It is a good time because the playing field is so level on the Internet. However it is also challenging because of the current economic malaise and because running a small business requires such an enormous amount of different skills.

The author of the article says that

“Growing your business depends on differentiating your offering into a unique selling proposition (USP), and communicating this USP to your target market. The web is simply the best way of doing that.”

Being online enables small business to automate processes, and make transactions occur seamlessly. However, small business owners must be prepared to learn that skill or pay someone else to do it for them.

With the internet, there’s no need to do mass advertising and hope that some of it will work. It’s easy to test and track everything that’s done online.

Small businesses fail to Explore Web to Full Potential

The article states that those who do have business websites, are in many cases only offering things like online brochures. In addition, many of the websites are impossible to find on the search engines, unless someone actually types in the name of the business.

What Small Business Websites Should Have

A good small business website is one that is constantly changing and operates as an integral part of the business’s overall marketing plan. The site should generate leads, follow up with those leads, and be a crucial part of their revenue stream. They should interact with their customers on social sites, and allow customers to easily provide reviews and referrals.

A survey in the UK showed that fewer than 1.3 million of small businesses were not even online, and for those who are online, their sites were poorly presented.

The article discussed above can be read here at BBC News UK

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