Give Your Business a Chance

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)

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.

Start Up Britain

Start Up Britain

Although It is certain to help many new start up businesses get off the ground, the Government backed “Start Up Britain” campaign doesn't go into much detail on how to promote your products/services effectively and cost efficiently on the Internet. Yes, a website is absolutely essential and constructed and maintained correctly will definitely bring you increased business.

Websites

The downside? Well, websites historically can range from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds and if you choose the wrong website designer you may find you lose that investment because very few people are visiting your site. There are free websites available on the Internet so these are obviously the answer aren’t they?

Free Websites

If you commit to a free website you will end up with your site being build around a common template so you may find extremely similar sites on the Internet albeit they will be promoting different products. You need to remember that visitors like to see a professionally designed bespoke site to give them confidence in your services. A free website sends out all the wrong signals and may create more problems than it solves. Neither will it be optimised so that the search engines can find you. It will do your business no good at all if it only appears on page eighteen of Google.

Rent A Website

Rent A Website will design a professional website for you from only £14.99 per month with a set up cost of only £29.98. There is no contract. There is no termination penalty. If you wish to cancel, just stop paying. It’s as simple as that. There are no catches. On top of that, they will keep your website up to date for you and redesign your site annually to keep it fresh for NO EXTRA CHARGE. They have taken the risk and cost out of having a website and added simplicity. In fact, if you rent a website, it’s 100% tax deductible.

To see what else is included as standard, visit the website .www.rentawebuk.com and have a browse. They will even design a logo for you at no extra charge.

Website Health Check

If you have already published a website for your business, why not visit their sister site www.dp-group.co.uk and try out the FREE website health check. It will highlight if your site is working as it should. It may also save you a lot of money.

Facebook

Facebook. Don't you just love it? Well, certainly the youngsters do, but it seems the older generation are a little slower to recognise what this phenomenon has to offer. A majority of the older generation say “I just can't see the point” or “It's just for kids”. Wrong! Facebook is a brilliant business aid if you know how to use it to your advantage. Look! Don't get me wrong, I'm not interested in seeing photographs of Jimmy's latest stool samples or reading about how Kate's husband nearly caught her lover climbing out of the bedroom window and shinning down the drainpipe, (By the way, anybody got a quick cure for friction burns?) no, if you use it to promote and grow a business, then it does this exceptionally well.

 

Big companies are increasingly using social media such as facebook to interact with their clientele and gain helpful insight at the same time. Surveys indicate that 60% of the world’s top retailers have an active presence on facebook. Surveys also show that a growing number of companies are increasingly advertising more on online interactive media than in traditional media.

In using social marketing media, companies report increased earnings at reduced marketing budgets.

Surveys conducted among business persons document that 81% of online marketers use social media such as facebook for increased exposure of their businesses. 62% of business persons credit facebook for increased traffic and sealed business deals. 85% of small business owners claim to reap direct benefit from use of social media.

A whopping 81% of business executives state that social media marketing boosts their bottom line results and enhances their brand and business relationships.

Clearly, the impact of online social media has been phenomenal, especially for business. Social interactive media is here to stay and businesses that tap into it can expect to record improved performance and better results.

So, it's clear that if you ignore Facebook or fail to recognise its potential for your business, then, I'm sorry, you are a dinosaur, and you know what happened to them.