Ask Bobette Kyle about building a Web business on a small business budget, and you’ll be amazed what she’ll tell you about planning and coordination. By getting to heart of online business structure, Bobette saves small businesses lots of time and money. She’s agreed to talk with us today and to share a little of her wealth of knowledge.

KARON: Hi Bobette. I’m excited about our time together.

BOBETTE: Thanks, Karon. Me, too!

KARON: I’ve read your book, and can’t believe depth of information you’ve included. You cut through fluff and get right down to hard-core information. But title had me curious. Tell me why you chose name "How Much for Just Spider"?

BOBETTE: Well, just like a spider plans and implements it’s web, a Web-based business also has to develop a marketing plan before implementing a Website.

The title alludes to need for cost effective planning and marketing tools. Small businesses want or need to do a lot of work themselves so they look for ways to inexpensively acquire "Just Spider" (i.e. know-how) to create and implement a marketing plan.

KARON: Ahh! Good play on words. And very true, too. I know I’ve spoken with many new online business owners think if they build a site, people will automatically flock to it. We both know this is simply not true. It takes a lot of planning and marketing to operate a profitable site. What do you consider to be first, and most fundamental, step?

BOBETTE: So true, Karon. And many existing online businesses are still struggling because of lack of planning. The step I consider to be most “foundational” for business owners is understanding their industry, their competition, and customers they want to attract. These things drive decisions all way down line and mold marketing plan.

KARON: I couldn’t agree more! Anyone whose known me for any time at all will tell you how I preach about knowing your target audience.

BOBETTE: Exactly! These three things affect whole business model, how site is put together, what kind of content it contains, and strategies for marketing site. Before going any further in your planning, take time to get as much information as you can about your industry, competition and customers.

KARON: But that’s not all there is to it, right? Throughout your book I noticed wonderful job you did of outlining and explaining various tactics a site owner could choose when implementing steps of planning. What works best in actually choosing most appropriate tactics for an individual site?

It's not enough to spend heaps of time, money and resources into getting buyers for your goods and services and then leaving those clients/customers to their own devices.

If you want to work less, have more time and make more money one very important aspect you have to take care of on an ongoing basis is nurturing those people who are prepared to spend their money with you.

You cannot afford to take their money, sell goods or perform services and then hope they will call you when they need too.

The Hairdresser A couple of weeks ago I visited my hairdresser for my regular appointment. Now I have been loyally going to this hairdresser for at least 2 years, approximately every six weeks.

On this particular occasion there were a couple of clients having their hair coloured and owner and another assistant were fawning over three kittens which had kindly been supplied by local vet. Apparently vet was looking for a good home for kittens and John,the owner and another staff member were going to take them home. The kittens were staying afternoon at salon for benefit of their new owners (my hairdresser and his assistant).

So here we were in an upmarket salon, with three kittens running around and staff paying more attention to them than clients.

The second incident that occurred happened after I had my hair washed. I was left sitting in a chair waiting whilst John who is my hairdresser casually took his time looking at another client's holiday photos. That wasted at least 5 minutes. (Some people may not be bothered about having their time wasted, but unfortunately for John, I wasn't one of them).

When he finally comes over, instead of asking me how am I going, or commenting about condition of my hair, he proceeds to tell me all details about his life (as he usually does) and is so focussed on himself he was oblivious to fact that without people like me (a paying client), he wouldn't be in business.