By Tim Knox

Ask Yourself The Obvious

The obvious question here is, "Does my business really need a website?"

Unequivocably, the answer should be a resounding, "Yes!" If you are doing business in the 90's and hope to continue doing business well into the future, you do need a website. Like it or not, more and more business transactions will be conducted over the internet within the next decade than through any other medium. If your business is not on the net you are going to miss out.

It's been estimated that online sales will top the $400 billion mark by the year 2002, with $25 billion of that going to small businesses by the end of 1999 alone. 20 million shoppers are now online, purchasing everything from books to computers to cars to real estate to jet airplanes. These numbers alone should be enough to convince you that yes, your business might need a website.

In fact, everyday as more and more people discover the internet and it's ease and convenience of use, it will become imperative that your business have a website. You need to establish what's known as a "web presence" if you're going to compete in the business world of today and the business world of the future. It's also imperative that you establish your web presence now, before your competitors get too far ahead of you.

So yes, your business should have a website. Even if that website is nothing more than a single scanned image of your brochure or business card, you should have a website. Even if it is nothing more than the name and address of your business and phone number in big flashing letters on a single HTML page, you should have a website. Even if it is simply for the sake of coming to a function such as this and being able to say, "Why yes, I'm on the internet!" you should have a website.

It's like those popular "You might be a redneck if" jokes. "If you're looking for a handy place to sell anything.... you might need a website."

NEXT: Ask Yourself The Not-So-Obvious

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Tim Knox is an Internet designer, developer, author and teacher. He is the Creative Director of Digital Graphiti. In a prior life, Tim was an award-winning humor columnist and cartoonist. His current writing projects include a book on web development for SAM's Publishing.