

Has anyone successfully proposed a website replacement to a small business? - where

Say there is a small business in your city that should be competitive as it has very low product prices and good service, but doesn't get enough exposure and has an perhaps undeservedly poor reputation due to an awful website that has severe usability problems, very poor quality copy, and does silly things like putting most content in PDF files linked from various places on the site.<p>Has anyone successfully initiated a proposal to rewrite and maintain a website for a small business, or is it a case of "things don't work that way"? The proposal might include a discussion of the problems with the current website, the consequences of these problems in exposure and revenue, and an overview of the solution that would be offered.
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kellros
Depends on how 'small' a business is.

It is my honest belief that unless a business requires a website - they don't
need one.

There are some exceptions but in general they can more easily use existing
services that has existing users. (Ex. a directory listing or some type of
SaaS platform)

There's a few things as dissappointing as spending thousands of
rand/euros/dollars on a website and it ends up being an expense with no
tangible benefits.

I'd tell a business, lets get real. A real website requires maintenance and
regular updates which means time and money. Can a small business really afford
to waste money AND time on something that doesn't increase your profits?

If a website doesn't fit into your core business domain, then you probably
don't need one.

Here are a couple of questions that need to be asked:

Will clients leave you if you don't have a website?

Are there any dependencies that require you to have a website?

Who will be responsible for maintenance and updating of a website?

Are the 'experts' available to help create a website? (Ex. they want to be
able to do stock control but have no idea how to do it - they expect the
software to make up for their lack of skill/laziness. This is a major cause of
failures in software development.)

Are they willing to pay upfront what it costs to create what they want? (I
call this the free ride principle)

I'd say, consider the above questions. It might be better for such a small
service to not to have a website and rather spend that money on physical
advertising campaigns instead.

If you can take away anything from what I said, take this: Bad news is always
free. Good news has to be searched for or created - in other words you should
bring them good news and they will listen to you. Ask them those questions as
a consultant, if they need a website - propose to them what you would do to
improve their existing website in regards to their core business domain. If
they don't need a website - tell them.

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majorapps
There is so much wrong with this comment. Why spend thousands on a website?
Why rand, an obscure South African currency? Will clients leave you..not if
you dont have any clients due to your competitor down the road appearing top
of the search results with a good site? What about customers who want to
research the company? Branding?

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chrisbutlercs
Having worked with a few small businesses to setup their web presence, with
and without a website, I think that they have a lot of good points.

Also, having a website and having good search ranking for a local business are
not the same thing. With Google Places, Yelp, etc. you can maintain great
listings with them without spending a single lev. ;-)

What is branding to a business that doesn't need a website? Iheir location is
the brand, not a series of locations that need to be identified wherever you
are.

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shyn3
I have tried this many times.

I have an awesome failure rate though.

I secured one contract that I thought would be great with a minimum investment
of only $5,000. I find here (Toronto) the amount was out of their range.

To answer your question; Yes I have.

Would I do it again? Probably not.

I find that small businesses have limited budgets and currently you have to
find the guy who is willing to invest in something different in order to
convince them. Also, if you lowball yourself there is a lot of work involved
and they always come up with ideas as you get into development which increases
your costs but they struggle to pay.

The larger small businesses tend to lean towards larger organizations so if
you are doing it as a contractor it will be harder I think.

I am starting to look into developing something where multiple businesses can
use the service instead of having to target something specifically for a
single customer.

Another thing I learned is the monthly payments are really easy for them so if
you are able to work in installments and sign a longer contract with monthly
fixed payments you will be able to sign a lot more versus trying to get a lump
sum.

~~~
GB_001
As a former Toronto freelancer I share the same sentiments.

~~~
shyn3
What did you move onto?

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kappaloris
It happened to me the other way round: they were looking for someone to build
a replacement for them.

They were more interested in simplifying their order processing routine,
rather than getting a nicer website. One case does not prove much, but you
might try focusing more on the fact that you can ease their work.

Also, in my case they were a bit afraid of depending too much on a particular
system, so you might want to point that out too.

