SMALL BUSINESS FAQ
Can small businesses afford a web site?
Does the cost of a web site put it out of the range of small businesses? Here are expenditures on similar needs for advertising, marketing, or customer support.
Advertising in the Yellow Pages of a somewhat large city (Pittsburgh): $16/month for a regular one line listing, $110/month for a 1" space ad, $1,346/month for a half page ad; a bold, one-line White Pages listing runs $24.50/month.
Ad in a small, local suburban newspaper: $10-$30 per column inch per insertion. (A column inch is about 2.062" wide and 1" high -- a regular business card is about 2" by 3.5": $35-$105 each time it appears.) Spot color can add $100 per color. Big city newspapers are much more expensive: $300 or more for a column inch.
Printing business cards: $20-$100, stationery (letterhead and envelopes): $200-$300. Brochures can be much more expensive. Mailing is postage plus labor to address and stuff in an envelope. Including all the costs, a simple brochure can cost a few dollars each time someone requests one to be sent out.
Total newspaper advertising revenue in 2000 was $49 billion (national and local advertising) -- $4.2 billion more than broadcast TV. Local Yellow Pages advertising was $11.1 billion (national Yellow Pages advertising was $2.1 billion).
Marketing costs for a full-service restaurant are 3% of sales -- $167 per seat. "Advertising services purchased from outside companies" among all restaurants were 2.4% of sales. In a supermarket, advertising is 4% of sales, the same as rent.
According to the National Restaurant Association, about half of all full-service restaurants have a web site. "Such sites primarily offer consumers information about the restaurant and provide location details," they say.
Compared to these expenditures, a $10-35/year domain name, $10-100/month web site, or even a $1000/year fee for special placement in a targeted directory web site, is not very much. That tiny home care, funeral home, or dance studio ad in the town newspaper next to the list of police activities or local high school sports could cost $300 per month or more. If they included a "See our web site for more information" instead of some of the text they could pay for the web site just in saved space. Also, like other forms of marketing and customer relations, web sites can be effective ways to spend money. They are good for reaching new customers, supporting current customers, and reducing costs associated with responding to other types of inquiries (e.g., telephone questions, including mailing brochures).
