Time to ask the important questions.

If you’re thinking about starting a website, it’s easy to be drawn into a sucking bog of detail (ASP or PHP? CMS? CSS?) before you get to ask the questions that really matter:

• Do you actually need a website?
• What will it accomplish?
• Will it provide a good return on investment?
• Would a different tool (like email newsletters or social media) suit your needs better?
• Is now the right time?

How it works

We agree on your best time for an hour-long chat. First I ask you lots of questions about your business (but not in a busy-body way!) and then we discuss options. We’ll focus on the solutions that would suit your business, and most importantly, would suit YOU.

Prove it, big shot

Okay. This is a hypothetical person, but a common situation.

Emma is a hairdresser in one of those locations where every third shop is a hair salon. Business is tight. She’s been thinking about a website but she’s really not sure whether it would be worth the money… she got a few quotes and they were all in the $3000-5000 range and a mistake that expensive could mean the difference between success and failure. Her husband Darren, patient but getting exasperated, tells her to get some advice, and so she calls us. Good move, Emma.

She signs up for the one hour session. She talks with Catherine about her biggest competition (a couple swanky “studios” and one cheap place that mostly does kid’s haircuts), her clientele (80% regulars and a few walk-ins) and her goals (have enough business to get in two apprentices and someone to answer the phone). Catherine gives her advice: she tells Emma that a website is probably not going to help her much. What Emma needs is a regular email newsletter.

Emma pays $10 for a domain name and $20 a month for an email newsletter account. She starts asking her customers for their email addresses and permission to sign them up and more than 40% agree. (Emma’s surprised at how many of her older customers have email.) Every fortnight she spends an hour writing and sending out a newsletter that has one useful article (How to make your own shampoo, 5 never-fail dandruff solutions) and a special offer for the next two weeks: 15% off Redken products, free foils with a style cut, refer a friend and get a free trim.

The results? Her regular clients spend on average $20 more each visit. Her “refer a friend” program gets her15 new clients in one fortnight; Emma is so impressed she makes it a permanent feature. In three months business is doing better than it ever has and she’s already hired one of the new apprentices she hoped for. She saved $4000 or so by not getting a website, and made more than $5000 in extra turnover from the newsletter. Yep, a pretty good return on a $97 investment!

What you’ll get

At the end of the hour, you’ll be informed and confident about whether now is the time to start a website, and what kind of resources would best serve you, like maybe:

• a blog
• an online shop
• a brochure site
• a newsletter
• a combination of the above
• something else entirely

You’ll also receive:

• a page of recommendations that you can immediately implement to break through the deadlock and get online
• access to a recording of the call so you can refresh your memory about all the fantastic information we shared

All for only $97!