It’s funny, when I talk to people about small business websites, one of their goals is to try to compete in the marketplace with companies that are 10 times as big. Luckily, websites are the great equalizer. You (David) can fight them (Goliath) on an even playing field. You do not have to be the little guy in the public’s eye. If your website is top notch, you can compete with anyone. Now they may have a bigger budget, but if your site is done correctly there is no way someone can tell that you are a small company. Perception is a major factor, and even more so when your company is mainly eCommerce with no brick and mortar presence.
I actually met with someone and one of their goals was exactly what I discussed above, that is to not appear like a small company. They deal with a lot of big institutional type customers globally and they want their website to reflect this. They don’t want to look like a mom-and-pop shop with a couple of employees. Well, we will be able to achieve this despite a smaller budget. We will do this by finding alternative methods of getting to the same end point. We will build a great-looking site with an e-commerce component that will allow their customers to order easily and to hopefully improve her percentage of closed business. Anyone can work with a huge budget, but we find solutions that small businesses can afford.
This is why I love the internet-age. This is truly a time is history where the little guy can compete. If you are good at what you do, or have an excellent product, you can get it to the world. And the mechanism to deliver your product or service to the world is your website.
If you need help developing a new website and want to tackle the Goliaths of the world, contact us today.
With WordPress one of the key questions you have to ask yourself is should I have a custom theme built for my website or should I use a premium theme that I can purchase?
My answer depends on a few things:
Depending on your answers, I can come up with an option for you.
Type of Business
I always think people in creative fields should lean towards more custom themes. For instance, I look at some website designer’s website and I see a purchased theme, to me that doesn’t seem quite right. I mean if your selling your creativity, you should at least show you are creative, right? However, for many professions, or small businesses, a premium theme is fine. There are thousands, and with some customizations, you can make it your own.
Time to Market
If you are in a rush to get a site done, then your answer is simple, go with a nice premium theme which will cut the time down by 60-70%. If you have months, then you can consider a custom design. As the design process takes a couple of weeks on average, and building a custom theme can add a few weeks, you can see where time to market is considerably longer.
Budget
If you have a small budget, then go with a premium theme. If you have $2000 and up you can consider the custom design route. The reason is that having designs created takes time and money. And coding a custom theme can take weeks, which is where the cost adds up.
So, I know you are going to ask, what do I prefer? Well, in a perfect world, a custom, unique theme is what I prefer. But in reality, the things we spoke about come into play. Budget and time to market are so important. Whichever way you go, you can have a great site. If you aren’t sure, then ask me. I am happy to help you decide.
