Having a web site can greatly enhance your marketing and advertising efforts by providing far more information than a print ad in the phonebook, a magazine or newspaper. For example, you could not print very many customer testimonials in your phone book ad or have a list of frequently asked questions, much less full color images of your products, services or personnel – information that could help the potential customer feel confident about choosing you instead of your competition for what he needs or wants.

So what are some of the benefits of a web site for a small business? Well, let me ask you this: Do you ever get asked, “Do you have a web site?” What is your answer? If it’s “yes,” great! If it’s “no” or “my 12 year old nephew designed it and I don’t like it,” then you may be losing potential customers who want more information about your business or organization.

Take the viewpoint of a consumer looking for a reliable car mechanic in his local area. He’d probably go to the yellow pages to find someone who had experience with his type of car. He finds 20 listings for local mechanics that could all provide service to him. Now what? He could take the time to call each mechanic to get more information such as the cost and scheduling of the work he needs to be done. Wait! Here’s a repair shop with a web address listed. He punches the address into his browser and is taken to a web site with information that really helps him – things like the qualifications and experience of the mechanics, testimonials from loyal customers, a really good map of their location, general pricing information and hey, they’ll even drive you anywhere within 5 miles after you drop off your car! He calls right away and schedules the repairs.

A web site can benefit a service business as well, as illustrated by the site I developed for a small Montessori school. We created pages with the application and registration processes, full school calendar, history of the school and even a private area with information for parents of enrolled students.

Once the site was on the Internet, my client said, “I have been able to refer 98% of my information calls to my new web site. This has freed up so much of my time usually spent on the phone.” (You can see what else this client says about the advantages that she has gotten from having a web site at www.pinkflamingodesign.com/testimonials.html - Aria Montessori School.)

One thing I frequently run into when talking to small business owners about having their own web site is the idea that the cost of developing one is beyond their means, in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. This idea often stops them from looking any further and prevents them from having an extremely valuable, cost-effective marketing and advertising tool for their business!

Large corporations can spend thousands of dollars on their web sites, but that does not mean that a small business owner will have to spend nearly the same amount to have a web presence. Big corporations generally use a large, expensive design firm, which is a good fit for them – but it’s not viable for a small business. With a good freelance web designer, a small business can get a good web site up and running for around $1.500.00.

Once your site is on the Internet, the bulk of the cost is out of the way. You can change, add or update images and information whenever you want. Your site is available 24/7 and every day of the year, which means more exposure. If you don’t need any updates to your site in a month, you don’t have any expense for maintenance that month. Monthly maintenance costs for your site could start as low as zero as mentioned above, or go to a couple hundred dollars if you have a considerable amount of updating that you want to do. But you control this factor.

Ron Lydick, President of Marathon Services, Inc., is a small business owner who has experienced the following benefits from having a web site: (www.marathonservice.com)