07 Aug Hang Out Your Shingle
In the days when “Hang out your shingle” came into common usage, the phrase applied to a business putting a sign , or a ‘shingle’, outside the business to advertise the availability of a product or service.
Today, that shingle hanging outside your door is your website.
A solid, interesting, useful presentation of your business isn’t a ‘nice to have’ it is a ‘must have’.
According to Network Solutions, only half (56%) of small businesses have websites.
As a web developer, this is an astounding statistic. In the days when “Hang out your shingle” came into common usage, the phrase applied to a business putting a sign , or a ‘shingle’, outside the business to advertise the availability of a product or service. Those days were powered by horses and our feet. Many people probably didn’t travel much more than a dozen miles from their home in their lifetime.
Currently, communication has exploded to the point that one of the first things we do when we hear of, or are referred to, a new business is to look for the website.
That shingle hanging outside your door is now your website. A solid, interesting, useful presentation of your business isn’t a ‘nice to have’ it is a ‘must have’.
The importance of your website also highlights the importance of utilizing your own domain name, based on the name of your business. The address of your website, and the content within, will ensure that you can be found in today’s Yellow Pages: Google, Bing and Yahoo!.
Additionally, if you aren’t using your own domain for your email address, you are missing a multi-layered opportunity. By giving out or responding to emails with your company name attached (john.doe@yourcompany.net) you have automatically increased the number of people who know how to contact you and your business. Jdoe3712@att.net only advertises for AT&T. Good for AT&T (or yahoo, aol or google) but why wouldn’t you want to promote your own business and provide additional ways for people to learn about your service / product? Of course, you would!
Hanging out your shingle involves more than a sign nowadays. It involves websites, search engines, and email (even social media). The beauty is, you now have the opportunity to impress your customers and prospects 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a tightly controlled, pitch perfect presentation of your way of doing business. Your Website!