Believe it or not, there are still millions and millions of businesses still not online.  There are a variety of reasons for this, including scepticism about the business opportunity, lack of knowledge or simply a resistance to change.  The world is online and there is no escaping this fact and so whatever your business you need to consider taking the plunge and getting online.

There are some steps to take before you do that, you need to be realistic and do research as to what the market opportunity is for your business.  Ask some questions;

  • What are my competitors doing, are they online?
  • Are people using search engines to look for my products and/or services?
  • What are the dynamics of my market?
  • Is it growing, and more competitors appearing, or declining and competitors consolidating?

Then where do you go from here?  Well if you’ve made your mind up that you want to get online, then that’s a great step in the right direction.  Your business and product/service will have a bearing on how you do this.  If you’re a service you may only need to consider a portfolio site, if you have products and you want to actually sell these online then a full ecommerce site with a CMS (Content Management System) is probably nearer to what you require.

Before you spend any money on your website or ecommerce solution, you need to figure out exactly what you want to accomplish. Speaking to a good marketing company, or online consultant may be time well spent. Trawl the internet and see what you like and don’t like, what your competitors do well and not so well.  All this will help you formulate what your solution could be.