http:lexoft.com.ng

Many small business owners view their business as a totally offline entity, pursuing traditional means to promote themselves and win new customers. However, regarding any business (from the largest enterprise to the sole trader, or anything in between) as purely offline is a risky strategy to take when your customers are spending more and more of their time online.

Harnessing the web as a business tool is important, even for businesses that may consider themselves as primarily offline. Beauty businesses, fitness businesses, plumbers, driving instructors and any number of other service businesses ultimately all measure success by their ability to build offline relationships – and the web can play a huge part in that. So no matter how established your businesses is offline, it’s crucial to get the basics of online in place.

As a small business, it’s unlikely you’ll have big budgets, staff or free personnel hours to invest in a complex online strategy, but there are certainly some simple steps you can take to start reaping the rewards that the web can bring.
1. Be accessible

The key to making the most of the web is making your business as accessible as possible, letting people interact with you in a way that suits them, whenever they want to. Your customers are online 24/7, and as such they expect to be able to interact with businesses and organisations whenever and wherever they are online. Of course, that doesn’t mean having to have a presence on every single online channel; it means being clever about selecting the ones that are most important to your audience.

At the most fundamental level, this means a basic, professional looking website with easy to find, relevant information about your business. At a more advanced level, that could be a fully-blown booking tool that lets customers schedule their own appointment or booking with you, essentially giving your businesses a 24/7 receptionist.
2) Think local before you think big

Making the most of online tools doesn’t necessarily mean trying to go global, quite the opposite in fact. It can be a very successful route to building relationships at a local level, which is crucial to the success of so many small businesses. Focusing on your online touchpoints means building relationships with customers and potential customers, and turning that online connection into offline custom: loyal, engaged customers who come back time and again. Think also about local listings sites, online networking groups and building partnerships with other local bussiness


Read more @ http://lexoft.com.ng/why-your-business-needs-a-website/

Many small business owners view their business as a totally offline entity, pursuing traditional means to promote themselves and win new customers. However, regarding any business (from the largest enterprise to the sole trader, or anything in between) as purely offline is a risky strategy to take when your customers are spending more and more of their time online.

Harnessing the web as a business tool is important, even for businesses that may consider themselves as primarily offline. Beauty businesses, fitness businesses, plumbers, driving instructors and any number of other service businesses ultimately all measure success by their ability to build offline relationships – and the web can play a huge part in that. So no matter how established your businesses is offline, it’s crucial to get the basics of online in place.

As a small business, it’s unlikely you’ll have big budgets, staff or free personnel hours to invest in a complex online strategy, but there are certainly some simple steps you can take to start reaping the rewards that the web can bring.
1. Be accessible

The key to making the most of the web is making your business as accessible as possible, letting people interact with you in a way that suits them, whenever they want to. Your customers are online 24/7, and as such they expect to be able to interact with businesses and organisations whenever and wherever they are online. Of course, that doesn’t mean having to have a presence on every single online channel; it means being clever about selecting the ones that are most important to your audience.

At the most fundamental level, this means a basic, professional looking website with easy to find, relevant information about your business. At a more advanced level, that could be a fully-blown booking tool that lets customers schedule their own appointment or booking with you, essentially giving your businesses a 24/7 receptionist.

2) Think local before you think big

Making the most of online tools doesn’t necessarily mean trying to go global, quite the opposite in fact. It can be a very successful route to building relationships at a local level, which is crucial to the success of so many small businesses. Focusing on your online touchpoints means building relationships with customers and potential customers, and turning that online connection into offline custom: loyal, engaged customers who come back time and again. Think also about local listings sites, online networking groups and building partnerships with other local business.

Read more @ http://lexoft.com.ng/why-your-business-needs-a-website/

A lot of small business owners who do not have a site keep asking this question-“How will a website help my business?” Before we start talking about the advantages of having a website for your business, it is important to make you aware about a very basic universal truth. Regardless of the advantages that you will get from having a website, a website has become as necessary as having your own phone and fax machine for a business. Having your own website has become a necessity that is as important as having your own office. That said, let us look at some of the main ways by which having a website will help your business:

A website establishes your presence as a serious business. All customers and clients expect businesses to have their own websites. If you do not have a website, you might be looked upon as being a non-professional and non-serious business that is not even interested in providing contact or business information.

more on http://lexoft.com.ng/how-will-a-website-help-my-business/