Does my business need a Website?
By Tshepo Khoza
I was recently at some government establishment when a business executive was asked whether he had a website or not. He said no he did not have one. When asked why not, he replied that his clients were not sophisticated enough to look for his services and products on the Internet. After it was explained to him that he needed to focus on his potential clients and not only on his current ones, and that these prospects will not know about him or his services, he asked for my business card.
This gentleman's attitude (and many like him) is one of the many reasons that our economy is not growing as fast as it should. It is also the reason why the Internet, and particularly doing business online, has not really taken off in South Africa. This attitude is particularly seen among previously disadvantaged people (or Black South Africans, if you prefer). I have noticed that this group of people does not think they are cultured enough to use the Internet. They certainly think they are not elegant enough to do business on the Internet. Those who do have business websites do not necessarily think their clients, particularly their prospective clients, are sophisticated enough to do business online. The Internet is still seen by most South Africans as this dangerous entity that is used by the elegant and those who live on the edge. It has not yet dawned on some of my countrymen that one can find information on any subject, any business or service on the Internet. It is not yet clear that the Internet can be used to develop their skills further and to generate great wealth. It is this same attitude that makes Broadband so expensive in South Africa, compared to other countries.
It is because Black South Africans do not feel sophisticated enough that Telkom had gotten away with denying the benefits of Broadband to the masses. In a way this can benefit Telkom's competitors because the lack of infrastructure has given room for wireless connection we see from iBurst and Vodacom's 3G. I think we still pay too much for what we get.
The perception expressed by this gentleman (and others like him) is mainly fuelled by miseducation. The biggest challenge I get when I deal with clients is the incredible lack of knowledge on how to use the Internet to benefit their businesses.
I have made the following observations:
- Some people still feel inferior - They do not believe their services and products deserve to be displayed to the international community. They would rather let them be known by the few who will keep using them to sustain the business. They have very little hope of growing their businesses.
- Others lack vision - They do not see beyond their current client base and market share. They do not feel sophisticated enough to reach other markets and to attract more clients than those in their Geographical location. Some even think less of their clients: thinking that their clients are not cultured enough to use technology to find them.
- Some lack marketing knowledge - When business people finally agree that they need a website for their business, they pay money to have one and then they do not market it. The seem to believe in the notion of "If I build it, they will come". They neglect some of the basics, such as putting their web addresses on their business cards and on the auto signatures of every e-mail sent out from their businesses (Some do not even have auto signatures on their e-mails).
- Others lack pride - Sometimes business people do not want to think about a domain name. When they have one, they do not use the e-mail addresses associated with their domain names. They still want to use their @telkomsa.net, and their @netactive.co.za. This tells the world that they lack pride or knowledge.
I phrased the title of this article as a question: Does my business need a website? The answer is a resounding YES! Every business needs a website. A website is a never-sleeping, never-complaining and never-tired salesperson. It does not matter if you own a Hair Salon, an IT company, a guesthouse or a restaurant. You need to let people know that your business exists and what services you offer, as well as where people can find you. A website is an excellent marketing tool because it does the job while you focus on your core business or while you sleep or play. It provides you an opportunity to display your products and your services to people who would otherwise not have known about you. Let me give an example. I recently took my wife to a very nice restaurant for our sixth wedding anniversary. I decided to visit the restaurant after I visited their website. It gave me enough information to decide that this was a place to spend a lot of money (it was not cheap) on my gorgeous wife and that we would have a good time.
Once you have your website, you need to let people know that your website exists. This can be done by various means, including word of mouth and using auto signatures. Every e-mail that you send should have a link to your website. There are various other ways to market your website and I will discuss them in another article.
There is hope for people like this gentleman mentioned at the beginning of this article. I started my business, Dot Khoza Website Development, to educate and help people like him to realise that South Africa can become a real economic superpower, if we learned how to use the technology that the world has afforded us. Our businesses can become international if they are put out there for the world to see. I was made proud the other day to see an e-mail from Myanmar-South East Asia to a small church in Soshanguve (a township North of Pretoria) whose website I developed and am hosting. This person found out about this church from their website and decided to contact them all the way from Myanmar-South East Asia.
Again, there is hope for any business in South Africa, as long as we learn to embrace this technological miracle called the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Tshepo Khoza is the Managing Director of Dot Khoza Website Development CC. He can be contacted at info@dkweb.co.za