If you are considering building a website for your business, ask yourself why do you need one? We think the most pertinent reasons for why are as follows:

1. Businesses Need To Be Cost-Effective

Using the Internet and a website as an operating platform can leave you with truly tiny running costs compared to your competition. It is now possible for some businesses to be entirely virtual or extremely close to it. All you really need is a PC and a place to run it from.

Even for what is considered smokestack or old industries it is now possible to be almost 100% virtual. Take estate agencies as a case in point, do they need high street offices? Absolutely not, it is possible to conduct these kinds of businesses, and many many more who don’t even realize it yet, entirely online. In the process massive cost savings can be achieved, making your business truly competitive

2. Business Reach To Its Potential Audience

The audience you can reach with a website is truly enormous, it really is the world. The only limitation is how can you use your business to supply that market. The Internet and a website will enable your reach. If you already know how you can supply that market, you really are well on your way to exploiting the most the Internet can provide.

3. Business Ready For Future

Staying ahead is critical for any business and without a website as a platform to access the latest technology, this could prove truly fatal. Just consider the evolution in technology over say the last two years. Communication is changing radically, virtually all mobiles can now access the Internet.

So, there is now not a single piece of modern communication technology that does not interact with the net or need it as essential to function. Now consider how people and businesses communicate with each other across the net.

4. Social media

Heard of LinkedIn, Alibaba, Twitter, Facebook, Mixx, Redd it. So, if you haven’t I suggest you do some research now the list goes on and on. Now run them through a search engine, see how many businesses have Twitter pages, Facebook pages, LinkedIn pages, and Alibaba pages.

Still, think you can afford not to be there with your web presence, A website connecting to these social hubs is the only way to extract the most from them. If you need more evidence on how these social networking platforms are for right now and tomorrow, consider how they are affecting the recruitment industry.

Then Look at all those employees marketing themselves on LinkedIn. So, think about how many businesses really need a recruitment consultant if they know how to use LinkedIn and are properly connected to it through their website.

5. Online Presence Of Your Business

So, you still not convinced? Think about this then, Look at how other businesses communicate with their customers across those platforms. Telling them about new offers, products, and savings they can make. Now factor in the ingredient that all that advertising and exposure was free and went global at the click of a button. Still not convinced?

Ok, let’s take the most stoic, technologically resistant business in the INDIA, no offense intended here. But let’s say it’s a small engineering business making fasteners and struggling to access global markets. So, let’s build them a website with a store and install a payment engine. Hook it into every associated online social network. And give it exposure to 4 billion customers letting them know that INDIAN quality is the best quality.

You know that business is going to start taking orders. That’s a fact. If you don’t believe us, log onto Alibaba and have a look at all those other companies doing just that. Even with a tiny budget, you can be there with them and in places on the Internet that they haven’t heard of yet. It’s possible.

There is absolutely a social hub out there for your business and market niche. And they are holding your customers in a pool ready for you to access them. Now try and access them without a website.

6. Business To Be Paid Immediately

Tired of hearing, “the cheques in the post”, with a website you can collect all your payments online and know there, safe and secure. You can do this without a merchant account and any credit checks. With a website, it’s possible to take payments from anywhere in the world, instantly.

In conclusion, having a web presence these days is truly an essential part of any business’s trading and marketing strategy. The way it’s used is the key ingredient for success. A web presence can make you competitive, punch above your weight, and deliver a hoard of customers battering down your door for more.