Pre-Internet, judging the size of a business involved a brick and mortar assessment. You walked down the street and looked at the buildings. You might have seen one company with a 10-story building and realized that was a big company. Then you might have seen another business that had a single storefront, part of a small building, and you realized that business was much smaller.

Today online, the world wide web is the great leveler. Because we’re dealing with bits and bites, the cost of producing a high quality website for a small business is not any higher than the cost of producing a high quality website for a huge organization. This allows a small company with a smart investment in their web design to look just as stunning as a huge organization, and in many cases even more stunning. On the web, a small company can have a huge image.

How would you like to present your business online?

To your success!

A while back, a friend came to me for help redesigning her e-commerce website. Her current site wasn’t producing much. So I spent quite a while exploring what were her goals for the business and for the website.

I discovered two things. First, even though she wanted to sell products online, her real goal was to get her product onto the shelves of the large chain stores. Second, she had a dream of building up the business to sell it so she could retire.

As we were meeting and talking, I noticed she had a really cute product.

She shared with me that whenever she showed the product to someone, people on the other side of the room would perk up and say, “Oh! Can I look at that?” I realized we needed to showcase her product and her product’s personality on the website.

We designed the e-commerce site with an eye toward our real goal of branding and showcasing the product to catch the attention of the large chain store buyers. The following week after we launched the website, she went to a trade show and came home with $130,000 – $140,000 in orders for her product to go on store shelves.

Several of the buyers mentioned to her that they were really impressed with the website. She went on to get the product onto the shelves in PetSmart. Then she got a call from Bentonville, inviting her to develop an OEM product line for Walmart.

Within two years, she had sold the business and retired to her dream home in Utah.

How can you apply this to your business? First, we must identify the real goals for your business. Once we know that, we can design your website to achieve those goals.

To your success!

Hello again. Happy Spring! Here in Denver we’ve been having temperatures in the 60s and 70s, the trees are greening up, and early flowers are starting to bloom.

As sometimes happens with business owners, I got so busy with clients this quarter that I let my writing go into hibernation. And although I’m even busier now with a client waiting list, with Spring on our doorstep, I am rededicating myself to writing to you weekly.

So, let’s talk about your business. People still come to me regularly with the perennial request, “I need a website.”

The truth is, though, you don’t need a website. What you actually need is a profitable business. Your website is simply a tool to make your business profitable.

For your website to work as a profitable business tool, it must accomplish three things:

1. Get found by your prospective clients.
2. Present a professional, polished image and message to those prospective clients.
3. Convert those prospects into customers, making money for your business.

It might be useful to assess your website using that list as a tool: On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your website on each of those three areas above?

For example:

• 1 means your website does not have anything close to a professional, polished image and message for your prospective clients.
• 5 means it has a bit of a professional and polished image and message.
• 10 means prospective clients contact you for your help and tell you how meaningful and relevant your message is to them.

Once you have a clear assessment, you can formulate your own “Spring planning” action steps.

To your success!

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones!

I am so grateful to have you in my life. Thank you for keeping in touch this past year and for sharing your lives with me. I acknowledge all of you who are in the process of building a strong business, who are committed to creating better lives for yourselves, your clients, and your employees, and who are creating a better world for future generations.

And speaking of creating, thanks again to all of you who helped make my recent book launch a fantastic success. The paperback is finally available at Amazon.com. Here are two recent reviews:

Anyone can build a website. But can they build one that actually makes money for your business?

In this groundbreaking new book, Steve Johnsen offers a simple, no-nonsense formula for evaluating your business’s website, and reinventing it so that it quickly starts making exponentially more sales. His straightforward explanations dispel the myths about websites and teach you how to make your website a powerful tool in growing your business.

This revolutionary approach is built around five simple steps that provide a clear path to making your website profitable. Understanding these Five Easy Steps allows you to finally have a website that actually works for you 24/7 as your #1 employee.

This book gives you a series of practical, proven

strategies and techniques to increase your web sales

faster than you ever thought possible.

– Brian Tracy

Steve Johnsen’s lucid, reader-friendly book shows you how

and why your website can become your top employee….

Don’t miss this breakthrough book!

– Steve Chandler, Author of Reinventing Yourself

Moving on into 2015, I would love to continue to keep up with what is going on in your world. If you’re not already connected with me on LinkedIn, please send me an invite:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sejohnsen

To your success!

Imagine that you are a soldier sent out to the battlefield at night. It is pitch black and you cannot see a thing. How valuable would it be for someone to hand you a pair of night-vision goggles, and suddenly you can see all of the enemy soldiers that are trying to sneak up on you?

Most people’s process of building a website is like navigating across a rocky battlefield at night without being able to see. Most websites are shooting in the dark. The reason our clients’ websites work is because our consulting helps to clarify what is the path to success.

Go to any web designer, and he or she will give you a website, hopefully one that looks very good. But the missing ingredient is the clear vision of where you are going with your business and your website. It’s like being handed your helmet and weapon, and being vaguely pointed in the direction of enemy lines.

Hire Cloud Mountain Marketing to be on your side of the skirmish, and we seat you in a tank with panoramic night vision of the landscape. There is simply no comparison, and one simple choice.

The Internet is a frontier of untold possibilities for your business, and also fraught with pitfalls. As you venture out into this territory of fortune, get the advantage of clear vision with Cloud Mountain Marketing’s unique process. Because it’s not just a website!