Everybody Already Knows

Last week, I mentioned a blog that asked why more small and rural businesses didn’t have blogs, and I started wondering the same thing myself.

Then this week, I also saw the results of a national survey commissioned by Microsoft Office Live Small Business and Elance Inc. Fewer than half of the small-business owners interviewed have a web site. This was true despite the fact that almost two-thirds of business owners believed that having a Web presence was important to the success of their business.

Not surprisingly, the survey says that lack of budget, time and technical expertise were among the top reasons for not having a Web site.

(1) Time
(2) Money and
(3) Know-how

have always been big obstacles for any small business owner. We’re often trying to do it all ourselves, and obviously there are choices to be made. Tasks that generate income now are higher priorities than tasks that require us to spend money for some vague benefit in the future.

But there’s more to it than those three obstacles. Because we will move heaven and earth if we think we really need to. And I know that many rural business owners spent money on websites at some point because I still see those sites on the web, even though the information is outdated, and their graphic designer has either long left town or is no longer doing sites on the side.

Over the years, it’s been easy for rural business owners in particular to shrug off the need for online promotion. Those who created a website in the early years of the internet often found that few to no local customers ever looked at their site. Giving hundreds if not thousands of dollars to technical experts to create a website that didn’t help your business grow is clearly not an experience that needs to be repeated.

In my area, what seems to determine whether a business has an up-to-date website or not is whether the business appeals to local customers or out-of-town visitors. If it’s a tourist business or one that hopes to attract visitors, they are more likely to have a website or blog. If their business focuses on local customers, they are far less likely to have their own site.

Why doesn’t a business need a website for their local customers?

(4) Everybody already knows.

Is there any reason to post hours on the door? Probably not, because after all these years, everybody knows your hours. Any reason to list the brands you carry in your store on a website? No. You guessed it. Everybody already knows.

There was a time when families that lived in a rural community also worked there, went to church there and sent their children to school there. Communication was very effective and fast. Today it is more common for spouses to head in different directions for work – perhaps to different adjoining counties – and not always know what’s happening downtown or anywhere else. Word just doesn’t travel as fast or as smoothly as it used to. Things change too quickly to keep up.

Business owners can not assume that ‘everybody knows‘ anymore.

A local business has been closed several times when I’ve tried to visit it over the last few weeks. When I finally caught the store open I asked the business owner what was wrong. Nothing, she said. Business had just been so slow, she decided to close several days a week. She said assumed everybody knew.

Whether it’s your menu, your hours or your specials for the week, you probably make assumptions too.

What is it that you think everybody already knows about your business?

But what is it that everybody might not know?

Tagged as: blog, rural business, small business owners, web site