Web Hosting Small Business – 10 Baseline Requirements Good Business Web Host Providers Should Meet

If you’re looking for a matching web host provider for your small business it can be a very challenging task to determine what requirements you really need and what web hosting company you can trust. Therefore watch out for this 10 baseline requirements reputable web host providers should meet as they are vital for the success of your small business website.

1. Upgradeable Business Hosting Plan

An upgradeable business hosting plan is a plan that grows with your business. That holds your web hosting cost as low as possible and provides you with all features needed in the current situation.

2. 24/7 Live Support By Phone and by Email

24 hours a day, seven days a week live support by phone and by email is another vital feature you have to watch out for. Sometimes you’ll simply need support in any way but to wait a month of sundays especially in business is not exactly brilliant.

3. 99.99% Uptime Guarantee

That means that your business website is running without a drop out in 99.99% of the time. This can only be guaranteed if the web host company relies on high end server infrastructure maintained by well trained technical staff.

4. A Free Domain Name

In simple terms a domain name is the unique web address of your website like e.g. “yoursmallbusinessname.com” or something like that. It has to be registered to your name before it is accessible over the internet.  Usually every good web host provider will register you at least one domain name for free.

5. Website and Web Statistic tool

A website and web statistic tool like e.g. AWStats or Webalizer is needed to collect detailed information about the visitors of your website. To analyze your visitors is crucial for your success and so this feature must be included in a good web hosting plan.

6. Spam- and Virus Blockers for email accounts

Spam and virus blockers are filter programs that run on the servers of your web hoster. Nowadays this feature became standard and should be included in your hosting plan without extra charge.

7. Web based control panel

A web based control panel like e.g. cPanel is a program that runs in your favorite internet browser. With a control panel program you’re able to manage and adjust all your web hosting tasks like e.g. setting up your email and ftp-accounts, performing security settings, organizing your databases, performing backups etc. The most popular control panel today is cPanel which is included in a good web hosting plan.

8. Web based email

Web based email means that you have access to your emails both with your email client and over the internet with your internet browser. That gives you the possibility to access your emails from any computer with an internet connection.

9. Minimum 30 Day Money Back guarantee

A solid money back guarantee gives you confidence that the company keeps their promises not only on the day that you’ve signed in. Of not, don’t hesitate to cancel your hosting plan and get your your money back before you invest to much time in your website development.

10. Instant Backup Option

An instant Backup Option gives you the possibility to backup your entire hosting account and download it to your own computer. This includes everything that is setup with the account. The backup file can be used to restore your account on their server if needed and gives you more control over the security aspects of your web hosting account.

Attention Small Business Owner – Here are 9 different ways that you can incorporate your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) into your retail business:

1. Tailor your USP for the entire experience that the customer will have, including the benefit they receive for visiting your business. The USP should focus entirely on the major promise that you can give the customer solve his/her biggest problems or fears about a particular niche subject.

2. Make sure the USP is visible as soon as the customer enters the store. You don’t want to hide your reason for doing business on the back of the receipt, next to the register, or nowhere at all. People need to know what you are going to do for them as soon as they step foot in the door, and before that too.

3. Turn your USP into different headline ideas for sales fliers and coupons, by rearranging statements or a few words, but not changing the original concept of the USP. This will keep your identity all-encompassing throughout your marketing.

4. Use your USP on all of your off-line marketing material such as vehicle stickers, business cards, t-shirts, paper bags, employee handbook, promotional items, yellow page ads, post cards, and anything else that is driving people to your store. The USP needs to be prevalent in every single nook and cranny of your particular business.

5. Make sure that your USP is included on all of your email marketing, from newsletters, to reminders. Make sure that your message is on everything that you send out. You can quickly create an email tag that you can paste on everything that you send out, even in auto-responders. Capture the email of as many customers as possible so that you can keep reminding them that you still exist and still have the answers to their problems.

6. Don’t bury your USP deep down in your marketing material. Put it at the top. Just like headlines, you want your customers to know what you stand for and what you are going to do to solve their problem. If they see something that catches their eye, they will keep reading. If you can’t grab them by the jugular right away, you’ll never catch them and you’ll have wasted all of your marketing efforts.

7. Practice your USP, so that it is second nature in your head. A very common sales technique is to have an elevator speech, which is basically an explanation of your entire business that can be stated succinctly in 30 seconds or so (an elevator ride). If you have your USP or USPs permanently engraved in your brain, you can embellish upon it and create an elevator speech that you will also have memorized. Every time someone asks “what do you do?” you will be able to instantly go into sales mode without having to stumble for the answer. Be prepared. You never know how many contacts you can get just by casual conversation.

8. Make sure that your USP can “…move the mass millions” to take action as Rosser Reeves would say. You do not want to have trivial differences in your product that no one cares about. Your USP must show how your product is the one-and-only solution for a specific reason that you will state in your Unique Selling Proposition.

9. Make sure that you are passionate about your USP. If you are not 100% excited and passionate about your USP, your marketing and your face will also say that to your customers. Why on earth would anyone want to buy something from a business that seems wishy-washy about what they are doing? If you don’t really feel like telling everyone you know about your USP and your product, then you should rethink your USP, or maybe your lack of passion says that you need to move on to something that you do care about.