DEVELOPING YOUR INTERNET BUSINESS PLAN
Your business plan for your website should be as carefully thought out as a corporate business plan. Think of the internet as a “bank” with millions of depositors who will spend money with you if you approach them with the right message, right products and make it easy for them to buy.
A business-to-business website is just that. A business. You must develop a sense of the budgeting dollars you are willing to commit to ongoing website support and internet marketing. Too often companies go out of pocket for a new website, then fall dollars short on the “back-end” and the site eventually disappears from view.
Start with a mission statement.
“I want my corporate website to produce “X” dollars in the next 12 months or “X” business opportunities.” Or, “I want my website to act as a customer support center and ease the burden on my staff.”
Think carefully about your commitment to your internet marketing. Are you willing to dedicate your personal/professional time, even if it adds 5 or 10 more hours a week or month to your job? Do you have a computer-savvy staff member who can assist you?
Don’t make the mistake of turning your office manager into a web guru. He or she probably does not have the background with internet technologies, web programming, search engine optimization and the rest of the skills necessary. Will you hire or buy these skills?
How many dollars are you willing to budget toward your internet marketing initiative? This will tell you how serious you are about doing business on the internet. Now, create your first internet balance sheet, or profit and loss statement as some accountants like to call it. For example:
| Revenue-Year 1 | |
| Gross Sales | $200,000 |
| Expenses | |
| Staff Salaries (portion of employee work time spent on internet business as share of their annual payroll cost) | $9,200 |
| URL Registration Fees | $10.00 |
| Annual Web Hosting | $300.00 |
| Web Consulting Fees | $2,500 |
| Web Site Design | $10,000 |
| Search Engine Marketing Consulting Fees | $1,500 |
| Search Engine Advertising Fees | $3,000 |
| Total Expenses | $26,510 |
| Expenses as Percent of Gross Sales | 13.2% |
| Net Sales | $173,490 |
Do the numbers any way you like. The point is that a productive web site can be the hardest working sales person you have for your company. And, you don’t have to pay vacations, sick leave, insurance, overtime and bonuses! Your site will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year for you.
Update your website now. Not tomorrow or the next day. Contact us at 252-367-7673 or email Casey Turton for a no-cost conversation about minimizing your risks and maximizing your rewards.