How to explain that you don't have a business website

If you own a business I am sure people ask daily about your website.

Now they are not asking because they want to make idle conversation, they are asking because they want to see it, they want to see what you have to offer, what you have going on and to know more about your business than just what they learn from their brief interactions with you.

People truly want to know more today than they did 10 or 15 years ago. Information is King and websites are the main source of that information.

But you don't have a website, because you were too lazy, too tired and you never really made an honest effort to look into getting one at all.

So what do you say?

I made one but, The Dog Ate My Website?

Or maybe the old standby, my kid is working on it for me, should be done anytime now.

It seems that businesses are just not taking this whole Internet thing seriously. While companies like Walmart, Ebay and Amazon clean up with online sales small retailers are still waiting for their kids to make them a website.

Maybe this will get your attention. Any merchant that thinks people wont buy online when they can just walk into a store like walmart, purchase products and walk out, well they better look again.

In 2012 Walmart did around $9 Billion in ecommerce in addition to their store sales. Yes, $9BILLION!

If any retailer would not need a website it would be walmart, because they have a store on just about every street corner in every town, but you certainly don't.

You could reach the same people that walmart sold to, just by having your own website.

You know you won't have $9 Billion in sales like Walmart, but the people that are buying from Walmart, they are your customers. People that buy from you and can't online. So you are losing sales from your own customers because they are shopping online.

So lets ask why. Why are they shopping on walmart.com instead of coming into your store?

Because your store closes at 5pm and walmart.com is open 24 hours a day. So at 8pm when they need something, they don't have to drive to the store, they just sit down at their computer for 20 minutes, shop and buy. It gets delivered within a day and everyone is happy.

Well, I say everyone, but not the guy that does not have a website and missed out on the sales.

Look at contractors on a job site that orders tools, materials online from their cell phones, have it delivered the next day and never waste time running from store to store trying to get what they need.

But not everyone sells products, so what about the impact for service industries like Plumbers, HVAC or Electricians?

They are hit even harder because people looking for those services do it online. And I have probably beat this issue to death by now in 100 or more articles, so no need to go any further than, they wont find you, because you don't have a website.

But even more concerning for me is that even the people that do have websites don't take them seriously.

They had their kid build it or some student, or some cheap webmaster and then they never looked at it again.

5 or 10 years later, the same old boring informationless website still there sitting alone, forgotten and neglected. Never updated, never changed and doing nothing for your business.

Have you ever walked into a roadside diner and thought, hey, maybe they should update this place, clean it and bring it out of the 70's and into the modern world?

Well, that is what people are thinking about your website.

Sure they stopped in to eat because it was there, but they will never go back because the place was less than impressive, had lousy food and poor service.

So maybe it is time to think about what you are missing. Think about how many sales you are losing because people can't find you, people don't like what they see or because "The Dog Ate Your Website".

Your competitors are building 100 page websites, mobile sites and using social networks to build huge books of business while you are still waiting for your kids to build you a 5 pages website.

I guess many businesses have had their heads under a rock while companies like facebook and twitter were taking over. I guess you missed the fact that every TV show embellishes some element of the Internet, every news broadcast and every news story mention how the Internet played a role in almost everything.

Maybe you were busy sleeping, because that is the only way you could have missed this.

But it is never too late. Starting your website today is better than not at all. And if you already have one, it needs your attention.

If you don't have a website and you are not miking updates and changes at least once a month, you are not even in the game.

Don't be one of the business calling us to help them when sales are so bad they are weeks from closing.

A website will never help you when it is too late. While it is an important tool, it is also not a miracle. You will gain some business and keep the business you already have but you wont see a flood of business just by building a 5 page website.

Companies have been growing their websites for almost 20 years. And that is human years not dog years. That is a long time to be ignoring the Internet.

The question is, what will you tell your next customer when they ask about your website?

My dog ate it? Or sure, just go to "TheNameOfMyBusiness.com".