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.

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.

[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 → shyn3]

As a former Toronto freelancer I share the same sentiments.

[shyn3 → GB_001]

What did you move onto?

[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.

[majorapps → kellros]

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?

[chrisbutlercs → majorapps]

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.

[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.