Process Logos

That being said, assuming all people meet that requirement, you need to produce collateral that will separate you from the pack. Presenting well thought out, informative, and attractive collateral will not only present your information in an eye pleasing package but will also show investors you are committed to your product’s success and not just looking for hand-outs. On to this installment of Building Collateral for Investors.

Your Core Identity Collateral

Investors are business people and they more often than most follow traditional business practices. What that means is the classic standbys of business cards, letter head, and business envelopes are essential to making a positive impression. Each item in a traditional Identity Package has a unique business function as well as take-away power. If you maximize the quality of each and every piece you will be seen by investors as a business owner that is thorough and focused on success. Let’s break down the four main pieces to a core identity package and explain how each one should be focused to maximize their impact.

Your Company Logo

You might think this is an obvious item that everyone knows to spend time on but that simply is not true. Many people will hire someone based solely on price and take whatever logo looks “coolest” to them. Big mistake! Investors analyze every aspect of your business to see how involved you are, how well things are thought out, as well as what will need tom be improved and worked out before they make a commitment. Approach your logo design as if you were already a Fortune 500 company. Investors understand that each and every product has a different target audience and that a business’ logo should reflect that. So focus on the target demographic your product or service will be sold to and design a logo for them. Don’t get sucked into designing something you think will appeal directly to the investor. Follow all the standard rules for logo design, the most important of which can be found here, and invest time and money in developing fully.

Your Business Card

As I stated in the overview article your business card is still the most powerful point of contact when talking to an investor. I have yet to hear about an investor that doesn’t meet with people in person before giving them money. When you meet them you want to hand them a card that captures their attention and immediately burns itself into their memory. Unlike the logo this can be tailored to an investor. The point of a business card is to do business, not sell your product but your company in general. One of the reasons business cards become stagnate and uninteresting is because not a lot of thought is put into its layout. People believe that as long as it contains all the vital information it’s doing the job. Completely untrue. An investor is going to get more business cards than you can probably imagine. It is a part of every day life for them, even with today’s ever-growing technology. Use both sides of the card so that you can create a visual effect on one side with little worry for having to present information. This will allow you to focus on graphically making one side of your card brilliant while the other side can present all the information.

Speaking of the information side DO NOT just slap the information on the card. The purpose of a business card is to drive traffic, whether it is to your company’s website or to drive someone to call you. Think about how you want the investor to get in touch with you or what you want them to do and make that the focus of the information side of your card. Whether you make that aspect of your card larger or a different color make it stand out from the rest of the content. If it works with the design of your logo add a subtle graphic element that also visually steers the viewer towards the information on which you want them to focus. The point is to make the card memorable as well as motivating the investor towards taking some course of action in contacting you. Every little reminder, no matter how subtle or subconscious will help.

Your Letterhead

A must to do when talking with investors is keeping your company in the front of their minds. After meeting with them you must, simply must, follow up the meeting with a letter to thank them for the meeting as well as re-enforcing the benefits of your company. However, the most painful thing I see companies doing is sending a letter on generic white paper printed from their home printer. Obviously the letter content itself will be printed from your home printer but using a generic piece of white paper you find at your local office supply store is all but a guarantee you will be checked off the “interested” list. You must invest the time and energy you put into your business card into creating powerfully appealing letterhead. Have at least some letterhead professionally printed by a printer containing at least a beautiful header that incorporates your brand as well as your company logo. On the letterhead make sure you have all your contact information repeated and create some sort of graphic element or die cut effect that makes your letterhead jump off their desk. Also take the opportunity to include a “back-up” of your business card. This serves two purposes. Obviously it gives the investor another copy of your business card but more importantly it shows that your business card and letterhead work together and look visually appealing together. The more you show your collateral is well thought out the more that translates to you being thorough and attentive to detail. A serious plus in the minds of investors.

