Recently, I was making some much-needed updates to the 20Mile website. As is often the case, I was looking at companies that are similar to mine for inspiration. From there, I was looking at specific sections on other small business sites to find some consistent approaches.
In over half of the sites that I looked at, the "about us" section was either bland and generic, or completely missing. This drives me crazy. There are some local (Cape-based) companies in my industry that are guilty of this. I would love to reach out to these companies to meet up for lunch, have a beer, share best practices, swap tails of recent challenges and brainstorm ways to make our industry better, but I can't because I couldn't tell you the name of the owner or any of the developers that work there. **
My advice to every small(ish) company that has a website - tell your story on your "about us" page. I want to know about you, your background, why you do what you do. I want to know why you started your company, how long you've been doing it and what you like to do when you're not working.
I'm not necessarily doing business with your company, I'm doing business with you. For me, the personal connection is more important than the business relationship. I only have so many dollars to spend each year. For me, who I'm giving my money to is as important as what I'm spending my money on.
So please, take 15 minutes and tell me about yourself. I think it's worth it.
** Yes, I know that I could do a whois for most of these and at least obtain the administrative and technical contacts for the domain, but should I really have to do this??
