Is your business website an asset or a liability? I had to learn the difference the hard way.

Is your business website an asset or a liability? Before answering this question, let's discuss the meaning of an "asset" and the meaning of "liability."

An asset is something your business owns that can generate accounts receivable that converts into cash. Most business owners create websites with hopes of making money, but once they build it, they leave it and wonder why they aren't making money from it.

A liability is a debt paid to someone else with no value for possible conversion into cash for the business. Website owners; pay a monthly fee to rent space on the internet. This monthly fee, also called a hosting fee, can range from $15-$30.00 a month for just a basic website, while an e-commerce site with all the features may run about $59-$100 a month. Let's do the math. For a basic business website hosting fee of $30.00/mo for I year, you pay $360.00/yr plus domain ownership of about $24/yr total expense of $384.00/yr. For an e-commerce site at $100.00/mo for a year, you pay $1200.00/yr plus domain $24.00 total $1224.00/year. Your website is not generating enough traffic to convert to sales, transforming it from liability to asset.

The reality is if you build it (the website), they (potential customers/clients) will not come. Your website needs to be nurtured and cared for as you would for a child. You must feed your website with content palatable to your visitors and potential buyers of your goods and services. You cannot create a website a just walk away unattended; as we all know, we cannot leave a small child alone.

To make your website a valuable asset, you must work on it regularly and measure its growth frequently by evaluating its analytics. You must monitor and measure milestones such as traffic, sales, and people. Know your numbers, as they will guide you through achieving your business goals. Check your website's benchmarks. In other words, check how your website measures up against websites like yours.

I had to learn why I needed to know the difference between an asset and a liability for my website's growth. I quickly realized that it doesn't matter how well designed a website is if it does not attract traffic and provide value to visitors. I learned that relationships matter when running a website, and it drives people to connect in such a way that inspires trust and likability. I knew the secret to business success is mutual trust and likability, achieved by exchanging ideas.

I encourage all the TKMFLLC business members to evaluate their websites and determine if it is an asset or a liability, today; as your success may depend on it.

Thank you for reading my words and thoughts; may you find a benefit in them.