Recently while attending a dinner party with some friends who were all independent business people, the type of individuals who are generally considered intelligent, insightful, successful entrepreneurs, each was the owner/operator of a successful "Bricks and Mortar" business. Colin is the driving force behind a string of electronics stores which service a niche market in rural areas and small town which the "Big Box" stores have deemed not profitable enough to warrant their attention, Sharron owns a "Pilates Studio" which is doing excellent business on the fringes of the big city, Jeff's company provides training in "Workplace Safety" for construction, manufacturing and heavy industry,

Sheryl and Wayne operate, what their refer to as a "Boutique Bakery", they create one-of-a-kind cakes, cupcakes and pastries for weddings and other special occasions, business is so brisk they are on the verge of opening their third store in just five years of operation, an astounding achievement I would say.

All these businesses have two things in common.

1/. They are all "Bricks and Mortar" businesses, being that each requires a "storefront" or "workshop" or some kind of tangible, real world space from which to conduct business.
2/. They all maintain active websites.

That is not to say these are the only commonalities between these operations but they are the ones which fit the scope of this article.

As the evening progressed, the topic of discussion inevitably turned to the recent upheavals in the global economy, both the cataclysmic decline of late last year and more recently, the signs of an albeit slow recovery, apparent in the current markets, more specifically what the impact of these events were on their respective businesses, all agreed that an increased focus on advertising and promotions was perhaps the most significant change in the way they conducted business. One by one each recounted their experiences with "hit and miss, real world" marketing campaigns, Collin even amused everyone by explaining that he had paid a fortune to have costumes created in the style of a popular MP3 Player and hired local young people to wear these costumes while standing a the roadside beckoning passing motorists to come in and browse the latest in electronic gadgetry, I asked "how'd that work out for you" he smiled and commented "The Pizza Restaurant next door did very well", Sharron told us how she had increased her spending on such things as newspaper advertisements, door to door flyer delivery and how she had even purchased radio time, these campaigns, she confessed, resulted in not so much an increase in custom but more a reduction in the loss of custom.

Jeff described how he had increased his sales force, was offering "Value added" content in his "Safety Courses" (He did not explain) and had reduced the price of training classes, however in order to compensate for these changes he had increased the minimum size of each class and had reduced the distance that he was willing to dispatch an instructor to teach minimum sized classes. Only Sheryl and Wayne were conspicuously silent on the subject.

After everyone had told their stories, I asked if any of them had used their website in any way to help increase the exposure of their business to their respective communities, as expected my query was met with a deafening silence... then Sheryl and Wayne sheepishly raised their hands, I asked them to hold on to their thoughts and asked the others why they had not maximized their utilization of this valuable asset, the answers I received were as follows:

Collin: "Back in the day (I assume this means the early days of the Internet boom) I tried to sell through the website, it did quite well for awhile but when the bubble burst I figured people had simply lost interest and the 'fad' had ended the site is still working we just don't waste a lot of time on it", Imagine my chagrin when I heard him use the phrase "waste a lot of time" and as for his referring to the web as a "fad"... Arrrrgh!

Jeff and Sharron: Both claim they use their sites as a support mechanism, a place where potential customers can learn about their businesses and check dates and times for their training sessions, "I see the website as complimentary to my core business" said Jeff "these days it's a necessary cost, not a profit maker" Sharron agreed... Arrrrgh!

Now we come to Sheryl and Wayne, I asked them to give us their story and they looked at each other with sly little smiles on their faces then Sheryl proudly announce "We use our website as a communications tool, an advertizing, promotions, customer service medium, as well as a profit center, which has allowed us to expand our core business, now due to the exposure that our website has afforded us we are about to embark on a new joint venture with a major supermarket chain the pilot project is to supply a couple of local outlets with, boxed cupcakes which can be customized to order right in the store, our website visitors can also order specialty products right on the site and not only our own bakery products, we also sell cookbooks, cake decorating books and supplies and we are hoping to launch our own in house training classes by the end of the year, our website is a major part of our brand and we constantly seek new ways to maximize our utilization of this resource..."

Wow how should I respond to that, I thought, so I asked "how did you learn to make your website work so hard for you" Wayne (again with the sly smile) replied "we asked you,,," before he could add to his statement, Sharron interjected "your costs in money and time must be astronomical" Sheryl answered "not at all, the cost to design and develop the site was comparable to a half page ad in a local newspaper which runs for a couple of days, but the site runs 24/7 and the monthly costs for promotion and operation is less than we spend on business cards and stationary, as for time... well, we each spend four to eight hours per week writing articles, visiting related forums and blogs where we leave comments and suggestions and we feature our website address prominently on all our business correspondence we occasionally place small ads in magazines but this is rare..." both Sheryl and Wayne continued for another forty minutes extolling the virtues of "Maximum utilization of your website resource" and only slowed down when Jeff piped in saying "I still don't get how you can promote your site and receive so many visitors on such a limited budget" Wayne said "as we mentioned one of our methods is writing articles...'Whoa! responded Colin, I'm no Shakespeare, I have trouble writing fifty percent off signs, how am I going to write articles...' simple said Wayne... yes it's true that Sheryl and I are both former high school teachers, Sheryl even taught English so writing is not a problem for us... but here's an idea, why don't you? Take some of the money you spent on hiring a high school or college student to dress in a silly costume and pay them to write your articles and advertising copy for you, there are lots of talented young people out there whose time would be much better spent creating something they can be proud of..." At this point I realized that Colin was a little agitated at the suggestion that his MP3 Player costume was somehow demeaning to his employees so I broke off the conversation by asking my final question... "So what have we learned?..."

1/. A company website is more than just a sideline, a footnote to the core business.

2/. That a properly set up and managed company website is an integral part of the branding process and can become very profitable.

3/. Company websites can be promoted inexpensively through article marketing [http://www.freearticlesinc,com], forum and blog participation and link exchange programs.

4/. If you are not maximizing the utilization of your company website you are missing out on the huge benefits and rewards it can provide.

So in conclusion, if you own a "Bricks and Mortar" business and you don't have a website... get one... if you do have a website... use it, do the research consult with the experts and get started today.