While at a gathering with a group of friends this week-end, one friend who owns a small business made a statement that went something like “ I don’t really worry too much about the web-site that I have, all of my business comes through referrals anyways”. At this point my two year old daughter decided to wear her banana pudding like a hat and I was distracted away from the conversation. Later that night while watching my wife remove said pudding from her adorable little ear canal, my mind came back to that statement.

My guess is that this is a sentiment shared by many small business owners. “What does my web-site really do for me?”. My answer is that it probably does more for you than you may think about. Let me illustrate with a real life scenario that has happened to me :

Last year our AC unit decided to stop working during that incredible heat spell. I mentioned it to a friend from church and they told me the name of the repairmen that fixed their unit. He was honest, quick and reasonably priced. His name was Joe S-something (I’m terrible with names). I searched “Joe AC Repair Garland” when I had a chance and got a hit. Called the guy, he came out, did his thing, minor repair and a sales pitch on a new unit. He was everything my friend had told me. He was also not the right guy. I can tell you that if you search like I did and you get the same repair guy you won’t be disappointed.

Word of mouth has changed, have you changed with it? Oh, and the Banana Pudding Recipe at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-banana-pudding/ is incredible. Just keep it out of your ears.