Why having a website is crucial to your business success

10 reasons your business should have a website At ForeSceneWeb web design services we often come across this quandary from clients: why must we have a website? We politely suggest to them, considering the exponential growth of the Internet the question should no longer be about whether one should have a website or not, the question needs to be how soon should one get a website if one doesn't have it? A website these days is as much an integral part of your day-to-day business as the telephone on your desk. Just as you will miss a great part of your business without your telephone you are missing great business growth opportunities by not having a website for your business. A plethora of new opportunities appear for you as soon as you have a website. Although there can be infinite reasons, given below are the 10 most important reasons why your business should have a website.

1. Expand your business to a global market As a business you must be facing myriad forms of competition. You constantly need to innovate and find new markets. Your business website helps you leverage the length and breadth of the Internet and become a part of an unprecedented information superhighway.

From one part of the world you can transact with customers and clients from another part of the world without having to walk even a few steps away from your desktop. 2. Open doors to new opportunities Starting a business on the Internet is very easy and inexpensive. Sometimes all you need is a website; develop an idea overnight and in the morning start doing business with your new website. You can literally launch a new business via an existing or a new website within a few minutes.

3. Interact with your customers and clients It is a big possibility that most of your customers and clients are hooked to the Internet and using it regularly for their educational, communication and business needs. They will be delighted to find you on the Internet and interact with you through your website.

People these days find it easier to talk through websites rather than calling up or even sending e-mails. 4. Catch up with your competition While you're pondering over whether you should have a website or not we are pretty much sure that your competitors already have websites and are reaping the benefits of doing business on the World Wide Web.

By having a website you will be coming at par with your competitors and will be able to face them on an even turf. 5. Conduct research and analysis Instant feedback from your customers and clients helps you improve your products and services with greater speed. You can organize debates and polls on your website to gather input from your customers and clients and then analyze that data to carry out improvements or follow a more aggressive marketing strategy. 6.

Do business 24x7 year long You website doesn't have to have working hours; it is open all the time. It can be reached from anywhere at any time. Even at 2 a.m. people can log on to your website and do business with you without you having to get involved in case all the interactive functions have been properly set up. 7.

Advertise inexpensively Once some decent traffic has built up on your website it is inexpensive to advertise on your own website. There is an ongoing form of advertisement; your products and services are constantly being advertised when people visit your website. The other form of advertising is when you launch a new product or offer a new service. You can always declare this on your website and your visitors will be your first customers and clients. In fact the response rate of website visitors is far better than the conventional advertisement audience.

8. Portray a progressive and contemporary image Nobody likes organizations stuck in time warps. Your organization should be up-to-date with current technologies; this conveys to your customers and clients that you have got a progressive thinking and you adapt to newer technological trends with great flexibility and speed. By having a website you will be offering your customers and clients an interface they are much used to using on a day-to-day basis. 9.

Save lots of money Your website can save lots of money by automating most of your functions. For instance, when you sell through your website you don't have to maintain a stock or inventory. Simply maintain an online inventory that people can browse through and order from. Once they have placed an order you can arrange for the product and then get it shipped from the original supplier or the manufacturer. Since most of the processing happens through the website you don't need much staff to process the orders.

If somehow you can transfer all your business operations to your website you don't even have to commute daily to your workplace; you can manage everything from where you stay. All these factors can help you save lots of money. 10. Educate prospective customers and clients Sometimes you need to educate people in order to make them appreciate what you are offering. By constantly publishing informative and educational content on your website you can raise awareness regarding your product or service and convert casual visitors into paying customers and clients.

Sometimes if the demand doesn't exist it can be created by making people aware of the need. By ForeScene Creative Solutions, a New York web design company.

JUAN MARTINEZ is author of this article on New York Web Design. Find more information about New York Web Designer here.