Web Templates for Small Business

The current trend in the world of website development is toward mass customization

through the use of content management toolkits such as Wordpress. What do we mean

by “mass customization?”  Every website is built with a different layout and functionality.

This article argues that building websites using this model is very counterproductive for

the vast majority of small business firms. In fact, this approach actually impedes the

generation of economic value. Why? There are three significant reasons.


Maintenance Costs:  When a small business firm builds a website, either directly or

through web developers, it has implicitly committed to the lifetime costs of maintaining

that website. There are a vast number of reasons for updating a website, including a

redirection or a new opportunity for the business, an update in technology (the

introduction of the iPad, for example,), or simply a desire to take advantage of new web

technology (liked Linkedin).  There are many examples of small businesses that have

built websites but do not have the resources or time to maintain them.


Opportunity Costs:  Most websites are built and maintained by a cottage industry of web

developers. Many small business firms can’t obtain enough bandwidth from the web

developer to update their websites in a timely manner.  This hinders marketing

innovation for the business, because all actions are gated by access to web resources.

Further, as new Internet technologies are introduced into the marketplace, the current

toolkit approach forces everyone individually to update and integrate the new

technology. Viewed at a market level, this is a truly massive amount of work.


Business-to-Business collaboration:  With different companies building their own unique

websites, businesses cannot easily integrate their respective marketing messages to

create a material impact in the marketplace. Also, it is  impossible for small businesses

to integrate synergistically with natural partners like banks and insurance professionals.

Thus, customization actually leads to the loss of massive business opportunities for

small businesses.


In a word, the answer is platforms.  Platforms differ from toolkits in that a single entity

builds a core functionality that can be personalized by each business. Examples of

successful platforms include Facebook, Linkedin, and Quickbooks.  Today, small

businesses have access to platforms such as Businesssitedesginer for their marketing

function. These platforms have the following characteristics:


What is the solution?

1. Standard web presence is driven by personalization with direct data entry by the customer.

2. Standard methods for integration of content.

3. Deep functionality including natively integrated e-commerce, customer relationship

management, social network management, data mining, and analytics.

Web Development Company