Small Business Web Presence is a must, even for a Daycare

The other day a young woman I know, a working mother, she found herself in need of childcare. Not only wanted something for her three-year-old daughter, wanted a professional, someone who would actually stimulate the child's mind, not only his butt on the couch with three other guys watching Sponge-Bob Square-Pants. (I love Sponge-Bob, but they are well past the point that the stimulation is going to improve me in any way!)

He grabbed the book from my desk and began to search for what she called "nurseries". This is a shortcut to a place other than a nursery home. He met several and before you call to check availability, went straight to the Internet to check their websites. This is what parents do young people today. There's no percentage in fighting it. Having your name in the phone book or in the "Services" in the local newspaper is not enough. If these parents can not find anything online to show them what you have to offer, you're dead.

As I said, this lady was a professional. What I wanted to see was a business that looked more like a school house. Now we all know that you can not tell a book by its cover. There were definitely some daycare providers really great working outside the home and work for less because they did not have the overhead of a large facility. But she could not find one because most nurseries in this town think they can run their business without a website. And of course they can. They just do not do a lot of money on this.

Fortunately, the "centers" for children that young parents found they were all booked for the season and had to actually get in the car and drive around the nest in-home providers hoping to find that he could trust his son. After about a dozen, he discovered just right. The provider of the house was in a good neighborhood with a fenced yard full of toys and more recent, well-cared for swings and climbing equipment. Inside, the provider, a teacher in time with her two children, had split off the section custody of his house in a very safe and professional. He had the look of a school, it seemed something even better, the home of a mother caring, well-organized and efficient.

But it was only luck and diligence of my young friend who has brought these two people together. How much easier his task would have been the provider of a website nursery to see his home comforts.

It is as if a website is all that expensive. For the price of a domain name, often less than ten dollars a year-you can get a site that will allow you to upload photos of your business and a lot of explanatory text for free. Give some thought to this. How can you lose? ......