The story of Big Bob

Meet Big Bob Brody. Bob has owned Big Bob’s Discount Flooring (BBDF) for 4 years now and is known as an honest, knowledgeable businessman to his local customers. When it comes to flooring, Bob can explain advantages and disadvantages between most any floor covering. In a nutshell, Bob knows flooring.

Bob is looking to increase business and that means marketing—something Bob doesn’t know. He does know that he needs a website because that’s what everyone told him he needs. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really understand how a website can help BBDF to grow, so his site is mainly comprised of a few static pages that show what his company sells, as well as a picture of Bob with his favorite dog “Bark”. Bob also knows that in business, he needs business cards.

Let’s take a look at Big Bob’s business card:

Bob needs some help

For many small business owners, Bob’s marketing frustrations are all too familiar. What they don’t realize is that in business, people judge them by their website as well as their email name. While bark&me@yahoo.com may be a perfectly acceptable email name for Bob’s personal email, it lacks the professionalism needed in the business world.

Change that email

The good news is that Big Bob has the ability to change his email for little or no cost. When you register your domain name with places such as GoDaddy, Host Monster, or Register.com (to name a few), you can also have your email included for very little extra cost. And if even small costs seem too high, companies such as Google will let you host your email for free.

Here is how it works for Google Apps:

Say you own a web site domain name like BBDF.com that you paid for at a domain hosting company. With a Google Apps account associated with this domain, you can create up to 50 users (in the free plan) in Google Apps, like Bob.brody@BBDF.com, Sales@BBDF.com, and chris.smith@BBDF.com. Each employee gets his or her own email account, calendar (for sharing amongst the group), instant messenger account on Google Talk, and Google Docs account for sharing and collaborating on office documents like spreadsheets, Word documents, and slide shows—all for free.

Now before you begin to believe that Google Apps is world’s greatest invention, remember that Google’s free plan has no real tech support and if their servers goes down, you’re down as well. For this reason as a company grows to over 10 computers, they should consider adopting an in-house exchange server to host their email. But for now, Bob is thrilled to have his companies email changed to reflect his domain name.

So let’s take a look at Bob’s new business cards:

Moving Forward

Bob has seen the light and is now moving forward with changing his website to be more interactive for his customers. In the future, his contracting clients will be able to search, compare, and purchase floor coverings right through Bob’s website. Looks like BBDF is on the right path for success.