A survey by GoDaddy recently revealed that 60% of the UK's smallest businesses - a fifth of the Britain's small business population - does not yet have a website.
Although small businesses often, rightly so, focus their initial costs on stock, staff and the alike, it might be time that they considered a website, given the other findings of the survey.
- 54% of those without a website actually fear that their businesses will fail to grow within the next 3-5 years.
- 60% of those businesses which do have a website believe that they could experience growth of up to 50% in the same time frame.
The research was conducted among 4,000 very small businesses (those with five employees or less) and unearthed a number of reasons for this lack of online marketing.
- 35% said they are simply "too small"
- 24% said they didn't think it would help their business
- 21% said they lacked the technical expertise
- 20% said it is too expensive
Despite this, 33% said they planned to implement a web presence within the next two years.
Additionally, 75% of those who already have a website said they felt it was a competitive advantage over those businesses that do not have one.
Thrive encourages all companies to consider the implications of having a web presence - and how strong that is - by reviewing their online marketing tools and strategy year on year.
As times change, people's focus changes, so although people have for many years looked for a website, they may find an outdated one just as off putting as a non existent web presence...
