Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Back in 1999, it seemed that every company was in a rush to get products and services on the Internet to make millions of e-commerce dollars.
Companies that provided e-commerce sprang up by the thousands. Millions of dollars were poured into lavish data centers to house all the e-commerce servers needed to support this new business sector. The stock valuations for Internet-related and technical companies went through the roof – even for companies that were not generating any revenue and had little hope of doing so.
Then in 2001, the business world came back to its senses. The stock market came tumbling down. Many of the e-commerce companies that spent well beyond their means, without a reasonable business plan, do not exist anymore. Many other companies began to question the viability of e-commerce and how realistic it is for them to make money using the Internet.
But it’s not smart to swing back too far. It’s relatively easy, and for a relatively small amount of investment, to generate an additional revenue stream for your company.
Even though many of the dot-coms have seen their demise, e-commerce is alive and well. It is estimated that e-commerce was up more than 34 percent in 2002, generating more than $48 billion in revenue. Every company, no matter how large or small, should have a presence on the Internet to add to marketing and sales efforts.
If you have a small company, your Web site can be very simple. This site is an online version of your marketing brochure. The site explains the products or services you provide and gives your potential customers several ways to contact you, including your address, phone number, fax number and a link to your e-mail.
Here are the steps you might take to create a simple Web site.
1. Contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to inquire about its Web site hosting options and costs. Explain that you need text, pictures and links to your e-mail address.
2. You will also need your own domain name, such as www.yourcompany.com. Work with your ISP to choose and register a domain name for your company. Most of the straightforward names are already taken so you might need to be a little creative here.
3. If you do not already know someone who is a Web site designer, ask if your ISP people design Web sites or if they have a recommendation.
4. Contact several designers. Explain your vision of your site and what you want to accomplish. Ask to see a portfolio of Web sites previously designed. Ask about pricing and schedules. Ask about making changes to your Web site in the future. Choose the designer you are most comfortable with. Your designer and your ISP should now work together to create your site and to bring it online.
The typical costs for the simple Web site are $10 to $30 per month to have the site hosted and an annual fee of $20 to $30 to register and service your domain name. In addition, there’s the cost of design. Expect to pay about $1,000 to $1,500 for a simple but nice-looking online version of your marketing brochure.
For this relatively small investment, your company will be introduced to many potentially new customers. As always, check around because prices and service levels vary greatly.
If your company already has a simple Web presence and you now want to get an additional revenue stream by selling your goods and services directly on the Internet, the options get more interesting. You’ve got several questions to answer.
Once again, the key to a good e-commerce site is to find a knowledgeable, experienced designer. You should look for a Web site design company that has a portfolio of previously designed e-commerce sites that include product catalogs, shopping carts and credit card processing. They should also have tools in place to get your site registered with the major online search engines such as Yahoo!, Alta Vista and Google. You will be spending more resources to get your e-commerce site running, so invest some time to find the design company that is right for you.
The costs for a full-blown e-commerce Web site vary considerably. If you have a fairly static set of products or services with prices that do not vary then you could produce a relatively static e-commerce Web site and have it hosted on one of your ISP’s web servers. The cost for this will range from $30 to $50 per month plus the fee to have your Web site designed.
The Web site design fee will be based on how many products and services you have to display, how detailed you want your Web site to be, how credit card payments will be processed, and how your Web site will integrate with your current order processing system. For a relatively small investment, your products and services can now be purchased online, 24 hours a day, without the cost of an additional sales representative.
If your products or services change fairly often or if your prices are subject to change or if you have “specials” now and then, you will want to have a database-driven e-commerce site. This allows you to design the site once but at any time you can the database. This type of site gives you the most flexibility and it allows you to make immediate product and pricing changes based on market conditions. It is also the most expensive type to have designed and implemented on the front end.
Most ISPs will not allow database-driven Web sites on their shared servers. Therefore, once you have a database-driven e-commerce Web site you should consider hosting it on your own dedicated Web server in your ISP’s data center. That will run at least $200 per month, plus the fee to have your site designed.
Plan to spend several thousand dollars minimum for design. For this price you will have your own Web-serving computer dedicated completely to your e-commerce site, you can change your products and pricing easily and you will have the flexibility to add whatever applications you wish.
You’ll also be on your way to an additional revenue stream that could be substantial.