Your Company Envelope

This item is almost always overlooked by small companies. Where as using a generic piece of white paper as your letterhead and generic #10 business envelope will often times keep the investor from even getting to your letterhead. Having a professional printer run a box of nice envelopes through their printer will be well worth the money to ensure an investor pursues it further. Now there are very specific regulations by the USPS that govern how your envelope should work. I recommend to clients that they make sure to meet these requirements rather than simply sending things through UPS or FedEx simply because those investors that know the regulations will be that much more impressed by your work. Do more than the minimum, don’t just have them print your company logo and return address on the front. Look into using as much of the envelope as the USPS allows. If you have doubt that your envelope meets the requirements take it to your local post office, where there will be a certified person to review it, and have them check it and approve it. There is a small fee associated with this.

You might be thinking that this sounds like a fairly significant investment and to be honest it is. However you are trying to convince someone to invest money in your company, most likely significantly more than any costs associated with printing and paper costs. Investors always end up investing in companies that have already shown they are investing in themselves. Take the time to make sure that the printed material they take away from a meeting with you will represent you to the maximum of its ability when you’re gone.

Come back tomorrow for the next installment where I talk about creating a website that targets investors.

overview article. Most people looking for investing and funding believe that with their good idea, or even great idea, that people will be lining up to get on board. That is almost never the case. Investors are in the business of making money by loaning money. They put a lot of thought into who they invest in as well as how often they do it. One thing that you must always think about is there is very little more important than you in selling to investors. The top investors in the business care less about the product compared to the person behind the product. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row, are presentable, prepared for questions, and confident (not cocky) in your business or product. For a good set of articles about the business end of capturing investing check out Robert Ochtel’s blog.

That being said, assuming all people meet that requirement, you need to produce collateral that will separate you from the pack. Presenting well thought out, informative, and attractive collateral will not only present your information in an eye pleasing package but will also show investors you are committed to your product’s success and not just looking for hand-outs. On to this installment of Building Collateral for Investors

Your Company Website

The great technological innovation that is the Internet adds another manner in which you can impress Investors. As with all people, the first thing they will do once they have left you is go to your website to not only look for more information but analyze what kind of presence you have on the web. This is both a key time to gain a favorable impression as well as let the investor learn more in-depth information pertaining to your site or product. Without a doubt your website can sour the investors desire to fund your company in a big way. You have to make sure your site is as appealing visually and contextually as possible before sending investors to it. Here are some major points to check on your website before sending that angel to see what it looks like.

Content Content Content

An investor wants to see information and learn about your product, more so than your average web user. Go through each and every aspect of your company you can think of and make sure it is represented in your site’s content. Don’t cut any corners or brush over anything. Every aspect of your company will be scrutinized by the investor as they look through your site. Here are the sections you must have and talk about in-depth to make yourself stand out.

About Us - Every site has an about us type section that talks about the company in general. What you need to do is talk about your company as detailed as you can. Break up the pages into informative sections that are self contained. For example, instead of taking a paragraph to mention your company philosophy break it apart into its own page and go into detail as to what your philosophy is and why you think the way you do. Instead of mentioning the CEO of your company briefly, give a history of where they have been and what they have been doing. Make section that talks about your projected growth and sales/company locations.

Services/Product – Obviously the technology or services your company offers is what originally will draw the investor’s interest. However that in itself will not keep them involved. Go into as much detail as possible without compromising the integrity or patent behind your product or service. Instead of just talking about the aspects of your product/service talk about how it can help people. Talk about how people can use it if it is a product or how customers will employ your services. Also take the opportunity to address the needs of companies or people which your product/service is filling. Even if it is obvious go over it again. You need to keep the importance and usefulness of your company in the front of the investor’s mind not on the back burner.

News – One thing people looking for investors miss out on is bringing in outside information that justifies the need for their product or service. You can make a significant impression on an investor by showing a true need or short coming in an area that your product can remedy. Take significant time to scour the Internet for articles, blog posts, community forum topics, and any other place you can think of to collect information that supports your idea. Always quote your services if you don’t get permission out-right to use it. Be responsible in giving credit to where the information came from and the investor will be even more impressed with your thoroughness.

