Customers on the web are unique.  Unlike any other medium, people who come to your site are looking for you.  You didn't cold-call them, they didn't wander into your store while waiting for their photos to be developed.  No, they went looking for something and now they've found you...what next?

Use The Web

For some small businesses, the first answer for what to put on the web is:

"I just need a place to put my phone number and address."

If these viewers of your site are fully-qualified already as prospective buyers because they sought you out, why would your answer to them be "Call me later".  And what happens if they do make that call?  Who answers or is it your answering machine?  When was the last time your answering machine made a quality sale?

Using the web means understanding how the web can serve your business and your most important customer: the one you are about to get.  Second Story Designs has over a decade of experience in delivering solutions on the web.  We can help provide the necessary functionality and inspiring content to help you motivate the viewer of your site into doing business with you.  Using the web means making it another tool in your arsenal of getting your message out. 

Marketing

Is your marketing budget right now constrained to what it cost to put that company logo and phone number sticker in your back window?  Marketing is hard.  Who do you target and where?  The major drawback of the web is that unlike your truck and that sticker, the web doesn't move.   Customers have to find you.   That weakness is the web's greatest strength.  Unlike that sticker, the viewers of your website WANT to buy.  So it's your job to make sure they want to buy from you.  Second Story Designs will listen to your company vision and work with you to present a site-plan that correctly and effectively gets your message out to these viewers.  With Second Story Designs, you can get your name, business and plan in front of the customer before they call you or order from you.  When they do call, now they are informed and ready to complete the deal; saving you time and gaining you more business.

Processing and Technology

As technology becomes more prevalent in our homes and work-places, it also becomes easier to use...or does it?  Some things are easier than they used to be, but that doesn't mean that all the hard things disappeared.  In fact, the hard things got harder.  The things we can now do on the web would have been impossible 10, 5 even 2 years ago.  As a small business, you can take orders, credit card numbers, provide receipts and start the fulfillment process without ever being involved.  Your customer has now done all the work.  In a way, your e-commerce application can be like a vending machine, you provide the product and your customer presses all the buttons and inserts the money.

Second Story Designs can work with you and your financial vendor to setup systems and services that are stable and profitable.   It's also important to remember that this site needs to grow as your business grows.  Second Story Designs uses proven technologies, not "share-ware" to deliver your requirements.  You will be benefiting from the same kind of code that powers today's most visible websites.  That's the power of the web and the power of the Internet.  All businesses can be the same size: the size of your browser window.