#MyMoneyStaysLocal

Time to step up and pitch in for your community.

There is a movement afoot that has the potential to be the single most important thing you can do for your business, your community and your family.  It’s called #MyMoneyStaysLocal.

While some of us may not have noticed, recent events have had a significant impact on how we have spent our money.  If we have been lucky enough to have any to spend. Now, as we begin to open up more on the local level, some folks are venturing out and trying to do business with local establishments.  And that is a good thing.

Restaurants have been particularly hit hard.  Some are not going to survive; some are already gone.  Countless others will fold in the coming months either due to limited demand and/or limited ability to make a go of it at half capacity.  And gone with them are their hearts and dreams of sharing a piece of themselves through their food.  It’s a gift really.  A very personal gift that comes from the heart of every restaurateur. 

And, when you take a look at the revenue that vaporizes in the process, you can begin to see how critical it is to help these restaurants stay afloat.  Give them a call and buy a gift certificate that you can use later if you are not comfortable doing so now.  Get a head start on Christmas and secure Gift Cards for some of your favorite people.  Doing so will help the community overall by pumping $$$ back into your community.  Win - Win.

It looks like we are in for a long recovery and stepping up and dining locally can give your community a leg up.

Who Builds Your Website Best?

Need to build a Website?

DIY? Hire a Developer? Both?

First - Consider how consumers find local products and services.

Consumers, just like you, start with seeking advice or drawing on advice you have had in the past.  While this can take many forms:  a neighbor, recent magazine article, news story, movie, etc., folks wind up on the internet.  On Google.

Local search saw a 900% increase in “near me”, “today/tonight” searches from 2016 to 2018.  Local products and services have always been very important but search results have only recently begun to serve them up.  The World Wide Web has turned out to be a bit misleading in terms of the real power of online products and services available locally.

97% of people learn more about a

local company via the internet. 

88% of searches  for local businesses

on a mobile device either call

or visit the business within 24 hours. 

And

61% of mobile searchers are more

likely to contact a local business if

they have a mobile-friendly site.

Second - Your Competition is online

Check out your competition.  Likely they are online.  This may well be the most compelling reason that you need to have your SMB website up, current and highly usable across all devices.  Looking great, providing accurate information (think hours, address, new products), and usable on a desktop AND phone.

Check out where you currently stand.  Google your products, your services, your name.  What pops up?  Your competition!  You have to be there to compete!

Third - What do you need?  What is your Objective?

What you need is important to decide before you embark on a website.  It impacts your potential costs of development and ongoing maintenance. For example, do you need to sell a catalog of products online?  Or maybe just feature new arrivals and specials?  Do you need a booking/appointment tool?  What about payments?  Collection of email addresses to start building a database of folks you can market to?

Answers to these questions will be the principal drivers for your options in creating a website.  

Essential Considerations Resources

What path you choose will depend on your access to 4 resources.  They can be a bit of mix and match as it relates to your final costs, but each need to be considered objectively.

Time 

How much time do you have on your hands?  Do you have time to learn new skills?  Are you up to your ears in other business needs?  When you look hard you will find that you either have the time or you don’t.

Design Skills
Are you good with design?  Colors, Layouts, Image use, Format?  If not, do you have interest in learning about design for the internet?  And, if you have an interest, do you have the time to learn new skills?

Technical Skills 

There are technical skills that go beyond HTML code.  Technical skills come into play with building the actual site as well as launching it, hosting it and more.  Do you code?  Want to learn?  Have time to learn?  Often hosting companies can help with this.  

Money

This is perhaps the easiest resource to identify.  What is your time worth?  Does it make more sense to pay for an expert?

Building, managing and operating your website occurs in five phases; evaluate each and determine what resources you can tap vs. what you lack.


1) Website SetUp - URL selections and purchase.  Hosting of Domain and website. Editing tool.

2) For DIY Tools - Learning how to use the website builder.

3) Design of the layout - from scratch or a template?

4) Content - What information, tools, images will your website have?  What should it have?

5) Troubleshooting and Ongoing Maintenance - Can you stay on top of evolving technical requirements?  Do you have time to keep your content current?  

There is no single answer for every situation.  You are unique, your business is unique.  Your resources are unique.  The only thing that applies to every SMB is the need to be found when folks are looking for your products and services.  They have to find you when they search online, they have to know where you are or where you service, they need to know your hours.  They want to know your rates, specifically or generally.  They need to know what you offer will meet their needs.  They need to see a website that works (most importantly on a phone) and reflects your company and its values.  

Think of it this way, would you change the brakes on your car yourself?  Certainly there are lots of instructional articles and videos out there.  You could always learn how.  Provided you have the time,  an interest and aptitude for mechanical stuff.  Have some technical knowledge and love design?  Give it a shot!  But, take good care of what might be your only opportunity to make a first impression.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Eventually we will reopen for business.  Are you ready?

We have all been through the ringer over the last few months.  Uncertainty, shortages, SNAFUs, and, in some cases, well founded panic.  What we know for sure is that we very much want to get moving again.  See our customers face-to-face.  Share a hug.  Laugh.

One silver lining might just be the blessing of more time to spend on our businesses.  We can think about how we want to emerge from quarantine better and stronger.  Right now there are things you can do to better position for the new reality of commerce.  There are even free things!

The Reboot Guide can help you focus on those things your expertise tells you are good ideas for your business.  Not a long read, you just might learn something new!  

Download it now.

And, stay positive!  You Got This!

I'll say it again!

Why a secure website is so

important to small business websites

Two Colossal Reasons!

Credibility and Trust are paramount for small business and one of the first places consumers come in contact with you, and your company, is through a website.

I don’t understand. What is a Secure Website?

