Planning: Why the Internet

It is the 21st Century and you should really not be asking this question.

Regardless of the business or industry you are in, you need a web site. In fact, I would go so far as to say that each individual needs a web site. Consider that, if you are not an entrepreneur and prefer to work as an employee, that the product you are selling is yourself and your services. What better way than to provide access to your resume permanently on the Internet. You never know who might find it and offer you a job.

At any given moment in time, half of the world is awake and at work while the other half sleeps. Without a web site you are missing 50% of your marketing / sales opportunities. Would you close your store or office three days a week ? Of course not ! And the neat thing about your web site is that you can go out, or simply to bed, while it works for you 24/7.

Every year a larger proportion of the public become connected to the Internet with higher speed connections and, each year, a higher percentage are willing to execute financial transactions. Banking, investing and simple consumer purchases are taking place in the millions.

  • More than $1 Billion dollars in travel related transactions take place each year
  • In 2003 it is estimated that online transactions represented nearly 5% of all retail sales with total sales in the $100 Billion range.
  • More than $18 billion worth of PC related products are sold online each year.
  • US online broker accounts represent more than $3 trillion — about 19% of total retail investment.

Putting your business online provides these benefits:

Wider Potential Market
Now, for the first time in history, anyone reach almost the entire globe for the price of a local newspaper advertisement. How is your Russian ?

Your market now extends, not just to your local community, or town, or city, county, state or country, but globally. Think about that for a second. Let that sink in. Millions of people around the world now considering to buy from you.

With your web site you truly now have an anytime, anywhere business.

Lower Costs
The costs for building and maintaining a web presence should not be underestimated. However, they are significantly less than running a long term advertising campaign in the local newspaper or on the local television or radio station.

  • Domain Name Registration, required to have a web presence, will cost from $9 to $75 per year depending on the top level domain and the registrar
  • Web hosting services vary from $0 to well over $150 per month. You can expect to pay somewhere around $9 while you are starting up.
  • Search engine optimization, entry and advertising can cost you about $400 per month in the early days. On the other hand, if your web site generates significant traffic you can probably offset this with some banner advertising sales of your own.

Actually you can get almost everything done for free except domain name registration, if you design and build your web site yourself. Consider that. You can start a world wide marketing campaign for just $25!

Check out our section on web hosting where you will find a more detailed description of all of the services you can use to implement your on-line marketing presence and / or store front.

If you paid for everything, including professional design services, you should expect your startup costs to be between $3,000 and $30,000 depending on the complexity of your web site. On the other hand, there are many software programs that can help you setup a very professional looking web site on your own.

Doing business online is more convenient and cheaper than a bricks and mortar location. However, if you are a bricks and mortar type business, don't neglect to have a bricks and mortar location as well. If you do, you can officially call yourself a bricks-and-clicks business.

Depending on your hosting service provider, you may be able to get away with almost $0 annual web presence fee. However, as mentioned elsewhere, remember that you tend to get what (the service) you pay for.

By-pass The Middleman
When the Internet first started to be widely used for business it was used primarily as a marketing medium and not as a transaction processing medium. Web sites were built to provide information only and were called 'brochureware'. Today, web sites are built as transaction processing, dynamic, information resources. A place to do real business and, in many cases, the only place a company's business transactions actually take place.

By bypassing the distribution chain, or middleman in most product distribution, you can normally reduce the cost to the consumer and, frequently, increase your margins at the same time. This will usually not impact your work load significantly either.

In the traditional manufacturer-distributor-retailer-consumer chain, the distributor often receives the largest piece of the retail price. With a direct selling web presence you are eliminating the distributor and retailer and taking on the responsibility of their functions at a much lower cost.

That said, distributors and retailers are not likely to disappear in the near future and still represent the main delivery channel to the consumer. This creates a conundrum for the manufacturer who has to tread carefully between offending his traditional sales channels while still developing new ones.

Sales Process Automation
Almost everything can be automated and take place, untouched by human hand. The consumer can find details of your products and / or services without personal assistance from you or your staff and, if necessary, can complete the purchase transaction completely.

From product presentation (the site itself), information enquires, price quotes to payment processing, shipment tracking and customer service, all can be handily processed by your web site.

24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 (or 366) days a year. And you could be on holiday. Now that's a hands-off operation !

More than anything, higher automation generally lowers costs thereby increasing margins. However, where the Internet is concerned it also significantly increases competition which in turn has a depressing effect on retail pricing. Consequently, margins do not tend to increase significantly, but sales volume does. So with less work, lower risk, less capital requirement your business provides you with higher income potential.

Multiple Income Streams And Unlimited Profit Potential
Once you have your web presence, it is certain that you will find other income opportunities. Other ways to generate revenues. Perhaps you will advertise other company's products and charge advertising fees. Perhaps you will acquire foreign representatives or pick up other company's products to sell. Perhaps they select yours for resale in their retail stores.

Short Summary
There are many advantages to having a web site. I have named but a few. Be creative. Look at what other companies are doing. Do it NOW !