The other day I had a problem with the electrics in my house and I needed to get an electrician out urgently.
The house was wired about 8 years ago by a great tradesman. He was friendly and efficient and I wanted to use him again. But could I find his telephone number – no!
In the past 8 years I’ve had several different phones and I’ve obviously lost contact numbers along the way.
As I’m in the web business I thought I’d go online and find his number. He didn’t have a website or any kind of online presence.
I’m a tenacious kind of person so eventually I managed to track his number down. The electrics got fixed and life returned to normal in the house.
The point I’m trying to make is that people lose numbers, change their phones and very few people have address books anymore. We’re much more likely to go online if we need a number or address.
If you’re in business – any kind of business you need to get a website. If you don’t have a website you could be losing customers to the guy that does.