The world becoming more and more technology-based, and many small business owners are not
taking advantage of some very low-cost ways to get themselves and their business in front of
potential customers.  Here are a few ways that, with very little time, money, and effort, you can
get connected with those around you and build your business: 

Get some cool domain names!
If you do not have a domain name for yourself and your company, you are missing out on
potential customers.  These days, there are lots of low-cost domain name providers, and you can
purchase a domain name for less than $10/year.  For example, I purchased www.erikaflora.com
for myself and www.creativeenterprisesolutions.com for my company.  It is important to get websites for both your own name and that of your company, even if you currently do not have plans to build a website around them.  Otherwise, in the meantime, your name could be snatched up by someone else.  One benefit of branding both is that you can have a professional site as well as one that is, for example,
educational and will help potential customers connect with and trust you as a person.  Ultimately,
people do business with those they know and trust.  Plus, erika@erikaflora.com is much easier to
remember and more eye-catching than erikaf1534@sbcglobal.net, don’t you think? 

Create a basic website!
Once you have the domain name, there are a ton of products that can help you build a site.  If
you are even a little tech savvy, a low-cost option is to buy a do-it-yourself website building tool. 
Godaddy.com has a product called Website Tonight that costs about $5 a month and allows you
to build a basic 3-page site (Home Page, About Us, Our Services/Products, and/or Contact Us). 
You can pick the template and colors, upload pictures, and copy text into each of the pages.  It
only takes a few hours to get a site like this up-and-running.  If you are not so tech savvy, I
recommend connecting with a few web designers that can either create a custom site (more
expensive, but ultimately the better looking, long-term solution) or a site from a template (not as
nice looking, but much more cost effective and a good first step).  

Use the internet to expand your network!
A colleague of mine turned me onto a website called LinkedIn.com, and I have become a huge
advocate of the site.  It is a free website that you can use to keep in contact with people you meet at
networking events, former colleagues and coworkers, etc.  As a rule, I always connect with
people on LinkedIn after I get their business card.  Plus, unlike with business cards, if people
move companies, you still remain connected.  You can even find potential employees
here.  I recently had a friend find a great new job because an employer saw his experience and
who he was connected to and reached out to him.  It is a great way to build a sense of community
with those you know and get introduced to their contacts (a.k.a. future clients). 

If you follow these three tips to expand your network and create a web presence, then the cost is
minimal (approximately $50 a year).  Further, the return on investment is so great that there is
absolutely no excuse for any small business owner to not immediately do all three.  What are you
waiting for?