I had a meeting yesterday with two highly motivated entrepreneurs. They have a small brick-and-mortar store with a niche product in an underserved area, and their store is profitable and growing.
Last year, they got a quote from a friend of mine to build their new e-commerce site, but instead found someone else to build it for only $800. In the process, they saved themselves over $3,000. Pretty smart, don’t you think?
That is, until you consider the costs. In the meeting yesterday, they said they were very happy with their new website, except for a few minor issues:
(1) They are unable to edit any of the product descriptions without breaking the site.
(2) They have not yet gotten any sales from the website.
(3) The site does not show up in Google searches…even when you search on their name.
(4) Many of the pages take 30-90 seconds to load.
(5) Their web guy is no longer answering their phone calls or emails.
Considering their market opportunity, a website that was built correctly should be earning at least $5,000 a month for them. They said they would be happy to have $2,000 a month in online sales. In reality, their new site is COSTING THEM more than $20,000 per year in lost profits. How much of a bargain is that?
To your success!
Leave a Reply