I have been in this industry since 1994 (or there abouts) and I distinctly remember the turn of the last decade. At that time IPO's of Dot Com's were all the rage, that was until March 10 2000 when everything came down in a heap. Everyone wondered "now what?" could the old paradigms of business succeed online? Fundamentally in those days we lost sight of solid business rules, we thought of the Internet as a new business landscape when in fact it should have been an enabler of business.
Over the last decade many Internet businesses have come and gone but the one constant has been the use of the Internet to allow business to work more effectively, with greater speed and to erode geographic barriers. Customers are much more accessible, however they are also spoilt for choice. This means as business owners we need to be smarter and better in order to compete.
I believe there is not a business that cannot benefit by using the Internet. It is not always in the ways you think. Many prospects have said to me over the years, I don't need a website, my customers don't use it. I can categorically tell you that is not the case.
Even if you feel they don't use it with you, you can bet they do with others. Maybe not your competitors at this time but they will if it is offered. Why not? They do everything else online, research buying decisions, send emails, do their banking, pay bills. So the choice is do you want to provide these services as an adjunct to your existing business? Streamline your customers experience or wait for the phone to ring? Do you want to spend thousands on traditional advertising like the yellow pages or direct mail that has a small percentage of the reach of the Internet or do you want to create a strategy that works for your business.
Sure just having a website in cyberspace isn't going to do it. The content needs to be relevant, the design professional and most importantly you need to have the technological tools in the back end to allow you the control of your website to accomplish this.
I know I'm biased, but it pains me to see companies spend tens of thousands of dollars on a website that is effectively a prototype. It gets old and decays from the day it is put live. The technology is superseded almost immediately. Ultimately you will go through the same process and expense on average almost every 2-3 years, some even quicker. It doesn't need to be this way. With Webarena we have already created the system to run your website. We have the modules you need now and we constantly upgrade the technology behind all our sites which means your site never gets old. It is in effect, a Living Website.
It's a new decade, and time for new decisions, it's time to make 2010 the decade for REALLY using the Internet to it's true potential.