There are over 28 million small businesses in America, accounting for 54% of all sales within the country. Yet more than half of them are missing out on billions of dollars, combined.
If you have a small business, you know that every penny counts. Wouldn’t you do anything within reason to get yourself a leg up on your competition? If at least half of small businesses aren’t doing this one simple thing, then you have a solid chance of bringing in more sales than your competitor down the street, simply by doing it.
This one thing brought in over $250 Billion. If you don’t have it, then you’re clearly missing out.
What is that one thing?
Having a website.
Simple, right? Well yes and no. That dollar amount quoted above was just for ecommerce sales within the United States. So if your business isn’t online in some manner, then yes – you missed out on your slice of that pie.
Think about how much time you spend online (you’re reading this article online, for example). You’re likely on some form of social media for hours each day; maybe even doing some of your own shopping online. Point being that you’re online already, so why not spend a small portion of that time getting your business online?
With a website, you’d likely be able to grab a share of all that money spent online last year. And while you could sell your stuff through eBay, Etsy, or the like, it doesn’t provide you the chance to really create your own brand on the web. You may not become the next Amazon, but if you could just bring in a few more sales, then why wouldn’t you at least try it?
Now, you may be saying that you’ve thought about having your own website before, but it’s just too hard or too expensive. And that may have been true – in the 90s. But with today’s technologies, you could actually have a website online within the hour and for only a few bucks. It’s true.
Conversely, you may think that a Facebook page alone may suffice, or Yelp, Twitter, or whatever other free online service of choice. While that may be a great start for your online presence, it shouldn’t be the pillar of it. What if the platform were to vanish tomorrow? Or your page gets removed for breaking some random clause in the terms of service?
Having your own website allows you to actually own your piece of the web. If you’re bringing people to your Facebook page, you’re essentially building Facebook more for them. You can’t really do much with that audience outside of that platform.
On the other hand, if you attract that traffic to your own website, you have their attention on something you own. Plus, if you’re interested in any online marketing, it looks a lot better to send them to your own site versus a Yelp page.
At HostGator, you could get started for just $5.56* per month. With that, you receive everything you need to claim your spot of the Internet. Without boring you too much, here are some of the features you’d get when signing up with HostGator.
- Domain Name – A domain name is essentially the virtual sign for your website. It tells people who you are and how to access you. We’ve got some tips on choosing a good domain that can help you come up with ideas.
- Website Hosting – Your website needs to live somewhere on the web. Just like you need somewhere for your customers to come to your store. Hosting is the space you’re renting online at which your website will live.
- Website Building Software – If you can use social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) then you can build a website with our website builder. It’s a drag and drop tool that you use to design and publish your website. If you need a little more functionality, then you can install WordPress (used by 23% of the top 10 million websites) with one click and customize it as much as you’d like.
- Customized Emails – If people are contacting your or your business, what do you think looks more professional? [email protected] or [email protected]? With customized emails, you can create any email address under your domain name ([email protected], for example).
- $200 in Advertising Credit – You need to get people to your website. If you’re just starting out online, then people won’t know to find you immediately. To help you with this, HostGator provides $100 in Google Adwords and $100 in Yahoo!/Bing credit.
- Helpful Support – You’re not alone when it comes to your website. Our staff is here 24/7 to help you. If you have questions about signup, or even if it’s 2 am and accidentally cause an error on your site, we’re here to take care of it. Don’t believe us? Give us a call right now to see if we pick up. 1-866-96-GATOR. We can even walk you through signup and familiarize you with any of the tools necessary to build your site.
If you still think that creating your own website is hard, then why not let us do it for you? If you’re serious about your business but don’t have the time to learn about building a website, then we can do it for you. We have a team of expert web designers on staff.. Give us a call and ask to speak to our sales team. They’ll get you on the path to getting the website you want so that you can grab your piece of the online sales pie. Make sure you tell them Kyler sent you and they’ll take care of you.