Contact Us – Have a well thought out contact page to which you need to be responsive. Don’t just create a contact page that lists your snail mail address, phone number, and an email address. Create multiple pages which have forms tailored to specific needs behind your product/service. For example if you have a software concept create not only a “general” form but also a technical support form. If your company is offering multiple services create either a form that clearly allows the user to choose which service they need information about or create separate forms for each aspect of your company. And as I said make sure to respond to emails coming in. It is not outside the realm of possibility that an investor will submit information through the form to test your responsiveness as well as whether or not the form actually works.

Content is an aspect of your website that can be very specifically tailored to clients and can be changed with ease. It may sound crazy but worrying about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not essential at this point. Most of the content you create will help you in that regard but investors will know that your company is young and most likely not going to appear high in Google rankings etc.. so take the opportunity to truly customize the user experience for the investor.

How Your Website Looks

As with any website how it looks will influence how your product/service is perceived by the viewer. Unlike with your content you need to address the look as if you were designing it for mass use. When an investor looks at your website their approach will be the same as what I talked about in the previous installment with your Identity Package. They will be looking to see if your site is well thought out to target the demographic you say your company addresses.

Here are the key things to think about when building or having your website built:

Brand it correctly - Keep your your brand in the forefront of all your website design. Too often small business will try and create something that they think is “web worthy” and completely steer away from their brand. This is detrimental to how your website is perceived not only by the general public but especially by an investor. Investors are looking for a unified front and a complete business presence that all works together in presenting an image that will last. Though they may not be “designers” so to speak they do have a solid understanding when it comes to a company’s image. Make sure your logo is prominently displayed on the page and the colors you use are consistent with what you present in your print collateral.

Don’t overload the site with bells and whistles - All the standard items that apply to web design apply here. Since, in this case, you site is being seen by a single person it is important not to drive them away. Things that blink, automatically play with audio or video, or generally would be annoying and used only to fill space are serious mistakes! If you think an average users time is valuable than an investor’s time is thousands of times more valuable. Becoming annoyed at having to turn off automatically playing sound, some flashing or constantly moving content, or any other aspect that distracts them from what they are looking for will immediately leave a sour taste in their mouth and all but kill your chances of receiving funding. Use elements such as Flash, audio, or video as accent pieces that the investor can control and view whenever they like. Giving all your users the ability to control their experience will do nothing but increase the opinion rating of your site and your company.

Keep your content pages as short as possible – One thing that I see a lot of small companies doing is having lengthy, long winded content pages. Nothing can be more disconcerting to a reader than being presented unexpectedly with a large amount of content. People are impatient and have little time to waste trying to read a novel on-line. Investors are worse. They want to find information quickly and efficiently. When you post your content on your pages try to keep them short and easy to read. I’m not saying lose content but break it up into smaller chunks of information and lay it out making it easier to read.

Have Technical Perks

Be sure to have elements on your site that augment the ability of someone to use the site. Two of the biggest additions to your site must include a site search, allowing the investor to search your site for specific elements, and a site map. The site map serves two purposes in that for those investors that use them it allows an easy navigation alternative and it will also be established for search engines. Obviously in this case it is more important to cover the bases in terms of allowing investors an alternative to your standard search navigation.

Following these three basic concepts will ensure that your website is a powerful sales tool when it is being viewed by potential investors. Unlike when building a website for general consumption your focus needs to be more squarely put on the user and not on Search Engines and the computer system. Once you get funding you can make an effort to better optimize your site for search engine results but first you need to do everything to land the funding. Don’t get caught looking down the road and end up missing your exit ramp

Join me Monday for the next installment where I talk about establishing a name for yourself on the internet using Networking sites.

Your Social Networking Identity

The latest craze and buzz is about the concept of “Social Networking” the people that love it say it is the wave of the future and you won’t be able to succeed without it, those that hate it say it is just a passing fad and will wear itself out in a year or two. The truth of the matter is it will ultimately fall into the middle of both thought processes. The problem right now is that the attraction to Social Networking has increased dramatically and its function in the world of business is, as yet, unknown. Actual Social Networking has been around as long as the internet. In fact when the Internet was first starting to spread all it really had to offer was forums and chat rooms…i.e. Social Networking.

