Most people who have not got a website do not think they are losing anything. The phone still rings, the work still comes in, and the whole thing feels like something you will get round to eventually.
The trouble is that what you lose by not having one is invisible. Nobody rings to tell you they went with someone else. Here are ten things it is quietly costing you.
1. The job that went to somebody else
Someone asked around, got two names, and looked you both up. They found a tidy website for the other firm and nothing at all for you. They rang the other firm. You never knew that job existed.
2. Being checked out at nine o’clock at night
People do not decide who to ring at half past two in the afternoon. They decide on the sofa in the evening, phone in hand. If there is nothing to look at, they move on to the next name. A properly built website is open when you are asleep.
3. Not showing up when someone searches your trade
Every week people in your town search for exactly what you do. Without a website you are not in that race at all. Worse, without a Google listing you will not appear on the map either — and the map is the first thing people see.
4. Answering the same five questions forever
Are you insured. Do you cover my area. How long does it take. Do you clear up after. Roughly what does it cost. You answer these several times a week. A website answers them once, properly, for everybody.
5. Your best work stuck on your phone
You have got hundreds of photos of finished jobs that nobody will ever see. That is the most persuasive thing you own. We can tidy those photos up so they look as good as the work actually was, and put them where customers will find them.
6. Looking smaller than you really are
A one-man band with a proper website looks established. A firm with six vans and no website looks like it might be gone next year. Fair or not, that is the judgement people make in about four seconds.
7. Being unable to charge what you are worth
When there is nothing to look at, price is the only thing left to compare you on. That is a race to the bottom. Show the standard of your work and the conversation stops being about being the cheapest.
8. Depending entirely on word of mouth
Recommendations are brilliant, but they only reach people who already know somebody who knows you. It is one source of work, and if it goes quiet you have got nothing else running.
9. Not being able to sell anything
If you sell products as well as services — parts, materials, anything at all — you are limited to whoever walks in. An online shop lets people order and pay while you are on a job.
10. Your competitors getting a head start
This is the one that costs most. Search results reward sites that have been around a while. Every month you wait, the firm down the road gets further ahead. The best time to have started was three years ago. The second best is now.
What it actually takes
Less than most people think. You do not write anything, you do not learn anything technical, and you do not need to know what hosting means. You have a chat about what you do, and we build it.
- Everything written for you — see website design
- Your job photos edited and sorted
- Short videos cut from your phone footage if you want them
- Social media posted for you every week, so the site is not sat there on its own
- Fixed prices agreed up front — have a look at what it costs
If you want to see the sort of thing we mean, have a look at some of the businesses we have put online.
Not sure where you stand?
Start with the free version. Tell us your business name and your town and we will check your Google listing, see who is coming up above you locally, and send you three specific things that are costing you work. It is free, it takes two minutes, and there is no sales call afterwards.
Get your free website check, or if you would rather just talk it through, get in touch and we will give you a straight answer and a fixed price.