Being in Business without a Website is like doing Skydiving without a Parachute

 

When the Internet was new, many professionals and business owners wondered what all the fuss was about. While some companies rushed to set up shop in this new online space, others simply did not see the point.

 

Those days are long gone, and no business — no matter how small — can afford to ignore the power of the Internet. If your business is not yet online, you are invisible to an increasingly large portion of the population. That means potential customers will never be able to find you and never be able to take advantage of the services you offer.

 

Professionals from all walks of life have been successfully using their own dedicated websites to build their brands, connect with their communities and gain new customers for years now. If you have not yet joined them, now is the perfect time to get started. Many providers of professional services do not realize just how important being online really is. Whether you are an accountant, a tax preparer, a solicitor or a real estate professional, you need to have a dedicated website to showcase your skills, interact with your customers and build your business.

 

Only a dedicated web presence can provide these advantages, and experienced professionals already understand that fact. If you have not yet established yourself and showcased your credentials on the Internet, you are missing out on a world of opportunity.Some accountants, solicitors and other professionals have assumed that building a social media presence through Facebook, Twitter and other sites is a suitable substitute for building their own dedicated websites, but there are a number of reasons why this is not the case.For one thing, professionals who set up shop on Facebook and Twitter are at the mercy of those sites and their terms of service. If Facebook makes a change to its privacy policy or changes the way posts appear to end users, your business could suffer. Worse yet, future changes could make your site, and your business, look sloppy and unprofessional.

 

When you have a dedicated web presence, you are in total control of how you look to your clients. You can set up a messaging platform to interact with your clients and give advice. You can build a database of frequently asked questions to provide existing and potential clients with valuable information. You can post articles and tips that cause others to look at you as an expert in your field. Only a dedicated web presence can provide you with all those advantages, and the time to get started is now.

photo credit: ”Skydiver” by Matt Lewis on Flickr. CC Licensed