Growing Your Business Beyond Just Websites

What is a website?

Well, according to some leading Internet Marketing Gurus, a website is just an advertisement, a tool that a business uses to reach out to its market — either to sell or to inform.

So, what does that mean for your business?

That means that if you have just setup a website, and are creating a few products for it, or running a few affiliate programs — you really don’t have a business. You have an ad.

So then — what is a business?

Search Google, and you will find these definitions, among others:

• An organization operated with the objective of making a profit from the sale of goods or services.
• An enterprise, commercial entity, or firm in either the private or public sector, concerned with providing products or services to satisfy customer requirements.

In a nutshell, your business is what you do.

If you just wait for people to visit your website, then you don’t have a business.

If you play the Google Adwords game, or post on message boards or send out spam or do anything that does not involve providing a product or service to your customers, then you do not have a business.

Food for thought, eh?

A little homework: Sit down and think about what you’ve got going? Do you have a business? What does your business do?

Once you’ve figure that out, ask yourself this: Who are the people that you provide your products and services to? What do they come to you for? What else could they need besides the item(s) or service(s) you currently provide?

Find ways to meet more of their needs, related to what you’re already providing. Setup partnerships with complementary companies. Join affiliate programs that offer products or services that will benefit your target market.

Develop a strategy (a system) for finding out what it is people need from your business. And give it to them.

Then you’ll have a business.