Small business owners in the not-so-high streets of the 21st Century are facing greater challenges than ever before but...

CAN YOU IMAGINE A WORSE CASE SCENARIO THAN THIS?

• 1.You own and operate a corner shop in Oswaldtwistle;
• 2.You know your customers by name by and large, and they know you;
• 3.Your stockholding is limited by reasons of available finance and storage space;
• 4.Your catchment area is shrinking by the minute;
• 5.You are surrounded by supermarkets with vast resources, bulk buying power and deep-cut pricing strategies;
• 6.You are under threat to your existence with the opening of Oswaldtwistle Mills at Junction 7 off the M65 with its 80,000 square feet of retail shopping, free parking, coffee shops, restaurants, sweet factory, etc;
• 7.Your storefront is badly in need of refurbishment but you can’t afford the expense of having it brought up to scratch;
• 8.You have to work all hours to maintain basic survival;
• 9.You’ve thought about selling out, but no one would buy;
• 10.You are approaching the end of your tether.

WHAT POSSIBLE USE IS THE INTERNET IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES?

• How could it increase your customer base?
• How could it contribute to your till receipts?
• How could you learn how to use it?
• How could you use it when you don’t even own a computer?
• How could it help you get more sales from your existing clientele?
• How could it help you get new customers?
• How could it help you compete with the multiples?
• How could it help you sustain your aspirations?
• How could it help you build the business so that one day you might be in a position to sell out?
• How could you afford to use it?

We’ll talk more about the extreme scenario of the beleaguered Oswaldtwistle storekeeper in the next chapter, but meanwhile let’s start by exploring the internet for the purpose it was devised. And as you read through the chapters to follow, you may be surprised at just how much that original purpose can do for you and your own small local enterprise.

USE THE WEB FOR THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH IT WAS DEVISED

Several decades ago the internet was first used by the Government of the United States of America with one dual purpose in mind:

• The electronic delivery of sensitive information;
• The receipt of equally sensitive data.

That purpose has not changed; it is the foundation stone on which all effective, dynamic online marketing is based. Nowadays, though, the impression is often that the internet has developed into an automatic electronic money-making machine. Not so, not now, not ever. Without question it is the most powerful and cost effective marketing device of the 21st Century, but you can only make it work when you know why it works.

MAKING THE INTERNET WORK FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

• How do you do that?
• How do you make the internet work for you in your small business operation?
• And what’s in it for you?

Here’s how someone viewed the situation a few years back ...

If you’re not doing business on the internet by the year 2000, you won’t be doing business.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates’ prediction failed to materialise. Perhaps he allowed personal vanity to overrule sanity because there are hundreds of thousands of commercial concerns worldwide who don’t do any business online and yet continue to prosper.

But that does not mean to say that these businesses don’t make best use of online marketing. Most of them do.

SO, HOW DO YOU MAKE ONLINE MARKETING WORK FOR YOU?

Use the internet for the purpose for which it was invented; use it as a channel of information.

• A channel for receivable information;
• A channel for deliverable information.

DOING IT THIS WAY PROVIDES YOU WITH TWO VALUABLE OPERATIONAL DEVICES

The facility to receive information opens the door to ongoing market research for even the smallest of enterprises, while the facility to deliver information electronically presents you with an internet marketing application with dynamic potential.

Using online search facilities ...

• You can keep an eye on the marketplace, trends, and what the competition is up to;
• You can source valuable applications and software – and often for free;
• You can be on the lookout for trading opportunities.

Using the internet as a marketing application you can create a powerful website to:

• promote your small enterprise;
• promote your location;
• promote your merchandise;
• foster customer loyalty;
• service customer requirements;
• capture email addresses which build up into lists of potential customers.

You can do all of this – and if you go about matters in the right way, you can do it all for next to nothing in the way of investment – even if right now you don’t know the difference between a keyboard and a washboard.

THE VALUE OF A GOOD WEBSITE TO THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

These are the benefits you should be looking to gain from your small business website: a fusion of incoming and outgoing information, intelligence that you should embrace to service existing customers and attract new ones. And unlike printed matter, you need never be nervous about imparting sensitive information (price lists, specifications, etc.) because you have the possibility to update variable data instantly.

