Why to do Online Business?

In my mind, there are two types of business-people in this world. The first type is the entrepreneur who runs their business the old-fashioned way because they feel that they have a better grasp and can run a more effective and stable business with their hands-on approach. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to refer to them as “Old-fashioned”. The second is the entrepreneur who believes in using the latest Internet technology and industry standards to help operate their business in hopes to minimize resources and catapult their business forward. For the purpose of this article I’m going to refer to them as the “Internet Enthusiast”.
So which one are you? Are you the Old-fashioned or are you the Internet Enthusiast? Do you feel that things should be run the old-fashioned way or do you trust that certain areas of your business should be managed online?

I would definitely classify myself as the Internet Enthusiast. Why? Because I feel that the Internet can open the doors to a whole new way of doing business. The Internet allows you to increase productivity and sales while at the same time reduce the time, cost and resources of managing the daily operations of your business. The following are some of the benefits that my company receives because we effectively manage certain portions of our business online and I’m confident that you can do the same for yours.

By taking our business online, we have received the following benefits:

1. Minimized Resources
2. Reduced Transaction Time
3. Decreased Project Lifecycle
4. Increased Sales
5. Easily Accessible Information
6. Increased Productivity
7. Increased Client Satisfaction

Ok, so now you’re probably wondering, “Great, this worked for your company but mine is probably much different.” And yes, you’re correct… you’re business model is most likely different than ours. However, I’m confident that your business can be applied online in a similar manner and certain aspects of your business can be managed on the Internet. To help you analyze your business I’m going to briefly describe the above seven items to help you visualize in what ways the Internet has improved our business.

By implementing a Customer Support Ticket System we have been able to minimize our phone systems and the resources needed to operate them. Now our customers can simply submit an online ticket and receive an email response to their inquiry in just minutes.

We have developed an Invoicing System that allows us to collect payments from our customers via online credit card transactions. This new system not only offers our clients with another form of payment method but provides us with the ability to collect payment the same business day.

As a web development company it’s very important that our clients monitor their projects throughout the entire development process. However, this could be a very time consuming process if no system is implemented. Our internal web staging server allows our customers to monitor their project through all stages of the development process, with a simple link to view their project in real-time. By doing this, our customers can instantly notify us of any changes that need to be made, greatly speeding up the project lifecycle.

Because we effectively market our business online we are able to increase the traffic to our website and dramatically drive sales up.

Since information on the Internet is accessible 24/7 we’re able to gain access to our business at any time, from anywhere in the world. Whether we’re at home, at a remote location or at a client’s office, we can gain access to our business data at the times when we need it most.

By spending less time and money running our business, we’re able to invest more of our resources to grow the business and efficiently manage our projects.

Because of the benefits I’ve listed above, our business is able to focus more of our attention on our clients. By devoting more time and energy on their projects, we ultimately increase client satisfaction.
So as you can see, being an Internet Enthusiast has paid off. These seven benefits have enabled our business to grow tenfold and at the same time increase client satisfaction and business productivity. I truly believe that it would have been much harder if we acted like an Old-fashioned. Not because it isn’t the right way to run a business but because it would have taken more resources to produce the same results we have been able to achieve by taking our business online.