So thinking about it as a marketing tool used to target Investors specifically, how can you leverage it to your advantage. Out of the five things I will discuss in this series, Social Networking is the biggest unknown. Investors are without a doubt aware of most if not all things that are progressing in the marketplace. They have to be in order to make decisions properly and accurately. However, the last group besides the government to transition and incorporate new technologies into their regular business practices is the investing world. The nature of their business requires they have a more face-to-face relationship with their clients. But, there are ways you can generate some serious interest from investors by using Social Networking. In one word: EXPOSURE!

Here are some things you must consciously address when targeting investors through Social Networking.

Define Yourself Clearly and Professionally

When using Social Networking tools, whether it is Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo or others, you must clearly state who you are, what you are about and what you believe in as a business owner. Leave your personal beliefs and opinions away from your keyboard. Talking politics, controversy, or anything questionable will kill your image in the eyes of an investor. As previously stated, investors are looking for people who have sound business plans and are moving forward in that vein. If your business presence is continually talking about how you dislike (or like) certain current political events will give investors the impression that you can’t separate personal views from business views. So when establishing your identity in social circles keep your identity to business matters only.

Investigate Each and Everyone With Whom You are Associated

Just like the content you post to your profile who your are associated with can easily influence investors. Especially on sites where other people’s posts and comments can show up on your page. Ultimately Social Networking will influence your reputation more than anything and your reputation is directly impacted by the people you associate with. So, that guy that continually makes the hilarious body noise jokes might not be someone that your business needs to be associate with. Avoid the same potholes and trouble spots you avoid in your own writing and you should be fine.

Be Active.

At this point in time the most influential way Social Networking will impact your image is through buzz and being all over the Internet. The more you are on the Internet the more likely you will pop-up in a search on your business or on yourself. If you are involved in multiple discussions on multiple sites you will be more likely to pop-up in a search. The trick here is to make sure that you are making meaningful contributions to each and every discussion. Posting responses that are simply “Great Article” or “Fantastic Post” and don’t in fact add to the discussion will make you look like you are not actually involved in the discussion which then translate to not being truly interested in what your company is about.

If you keep those things in mind and are an active participant in the ever changing world of the Internet you will score invaluable points with those investors that search for you on the web. As is the case it is always about how you want an investor to perceive you.

Check back tomorrow for the fourth installment where I’ll talk about the other small collateral pieces you should take time producing before wrapping up with the most impressive investor collateral pieces of all, the Sales Kit!

That being said, assuming all people meet that requirement, you need to produce collateral that will separate you from the pack. Presenting well thought out, informative, and attractive collateral will not only present your information in an eye pleasing package but will also show investors you are committed to your product’s success and not just looking for hand-outs. On to this installment of Building Collateral for Investor.

Your Basic Collateral Needs

Once you have built a fantastic website, developed a beautiful and memorable logo, and fine tuned your Corporate Identity material to perfection you still need collateral. However, unlike everything I’ve talked about thus far, you don’t need all of these items. Some are certainly situational and should only be created when you are going to be in that situation while others are not essential but can certainly help. Here are some of the pieces you may find a need to create and why you should create them.

Tri-fold Brochure

Out of all the extra collateral that you can create, the most obvious and multi-faceted piece of print collateral you can produce is a tri-fold brochure. The beautiful thing, and attractive thing when it comes to investors, about a tri-fold brochure is that it is compact and somewhat informative. The rules for building an effective and attractive brochure are fairly straight forward.

1) Do not put a lot of information on the front - Remember, especially when talking about Investors, the brochure is sales piece first and an information piece second. The front panel is the first thing an investor will see. It needs to be attractive and draw the viewer to open it to learn more information.

2) Do not try to cram every single bit of information into your brochure. The point isn’t to explain everything the point is to sell the concept of it. Pick, at most, one topic per panel and keep the information short and informative.

3) Keep the overall look in mind when laying out content. Remember that most countries in the world read from top left down to bottom right. Don’t bounce your content all over the place or abuse the concept of columns and tables. Have a flow to your content and imagery that leads the reader across the page.

