James Greig has been a business owner since he left university three years ago. He’s now 24 and has 19 employees at his latest startup Bloomtools - a franchise business that sells simple web tools. Every business needs a website but it is also a very painful process for a lot of people, so James has shared his thoughts on that with us.

These days, everyone is using the Internet to buy online or at least research before they buy in-store. How important is it for business to have an online presence, even bricks and mortar business?

In the last few years, the Internet has matured to a level that websites are more than static online brochures – they can generate leads, grow your database, facilitate sales, build your brand and save you time and money. Therefore, having a website is essential, no matter what size or type of business you own. If you don’t, you are missing out on your share of 60% of consumers that use the Internet to shop and research, and you are denying your business huge potential growth.

The web development industry can be confusing and daunting for small business owners. How should people choose a web developer?

Sadly, there are too many dodgy, unreliable or low-skilled web developers in the industry that won’t hesitate to take advantage of uneducated customers. Therefore, business owners need to educate themselves before they choose a web partner. I recommend choosing a developer that does the following things:

• Has a good reputation for delivering quality websites on time and to cost
• Creates websites that adhere to W3C standards and usability guidelines
• Understands and offer services for SEO and Internet marketing
• Offers training and ongoing support
• Understands the business purpose and functionality of websites
• Develops software in-house and constantly improves it
• Has lots of experience and a qualified team
• Stays up-to-date with changing Internet technology

Bloomtools is based around the idea of ‘growing business’. What are some of the simple things businesses can use to grow?

As I said, the Internet has advanced way past the stage where websites are just online brochures. They are now so functional and powerful that they can get more customers, make more money and save more time for businesses.

Firstly, businesses need to attract traffic to their site, which can be done through SEO to boost your search engine ranking and blogging. Secondly, they need to get people to take an action on the site, so they need to have a shopping cart and offer incentives like newsletters or free ebooks to capture prospects details for their database. Thirdly, you need to keep them coming back and the best strategy for this is email marketing - welcome letters, newsletters, ecards and surveys that link to your site and keep your business top of mind.

You started your business when you were in university and have grown it into a national franchise. What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs that want to get their idea out there?

I think the key to being an entrepreneur is passion. I loved the Internet and wanted to help small businesses compete against bigger companies by building them a hard-working website and this is still the core mission of my business today.

So loving what you do is really important, because it’s what keeps you motivated and helps you overcome all the challenges that you will face as a young business person. I also think that networking is important – not only can you learn a lot from other people, you can also make valuable alliances that can help you in the future.

As you’ve mentioned, obviously the Internet industry is booming and it’s only going to get bigger. Where do you see Bloomtools heading in the next 5 years?

Bloomtools is already a market leader and in the next few years we will grow even bigger as more SME’s realise they need a reliable, expert web partner like us to help them build a web presence.

In 5 years time, Bloomtools will be a well-known brand with more than 100 franchisees and a reputation for providing quality turnkey solutions for businesses. We will have a team of passionate, expert franchisees in many countries around the world and will be an important player in the international web development industry.

Interviewed by Ross Hill, an Australian entrepreneur with a strong interest in the social web - his current projects include Yabble, Rentoid, CoverHunt and The Hive.

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Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Ross