2003-07-31T07:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a small business owner, so there are a few things I need when it comes to my website. First, it has to be cost effective. Second, the technology must be there so my site becomes an asset to my business, not a detriment.

"Cost Effective" means different things to different people. For me, I need a solution that not only fits my budget now, but will fit it a year from now. Let me explain. Last year one of my very good customers asked if their son could design a website for my company. I agreed. After all, they were long-time customers, and I always wanted a site for my business, I just didn't have the time. The price was good, and I was happy with the site. Things went quite well until I expanded my product line.

All I needed was the new product line put on the site and some older products removed. I waited. I waited some more. Phone calls and emails went unreturned. I was told by his mother that his college class load was heavy, but he would get my site updated soon. Five months went by and meanwhile my out-of-state customers couldn't order my new products but were ordering the old ones that I no longer had in stock. It was, in short, a nightmare.

While the money going out of my pocket was minimal, the money I lost from lost sales, frustration, and sleepless nights is unmeasurable. Believe me, I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.

As I searched for a new solution, I knew what I needed based on my past experience. After interviewing numerous web designers, I got a phone call from an old neighbor who had moved a few years before. He wanted me to take a look at his website. I happened to be online, so I did. After a few moments, he asked me to hit the "Refresh" button. I did. And across the top of his site, it read: "Hi Dave!".

I was taken back, "How did he do that?" I thought to myself. So I asked him. He told me to hit "Refresh" again and the message was gone. He told me that he has full control of his own website. I was very impressed. "When did you learn HTML?" I asked. He said that he didn't know it - never took a class.

Now I was really confused. He then took me to a site, gave me his login name and password and showed me how he had displayed the message. I was amazed at how simple it was, and the more I saw what was available, how powerful this tool was. He showed me how he took his entire inventory from an Excel spreadsheet and imported it. He showed me his online order manager, his customer database, and the forms he created.

He then told me how much he paid, which was less than I paid that college student to design my site initially. He has no ongoing costs to a web designer, and his hosting is less than what I was paying.

I've been on the system now for a few months, and I have been extremely pleased. The technical support is free if I ever get stuck and the staff has been very helpful - even when I have had very stupid questions, they have been patient with me and explained things in a way that was easy to understand.

The company is Bright Builders, and if you are looking for a solid web site builder that will help your business do more business online - they have the solution for you.

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