If you’re a business owner on the fence about creating a website, I’ll save you some time—you need one. A good one. A professionally designed, lead-catching, sales-increasing, brand-differentiating website.

I originally wrote this article, 8 Reasons Why Your Business NEEDS a Professional Website, on my old website back in 2008, but felt it was in need of an update when I put this website together in 2017. Since 2009, there has been a drastic shift towards social media. Also, many entrepreneurs who understand the need for having a website are doing it themselves with freebie web hosting that comes with free drag and drop page builders.

Today you can have a website for pretty much anything—from crowdfunding campaigns to pet hamster fan pages. But for some reason, many small businesses have been slow to get online, even though websites have been around for over 25 years!

Websites work. No matter what your business or profession, a website can generate business, promote goodwill among customers and prospects, and deliver strong marketing messages - whether your business is small, large or in-between, well-established or brand-new.

Do you have a business without a website? We understand the reasons why you might resist building one for your business: “I’m not tech savvy”, “they’re too expensive”, “I don’t have the time”, or the infamous “I have enough business and I don’t need one”.

Unless you’re a small business owner who is not interested in growing your brand, you need to have a website. These days building a business website or ecommerce store is easier than ever: it doesn’t cost much money, you don’t have to know how to code or design, your online store is not restricted to business hours, and it’s one of the best means of free advertising.