Where To Spend Your $$$Money$$$

1/9/200812:00:00 AM Link |  | Add comment

Business Management

A friend of mine recently told me a story about his new business. He had allotted $5000 to launch a website for this business and he wanted to spend $3500 on the art and graphic design of the site with the other $1500 to go toward its functionality. He was willing to spend a significant amount of his budget on the site because he wanted it to be a reflection of himself and his business.

Wanting my insight on this decision to invest in a website I made a simple suggestion. Invest $1000 on a Levelfield, Inc. Small Business Website and use the other $4000 of the budget to generate marketing to bring awareness and interest to the business. By only spending $1000 on my product and still receiving a highly functional, quality website interface with design elements, he would free up a large portion to spend elsewhere to gain interest for his business. By using the larger amount of marketing budget to drive customers to the website and create awareness for the business, the functionality of the web site will support the new interest and keep customers coming back.

I’d like to take credit for this idea of functionon and utility being more important than the outward reflection of self but Henry Ford is the one who originated this concept. Because of Ford transportation was of the essence and automobiles became the source of transportation for all Americans. Cars were no longer luxury items and status symbols afforded by only the upper class; cars were affordable. By providing a basic necessity to the American dream, Henry Ford helped increase the quality of life across the U.S. He made automotive transportation a reality for all people not just for the rich. I can only hope to achieve the same when it comes to small businesses and functional websites.

Be aware of where you are spending your money and why you are spending it. Insure that it is spent in a manner that benefits the functionality of what it is you are trying to achieve. A web page can win awards for its design and presence but if it doesn’t support incoming business and return customers its not worth a single penny you’ve spent.

Form and functionality make a website usable for you and your customers. Be conscious of where you spend your money and focus on your business’ marketing efforts. Use your marketing budget to drive interest to your business. If you don't have the ability to update your web site; if your web site doesn’t capture information from your online leads and automatically notify you so you can communicate to your customers immediately; if it doesn’t offer a built in newsletter feature for you to communicate to existing and interested clients; and if it doesn’t offer reporting for you to understand and better focus your efforts according to who has visited your business online your web site doesn’t work for your business.  If your web site doesn't offer you all of these capabilities then you are spending too much money without enough return on investment.

Jude Samson
President
Levelfield, Inc.