Why does my small business need a website because

• All my friends have one
• My competitors all have one
• I like to show I creative
• Does not everyone have a web site?
• They look pretty

Let’s try again, my business needs a website because

• I need to promote my business
• I want to sell my products on-line

So what are are the objectives I am trying to achieve. It is no use saying “Well, I want lots of visitors to my website”. Visitor’s are useful if they are converted into paying customers otherwise they are just additional load on your system. That may result in an additional cost from your website host.

So define your objectives. Make them meaningful,  achievable and often forgotten measurable! Otherwise how do I know whether I have achieved my objectives. Try to make the objectives definable in terms that can be equated to money. This way you can determine the benefits to your enterprise of your web site.

Clearly world domination is out of the question. So keeping things realistic, what might my objectives be?

• I want to 10% more sales in 6 months
• I want 20 more bed nights for my guest house in July
• I want 10 new clients this year

Note all my objectives are measurable and are defined in terms of period of time. So what’s next? I need to baseline my business i.e. what my business is currently doing. Then I know whether my investment has been worthwhile. It is also worth keeping a diary of activities relating to the website and my business in general. This way I can understand:

• How much time I spend on it
• How much money I spent
• What I did that worked and what didn’t
• Record incidents and how you managed them – this can be a useful resource for the future

At the end of the time period for my objectives I can then review my progress and decide whether my objectives have been met. If they have; great – time to aim higher! If they have not – don’t be too disappointed, review your progress, figure out what didn’t go so well and reset your objectives!

So the cycle begins again. Remember the website is just a tool in your business arsenal  to be integrated into your business activities! So now hopefully you are clear why you need a website.