4) Once inside do not forget about images. Images are more attractive and interesting to people than words. Make sure to include high quality images of your product inside the brochures. A beautiful picture will sell your product faster and more effectively than any combination of words.

5) Leave the back of the brochure blank except for a return address. Again, when you’re targeting investors the main goal is to prove you know how to spend money wisely and effectively. One fantastic and subtle way to do that is to set your collateral up to serve two functions. If you hand an investor a brochure and then down the road send them a brochure as a follow up they will take note of how the single effective piece of collateral is multi-functional.

Sales Sheet

Sales sheets are something you should have for retail buyers but can be very useful in selling investors. What a sales sheet is is a listing of the key features and benefits to a product or service a company offers. Retail buyers and investors both love them because they can quickly recall what is attractive about a product. The trick is to not go over-board in the design of your sales sheet. Keep your graphics to a minimum yet effective. The point of this piece of collateral is to arm the viewer with quick hitting information and over-doing graphics does nothing but distract from the important content. Include a picture or two of your product or someone using your service and maybe a simple graphic element that accents the basic look of the piece.

Trade Show Graphics

If you are attending a trade show and are looking for financial investment nothing will kill your image than a shabby booth. The point of getting a trade show booth is to attract people to come over and learn about your product. Investors often times walk the floor t trade shows and will be drawn to an attractive booth. There is no need to go crazy and build custom frames and structures to make yourself standout. You can get portable banners printed, vertical banners as well as attractive product displays. This is without a doubt one of the most misunderstood graphic elements in the business. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to build an attractive booth. There are dozens of high quality banner printers online and beyond that you can build your own displays. Think creatively and make sure it’s attractive and your booth will easily hold its own.

Signage

If you convince an investor to meet you at your office have an attractive sign outside your building or office. Obviously if you don’t have an office this doesn’t apply. But if you do spend a little bit of money to put an attractive sign outside your office. There are a great number of ways which are inexpensive to build a sign. Think creatively and you will make sure the investor walks through your door impressed.

POP Banners, Signs etc…

Whether or not you have placed your products in a store or retailer having the Point-of-Purchase collateral printed is very impressive to investors. It shows that you are forward thinking and preparing for what is coming down the road. Depending upon your product or service POP collateral can be everything from posters to counter top displays. Think of a number of ways you could advertise your product in a store (visit a store you might be placed in and see what already exists) and produce some sample POP collateral to have on hand when you meet with an investor. The beauty is you don’t have to get many printed and the impact they will have on an investor can be incredible.

Gadgets and Giveaways

Another multi-purpose tool is the “giveaway.” These are always very popular at trade shows and can be effective reminders to investors of who you are. However, this is a very sharp double edged sword. Think long and hard about what kind of giveaway piece you have on hand to hand to an investor. This type of thing can just as easily come across as a promotional gimmick belittling the seriousness of your company. So think long and hard before buying a bunch of pens or puzzles or other giveaways. However, if it is nice, cool, and all around memorable it can be a helpful reminder of your company.

All in all think about how you might meet an investor and target what extra collateral you create towards those specific scenarios. If you have the money to do everything under the sun than by all means do it. However there is no need to produce all of them. If I had to tell you one thing to do out of the list above it would definitely be the Brochure. The brochure is by far the most versatile piece in the list. However, think about how you can use these materials strategically and work towards that goal.

That being said, assuming all people meet that requirement, you need to produce collateral that will separate you from the pack. Presenting well thought out, informative, and attractive collateral will not only present your information in an eye pleasing package but will also show investors you are committed to your product’s success and not just looking for hand-outs. On to this installment of Building Collateral for Investor.

The Ultimate Sales Tool, the Sales Kit

So you have taken the time to build the perfect business card, letterhead, and envelope and are still looking for that perfect piece to push you over the edge. The most impressive piece of collateral you can develop for investors is without a doubt a sales kit. The sales kit is an often misunderstood and poorly constructed collateral piece. The purpose of a sales kit is never to be a mass market collateral piece. You don’t want to give everyone to have access to a sales kit. You want it to be for very specific people who either have massive influence or potential for you and your company. If you make your kit properly then you should be able to swap out pieces with one another to target different audience members. Let me break down some of the material you should include in your sales kit.

