Having designs on SMEs

Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) know that a web presence is increasingly handy to have, but the vast majority have very little idea of how to go about setting up a site. A number of website designers are targeting the SME market and its particular needs for handholding and cost-effectiveness. Many of these designers are small businesses themselves and tend to serve their local area. We profile three companies who offer services to SMEs.

Webmillers Website Design
Simon Wetherall, sole proprietor of Webmillers, got into website design as a result of trying to put his other specialist small business online. "I have another business supplying horse feed. Someone approached me offering a web design service and it whetted my appetite to get involved with the internet. I thought I could do better myself, so I had a go," he said.

Most of his customers tend to be in the business-to-business (B2B) market, wanting to offer an online catalogue. Webmillers supplies hosting and domain names, and uses Microsoft Front Page to design the sites.

One of its first customers was ukal.co.uk, which supplies sheep and cattle ear tags. The site attracted an order from South Africa and The Yorkshire Post ran an article on it. "This has been such a success that the owner has moved from free web space to a bigger site and is now a limited company," said Wetherall. Shirtsdirect, which sells classic shirts, has been Webmillers' greatest success in terms of its sales volume.

Most of Webmillers' customers have no preconceived idea of what they want their web presence to look like. Wetherall usually visits the client's premises to get a feel for its operations and to take away any literature that may help.

He sees services launched in recent months by corporates such as BT as his main rivals in terms of price. "Originally, we were way below the standard price," he explained. The company's main differentiator now is its personal service, but clearly this comes at a premium.

"We would rather do the work online," he said. "It saves time and money. If potential clients live in our region we will visit them. We don't drop everything and go, but if they want us to we will try to. Obviously we can't travel 200 miles for a £350 total fee."

Wetherall's advice to SMEs is that they must prioritise their domain name. "The first thing they must do is get their own email address with their own domain name. This creates a far better impression than a business card with, for example, mycompany@freeserve.co.uk. It looks better on advertisements too. The other thing is not to be static and to keep introducing things," he said.

He believes that one of the main pitfalls for SMEs starting out on the web is that they underestimate the amount of online fraud. "We certainly find this with people who already have merchant facilities," he said. "The majority of our customers are B2B and will take credit cards numbers over the internet. Fraud is particularly prevalent on expensive items."

One of the difficulties that Wetherall finds in providing a service to SMEs is that very often people do not understand what he needs from them in order to build the site. "Sometimes they have just been out and bought a £1000 PC. They want a website but they can't work a PC yet. They can't use email or send files," he explained. Wetherall now pre-empts this by asking a potential client to email him at an early stage, in order to establish their level of competency. He points out that a website is of little value if its owner is unable to respond to emails.

"I insist that they respond immediately to inquiries. It is no use if they just pay me and only check their emails once every two weeks. I email them regularly to check," he said.

The company offers after sales support free of charge. "I help clients as much as I can," said Wetherall. "I do get things like inquiries about computer viruses - I have had two this morning. I don't mind because they will come back to renew the package. Some clients on the other hand never bother me again once they have paid." He doesn't give any guarantees regarding down time as this would mostly be out of his hands. "I do guarantee 100 per cent effort though."

Weblink4u
Weblink4u was set up eight months ago, the brainchild of Brian Harley who was looking for a fresh challenge after being made redundant two years ago. "I spent about a year to 15 months learning about web design and the important aspects of ecommerce before I launched the site," he said.

The company offers to design and build ecommerce facilities including online catalogues, shopping baskets and secure ordering facilities. It targets both the B2B and business-to-consumer markets. Harley said he gets a mixed bag of small business customers, one being a jeweller based in Herefordshire but trading worldwide with about 100 lines. Weblink4u has also built a site for a recruitment agency and for a company selling stationery online. It provides anything from what it calls "glorified advertisements" on a five to six page website, to full ecommerce shopping facilities.

But Harley has a warning for small businesses. "There isn't a pot of gold at the end of the modem," he said. "A lot of people think they will get rich quick. However, pound for pound, I believe advertising your business on the web is better than advertising in the local newspaper or yellow pages."

He advises clients to advertise their site on everything possible, partly because of the difficulty of winning customers through search engines. "You have to be very lucky for people to find you that way, although we do point out that it is a free source of leads," he said.

He says that none of his clients have known what they wanted their website to look like before they came to him. "They just know they want to be online," he explained. "It can take a long time to get even something like a colour scheme from them. They probably haven't had a logo previously and they haven't considered the effect on their lives if they're successful."

"We ask them whether they're going to be able to cope and how they can gear up for an increase in orders," he added. He prepares clients by visiting them and doing a presentation which is aimed at raising a lot of these questions.

Weblink4u has a modular approach to prices with three basic pages starting at £125. Extra features, such as Java applets and extra pages, cost more. It also charges extra for corporate ID design. "We are trying to attract people," said Harley. "So the price is comparatively low and we can undertake to get people online quickly. We take people on trust a lot, but we ask them to pay deposits and pay the web hosting in advance."

Harley has no concerns about competition from large organisations targeting the SME market. "I think there is room for everybody. We are targeting a relatively small catchment area, based in Worcester," he said.

His favourite design software is the hard coding package AceHTMLPro, Homesite4.5, and Ulead's Photoimpact 6 for graphics. Weblink4u also uses the shop@ssistant package as this provides UK features such as VAT calculations, conversion to euros and shipping cost calculations. Harley says that the company offers 100 per cent post-sales support "because I normally do the hosting. Cosmetic changes, for example telephone numbers, I do free of charge. Further updates are by quotation; Weblink4u does not offer a maintenance package."

Superwebs
Superwebs attracts a wide range of customers, including those who have already written a site themselves and want Superwebs to do the design, and those who have definite ideas about text, images and colours. More usually, though, people do not have a clear idea about what they want. Co-founder Melinda Kennedy says that, in that case, she talks to clients and latches on to positive feedback about certain aspects of the design.

Kennedy says that the most successful ecommerce sites with which Superwebs has been involved have been those which have attracted business through special offers. "Scothampers.com was offering 10 per cent off and did well. You can't just advertise - you have to tantalise," she said.

She points out that small businesses are very often unaware of the legal pitfalls in setting up a website. "There is a load of legal stuff from copyright to privacy policies which people wouldn't really think of. People don't imagine they will have to deal with this, but we have to make them realise that they need things such as a refund policy - they have to come up with one," she said. "We refuse to take on [customers] that don't want to have a secure site."

Superwebs advises that sites should be quick to load and easy to navigate, and that too much information is a turn-off. "We recommend that it has to be more than a brochure," explained Kennedy. "It should include testimonials, press reviews and special offers. Chances are that people are coming to the website due to offline marketing. If it's just another brochure, there will be disappointment. It has to offer more."

She points out that visitors reaching the site via offline marketing are an important target as they are generally of a higher quality than surfers. "So few customers generated through internet traffic are genuine. For every 200 visits there may be 10 sales, compared to a shop where someone entering the shop is much more likely to be a customer," she said.

Superwebs uses Macromedia Drumbeat and Firework Ultrades to design the pages. It started out using Microsoft Frontpage, but Kennedy says that she no longer likes it. "In fact, we have given a free upgrade to people we did Frontpage sites for. [They] are almost scoffed at because you're not getting something you couldn't do yourself," she said. The company uses SSL for its secure server.

Each customer is given an individual quote and, by prior agreement, once the website goes live they are charged by the hour for further work. "However, we do give free advice in the hope it will turn into promotional work for us," said Kennedy. Most of its business currently comes from the local Dumfries and Galloway areas, but Kennedy says she is looking further afield. "We don't just target our region," she said.