A Vision for Small Business Websites
B: Today, I'm talking to John about how we can help small businesses to develop online. I guess my first question is: why are small businesses the focus?
J: I've always felt that you get the best results when you focus on creating a unique service for one segment of the market. Our angle is delivering maximum value to smaller businesses who don't have thousands of pounds to throw away on websites but who nevertheless need similar solutions to those who have larger budgets.
B: Surely a big business would also love to have the same solution at a lower price. Wouldn't they be interested in your services too?
J: Yeah, and we do occasionally get bigger clients for that reason. What we don't offer them is the full corporate treatment, by which I mean a load of written proposals, flow charts and complimentary lava lamps. Clients can always pay extra if they need more pampering but most people just want to cut to the chase and get a great website without paying too much, and that's a requirement that we very much respect.
B: So basically you offer a less schmoozy service aimed at giving people more "bang for their buck"?
J: Exactly! We focus only on what produces the right result for the client. I think there are a lot of companies nowadays who really spend an incredible amount of time just making their clients feel special so that they can then justify charging disproportionately higher prices.
B: Your approach is obviously working because you're getting more and more referrals every month.
J: We're certainly very proud of that and I think the secret to it is very simple, which is that we have a strict set of standards and guidelines for what makes a website work and we simply stick to those guidelines. In fact, if you are thinking about using our services you can literally give any of our clients a call for a live testimonial which I think most of them would be very happy to give.
B: So what is the long-term vision?
J: For me, it's all about looking after existing clients to ensure that they continue to recommend us. And part of our strategy for doing this is to offer free functionality improvements. We've got a system used by all clients to manage their websites and our plan is simply to keep adding exciting features to that system free of charge.
B: You mean "exciting" in the internet-geek sense?
J: Well, absolutely! But also, it's worth emphasising that we're not just talking about adding any old gimmicks here. We're adding major items of functionality such as client login systems and integrated contact databases, the kind of features that would otherwise cost people thousands of pounds to develop. And our plan is to keep reinvesting company money into that ongoing system development based on the most common requests of clients.
B: I'm really beginning to see how appealing this kind of service must be. I think that it makes particularly good sense on the web because the Internet's all about change and new technologies.
J: That's a very good point. The web is always being used in new ways and no-one wants to have to keep paying massive bespke development fees just in order to keep their website up to date. With us, they pay a low monthly fee and they can still keep abreast of new changes in the web.
B: Yeah, and I guess it helps that you specialise in small businesses because you can deliver these free updates in areas where they are most interested in developing.
J: Absolutely! And we're interested especially in adding those features which help with their marketing. What we want to do is offer small business an affordable way to keep developing how they promote themselves online by adding features they most want to use and making those free updates on ongoing basis.