It’s official.

We are now entrenched in the worst recession since the great depression, and everyone’s talking about stimulus packages. Bailouts are everywhere: banks, real estate, auto manufacturers, municipalities, home owners and the unemployed. Just about everybody is receiving help - everyone but small businesses. Which we know is the hardest working sector of the economy. We know this because we are one – which is exactly why LevelTen has come up with our own Stimulus Package for small business owners.

Several weeks ago I got a chance to conduct two seminars at the Contractors Expo at the Dallas Convention Center. We were slotted to do a 2 hour presentation, so I did a 1 hour talk on online marketing and then our team spent the next hour doing site audits. Most of these companies were small businesses and as such had budget websites or DIY jobs.

We audited about 12 sites across the two seminars. As was typical of small budget sites, from quality of design and usability to search optimization and marketing, all were missing at least one vital success factor. None were producing any significant value for their clients. One woman even asked if they should take their site down because she thought it was causing brand damage!
While the results from the audits were typical, the situation was not. In the past I have presented to mid-size and larger companies – and when a $50MM+ company is wasting their time with a cheap website – it is easy to say, “You need to pony up the bucks if you are going to compete and do your brand justice.”

Yet, most of the businesses at this expo were sub $2MM. There were roofers, interior decorators and a Joe the plumber look-a-like. (I think his name was Stan) Since I’m a big believer in ROI driven business investments, I could not, in good conscience, tell them to spend $20k on a website and $4k a month for marketing. Even if they had the money to spend, I am not sure a small business could achieve a positive ROI – particularly in this economy.

So the talk evolved into a discussion on getting a respectable website on a tight budget.

For many years I preached that getting a budget site, one below $4K, is risky – and in most cases, I still believe this. In my experience, very few companies can achieve success on this kind of budget. But that was years ago, and the web has become infinitely more complicated. Semantic markup languages, advanced JavaScript, fierce search marketing competition, sophisticated content management frameworks, social media interaction, mobility and Web 2.0 features have emerged as new standards. Just 5 years ago it was difficult but possible for a freelance or a small shop to keep up, now it’s nearly impossible.

Despite those challenges, I knew that smaller, simple websites could be effective – if, that is, I could get everybody focused on the essentials for success.

So I started a list:

• You need a good, free content management system.

Beyond the big 3 of WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, most have little to offer. WordPress is fantastic for blogs but often not ideal for most general websites. Drupal while extremely powerful, has a very large learning curve. Joomla can be a good match for patient beginners, as it has a good balance between flexibility and ease of use.

• You need a good design.

All of the big three open source CMS’s have some great free and paid templates. Most of these templates are significantly better than budget custom design. You can always re-theme the site later once you’re receiving traffic.

• You need traffic.

You will need to optimize your site for search engines – which can be tricky. Fortunately, the big 3 CMS start with good search optimized architecture – particularly if you use templates that are well coded. You will still need keyword analysis, content optimization & organization, link building and more. With a basic keyword analysis tool and some reading material from our site I think I can get everybody started in the correct direction.

• You need help.

Even for a basic website - some foundational optimization, a little expert guidance, and time can go a long way. So I thought of our friends at the Dallas Joomla users group - do I dare place the hopes and dreams of thousands of small business owners on their shoulders? As knowledgeable as the group leaders are, their meetings are already teeming with entrepreneurs vying for free help. And even if they get that help, who can help them with the marketing?

Then the plan emerged. LevelTen could offer training. We could distil nearly 10 years of online experience into a one day workshop. That way everyone could get the tools and the attention they need to do it right.

Granted, we are a Drupal shop, and Drupal tends to overwhelm new users with its extreme flexibility and seemingly endless features.
But we created the iSite Essentials for this very reason. With iSite Essentials, we can deliver the power of Drupal, while keeping it simple. Combined with our search marketing expertise and knowledge, I think we have quite a bit to offer.

So here’s a stimulus package that doesn’t need a vote: we’ll spend the morning building a core business style website, with room to grow. Then we’ll spend the afternoon learning and implementing the basics of search marketing.

Virtually anybody could spend one day with us, and walk away with a website that would shame 90% of existing budget level websites. Business owners would be able to manage their own respectable sites, leverage advanced features, and even take advantage of free search traffic to meet business goals.

They say that small businesses are hit hardest by recession. That may be true – but why take it sitting down?

Stand-up! Change!

Now’s the perfect opportunity to improve your small business while your competition ducks for cover – and with LevelTen at your side, it just got a whole lot easier.