It may sound technical, maybe this will help:

When you open a website on your computer, tablet or phone, you use a browser like Chrome, Firefox or Safari to see the information and images on the webpage. This information comes from the website owner’s server (a powerful computer) that contains all the files that make up every page. There are files for text, design of that text, images, styles and much more.

Imagine this process as the Postal Service. As data (files) move from the Web Server to your Browser, it is like the mailman who picks up a letter to be delivered. From the mailbox, next stop is a local office for sorting. Next, it goes to a distribution center where it is sorted again. Then on to the recipients post office for more sorting. Finally the mail carrier brings it to you. ANYWHERE along the route the mail could be looked at, or altered.

There is a Cyber attack every 39 seconds

43% are against SMB

So, among the things that can happen along the way, a website can be hijacked.

Why would I care if my website is hijacked? Sometimes hackers will direct folks to a completely different looking website, typically trying to sell something. Customers and potential customers will not be very happy and will likely attribute the problem to you! Also, and worse for you, hackers may duplicate your website and add items that can collect personal and financial information from your clients that think they are on your website.

What else?

Google.

"In the future, we expect to further restrict insecure downloads in Chrome. We encourage developers to fully migrate to HTTPS to avoid future restrictions and fully protect their users. “ Google

Google for a long time has been moving the internet towards a more secure internet. They move this process along, in part, by impacting search results for websites that are not compliant. That could hurt. A lot.

In addition, they are phasing in “Not Secure” notices in various formats for insecure webpages. In the future, they expect to disallow unsecured websites all together. In October downloads of files (images, ebooks, PDFs, etc.) will be blocked.

Is yours secure?

Have a look online. What do you see in the address bar at the top of the page? A little locked padlock? An unlocked one? Locked means you already have the SSL. Unlocked, you don’t.There are many suppliers for obtaining a SSL Certificate for your website and your hosting company will be able to help. Contact your hosting provider and have yours enabled today. You may want to note that some folks charge for them and some folks do not. Caveat emptor.

Don’t hesitate to contact SeaShell Digital with any questions.

Responsive is for You!

You don't have to be insecure!

There are still a lot of insecure websites out there.  Have you seen them?  Is your website one of them?

Have a look at any browser to see if you have a security problem.  In the Address bar look for a green padlock or similar graphic and, most importantly, look for the "s" after "http" as this indicates that the website is secure.

If you are not secure, a few bad things could happen. 

1. Your website could be defrauded by someone impersonating your site. (This happened to me last week; I headed for a dog food website and was shown a page of vitamins sold from China!) 
2. Personal data could be leaked.
3. Data transferred to and from your website could be corrupted.
4. Google and other search engines don't like it and consider it a negative ranking factor.
5. Potential Customers and Customers landing on your website are likely to have a negative impression of your company.  They may go elsewhere if they perceive you to be unsafe!

Hosting companies offer SSL certificates and they are easy to implement.  Typically the hosting company makes the change quickly and seamlessly.  However, be aware that some companies will charge for this. 

SeaShell Digital designates every website as secure.  Free of charge.  Because we know that, for small businesses, every bit helps.

Important Events From SBA and Score!

Simple Steps for Starting Your Business - Indian River County

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST
Do you dream of starting a business? Do you know what it takes to turn that dream into a reality? It takes courage but it also requires knowledge. Let us help you acquire the knowledge to make your dreams of business ownership come true. This interactive two-hour seminar will deal with the key information you need to consider as you move forward.
Indian River County Chamber of Commerce

Simple Steps for Starting Your Business - St. Lucie County 

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST
Do you dream of starting a business? Do you know what it takes to turn that dream into a reality? It takes courage but it also requires knowledge. Let us help you acquire the knowledge to make your dreams of business ownership come true. This interactive two-hour seminar will deal with the key information you need to consider as you move forward.
IRSC Pruitt Campus

Marketing 101 - Stuart
Wednesday, January 15, 2020 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST
If you're currently running your business, you believe that you're the best kept secret in town, or you're just not getting the amount of business that you think you should, then sign-up of this workshop!! Thinking of starting a small business? This workshop will give you ideas on how to do your marketing plan and best market your small business.

Simple Steps for Starting Your Business - Martin County
Wednesday, January 15, 2020 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST
Do you dream of starting a business? Do you know what it takes to turn that dream into a reality? It takes courage but it also requires knowledge. Let us help you acquire the knowledge to make your dreams of business ownership come true. This interactive two-hour seminar will deal with the key information you need to consider as you move forward.
Indian River State College, Chastain Campus

NEW ! Marketing Strategies that Convert to Sales--01/22/2020--C0308
Wednesday, January 22, 2020 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST
Are you a small business owner that knows good marketing will increase sales, but you're not sure how to get started? Or, how to improve what you're already doing by tracking your marketing results? Then this workshop will be a valuable resource for you. It will focus on how to nurture your leads using a variety of marketing strategies.
Indian River State College Chastain Campus

Simple Steps for Starting Your Business, Series 1, Workshops 2 - 4 --01/29/2020--C0308 

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 10:00 AM EST -to- Wednesday, February 12, 2020 at 12:00 PM EST
Is Starting a Business Right for You? It's time to make the decision to proceed & make your business idea a reality! Simple Steps to Start a Business is a comprehensive, yet manageable series of workshops designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs start & grow successful businesses. Topics include Business Concepts, Marketing, & Financial Projections.
Indian River State College Pruitt Campus

Marketing 101 - Vero Beach
Wednesday, January 29, 2020 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST
If you're currently running your business, you believe that you're the best kept secret in town, or you're just not getting the amount of business that you think you should, then sign-up of this workshop!! Thinking of starting a small business? This workshop will give you ideas on how to do your marketing plan and best market your small business.
Indian River County Chamber of Commerce

More information and Registration: https://treasurecoast.score.org/content/take-workshop-60