Posted on July 28, 2009 in First Principles, Small Business

This article continues on from the first in this series where we learnt that the goal of your website is the most important factor in deciding how it will function and what it will look like.

One possible purpose for an online presence that is often overlooked by small businesses is the way in which having a website can save you money.

Think about banks for a perfect example.

Banks used to employ lots of staff to serve customers face-to-face, whereas now the majority of banking payments and transactions take place over the web using a secure banking site.

The convenience of online banking makes customers want to use it. And although a bank may spend considerable money to create a working, secure website, this investment in the long term means that they pay less wages to their customer service employees.

It saves them money.

Small business can apply the same principles

One of my clients who runs a bed and breakfast would get many calls before key holiday periods like Easter and Christmas asking if the accommodation was available.

By putting a calendar on her site that shows when it is booked, she provides a more useful service to her site visitors and saves time for herself by filtering out all the phone calls from people who only need an answer to that question.

Is there a process in your business that could be based on the web to save yourself time and money?