Is your business ready for the 21st century? Remaining competitive today requires a small business to have a website. Most business owners realize this but getting started seems to be the problem. A business owner wears several hats each day while working on day to day issues. Trying to manage cash flow, supervising employees, dealing with difficult customers, juggling multiple tasks and still finding enough time left to spend with their family. Running a business is hard work and taking the time to think about a website and other business planning frequently takes a back seat.

Having a plan or roadmap for developing a website can save you a lot of valuable time. The best thing to do is grab a piece of paper, a pencil and a cup of coffee or beer depending on your preference, and of course, the time of day. As with any project (building a house, saving for retirement, taking a family vacation or building a website) all would require planning in order to be successful. As the saying goes fail to plan, plan to fail.

As you plan your website you will need to answer several questions. What is the purpose of the website? What is the goal of the website? Who is the target audience of the website? What will the target audience want from the website? Answering these questions is the first step to developing a website for your small business. It doesn't matter if you're going to develop it yourself or if you plan to outsource it to a web designer; you still need to be involved in the planning. Generally a good web designer will guide you through this process.

A website can have many purposes for a business. One thing they do is let the audience know that a business isn't still stuck in the dark ages (pre-internet). A business website is like a business card and telephone, it is just part of doing business today. Businesses can use a website to help create sales leads, provide customer support, keep customers informed, create brand recognition, develop a database of prospects, sell products, collect payments, and much more. More than likely your website will have some, or all of these purposes.

What is the goal of your website? To make you millions so you can retire early on a private Island, sure it might be a goal, but what else? The goal of your website will depend on what the purpose of your site is. If you are not directly selling products or services online then a goal of your website will be to inform the audience about your business. Your website needs to sell visitors on your business by displaying your products, service, philosophy and culture in a format that will impress and convert prospects into customers.

Typical goals include: Increase Sales,Collecting a database of prospects, Free up time of employees by distributing information via the web, Have information available to prospects 24/7, Compete for and gain some of the online customers in your industry, Level the playing field with the big boys

Once you understand the main goals of your website you need to plan the design accordingly. One of your goals may be to collect names and email addresses of prospects. This information can be used for newsletters or email marketing campaigns. If your site offers directions or maps to your business locations or instructions for your products, a goal may be to reduce the number of calls and time employees spend on the phone answering the same questions over and over.

Putting together a website just to say you have a website does very little good and could even hurt your businesses reputation. Before you create a website, remember, this may be the first impression of your business that a customer sees. It is important to plan your website and establish some obtainable goals so that you will be able to realize a proper return on investment.