Graphic Elements

Your sales kit should be a visual masterpiece. The point of having one is to make your product or service stand-out when piled with every other possible investment avenue an investor may take. So take your graphic treatment to the next level and get as creative as possible. If you just slap your logo on the outside of a white folder and create simple white sheets on the inside with only a color bar across the top your sales kit will lack the punch of a creative masterpiece. Each and every element in your sales kit needs to be a visual “advertisement” for how “cool” or “innovative” your company is.

The Folder

The most immediate impacting piece included in your sales kit is the folder itself. The folder screams what you and your company is about. This needs to be the most impressive part of your kit visually. It must contain your logo and some solid graphical elements. If you are trying to impress investors you cannot skimp on the look of your sales kit folder. It needs to be possibly the most impressive piece out of all the collateral you produce. Spend the extra money to get a custom printed folder with graphics that wrap from the outside to the inside.

One option that opens up when you get a custom folder printed is how the folder is built. Think more creatively than a simple two pocket folder with a slit for your business card. You can get any number of styles from your printer that they have done in the past or, if you can think of something, get something completely new done. Since you will be producing custom inserts for the folder they don’t have to be standard 8.5″ x 11″ sheets of paper. Create custom sized sheets that work together with the folder to produce an overall effect.

General Sheet Design

As mentioned above you can get fantastically creative with the types of sheets you put into your sales kit. Remember that the key purpose to each and every piece I will be discussing below is to present the investor with facts and information. Keeping the information as short as possible while being thorough is key to its success. There are two solid ways to make your sales kit jump and look well thought out and thorough. One create uniquely sized single sheets. Whether it is a half width sheet of paper or single cards that slip into slits in your folder a uniquely sized sales sheet can make each sheet pop out of the folder.

The other way is to tie everything together graphically. Whether it is with designed elements on each page that flow from one to another or some effect like headers or footers that unify everything you can add graphical elements to each sales sheet that ties all of them together under one theme. Another, more expensive, thing you can do is get each sheet die cut so that each sheet is unique. If you do something extreme like this be sure to think through how the die cuts or page shapes will work together and function as a whole. Just doing visual accents or cuts in paper for the sake of it will look sloppy and not thought out.

Page Specifics

Once you have the look and feel of each sheet down figure out what you want each sheet to say. One of the biggest problems with a lot of small business owners and designers just starting out is that they try to cram as much information onto a single sheet of paper as they can. This is a monstrous no-no! You will get significantly more response from something that targets a single concept or point than something that tries to cover each and every aspect of your product or service.

So, with that in mind, pick a topic for each and every sheet and focus on only that. There is no need to transition from one sheet to another in your content. Each sheet should stand on it’s own describing a single aspect of your product or service completely. Here are some sample sales sheets you could have in your kit for your product or service.

1) Tech Spec Sheet - Create a bullet point sales sheet that breaks down the technical specifications of your piece of your product/service. If it is a technical product break down things like processor speeds, computer requirements, platform compatibility (Windows, Mac, Linux etc…), and even the weight of the product. If you are offering a service, bullet point what all will be done during the service, what the client will need to do to prepare for the service, and/or any other aspects of the service that are relevant from a client’s point of view.

2) Uses Sales Sheet - Have a sheet that talks about how someone can use the product. How can it’s use be maximized? I? there anything a client needs to know to use the product? If it’s a service talk about the benefits having the service done will bring to the client and/or things of that nature.

3) Company Info - Always have at least one document that talks about the background of your company. Give an overview of why the company was created and where you are looking to take it over the coming years.

4) Management/People Profiles - Each person in your company should have a sheet that talks about them and their background. The biggest sales point to any investor is the people around who the company is built. Having a sheet for each key role player in your company allows you to swap out members depending upon who will be at the meet with the investor.

