Have You Lost the Keys to Your Small Business?

Imagine for a second that you are a business owner and the most important part of your thriving business is your office headquarters/store. Essentially, it’s the hub of your business’ survival on a day to day business………  

Are you truly holding the keys to your business?

Now I want you to imagine the unimaginable. Even though this store or office belongs to you, you do not have a set of keys to get in whenever you want. In fact, your only way of getting in is to call someone to come out and open the door for you—every time you want to enter…..Have you pictured the scene yet? Seriously, don’t read on until you contemplate the lunacy of such an idea.  

Now I’m sure you’re thinking that I’m not making any sense here whatsoever, but the reality is that the majority of small business owners around the world currently do not hold the keys to their business. And how is this possible? Because in today’s information age of Marketing and Web 2.0, a company’s website is the key to their entire business. It is the tool that educates customers, generates leads, and sets the tone for everything else.  

A Litmus Test  

Frankly put, the good or bad opinion of the majority of consumers in this new age comes almost entirely from their experience with a company’s website, which is why it’s unbelievable that so many business owners can’t even make simple changes to their own site, much less add relative and useful content. Just answer these questions if you’d like to take a litmus test on the control you have over your business:  

• Could you tell me within the next 30 seconds how many visitors (customers) your website had today?
• If you noticed a typo in some text on your website, could you change it immediately?
• If you needed to make a company announcement on your site that was time sensitive, could you do so within the next few minutes?
• If you wanted to add an amazing photo to your website of some work your company just completed, could you show it now?
• And finally, if you wanted to add a video of a customer testimonial you just made (with your cool little flip camera) to the ‘testimonial page’ on your website, could that happen right away?

If you answered ‘NO’ to any of these questions, then I’m sorry to inform you that you have lost control of your business. I know, this may be hard for you to swallow, but let’s just call a spade a spade here. The reality is that over 90% of small business owners have to contact their webmaster to do what my 6 year old son can do with the right tools.  

And even worse, these business owners not only have to often times wait days for their changes to be done but their also getting charged for such madness. OUCH.  

I have major opinions regarding this subject because I, like most other small biz owners, did not have control over my business’ website for many years. It was one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve ever had as a business owner. As I saw the relevance of my website increasing in the eyes of our consumers over these past 5 years or so, it felt like I was literally locked out of my business and helpless at times. No longer was I steering the ship. I had lost control.  

There is Hope: CMS  

But as I’ve thoroughly discussed in other blogs, even the most non web-savvy business owners and managers can now take the helm of their website with Content Management Systems like that found on the Hubspot platform (this is the CMS my business uses). At a seminar I gave to pool and spa small biz owners this past weekend I was able to demonstrate to the entire audience just how easy one can change text, add video, and completely rearrange pages on my business’ website. We also took a look at the power of analytics and learning how to truly get in the mind of our site visitors (Hubspot’s analytics are unparalleled in my opinion) And frankly, for many of them it was an utterly mind-blowing and eye opening experience. Multiple, multiple people came up to me after the show and expressed their pure excitement to know that they could now ‘get the keys back to their store’. And what’s interesting, most of these same people never realized just how simple and easy web design could be until this event. **Note, I do hope everyone gets a chance to watch the following video, as it discusses this subject and gives all readers and subscribers to this blog a little better feel for my crazy ways   

Their excitement is was stimulated this post and my only hope is that the participants will now make the small investment it takes to get on board with a CMS company like Hubspot. Personally, my business spends about $6,000 a year for everything we get from HS and I’d honestly be happy to pay 3 times that much if I had to.  

Make the Change…..NOW  

But this article is really not about Hubspot, as my core point is that if you’ve lost control of your business and if you no longer have the keys to your store then it’s time to do something about it. Make the necessary changes. Start researching which CMS works best for you and your business and don’t make excuses about a few hundred bucks a month, as I can promise you that it’s costing you way more than that because of the fact that you do not have control of your company’s web and marketing  presence. I know it sounds cliché, but if I was able to overcome my ‘web ineptitudes’, then I know you can to. And as I’ve mentioned before, I’m always here to help you on the path, so don’t hesitate to email me your questions or thoughts.  

As always, if you have any comments on this subject or would just like to tell me how goofy I look in the video, I’d be much obliged to hear what’s on your mind!

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