Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Small Business Bailout?

Yesterday I posted on Twitter that I’m tired of the big guys getting bailed out.

It got me thinking about how many of my clients are small business owners and they, like every other American are having some difficulties these days.

In fact, I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been out there selling much more than I usually do.

My conversations with potential clients in the past few months have mainly focused on how they can get new business during the economic crisis.

Some consider their advertising to be the number one vehicle and are finding their company resources too low to continue on.

Others see the effects of their website being open 24/7 and want to improve upon conversion by updating their sites.

It is true, your website is one of your most valuable resources.

People are doing research online and at home before venturing out to purchase.

With a website, your presence is open and available even when your business is closed for the day.

Really?

Yes, really.

In fact, let me go have a peek at our analytics so I can give you our numbers – BRB!

OK, I’ve got the data in front of me...

According to our analytics, over the past year 41% of our website visits are occurring after our regular business hours. We are open 8:00 – 6:00 pm PST and quite a large amount of traffic is coming when we aren’t open for business.

What does this information tell us?

People are shopping on their time – not ours.

We receive many contact inquiries from our website contact forms when we aren’t open for business. These are qualified sales leads that are waiting for us in the morning when we begin our workday. Many of these contact inquiries throughout the year have converted into sales.

Who wouldn’t want that?

Maybe if the government was cutting you a check for YOUR bailout you wouldn’t want it…but I doubt it.

What do you think?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is useful and important blog posting about business hours.

bob said...

It's amazing you got that done in a week and it really looks good. WOW.

It took me almost 5 years to get a business card I 1/2 way like.

bob said...

9 years with our main business (95%) coming from web sales I can pretty much confirm what this writer is saying..

We could never have gotten this far with a brick and morter store as far as exposure and Sales and the cost per sale comparred to a B&M operation is crazy.

It's a no brainer assuming you have something of value to offer.

And our internet customers are some of the nicest people in the world (and, from around the world).

the web site busines model allows us to take the dogs for long walks and swims every day and a few hours of fishing... it is the way one can finance the lifestyle they choose instead of living the lifestyle you can afford.

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mlgreen8753 said...

Small Businesses everywhere are in a crisis due to the economy, but they can survive by simply cutting costs and advertising online where it's much more cost efficient.

Anonymous said...

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Freelancer On Fly - Charlot said...

Every market is price sensitive. But research proves that price is not always the issue. If you are giving great service to your customers you can actually charge 9 to 10 per cent more for the same service than your competitors. But if you add value without adding cost, it's always a better deal. Thanks for sharing!

Cheers!
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Garden sheds said...

Never underestimate the potential of small business. I hear lots of stories about great companies these days that started in just a small business.