As for direct selling, you’ll get the odd sale or two from your site, but not a lot. Not yet anyway. Stick with it, though, and you’ll do much more direct selling in time as the retail ethos of the web begins to bite – and there is evidence that it is starting to do just that – for even the smallest of trading concerns.

An Ernst & Young Study showed that in the year 2000 online retail sales were just above the $39 billion mark and have continued to rise year on year. Online retail sales in 2004 rose 23.8% to $89 billion, representing 4.6% of total global retail sales. Online retail sales were forecast to reach $109.6 billion by the end of 2005. (Source Shop.org/Forrester)

HOW IT ALL PANS OUT IN THE CREATION OF THE SITE

• Your mission statement and complementary graphics on the home page – where you would also position an ‘order’ button if required;
• Appropriate content for the pages devoted to produce, sales and service;
• Something of value for your website visitors – useful tips on your particular area of expertise: suggestions which should be updated on a regular basis;
• Links from one page to another within your site – but not beyond – or you’ll lose your precious visitors to someone else;
• An electronic ‘forum’ where visitors can clock in and record comments;
• An email address where they can contact you;
• A facility to which you should give serious consideration straightaway: an invitation to subscribe to your free newsletter.

Okay, there’s some work involved in setting up your virtual stall and in particular servicing the final item listed – but it will be worth it – because electronic newsletters (’ezines’) are the best way to capture email addresses, build up a prospects list, and create new customers.

As to costs for website creation and hosting: very little, if you use a service such as Third Sphere which is devoted to fostering small business online.

http://thirdspherehosting.com/plus/?xstcreat&id=xstcreat&pkg=

WHAT YOU GET WITH THE THIRD SPHERE LOCAL ENTERPRISE HOSTING SERVICE

• 1.Choice of fonts;
• 2.Point-and-click web page creation software;
• 3.Context-sensitive menus when building;
• 4.Common Gateway Interface (CGI) bin;
• 5.CGI scripts library;
• 6.Graphics library;
• 7.Uploading to server;
• 8.Password protected pages;
• 9.Custom error pages;
• 10.Backup system;
• 11.Source code editing;
• 12.Spell check;
• 13.Spam blockers;
• 14.Total marketing automation;
• 15.Traffic centre + tools;
• 16.Upload files without File Transfer Protocol (FTP);
• 17.Edit HTML on screen;
• 18.Anti-virus software;
• 19.Secure space (product delivery);
• 20.PDF ebook creator (ex WORD files).

If you spend $25 (approx. £15) a month with them, they’ll give you advanced tools to create a website which looks as though it cost £25,000 to construct.

KEEPING PACE WITH THE INTERNET OPPORTUNITY

Despite the bad publicity associated with the collapse of numerous major dot.coms in recent times, the internet is still in its infancy, but even so offers an incredible opportunity to small business – if small business would take the trouble to discover how best to use the internet to its current advantage. In so doing, small businesses will be operating on a universal platform and on equal status to the major players. That said, unless yours is a downloadable product or service, you won’t be doing much in the way of direct selling (not yet anyway) but you will move with the times and carve out a niche for yourself in other essential directions.

LOCAL OFFLINE BUSINESSES GROW RAPIDLY ONLINE

If you own an offline business with local clientele, a website is a must nowadays. Use it to grow your business locally, build trust and deepen relationships with existing local customers, raise your local profile above that of competitors, keep your customers in touch through your ezine, attract new customers, and in many cases extend your market globally. Your world, your reach, your impact is now much, much bigger than a Yellow Pages ad. Think of a website as a super-Yellow Pages ad with 100 times the results at one-tenth of the price.

Stop waiting for customers to arrive or the phone to ring

It’s scary to stand behind the counter of your shop with not a customer in view, or sit behind your desk with no incoming calls. It creates feelings of frustration, agitation, anxiety: unhealthy feelings that can lead to depression if not rapidly staunched.

So what do you do?

You can’t force customers to visit you or cause the phone to ring – but you can take some practical action nevertheless.

Exchange offline inertia for online activity

Switch on your computer, go online, and engage in proactive marketing. It won’t fill your cash register or your order book, but it will stop you feeling maudlin and outflanked by adverse conditions offline.

YOU NEED JUST TWO THINGS TO MAKE ONLINE MARKETING WORK FOR YOU

• Knowledge;
• Application.

This book will provide you with the knowledge, strategies, tools and techniques; the application is all down to you.