Websites: Cover Page or Full Site?

The answer to this may seem obvious, but, as with any business decision, there are multiple variables. While I would generally encourage a business to invest in a full site, there are scenarios where something simpler is both more realistic and practical. 

  Things to consider:

 
• Do you have the time?
 
• Do you have the capital to invest?
 
• Do you have the people?

What does this look like? For starters, do you have the time to devote to building an in-depth website? The answer may be no and the capital may not be available to pay someone to build it for you. That's when a basic cover page can be useful and practical. Also, you may not have a need for an in-depth website. A local shop around me has a very simple cover page with their basic information (contact, location, etc.) and social media links. It's literally one very well done page.

What to remember: Just because a particular business is doing well doesn't mean that every company should switch to their method. What we have to remember is that every company is different and therefore needs a different plan. We don't want to reinvent the wheel, but trying to copy another business's model just because it worked for them probably isn't wise. Research, gather ideas and then find what works for you company in your particular scenario.

Cost of Goods Sold

This is the total of all costs used to create a product or service (this product has to have been sold). To put it another way, this is the direct cost associated with creating a product.

What's included in this (generally speaking)?

• Labor
• Materials
• Overhead

What's the formula?
Cost of Goods Sold = Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory

Why is this important?
Knowing the cost of goods sold is another indicator of how healthy or unhealthy and organization/business is financially speaking. This figure helps a company to determine whether or not a product is being produced efficiently and if the product itself is actually profitable. In other words, this is very important, make sure that you know this number.

What to remember? We've said many times recently that numbers don't tell the whole story and they don't, but having the right numbers can make all the difference. Also, just because a product is needed or seems to bring in a lot of cash doesn't mean that a company should keep producing it.

Websites: Getting Started

Before you get started on building a website, it's important to make a list of goals.

Things to consider:

• What do you want to show people?
• Where will you get your images?
• What colors will be on the site?
• Is it time to redesign the logo?
• Who will develop content?
• Is it better for the site to be content or image rich or something in-between?
• What is going to capture your customers attention?
• How will you represent you mission on the website?
• How will you represent yourself?

What to remember: Don't stress if you feel unprepared, look at other companies that you admire for inspiration, think MVP (Minimum Viable Product), in other words, get the site up knowing that you'll continue to develope the site overtime.

June 20, 2018/ James Mantrozos/

James Mantrozos

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is essentially a financial statement that tells whoever is looking at it what a company owes and what is owns (this is of course in a summary format).

Why is this important? The balance sheet gives a company a tool that makes it possible to see where they stand overall. It shows how much cash is available as well as the amount of debt and liabilities, what's coming due "today" and what's coming due in the future. Having this information in this specific format can help to inform and speed up the decision making process.

What can you pull from this?

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio
• Acid-Test Ratio
• Operational Efficiency
• Working Capital
• etc.

What to remember: This is a picture of one point in time and should be compared to both previous periods and other companies in the industry. In other words, don't look only at the balance sheet when making decisions.

Websites: The Presence

There's more than enough research out there to show that every business should have a website. One of those reasons is presence or, in other words, so that people/potential customers have a place to find you. With the ease in which it takes to setup a website and, as little capital that is needed, there's not really a good reason to not have one.

Why is this important: Customers need to be able to find you. A website has the information about how to contact you, where your located, what events you'll be attending, etc. While social media can be used to accomplish this goal, that information can get lost in the mix. It should be used, but as one of many tools. i.e. keep your website updated with current information. This lets people know what's happening with the business, where it will be, and then alert them to changes/updates via social media.

What to Remember: No one knows your business better than you. In other words, your online presence is yours and you need to make it look like yours.

Net Profit Margin

By definition, this is the percent amount left over from revenue when a company has paid all the operating expenses, interest, and taxes. In other words, this is the final number that tells a company what percent of every dollar that they actually held on to after everyone has been paid.

What is the difference between this and gross profit margin? Gross margin is the difference between revenues and the cost of goods sold, which leaves a residual margin that is used to pay for selling and administrative expenses. Net margin is the residual earnings left after all expenses have been deducted from revenues.

The Formula:
Net profit margin = (Net profits ÷ Revenue) x 100

And to be more specific: (Total Revenue – Total Expenses)/Total Revenue = Net Profit this is then divided by Total Revenue which gives us the Net Profit Margin

Why is this important? This essentially shows how well a company can turn revenue into profits. It can also help to shed light on things like poor expense management, low sales, bad customer experience, etc. Regardless, this number is a signifier that either things are going well or maybe not so well.

What to remember: As I've stated several times recently, numbers don't tell the whole story, but they are a powerful tool that can help shed light on both the good and the bad within a company. Know your numbers.

