company website

[tom owens]

After reading a few posts lately iv seen people mentioning starting a website up.
Can anybody who,s done this please give me any advice on what the main benefits are towards the company and cost of setting up and hosting?

Thanks Tom

 

[matt]

The benefit has to be to drive profit. For that you need both a website and the right visitors for your business. Similarly you need to think in terms of how a website might encourage a visitor to part with their cash. Therefore, to help answer your question we need to know more abour your business.

You also need to consider a website within the context of your whole marketing strategy and budget.

 

[tom owens]

sorry should of made myself clearer.

At the minute im a one man band keeping busy doing joinery and maintenance on public propertys along with a few contracts for letting agencies and flats.

I seem to be doing alot of kitchen fitting and now i have my workshop up and running properly its suprising how many customers are asking for bedroom furniture and kitchens made up to odd sizes aswell as standard.
My latest project is 3 pine kitchen units to be built. One to accomodate a belfast sink with a small cupboard underneath. One is a full hight single drawer unit with spice racks and cooking oil racks in and the other is a single unit to accomodate a microwave on the top shelf of the unit.
For the same customer i am also building them some pine fitted bedroom cupboards with top boxes.

Along with the odd welsh dresser, nest of tables and bedside tables iv made its mainly been bedroom furniture and kitchens.

This is the route id like to take so any advice is welcomed

 

[matt]

You sound busy already so I guess marketing is to either maintain sufficient forward orders for a one-man operation or grow the business if you're intending to take on more people. Alternatively you may be wanting to shift your sales pitch to a new, maybe wealthier market?

How are you getting business now? And, more importantly, do you have a feel for why customers choose you over your competitors?

The reason I ask these questions is because I've witnessed a situation where sales and enquiries dropped following a website re-design. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the new site (which was far smarter than the previous one) created the illusion of a more expensive and less approachable business. The small business trust implied by the previous site evaporated in people's minds.

If you're getting enough work now then work out what works in your favour now and build on it, make it more potent. Maybe consider a really basic site that compliments your current approach to getting work. If, however, you're looking to pursue new markets then it's a case of understanding what works for those markets.

Think in terms of what a website (or any marketing for that matter) will do to your potential clients. How will it make them feel and, most importantly, will it make them want to pay you to make furniture for them.

 

[Doctor]

Hi,
I find my website invaluable http://www.armstrongjordan.com however there is absolutely no point in having a brilliant website if nobody can find it, I had my site built by someone else and he also optimises it for a monthly fee, this means I rank reasonably high in the key terms people may search for.

If you get a good website which ranks well in your chosen key terms it will be worth its weight in gold.

If you know what your doing you can create your own site and optimise it but for me it's easier to hand it to someone else, my costs so far after about a year for the new site is approx £1200-£1500

 

[tom owens]

I am keeping busy at the moment and work is still coming through slowly.
my main advertising now is just local booklets that get delivered around hull and surrounding villages. some cost as little as £6 per month up to £55 per month.
Thats a really nice site docter and some impressive pieces of furniture.
The only thing there is a very select few villages that would be prepared to pay for bespoke joinery when they can go to B&Q and get a kitchen for £800 and a mate to fit it for £200 on a weekend.
As i,v not had my workshop running long my port folio is not that big at the minute but its getting there and im making the best i can with the machines i could afford at the time.
The main target around here would be the working class like most of us who cant afford a bespoke kitchen but want something better than your leading diy store. Alot of people are wanting ready made mdf carcasses instead of screw and dowel chipboard.
i would like to look at something along the lines of supply only or supply and fit ready made kitchen furniture. Bedroom furniture will be made to measure.
This is a reception desk i made for a bridle shop in a near by village which is basically two 500 base units with a drawer in between them and a top. Made from oak vaneered mdf. You can get the idea about the kind of units i make from this.
The shelves and handles are still to go in at this point

For this a charged £300 which was not much profit at all but the matter of not been able to price properly came in then.

This is a ABW 300x715 solid door from a batch that i made for a customer a few months ago. I,v been selling for £75 for this size and i,m getting loads interest but not many sales.is £75 to much?

This is the sort of thing i want to advertise on a web site.

Any advise for me to get a wider interest is more than welcome.

Thanks again...

 

[BradNaylor]

Our website is absolutely invaluable. Not only does it bring us the majority of our serious new enquiries but it is also used as a point of reference by existing and referred clients.

We are at the point in the development of the internet that if a small company has a website then people are impressed, but if it doesn't have one people think that it is a mickey-mouse outfit.

A web presence is, in my opinion, essential. Even if you are busy at the moment more enquiries will enable you to increase your prices in time and so make more money. Best of all, it is almost free!

I wrote our sites using a £50 program and a minimum of technical skill. IT pros will dismiss it as 'unprofessional' but guess what? It works!


As the Doc says, just as important as the site itself is getting it up the search engine rankings so that people will find it easily. Google Maps is your friend here - register your business there and you will find you start appearing on local Google searches within weeks. You should also register with as many free directories as you can find - all this exposure helps get your site up the rankings.

We use a local guy to host our websites and email services and look after domain names. He charges us what seems a pittance for what we get - maybe a couple of hundred quid a year in total. Bear in mind that that is our total advertising budget for three companies!

Most small computer repair shops and the like will offer this kind of service. I would recommend getting to know someone local who can sort out all the technical gubbins.

As for your later questions about pricing; The desk thingy was obviously too cheap. I would price that up on the basis of 3 days work at £250 per day including materials, so £750.

The doors are a tricky one. For me to make one door like that from start to finish including calculating the component sizes, machining the sawn stock, glueing up the panel, setting up the router table and/or spindle moulder, machining the profiles, assembling the door, sanding it, and applying the finish would take maybe 3 hours in total spread over a couple of days.

To make 10 doors would take 10 hours spread over 2 days.

To make 24 doors would take 2 days.

So what to charge?

I would caution against being too specific with prices in your website. Use it to bring in enquiries and then quote for each job on the basis of how long you estimate it will take you to complete, together with the cost of materials.

The main target around here would be the working class

I would target my business at the more 'professional ' classes and areas. I believe that Hull does have teachers, lecturers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, surveyors, architects, cabinetmakers etc etc...

:lol:

Cheers
Brad

 

[tom owens]

Thanks to all the replies from everyone. These replies have been just what i wanted and given me alot more info than i expected i'd need.
This is something i'l have a serious look at now.
Thanks again...