledge of each and every ceiling fan they have in
stock. Often times, employees at these big box stores are not
vested in the business. They are there to sell products and
little else. You, the small business owner, know what you sell,
how it works, how to install it, what to look for when things go
wrong and much more. This is reflected on your site.

14. 9. Facebook is not what it once was – People still use
Facebook, certainly. Businesses still have pages on Facebook
as well. Those businesses are using Facebook to mention
products, sales, deals and the like and recommending people
go to the website from the Facebook page.
There is very little available on Facebook in terms of a deep
listing of services and products. You can list some, but the real
depth and range of your offerings are on, or should be on, your
webpage.

15. 10. Websites are inexpensive passive advertising vehicles–
Posting a website on the back of your personal vehicle or work
vehicle is excellent advertising. You are sitting in traffic with
everyone else at the same time. This is an outstanding time to
mention your business to people around you without ever
saying a word or spending much money to do it.
A quick and easy to read URL (website address, like
webdesigninthecity.com) that your potential customers may
remember is a powerful tool. Again, people may not need you,
your service or products immediately, but your website is on
their mind in case they do.

16. There you are. 10 solid reasons it makes sense for you to
have a website. Naturally, there are going to be a group of
nay-sayers who will disagree and argue against it. This is
normal, so I have decided to look at the objections people have
and give an explanation as to why these objections could be
unfounded.

17. Here are 10 Frequently Asked
Web Design Questions (FAQs) -
- What my clients have said…
When you think of new web design, have you uttered any of
the following?

18. “A website is just too expensive for my business”
– Before I go any further, there is something I need to remind
you of:
I understand you are a small business.
This means you account for every dollar and cent flowing in and
out (especially out) of your business. I understand. After all,
I, too, am a small business.
Here is the thing about a website – they are not cheap at the
outset. Consider the following about building a website:
• Once built, maintenance is negligible for your overall
expenses;
• It is a healthy tax cut on your business taxes at the end of
the year;
• Go back and read the ten reasons why, especially on how a
website works when you are not.
One thing I did not cover previously is we will work with you
and your budget. There’s no need to spend $10,000.00 and up

19. on a website. There’s a way to invest much less, depending on
the degree of design and functionality you need.

20. “I see all of these free website-building sites. I can just do it
myself.”
Yes; you certainly can. You will also have a stale, boring
website that is likely going to have advertising on it to support
the website company. Worse yet, Google tracks customer
interests for advertising. This means your competition may
advertise on your website while a customer is viewing it.
The adage, “Garbage in; garbage out” reigns true in website
design. You pay cheap, or in this case, free, you will get that
out of it. Besides, customers base their opinions on businesses
based on how well their website looks.
Do you really want customers associating your sub-par website
with your above-par business?

21. “I simply don’t have time to run a website.”
Who said you have to do anything with running your
website? That is my job. I am a website design and
development company. This is what I do to earn a living. You
can be assured that if you have us behind your website that it
will be professional, modern, updated and edited as needed,
regularly maintained and secure. If you want me to add fresh
incoming information on a regular basis, that can also be
arranged. The last bit keeps the search engine people, like
Google, happy when indexing websites.

22. “Don’t need it--I have a solid customer base as it is”
Translation: I do not need to make any more profit, grow my
business, improve the unemployment rate by hiring additional
employees or find it necessary to do any long term fiscal
planning.
Remember: There are people coming into and out of your
business area on a daily basis. You need to be able to reach
everyone, all the time. If your business is in South Carolina and
someone in Texas wants to know about your area, they can find
out what they need at 3:30 a.m. when you are, or should be,
asleep.
Bottom line is people need you….even if you don’t need them.

23. “My customers don’t really use computers”
I am quite sure some of your customers may not have a
computer at home. What they do have, however, is a smart
phone that can browse the Internet and look for services and
products. Even grandma’s have phones, if for no other reason
than to chat with their out-of-state grandkids.
There are very few people left in the world who have a land line
(outside of brick and mortar). Most small businesses have a
cellular number for customers, employees and other people to
get in content with them when necessary. Google has officially
stated that more people are now using cell phones for
searching than desktop computers. As far as I’m concerned….
Smartphone = Computer.

24. “I’m taken care of because I got a sister/buddy/in-law. that
can do it for a fraction of what you can”
Before you do that, recognize they may have fundamental
understandings of HTML. Do they know PHP, Nodejs, Java,
Swift, front end development, back end development,
Wordpress, SSL, layout and design and a handful of other bits
and pieces of jargon that go with today’s website construction?
Just like you would not hire a handyman to build a skyscraper,
do you really want your business in the hands of someone who
may not know 100 percent of what is going on within the
Internet? I always suggest to my clients to “Have respect for
your business”.

25. "I don’t do e-commerce. I only work face to face”
Good for you. Most of my clients don’t do e-commerce
either. They are construction professionals, healthcare facility
owners, salons, attorneys and anyone that has direct contact
with the public.
If a customer wants to know about your business at 1 a.m., are
you going to be by the phone, ready with the best possible
customer service voice and be cheery and happy talking to your
potential customers?
Now, imagine if that same customer only had to do a few clicks
on a smartphone to find your business, learn what they need to
know, fill in some basic information and get it to you within a
few seconds. This will happen if you have a freshly designed
and built website on your side.

26. “We have a website now, and it has done nothing for the
business”
This one is a common one. I ask my clients, “When was the
last time the website was updated with fresh content? Did
you have an SEO specialist look at it? Do you use CSS; Do you
have a place for customers to submit contact information? Is
it optimized for mobile application including Apple and
Android?”
If you 1. look confused at this jargon; 2. answer “No.” to any of
the questions, chances are your website is grossly outdated,
buried in pages and pages of search engine results and has
turned more than one customer away from your business.
This is what I do. I take what you may have for a website, fix it
or provide you with a brand new, well optimized and dynamic
website, built for generating leads.

27. “What if something changes with my business? How can I be
sure you will be around to fix it”
Good questions, both of them. I remind you: This is what we
do. We build and maintain websites. If there is something
you need to change or adjust as part of your business, let us
know. We can update your website without issue quickly and
easily.
There is no need to take down a website to make updates any
longer. Most of the updates to a site are done automatically
and without any stopping or pausing of your website’s
functionality.
To ease my clients’ concerns in case I’m hit by a truck (what a
horrific thought), I always provide them with the login info to
where your website is hosted.

28. “I am in Arizona and you are in Florida. How can you run my
website from where you are?”
Therein is the beauty of the World Wide Web. We do not have
to be next door neighbors for you to have a website. Most
website hosting is done on the cloud and no longer in a
localized place.
Just like you can access a website from Asia or Europe, we can
handle everything to do with your website at a distance. Email
us when you have a question, issue or problem. We will
respond to you as quickly as possible and help fix whatever
issue you may have.

29. There you have it! 10 and 10 about why your website is your
most important business asset.
Need a website?
I design websites that go to work for small businesses. If
you’ve thought of getting one but have questions, let’s chat.
Drop me a quick message here and I'll respond ASAP.
This article has been provided courtesy of
www.webdesigninthecity.com and can be found it here:
http://webdesigninthecity.com/10-reasons-your-business-
needs-web-design/