Websites: Growth

Whether you have no website or are trying to redo a current website, it's worth it to think about what the goal is in updating the company's online image. The basics would be to generate new business, new contacts, and for customer communication. However, a website is simply another tool that any company can use and its uses are in no way limited to those few topics. For now, though, we'll go over those areas and hopefully get started down the correct path.

Generate New Business: In today's world, every business needs a website. Can you get by without one? Sure, but why? It's a tool that's available to everyone not just those people who know how to code. Statistically, people will search for a business online to learn about them before they ever consider buying a product. Therefore, generating new business is far easier with an online presence (which tends to be the case when people can actually find you...).

New Contacts: So these people found you, now what? One of the great things about having a website is collecting data from the potential customer (and this can happen anytime, day or night). Forms to collect potential customers are easy to setup and, in many cases, they can be linked into whatever contact management/email system that you're currently using. I know that this thought is nothing revolutionary, but I still run across sites, on a regular basis, that are not using a contact form, are poorly maintained, and are obviously not using all the tools available. Let the website work for you.

Communication: You got the attention of someone, now what? A website helps you to grow that relationship by putting out helpful content, alerting customers and potential customers of upcoming events or sales, and answering questions all while you're off doing any of the other task that have to be done to keep the business running. Helpful content could be in the form of how-to articles or videos. The site could be used to pass along an alert about important updates, closings due to weather, that you're at a particular event, etc. Of course, sometimes a customer simply has a question and maybe that question can be answered in a simple FAQ.

What to remember: These topics are a very high level overview of some of the very basic things that are possible. In other words, get started building and never stop because new amazing tools are constantly being developed.

Operating Income

Operating Income is a figure used in accounting that shows how much profit will be available after operating expenses have been deducted. This might include things like rent, repairs, payroll, delivery cost, travel, etc. This does not include things like taxes or interest expenses. Essentially, when the operating income is higher, it tends to signify that a company is more profitable.

The formula: Operating Income = Revenue - Expenses

Why is this important: Operating income is essentially an indirect measure of how efficient a company is operating. In other words, inefficiencies create waste which as we all know cost a company money. Therefore raising this number isn't just about higher profits but also about helping your organization to cut waste, inefficiency, and operating cost.

What to remember: This is a little cliche, but knowledge is power. Knowing this number can give you insight (if used properly) into a company that you may not be able to see just through observing operations.

Websites: The Importance of Mobile

If your site can't be easily viewed on a smartphone, then your design has fallen behind. For awhile, we had to rely on what was esssentially either a very poor interface for the client or a site that looked nothing like the original design. Maybe it had the same colors, maybe similar images, but it simply wasn't the same. Then came responsive design. Now you can build one website and it simply "responds" to the screen dimensions and/or device.

Why is this important? For starters, more and more people are using smartphones and tablets to search for businesses (when I say more and more, I mean a large majority of people). Sure, there are exceptions, but this is where we are heading. Desktops are on their way out, laptops are still viable, but forward thinking marketers are already referring to them as an outdated technology, which leaves us with tablets and smartphones. Tablets come in all different sizes and, while they don't vary quite as much, so do smartphones. Therefore, your website design needs to take into consideration all of these different sizes. Don't worry, it's not that difficult or complicated.

What does this look like? You'll want to design a site that responds to the various differnent sizes of screens available. This would include multiple sizes for tablets, smartphones as well as including desktops and laptops. A decent developer and/or many site builders these days can handle this task.

What to remember: Don't think of responsive design as make it or break it, but as a tool/asset that can help you to better reach your customer. Whether you're a CEO/Supervisor/Manager/Freelancer, you should be using all the appropriate resources available to you.

Gross Profit Margin

According to Investopedia, Gross profit margin is a financial metric used to assess a company's financial health and business model by revealing the proportion of money left over from revenues after accounting for the cost of goods sold (COGS). In other words, it's a measure (ratio) of how much a company keeps of every dollar that comes into the business.

The Formula:
Gross Profit Margin = (Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold) / Revenue

Why is this important? No one number is going to make or break a company, but the more information that you have, the better equipped you are to make sound business decisions. That said, this number can be used to help compare yourself to other companies in your industry. It won't give you the whole picture, but it will help to show whether or not you're on par with the standard. Outside of comparing youreself to the industry, this metric can and should be used internally to let you know that you're either on track or off track in regards to profitability.

To be more specific, if you sell a widget for $30 and it cost you $5 to make, then your Gross Profit Margin on the product would look something like this:

Gross Profit Margin = ($30 - $5) / $30 or 83%

83% is good, but what if the Cost of Goods Sold was $20? Then your Gross Profit Margin is 33% which is a far cry from 83%. Remember though that the lower margin may mean higher quality and lower returns/replacements/refunds/repairs. Therefore, this number must be viewed in light of the overall strategy.

