Small Business

Web Design

One of the primary concerns of all small businesses is saving money. You want to start selling your products and services right now.

Most budgeting experts will tell you that re-evaluating your overall expenses and cutting each by just a bit will actually gain you more ground than doing without something major that you really need. Here are a few ideas of areas to look at and costs to reduce that can have a major impact on your overall profits.

If you have a low volume of credit card transactions, it might benefit you to switch from a merchant account to some sort of payment service like PayPal or ClickBank. Statement fees, monthly fees, discount percentages and the like can all add up to big money. While payment services normally have reduced fees, they do have higher "per transaction" costs so you'll have to do some math to find out if this is a good idea for your business. Just take an "average" invoice amount from a sale and multiply it times 12 to get a base total. Now, add in your 12 months worth of fees for statement, monthly access, discount percentage, per transaction cost, etc. This is your "example" total. Do the same with several payment services using their costs to see which one, over time, would be less expensive for you. If you were paying a $15 statement fee, $20 monthly fee, 3 percent + $0.35 per transaction and $25 monthly gateway fee, your annual expenses would be $742.20 for an average transaction of $50. Your annual fees for a payment service with 3.5 percent, $1.00 per transaction and a one-time $50.00 set up charge would only be $83.00 per year. [Savings of $659.20 per year.

Helpful HInts

What's the best way to improve your website? Let your customers do it for you! Who knows more about how well your website is fitting your customer's needs than your customers? Finding out is easy. Put a feedback form in an easily seen place and invite your customers to use it.

But not just any feedback form will do. Don't expect them to tell you what you need to know unless you ask. Here are some examples of things you might want to ask.

- Please tell us your favorite product. This will help you decide which products to feature most prominently.

- Which part of the site did you find most interesting or helpful? This lets you know what is working and that knowledge can help you improve other parts of your site. multiple choice drop menu here will make it easy for customers to choose. - What did you like least about the site? Why? Find out what's not working and change it!

- Was your shopping experience easy and enjoyable? This is good to add to the bottom of an order form. Let them know you care.

- Was there something you wanted that we didn't have? Also good to add to the order form. If someone wants it, you should consider carrying it.

- Did you have trouble finding anything? Products should be easy to find. If they aren't, install a search engine or rethink your categorization.

- How did you find us? Know which advertising is working for you.

- Would you recommend us? Why or why not? Customer recommendations are a great way to build a business. If you aren't getting them, you need to make some changes.

Let SWD get your small business on the web today