No, and here’s why

1)      You wish to remain anonymous

2)      You are up to no good

3)      You can’t afford one

4)      You don’t want more customers

5)      You hate computers

6)      You are scared of competitors stealing your business model

7)      You don’t want to go through the pain of getting a site built

8)      You have other priorities and are too busy

9)      Your customers don’t use the internet

Of course, each of these reasons are nonsense (except the “up to no good” one, in which case I recommend you keep a low profile).

Here’s why you do need a website

Growing your business

Your website can be great for attracting new business. People use the internet all the time for sourcing products and services. If you don’t have a website, you have no chance of winning any of this business.

Helping your existing customers

Here are some questions that your existing customers and suppliers will ask:

• “when are you open?”
• “can you help with …?”
• “what is your address?”
• “what is your availability?”
• “how does this product work?”
• “what do you charge for…?”

All of these questions can be answered on your website, and can be available 24/7/365 instantly.

Credibility

It’s just a fact that pretty much everybody uses the internet now. Customers, job applicants, partners, suppliers, journalists, competitors and pretty much everybody else expects to be able to find you online.

Caveat: The worst thing you can do is have a rubbish website.

You’ll get few / none of the benefits of having a website, with the added kick in the teeth that you look cheap, unprofessional and untrustworthy.

A rubbish website will (in any combination) look awful, be hard to navigate, contain typos, be factually incorrect, out of date and won’t work in a variety of internet browsers.