In yesterday’s episode of my podcast, Master Your Mission, I talked about the importance of having a website for your business. It doesn’t matter how small your business is or what industry your business is in, you need a website.
Many of the 36% of small business owners who don’t have a website think that their business is too small for one or that if they don’t sell anything online, they don’t need one. But I would argue that you should be using your website to make money, no matter what your core business is.
So to illustrate what I mean, I’m going to give you 3 ways your website can make you money no matter what business you’re in.
Allow customers to book and pay for services on your website.
When a customer is looking to buy, you want to capture their attention and capture their money right away. When a potential customer comes across your website, why not give them the opportunity to book and pay for your service right then and there — before they have time to comparison shop, before they have time to forget they need you, and before they have time to just flat out change their minds.
Allowing your people to book and pay for services on your website is also a great convenience for existing customers. It removes the psychological trauma they experience when they hand over their credit card to you, and you become the “good guy” who just provides an amazing service — not who charges an arm and a leg.
Sell a product online that compliments your business.
Have you ever considered selling a physical product online that compliments your business? Let’s say you’re a hairstylist and you create all natural hair products. Wouldn’t it be great if your clients could just jump on your website when they want to buy it? That makes giving you their money as easy as pie.
That also expands your customer base and allows you to sell to people outside of your neighborhood or city. This doesn’t have to be complicated at all. If you’re already selling a physical product, like the hairstylist example, great. If not, find something that’s easy for you to sell.
Sell digital products online related to your service.
Of course, if you can’t sell physical products — not everyone wants to add that layer into their business — you can sell digital products. For me, selling digital products to compliment your business is a no-brainer. You create the product once, and you sell it as many times as you can.
This could be a How-To Guide for something your customers frequently need. It could be a recipe, if you’re a bakery or a video teaching people how to change their oil, if you’re a mechanic.
It could literally be anything that your customers would want to pay for that you could add to your website behind a paywall or allow them to download after payment.