Creating a Website For Your Company, Part 3: Can I Build My Own Website?

This month we’re interviewing Hannah Evans, freelance web designer and contributor to last month’s article. 

Hannah, I know you do web design, so give us a little advice:  When is it appropriate for a business owner to design their own website?

Most websites are designed by using advanced programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver, or Microsoft FrontPage. If you have a good handle on how design, html, and css works, than you can handle designing your own website–but most people leave that to the experts.

(Note:  if you are still interested in designing your site from scratch, check out the article, “Introduction to Web Design.”)

You can also purchase website templates (both html and flash) online, but again – you will either need to know how to make personalized edits yourself, or hire someone to help you out.  Some web services can help you set up your site completely online without outside help.

Ok, well, assuming I don’t want to learn advanced web design, and just want to use a web service, first, how do I find one?

There are both free and paid web building services online. The difference will be in how many extra features are made available for your use. For example, Google Web Page Creator is free and functions well for posting a clean site that is information heavy, but isn’t very visually interesting.  Network Solutions is a monthly paid service that offers a variety of stylish layouts and more advanced features. Do a basic web search for “website builder” and decide which builder works best for your current needs.

So if I decide to go ahead with using a web building service, will I get a decent value?  Or will I be just wasting my money?

If you’re worried about your budget at this point, try a free website builder to at least get your business name out in the web world. Start small and build up gradually as you discover how useful your web presence is.  Consider your audience – if most of your potential customers are web savvy, you may want to spend some money to create a relevant and stylish site.  If you just want basic contact information accessible, a free site may be a better option.

Thanks again, Hannah, for getting us starting in designing our own website.  For more information about getting your business on the web, the BIC website has a number of articles on Building and Running a Website.  

Sue A. Evans

Making your voice heard: The Florida Office of the Small Business Advocate

The rewards of entrepreneurship are great; in this current economy many people who have never considered running their own businesses are doing so. As much as the State of Florida is encouraging entrepreneurship and thus promoting economic development, sometimes the regulations that help protect the citizens, the environment, or special interest groups create undue hardships on small businesses.

Well, now you have someone to go to when you feel the state has enacted a regulation that makes it hard for you to do business. Last year the state approved funding for a new office which will look at bills and regulations that affect small businesses in the state and make recommendations to the state legislature. The Florida Office of the Small Business Advocate (FOSBA) is a program of the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, and is co-located with the state SBDC office in Pensacola.

The bill that established the office also established the Florida Small Business Regulatory Advisory Council (SBRAC) to hear complaints submitted by the FOSBA and make recommendations to the Governor. The nine-member council, appointed by the Governor, Speaker of the House and President of the senate, are current or former small business owners and meet regularly to review any laws under question.

What should you do, then, to make a complaint? Write a letter to the FOSBA, incorporating the following information:

• The bill (or current regulation), including the bill number
• How the bill impacts your business
• How many other businesses, in your estimation, the bill impacts
• What the impact will be on the state of Florida, in dollars and cents, if the bill remains in effect

If it sounds like you have to do your homework to have your voice heard, you’re right. The new FOSBA office has a skeleton staff and currently can only review information that is well presented and complete. You may have to contact your state industry association (Click here for a link to a live Yahoo list of trade associations) to get the information or make the contacts you need; but you can rest assured that, at the least, every legitimate complaint will be presented for review.

Sue A. Evans

Making Your Business the Best

Have you ever heard the story of Thomas Edison?  When trying to invent the light bulb, he created over 1000 failed models before he created the prototype for today’s indispensable device.  When asked, “How could you go on after failing over and over?” Edison said, “Well, I just learned 999 ways not to make a light bulb!”

So running your business is learning process. You are learning 999 ways NOT to finance your business or 999 ways NOT to build a hard-working team.  Today, take the time to learn how to do one thing better in your business.  Instead of recreating the wheel every time you need to make a business decision, build on the knowledge that other business owners have gathered through their successes and failures.  Building on the knowledge of other business owner’s experiences is called adopting “best practices.”  The process of researching and adopting best practices is a valuable tool suggested by many top business consultants.  In fact, part of the process of winning the coveted Malcolm Baldridge Award (http://www.quality.nist.gov/) and the Florida Governor’s Sterling Award (http://www.floridasterling.com/) includes adopting best practices.

The Northwest Florida Business Information Clearinghouse (BIC) is an excellent resource for gathering best practices information.  Hundred of articles, written by business experts, can inform you on important business topics that are outside of your level of expertise.  The BIC was designed as a free resource to help entrepreneurs find the information they need to start a business or to run their business well.  Besides articles, the BIC also has demographics, a directory of local resources, a business calendar, and a number of customized articles especially applicable to doing business in Northwest Florida.  Explore the Northwest Florida BIC site (see link on side-bar) today to begin learning 999 ways to build business success!

Sue A. Evans