Small Businesses
With more and more businesses going into receivership (Focus DIY and Mesh Computers being two of the latest), there has been a sharp increase in new business start-ups. Undoubtedly, much of this is due to redundant employees spending their redundancy money on “going it alone”.
Unfortunately, the attrition rate of these new businesses over the first 24 months is extremely high. However, the economy needs small businesses as the following statistics provided by The Federation of Small Businesses show.
There are 4.8 million small businesses in the UK (up from 4 million in 2003)
There are 4.8 million small businesses in the UK (up from 4 million in 2003)
3.6 million Businesses are sole proprietors
1.3 million are companies of which 747,000 have employees
444,000 are partnerships
97 per cent of firms employ less than 20 people
95 per cent employ less than 5 people
Over 500,000 people start up their own business every year
Small and medium-sized firms employ more than 59.8 per cent of the private sector workforce
22.8 million people work in small and medium-sized firms
Small firms contribute more than 49 per cent of the UK turnover
64 per cent of commercial innovations come from small firms
Wholesale, Retail and Repairs was the biggest employer at the start of 2009
The 563,000 enterprises in this sector employed 4,853,000 people (21.3 per cent of all UK private sector employment)
Small firms collect and pay Tax, NICs, VAT and other dues which help pay for public services
Around 1,580,000 of all UK enterprises are in London and the South-East
Marketing
From the above statistics then, you can appreciate how important it is to the UK’s economy for small to medium businesses to succeed. So where do they go wrong? Well, the reason is usually lack of investment, poor cash flow, under estimating their market or poor marketing. Whilst the cash has to be looked after, you need to maximise on what you do spend.
One of the biggest cash vacuums is the humble website. For some reason, budding entrepreneurs either think the best way to save money is to get a school boy to design their new website for £400 or to pay £2000 of their hard earned redundancy on a professional website. To be honest, neither is going to do you any favours. Almost anyone can design a website these days and make it look pretty good, but unless you know, and I mean really know, how a website should work for your business, then forget it. Look at it this way; would you pay a teenager £20k to build you a car just because he works for the local garage?
Websites
Conversely, the opposite is also true; you do not need to spend thousands of pounds on your website anymore. Those days have gone for the small business. If you need a website, and believe me, you need a website, don’t think that the moment it’s online, business will come flying in, because it won’t. With every website there are on-going costs. There has to be. Look at it this way; you wouldn’t stop putting fuel in your car would you? If you did, it would grind to a halt. A website is no different. It needs fuel to operate correctly. It needs constant content so that the search engines do not get bored when they index it. We’ve all heard of the dreaded SEO (Search Engine Optimised), but the fact is, your website needs it like your body needs blood. A well-constructed, well optimised website will bring you new customers.
Free Websites
Free websites. What do you get for free? Well, there are plenty out there, go have a look and see how impressed you are. Would you buy from a business that has a free website? There are other options of course, self-build, or a cheap website from a box. If you think these sites are better than employing a professional to build you a website that works, then go ahead and waste your money and become another statistic.
Rent A Web
Now for the blatant plug (What else did you expect?). At Rent A Web, our whole ethos was to help start-ups and small to medium sized companies market themselves online for a minimum cost. This cost would include a professional website with ongoing SEO for a small monthly fee. This would enable the Newco to compete with the big boys and give them a chance with a website that works. For less than £40 per month with no contract, free hosting and domain, unlimited updates and a free website rebuild every year, it’s a no brainer.
For more details, read about our unique service on our site at Rentaweb. You’ll be glad you did.
