By : Dick Lindsay
Source : http://www.berkshireeagle.com
Category : Small Business Grant
DALTON -- Four years ago, Aleisha Gibbons thought a website -- not a storefront -- would help her successfully launch Berkshire Organics.
Although Gibbons knew she lacked "Internet savvy," the now-33-year-old Dalton resident created a site on her own that allowed her customers to order baskets of locally and regionally produced organic foods online.
Today, Berkshire Organics has 300 delivery customers, employs two full-time and eight part-time employees, and works with more than 50 farms to bring their goods to market.
Aleisha's husband, Brian, left his full-time job at a local apple orchard to help his wife run the business.
In addition, the business relies on outside professionals to update and enhance its website. Since 2009, on an as-needed basis, the Gibbonses say they have paid an undisclosed fee to Aaron Altshuler, a local consultant with OnSite Tech Services, for website improvements and troubleshooting.
Aleisha Gibbons is one of the many local small-business owners who depend on the electronic media as an integral part of reaching out to consumers.
She started Berkshire Organics in May 2008 with produce from farmers in Western Massachusetts and Eastern New York. Gibbons initially collected their goods and brought them to her Dalton home. There, she would arrange them into delivery baskets that her customers had ordered online and deliver them throughout the county.
By the end of the summer of 2008, Berkshire Organics had grown from 35 customers to nearly 100. Gibbons realized she needed commercial space with more refrigeration. First she moved the operation to a former flower shop on Main Street. The following May, the business relocated again to Burgner's Farm Products on Dalton Division Road, where it now occupies 1,500 square feet -- more than half of the building's space.
The retail market sells the same items that customers can purchase online.
"[The store] puts a face to the name," she said. "We get people in that otherwise wouldn't know about us."
While opening a market was the next logical step for her business, Gibbons said that creating a website was the right first step for Berkshire Organics.
"There's no way we would have the store without the delivery service first," she said. "It was a way to build a customer base.
"I don't think we would have grown as quickly as we did without the website."
A website has become a basic necessity for anyone's business plan, according to Keith Girouard, director of the Berkshire regional office of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network in Pittsfield.
"Pretty much every small business in Berkshire County has one," he said.
However, Girouard says employers must be prepared to spend the time and money to constantly improve their online presence. In addition they must constantly invest in the maintenance or upgrade of their computer hardware and software.
"There is a learning curve for any new program or technology," he said. "Employers need to allow time to work out the glitches and get training for their employees."
For Jim Benson, who owns both Mission Bar & Tapas and the Ybar in downtown Pittsfield, social media is the best way for his clientele to keep tabs on what's going on in those North Street nightspots.
"Word of mouth has always been and always will be the best form of advertising, and Facebook and Twitter are a different way to do it," he said. "Everybody has what they need in their hand (through the use of mobile devices) to be a customer at Mission Bar and Ybar."
But this heavy reliance on technology comes at a price -- especially when an in-house computer system or an ever-important website crashes.
Berkshire Organics, which relies solely on the Internet for delivery orders, found this out the hard way.
"We had one day last year when our site was down for 24 hours and we couldn't figure out what went wrong," Aleisha Gibbons said.
Nevertheless, Gibbons said she finds it more efficient to receive orders online rather than taking them over the phone.
"Ordering through our website saves me 10 hours each week, giving me more time to handle the rest of the business," she said.
While many new and well-established small businesses have embraced the latest communication technology, some find a simple computer and a cell phone is all they need.
David Consolati, a self-employed contractor for 26 years, said he more frequently uses his computer to prepare job descriptions for his clients. But the Lee businessman said his cell phone has become indispensable, because he's more often at job sites than in the office.
"I'm in constant contact all day with homeowners and vendors, which is a good thing," he said. "But it can be a bad thing to, if I'm being interrupted trying to finish my work."
To reach Dick Lindsay:
rlindsay@berkshireeagle.com,
or (413) 496-6233
Building
a better website
Aaron Altshuler, a computer consultant with Pittsfield-based OnSite Tech Services -- which designed the current website for Berkshire Organics (www.berkshireorganics .com) -- lists five basic aspects of a successful business website:
n Keep it simple
n Think like a consumer
n Market your site once it's live
n Make payment processing easy
n Make yourself stand out from the pack
Source : http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_20250788/web-big-small-businesses?source=most_viewed