5) Community Service Sheet - Doing community service/giving back to the community type work is always a plus with investors. It is not only a sign that you are a charitable organization but shows you are continually promoting your business within the local community.

6) Contact Sheets - You should always have more than one option available for contact. Create individual sheets which direct interest to different locations based on to whom you are speaking. If you are meeting with an investor who is more interested in technology and doing research on their own include a contact sheet that drives them to your web site as well as other sites for information pertaining to your product or industry. If they are a more one on one person give them a sheet that allows them to talk to the heads of departments for information.

Business Card

Make sure that where you include your business card in the folder is in a place that integrates with your overall design. Don’t just put the slit in a place to have your card included. Yes you have to have a business card included, even if you just handed the investor a card, because down the road you want them to open your folder and remember who they spoke with. However, just sliding it into a pocket or having the normal slit on the left side pocket will look out of place. Remember the point of a sales kit is to show that you have thought of each and every detail pertaining to your company. Slapping your business card in there “willy nilly” will scream afterthought to someone viewing it.

These are just a few ideas to throw in to your sales kit. The beautiful thing and point of a sales kit is to have a customizable tool you can give to each and every investor that is tailored to their needs and wants. Every investor has a unique perspective on business and will be looking for a certain type of information. It is your job as a business owner to be prepared for each individual scenario.

The problem with the Internet is that anyone with access to a computer and a phone or cable line has access to the world wide web. That means, if you have a website, every single person on the planet has access to your company. So many “high end” service providers that are starting a business are so easily overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from people that don’t remotely meet the criteria for the company’s services. With the explosion of social media such as blogging, twitter, and other networking sites the general rule of thought is that if you’re not doing all those things you’re not maximizing your business’ potential. Let’s take a specific example.

Let’s say your company builds high end outdoor entertainment facilities. Top of the line grills, outdoor sound systems, high end stone, and more is what you work with and if someone doesn’t have $50,000 dollars to pay for it you don’t want to talk to them. So if that’s the case why would you want your site to come up first in Google for “Outdoor Entertainment” and therefore driving all traffic looking for Outdoor Entertainment facilities to your website? What you then end up having to do is drastically alter your website making it painfully obvious that if they don’t have significant funds they shouldn’t bother contacting you. The problem with doing that is it also makes your site much less appealing to the clients you are looking to service.

That is of course just one example, actually an example that was presented to me by a client and was VERY difficult to correct. You have to have a website in today’s day and age but don’t get caught up in the “trend” and very untrue train of thought that Search Engine results are the end all be all to your website’s success. Remember that your website is simply an advertising and branding tool used to promote and sell your business. If you have selective clients your website should reflect that, if everyone on the planet is a potential client then your website should reflect that as well. There are cases where being #1 can be a negative in the business world.

One of the main reasons I am given for clients not doing this is that they don’t know anything about it. Any reputable web vendor will be more than happy to walk you through buying your domain name from a registrar as well as walk you through setting up your hosting. You can then give your vendor access to the aspects of your packages they need but you are in control.

An example just occurred to one of my clients where they had their vendor purchase their domain names for them. They have long since fired the vendor but the vendor was still in control of their domain names. It wasn’t that big of a deal until, over the weekend, their website went down. The reason? The vendor had not paid the latest round of payments on the domain names and the registrar put the domain name on hold. After a lot of work over the weekend we managed to get the site back up today and are working currently to get the domain names transferred however the process went smoother than I had expected. It could have taken days if not weeks to resolve the issue and during that time his site would have been down and not doing its job. Not having a website can completely decimate a business in today’s day and age.

My point is you don’t have to be a guru to set up the basics and understand what you have to be in control of. Once you purchase your domain names and set up hosting all you really need to do is keep up to date on the payments. If you allow someone else to purchase key elements to your business then the control is suddenly out of your hands. Your vendor will be able to recommend hosting packages as well as where to purchase domain names (I recommend GoDaddy.com for domains and have a few companies I recommend for hosting) but DO NOT let them buy them for you. It’s that easy.