Small-business owners who have put off getting a website, you are running out of excuses.
According to Google, 97% of Americans turn to the Web to find local products and services, and yet here in California, only 38% of small businesses are online.
Unacceptable, people! You’ve got to get connected!
The good news is that building a website for your business doesn’t have to be as hard or as expensive as you might think. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Google and Intuit are offering free workshops on how to build a website, how to grow your business online and how to promote your business online at Siren Studios in Hollywood.
And if you’ve missed those workshops, you may still be able to get into similar workshops in Irvine (March 14) or Sacramento (March 16). (Check out CaliforniaGetOnline.com for details).
There are three workshops available to attendees. Build Your Free Website is run by Intuit and is a step-by-step guide to building a website using the company’s software. By the end of the workshop, attendees should have at least one page of their new website to publish to the Web.
In Grow Your Website, a representative from Google talks business owners through search engine optimization and search engine marketing, and gives an overview of how to track a site’s performance using Google analytics.
In Promote Your Business Online, a Google rep gets deeper into how AdWords and AdWords Express work, and helps people think about the best keywords for their sites.
Scott Levitan, Google’s director of marketing, said that more than 1,000 people have RSVPd to attend the Get Your Business Online event in Los Angeles. They included hairdressers and contractors, accountants and business consultants — and even one woman who is developing a line of beauty products based on people’s astrological signs. (This is L.A. after all).
Many people were starting new endeavors; others just felt that they couldn’t delay getting online any more.
“I’d look at Dreamweaver and I’d just think, ‘Who has the time?'” said Jacqueline Slutske, who works a business coach. “But then I saw the ad for this event and I thought, ‘OK. Now is the time.'”
Donna Casem said before the recession hit, she had a thriving business as a florist, making enough money to hire someone to build a website for her. But her business was hit hard when the economy took a downturn and now she is regrouping by launching a new business that would design scavenger games for singles groups, or maybe as Big Brother and Big Sister activities. “I don’t have the budget to pay someone to design a site for me so this workshop is really helpful,” she said.
Google and Intuit have held similar workshops in 20 other states across the country but say that California is the biggest market they have been to so far.
[For the record, 7:35 p.m. March 12: An earlier version of this post said free workshops were being offered by Google and Intel. Actually, it’s Google and Intuit.]