Are you one of just 41% of small businesses
July 29th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff
MYOB conducts a quarterly survey of nearly 1700 small businesses in Australia with less than 20 employees. Their latest survey was released on 24 July 2008.
This quarter they looked at the internet and small business and the results made fascinating reading.
Only 41% of all small businesses surveyed had a website. This number varied depending on your industry, with figures dropping down to 11% for transport and 33% for personal services.
As I have mentioned numerous times, how people buy has changed in recent years. People research and increasingly shop on-line. In my opinion a website is just as essential as a business card these days for small businesses.
It is interesting that 91% of the small business owners surveyed used internet banking and 66% used customer online technical support tools. It was also interesting that 49% of small business did email marketing (even without a website) - which means that they recognise at some level the power of the internet.
Of the 41% who have a website, only 29% sell on-line. A whopping 71% are missing potential customers who shop online.
Blogging is still seen as “radical” by many small businesses, with only 20% blogging as part of their business. This means they are missing all of the power blogging can bring in terms of client relationship building and Google ranking.
So … are you in the 41% of small businesses with a website? What would it take for you to take the next step with your business and create a website?
If you do have a website what would it take for you to create a blog or an online shop for your clients?
Until next time
Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony
Putting your business into words
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Marketing Tips for Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:35 am
They are remarkable stats really Ingrid. It is hard to believe that someone could be in business without a website these days. With wordpress and other tools like that it is cheap and easy to set up a web presence now too. Just need to consult someone like yourself to ensure the words are right.
August 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Obviously Nerida has a website… and even though we’ve talked about getting one and have drafted it, and archived it, and are paying for the hosting ! we still can’t get our heads around that technology - seems such a mountain. We’ll get there.. sometime. Ingrid??? Help !