1. “Penny Wise, Pound Foolish”

Now more than ever its easy to make a cheap web site. The high school kid that can build your web site and the desperate designer looking for lunch money don’t have the business skills or monetary incentive to show you how to enhance your business.

2. “I have a web site; the Internet doesn’t work for my business”

 89% of the business world is online now but only 5% net returns from their web efforts. Drop your preconceived notions and find out how the 5% gain success online.

3. “My brother, the computer expert will build my site for cheap”

Approximately 5% of the company?s online report that their sites are successful, creating upwards of 8-15% of their revenues via the web. Experience counts more than ever in business, if your brother has built 50+ business sites and will do the work cheap hire him. If he is smart and plans to figure it out as he goes, he will cost you missed opportunities and you are risking your relationship with your brother.

4. “My web address is www.MyName-anothercompany.com”

Image is very critical especially online. Your own personal domain name says a lot about how you conduct business. Disposable emails are great for personal use and co-branded web sites can be nice supplements to your online business, but companies that go beyond these channels have far greater success online and have a much better vehicle to interact with a richer online demographic.

5. “I can get my web site hosted for $10 per month”

Its true, you can get a web site hosted for very little money. However, there is a big difference between hosting or storing your web files versus managing your web site for success. Not all hosting is the same and not all web sites are the same.

6. “I have a professional computer, print, or advertising background and will build our company web site.”

On the surface it would seem logical to let a computer expert, print expert or marketing guru handle your online needs. As a rule of thumb, if you go this route, at least choose a company that has developed a minimum of 50 plus web sites. Any honest expert from another industry that has made this many sites will be able to demonstrate how some golden rules from one craft do not work completely opposite in the web world.

7. “People have to touch and feel my product; the web won’t help me”

Ask yourself a simple ? If your product or service is so unique and consumers can find out more about it on their own terms before going through your sales cycle, do they benefit? This is one of the primary drivers of the Internet, if you adapt, not abandon, but adapt your old world way of doing business to the new economy, you will take your business to new heights!

8. “I’ve been in business long enough to know making a site costs nothing”

You don’t want a web site, you want a team of people who will help your business using technology. If you understand that a lot of people know how to play golf and a lot of those who play think they are great but only a few play well enough to make a living, its even more true online. Don’t trust your business to pretenders. Begin your research by adding up the primary ongoing costs for your business, utilities, payroll, sales and advertising, insurance, bookkeeping etc. Ask yourself what it would cost to open another one of your locations? Consider the same investment devotion you would to opening another physical location. With that perspective in mind, your investment for a fair web presence and marketing plan will still be a fraction of the cost of opening another location. A good rule for web investment should at a minimum be similar to the cost for a � page ad in the yellow pages in a major city. Reputable design companies will command professional fees usually because they have a more complete set of skills to help your business.

9. “I predicted the dot com fallout, now its gone and I’m still here”

Most people only read the headlines and feel they can sort out what is valuable online and what is not. Congratulations if your business is thriving but if you are looking at how the web can help enhance your business, you should understand the web is vastly different than it was a few years or even one year ago. The architecture of the Internet is just now showing its real promise with more concrete tools and proven ways to help your business grow and run more efficiently. Success stories abound online if you know where to look.

10. “I don’t trust young kids out of college who think technology has all the answers.”

This is very true, technology and textbooks alone coupled with inexperience won?t help your business and is why if you find a company that has young, talented, professionally trained technologists who are teamed with experienced business owners you may have found the winning team. Many companies get fooled by hiring designers who figured out how to make a web site and have some design skill; again lots of people play at a sport, but few play it well enough to do it full time as a profession.

If these tips seem sensible to you as a business owner its because our team blends formal educations with new and old world business experience and we know how to help companies tap into the web to augment sales and reduce costs.

If you want a web solution, people will brag about, talk to the Durrani Creative team.