Dr Jeff Cornwall

I always have been a bit of a skeptic when it comes to web sites for small businesses. For a long time I advocated that they were not important enough for most small businesses to spend precious marketing dollars on since they had not proved to be a source of business. My how times have changed.
I recently heard the story of a small business owner who generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in new sales with a $3,000 web site. It changed their market from regionally based to being national and even international in scope.
Then today one of my students, Tyler Oban, sent this article from Business Week that reinforces this point.
Tony March first took his 32-employee business, National Private Annuity Trust, online just 18 months ago….Result? The response has been so overwhelming that he’s now exploring franchising. “We’ve had thousands of potential customers calling us out of the blue because they saw us on Internet searches,” he says. “It was like we got billboarded overnight. We had no idea the product was this marketable. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Even my own blog site has increased contacts from national media and those trying to seek out expert advice. I guess it is time to soften my Luddite tendencies on yet another technological breakthrough. The marriage of small business and web-based marketing is here to stay. As with any marketing tool, entrepreneurs need to “think like their customers.” And it is clear that more and more of these customers are using the web.