All business owners do not need  the most expensive, full featured website technically possible. What they do need is a website that looks professional and is appropriate for what they need to accomplish for their business. You see that is the real question, what do I need to accomplish with my website? This depends on many factors such as:

• Who are my customers?
• Do I want my site to bring me new customers, service my current ones, or both?
• How much business am I looking for?
• What type of business am I in?
• Do I want to put it together myself and if so how tech savvy am I?
• And if I would like to have it done professionally, what should be my budget?

For example, if your business is one that people typically do a fair amount of research on before they pick up the phone to make their  purchase, you will need a site that will educate them on the subject matter and your company. As opposed to a product or service that is more straightforward such as a shoe repair shop. If they are looking to get their shoes repaired, they don’t need to know about the history of shoes, they just need to know that you provide the service they are looking for, what your hours are, where you are located, etc.

Now that doesn’t mean that a shoe repair company cannot provide all sorts of nifty information that people might find useful, it means that your first objective is to have a site so that they can locate your business and know that you provide what they’re looking for.

On the other hand, if your business is one where people are looking for more detailed information about your product or service, a site that educates them will build up their confidence that you are the expert for what they are looking for.

Many companies will find themselves in the middle of these two scenarios. When that is the case, you can start with the basics and enhance your site based on some of the other factors. Such as how much business are you looking for? What geographical area do you operate in? And what is your competition doing?

The main importance that we cannot stress enough is that your site should look professional. Today there are many free templates and content management programs that you can use needing only medium technical proficiency. The most widely used of course is WordPress, which has developed from a blogging only framework to a full content management system. Easier than Joomla or Drupal, which are great but more complicated for the novice. Another favorite of ours is Concrete5, which is even easier to use while still being a powerful platform that can deliver a great looking site.

As far as doing it yourself or getting it done by an outside vendor, it really comes down to your computer proficiency, the time and/or money that you have available for the project, how extensive of a site you need, and your preference.

In either case with a little forethought you can have a site that looks professional and addresses the needs of your business for both you, and your customers.