Can you thrive without a business website?

As a huge fan of roulette and casino gameplay, I am used to businesses that depend on their website and online presence. It is therefore tempting to think that a website is a prerequisite of commercial success in the modern age, especially in challenging and competitive markets.

Despite this, it was recently revealed that nearly half of all small businesses in the U.S operate without a website, while the majority of those that do fail to recognise the importance of mobile-friendly layouts. According to a poll of 350+ small businesses (which was conducted by Clutch), many business-owners found that websites were an irrelevance that would not add value to their business.

While the majority of surveyed small business-owners may feel this way, this is an exceptionally outdated view that could cost ventures revenue in the modern age. Although the majority would be loath to invest huge amounts in a professional website given their lack of belief in its merits, they would be advised to experiment with a simple, low-cost alternative that includes just a handful of pages and can be constructed independently.

For those who cannot be convinced, however, the question that remains is whether deciding not to build a commercial website represents a viable strategy in the modern age. There are numerous statistics and data sets that suggest that this is not the case, with more than 80% of customers now turning to online search engines in order to research, source and purchase products or services. By refusing to develop a website (either standard or mobile), small businesses are missing out on a potentially huge target market.

To negate this, small business-owners would need to perform huge offline marketing drives and deliver the type of impeccable service that underpins progressive word-of-mouth. Even then, businesses without an online presence would be unable to effectively target customers outside of a defined local area, whereas brands with a website can scale their growth and market their products and services to a potentially global audience.

With this in mind, you must always look to develop and operate an online presence of some form if you are to succeed. This is crucial in the modern age, so start by developing a low-cost website that features core brand and contact information (along with an ‘About us’ page that showcases your core selling points. As you begin to scale, you can expand your website and invest further in its development.