Take a look at your income dynamics. Is your income primarily derived from outside the community via a web presence, or is it roughly equal to income derived within our small community? A healthy business is balanced. Even a service-oriented business needs to have a balance between the easy contacts with folks we know versus new contacts with clients we don’t know. One represents stability and the other represents growth.

For this week, let’s talk about growth. For some of us, that comes via a vibrant website. Most businesses today have at least a landing page, even if we don’t participate in e-commerce. How do we evaluate if that web presence is working for us? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

·        Are you experiencing a high bounce rate? I had to look that one up…it refers to visitors leaving your site without navigating through multiple screen.

·        Is your website mobile-friendly? Mobile phone users are expected to increase by 100 million in 2022.

·        Are you poring over your Google analytics to be sure your website is working for you?

·        Are you getting bad reviews?

·        Are pages uploading slowly?

All of these questions affect how well you conduct business from afar…whether it’s an overseas account or a person in Blue Springs just checking you out. Your business may need an online facelift. I represent the Luddite population who grew up without computers, and while I use one, yes, I find a lot of these parameters more than I care to learn. I keep a programmer on retainer so I can ask questions…but I am looking at retirement, so I’m not ready to dive into it all. But what about you? You have years of earning potential ahead of you, so you need to ensure you are snagging all the internet customers who look your way.

Outbound Engine suggests some easy ways to make your online presence more vital; things we can all do. Develop some good photos sized appropriately and use them consistently to build brand awareness. Be active on social media. Garner contacts by communicating with businesses you rub shoulders with, even if you don’t do business directly. The Chamber is great for that, but don’t stop there. Develop a presence on LinkedIn or other professional sites. If all of this sounds cumbersome, bring someone on board to handle some of that for you. Lots of us work as temps and consultants for small businesses.

The bottom line is easy to read. Look at your growing edge. Don’t focus so much on your current success that you overlook next month’s success. Striking that balance isn’t always easy, but it is the source of business security we all need to experience.