Technology is Making Small Businesses look Small Time

There's "big time" and "small time."  The phrase "big time" makes me think back to eighth grade graduation and song by Peter Gabriel.  Had to digress there, but back to the subject at hand.

So many small businesses look "small time."  Believe it or not, technology is making small business look small time.

Over the years, I have watched technology progress in websites and this has been a good and bad thing. 

It's been good, because with new technology, you can create website that work on most devices without "breaking the bank" for the client.

It's been bad, because there have been services out there that offer "template" websites that are used by people who should never be using systems like this.  This is a service where you can pick a template (I must admit a lot of them don't look bad at all and some are pretty nice) and build your own website.

Now, this approach works for a very small business or hobby business.  A friend of mine setup a side photography business, but her money comes from her 9 to 5 job, so a template website worked for her and it's not critical to her bottom line.  I get that approach and why it makes sense for her.

However, I see businesses such as lawyers, doctors, dentists, auto repair, local retail stores, accountants, architects (to name a few) that try to use these websites.  The disconnect is that when you are running a business, your staff, family member, friend or whatever shouldn't be setting up your website.  It must be a professional.

You're going to hear this theme over and over from us:  a website today is what a physical location was 30 years.  If you didn't have a physical location that was impressive and professional, people didn't think you were successful.  Now a days, if you don't have a website that is impressive and professional, people begin to question your business (even if someone referred you to them that has bought their products or used their services.)

There is a lot of thinking that goes into a website and what it is ultimately accomplishing (getting you business) and the technology part (often what people who value the most) is the easy part.  Often times in the beginning, people hire us to "build" them a website, because they don't understand the technology on how to do it. It's much like ss taking our cars to mechanic. We could do it ourselves, but we don't feel like we know what we are doing.  

The reality is that the building of the site (the computer code part) is easiest part.  the hard part is the design that fits your business, the content, what kind of advertising we're going to use (and yes there is more than Google out there), and how your website should be optimized a search engine sense.  

I would ask you to test this.  Sit down and try to write what content you would put on your website.  What pages will you have, what you say on the pages, and what is your message for each page?  Forget the design and the technology; just try doing that. I am going to tell you that most people find this really challenging and you know why? Because it is! It's hard to write content that communicates the message you want and that's why people like us are in business!  If you do come up with some content, it probably won't be very good. Sorry, but I have seen when people who aren't in marketing and media write content.

There are so many hack programmers out there that can "write the code" for the website.  True marketers who also know website design are rare.  Notice I say "true marketers."

Chris and I have been building several businesses over the last ten years, so we are entrepreneurs just our clients.  We are in the trenches building businesses like them; Viginti Media is just one company we own, so we understand how to communicate to many different audiences.

That's why you are paying professionals.  We know what we're doing and in a sense, we're like a PR firm for small business.  PR firms are usually for the big business or the rich, but you can consider us your PR firm, because we focus on small business.