Building A Website That Will Build Your Business

How to make your website, and your business, as smart as you

by Brian Fant

Growing businesses today must entrust some part of their operations to technology. If you're a technical novice, this probably doesn't come naturally. In the beginning, your vital business information finds its way onto paper or into spreadsheets and word processing documents. That's a decent start, but it can quickly become an unwieldy collection of documents. Consider transforming your website into something more than a pretty face. It can become a system that will help you run and build your business.

What's A Business System?

As organizations expand, they need the ability to store and process more information, share it with others, and operate within the business's established guidelines. They need a versatile system that can support their business -- a business system.

Business systems help store and process data, automate repetitive jobs, or perform entirely new tasks. And all of it could be shared inside (or outside) of an organization, as needed.

Imagine, for example, a limousine company. When the company first starts, they can get away with scribbling down customer appointments in a paper calendar -- some of the writing is unreadable, but most of the time that's not a problem. Soon the company has several cars, multiple drivers, and more appointments than a single scheduler can handle. A small business system would allow multiple schedulers to serve hundreds of clients. Drivers could even print their own schedules when they start their shift. The business can do more, so the business grows.

But I Don't Have A Business System -- I Have A Website

It's worth noting that most websites are already primitive business systems, functionally tasked to help with sales and marketing. They display information about what you do and how to reach you.

That's another good start. So the next thing to look at is making your website smarter. Incorporate your business intelligence -- the information and policies that make your company run -- and you can turn your website into an indispensable business system.

When you build a business system around a website, that's a web application, "web app" for short. (It's okay if you want to keep calling it a website. You won't be the only one.) It becomes an easy way to share information with any audience you need to reach, including customers, vendors, and employees. That means your indispensable business system can become an invaluable collaboration tool.

I Know I Need Something, But What?

Realizing you need help is, again, a great start. But what do you need your new web application do?

A web app can be the perfect employee, the one who toils diligently at all hours for little pay. First you'll have to "train" it. Before you engage a professional, someone with the technical skills to program your web application, you'll have to decide what it should do to help you.

Web applications are great at storing data, making information accessible to others, and automating repetitive tasks. They're accessible all day, every day. They can put your experience to work when you are unavailable. The same knowledge that's missing when you and your staff are in meetings, on vacation, or sleeping could be automatically serving customers in your absence.

Imagine our example, the limousine service. As the staff grows, it becomes difficult to track a complex schedule of cars and drivers. Who are the week's appointments? Which drivers are available to work on which days? When are the cars being serviced? Which cars are most requested? The business hires an office manager who knows all of this (usually off the top of his head), but what happens when he must suddenly take time off to care for his sick Uncle Fred? With very little drama he says, "look on the web site... it's all in there." Customers continue to book appointments, cars continue to get serviced, and the business continues to operate. Smoothly.

Where Do I Start?

Start a wish list. Look at the things you do, the policies that keep your business running, and the information you keep in all of those documents. What could you "delegate" to your web application? Which pieces could be more organized or more accessible? What does your website need to know to be as smart as you are?

Once you have your list, prioritize it. You won't want to do everything at once. Plan to start with a small set of tasks in the beginning. It's much better to add to your web application over time than to try to make it do absolutely everything you need from the very beginning.

About The Author

Brian Fant is CEO of box2 technologies, providing web development, custom applications, web hosting and other technical muscle to growing businesses. He can be reached at 408-369-9487 or via email at brian@box2.com.