What to remember: Numbers/Ratios/Metrics, however you say it, don't tell the whole picture, but are an invaluable tool and resource for analyzing the health of a company.

Websites: SEO

Search Engine Optimization. There has been so much written on this topic, both good and bad, that I've chosen to stick to the basics. Essentially, this is optimizing your website so that it shows up higher in the search results and more specifically the search terms that a company/organization has chosen to align themselves with.

What does this look like? Most people immediately jump to content optimization. While this is definitely a large part of SEO, it is by no means the only area that needs to be optimized. Some areas to look at would be:

Of course, content:

This everything from your welcome message to your product description(s) to the about us page. Don't try to force this or add in words that wouldn't normally be there. Instead, write the content as it would naturally occur, this will work better in the long run.

Imagery:

This is both about the size and a little thing called meta data. You want the images to load quickly, so use the size and file type that is needed.

Meta Data is the information attached to the image. It's actually data that gives information about other data, but that's a different article. You might hear someone refer to this when talking about the alt attribute, they go hand in hand. Basically, include an appropriate description of the image.

https:

We should all recognize the s on the end of that http, but don't take it for granted. You might have hear about SSL (Secure Socket Layer), this means that your site has another layer of security and that your customers information is more protected, specifically on the transmission side.

Having that little s on the end tells the search engine that your site is more secure than another site that doesn't have it. Therefore, it's one more thing that will help boost your rankings.

What to remember: SEO is part science and part art. In the end, remember to write content with integrity and for your customers not the search engines.

Operational Efficiency

This is another metric used to test if the organization is truly profitable. It's definitely a big picture metric, but a good manager/supervisor/CEO will always know this number. It essentially tests how efficient the work input was against the actual output of the organization.

The Formula:
Operational Efficiency = (Work output ÷ Work input) x 100%

Why is this number so important? There have been many companies in the past that, despite good sales, simply are struggling to break even. This could be due to many reasons, but knowing how efficient the operations are could help to narrow down the search. On the other hand, even if a company is doing well, it still wouldn't hurt to know this figure given that there may and probably still is room for growth. In the end, no business should waste any resource that they have available. #KnowYourNumbers

What this looks like:

• Set objectives and make sure the team knows the benchmark.
• If specific jobs need to collaborate, then put them near each other.
• In manufacturing, make an assembly line, building and rearranging where necessary.
• Identify where the waste is occurring and eliminate it.
• Setup and maintain a maintenance schedule (properly maintained tools function better).
• Eliminate bottlenecks (no one should be held up from completing a task because someone else needs to finish their job).
• Clean up and organize workstations (clutter makes it difficult to find things).
• Continuously monitor and manage performance
• Provide better support to the employees

What to remember: just because money is coming in doesn't mean that the company is operating at maximum efficiency. To be profitable and sustainable in the long run, a company must eliminate the waste.

May 21, 2018/ James Mantrozos/

James Mantrozos

Websites: Goals

I don't know how many times I've said that every business needs a website, but that truth still stands and can be a vital asset to a company. However, a bad website can arguably hurt a company as much as not having one. That's why there needs to be goals and a plan for the site.

Questions to ask yourself?

• Why are you creating a site?
• What are you trying to accomplish?
• Who are you trying to reach?

These questions may seem similar, but they cover very specific areas. For starters, just like choosing a path for the business you need to know why and the why needs to be focused. Otherwise, the site could easily become disorganized and unfocused. This is different from what you're trying to accomplish. What are your goals? Do you want to sell on the site? Are you looking to start a blog? These questions will help determine design and setup of the site. Lastly, the demographic is extremely important. Along with helping tp determine design and setup, this will also help determine the marketing and SEO aspects of the site.

What to remember: Planning is key. Before you ever start to develop a site, whether with an outside developer or with someone in your organization, create a plan.

Working Capital

What is working capital? This is very simply the difference between your current assets and liabilities. In other words, the difference between the amount of "cash" that a company has readily available and its current debts. The current assets can be thought of as the various forms of cash that a company has available. Basically, if you can turn an asset into cash within a year without taking a loss on its value, then, generally speaking, it's a current (also called quick) asset. Current liabilities are basically anything debt/bill/obligation due within a year.

The formula for this one looks like this:
Working Capital = Current Assets - Current Liabilities

What to remember:

• Working capital deals with the short term financial health of a company.
• It can be a good indicator of whether or not the company is operating efficiently.
• This is a good figure to know, but it doesn't tell the whole story.
• This shows whether a company's short-term assets can cover its short-term debts.