Your Internet future

          Free daily tips, information, advice and ideas
          to help you better manage your small business

     So, how do you exploit the Internet to grow your small business? It depends on what you are doing. And it depends on where you plan to take your business down the road of growth and expansion.

     You can do what many business owners do. Put up a website and revise it from time to time. When people visit, they see the same thing--month after month. Soon, nobody bothers to come to your website. If you don't refresh your website every week with new content, the search engines stop directing people to your site. 

     You can use social media to drive eyeballs to your website. Jump on Facebook at least twice each week and post a picture along with a few words. People are reminded that you are still there for them. They "like" you and perhaps pass your post on to their friends. Circles grow, and your business attracts more people.

     There is a third way. It combines all this, and it can change your business into more than you ever dreamed it could be. Get your website active and keep it active with fresh content. Drive more people there with social media. 

     Example: Sue loved to bake brownies. She experimented with different recipes, she baked for friends and relatives, she gave them away to church functions, she even landed a couple of customers--corporate meeting planners. One of these people suggested that Sue develop a website through which they might place orders. Sue jumped on the Internet with her own website, and she began posting on Facebook with pictures of scrumptious brownies. Suddenly her business exploded. Today, Sue oversees the baking of her brownies in a commercial kitchen and she ships brownies all over the country. Smart use of the Internet has grown her business beyond her wildest dreams.

     Example: Justin worked in a major corporation. Then, he inherited his aunt's consignment shop. He decided to make a life-changing career move. He resigned his corporate position, and he devoted full time to building the consignment shop. He concentrated on high-end items and those with a hot market. He invited artists and artisans to consign to his shop. He turned his website into a go-to destination, and promoted heavily on Facebook and other social media. He set up an eBay type store. He concentrated on selling at the store, through his website, and on eBay and other sites. Most of the items arriving at the store, he photographed and posted on social media--every day. Justin turned his aunt's consignment shop into a much more active business.

     The Internet holds futures not yet dreamed of. Owners of small businesses need to catch the wave and ride it to success. 

     Put on your thinking cap. And get on the Internet--in all forms. Social media might be the greatest thing since sliced bread to grow and expand.