"It's never too late to be what you might have been." George Eliot

The success of your business could be hinging on the expertise of your technology professionals and you may not know it. At times it can be difficult to see how improvements to your website can immediately have an impact on your business. It's a professionals' job to determine how to deploy a good strategy online to get desired results. Ideally, that strategy should involve matching your websites functionality to with your existing and future business processes. These days there are a tons of sign-up services, e-commerce website services and design markup services out there to choose from. It's all too common for emerging online business owners to overlook the impact that hiring an expert, consultant or webmaster can have on your existing efforts. I had a very interesting interview with a potential client the other day and I'd like to share it with you. I received a call from the VP. of a fast-rising consulting firm where I was given a URL (web address) and a request for some rather routine updates. I took a look at the site and it was a very clean overall nice design. After peaking at the code I saw that the site was creating entirely of tables and ImageReady slices. Now of course, as I always do at this time I mentioned how the site could use a content management system and how it could really give them some control and what some of the advantages of ExpressionEngine and other CMS's are. It's all pretty standard conversation until they reply that the site is only a week old! No one had captured the needs requirements, or asked about the companies current business processes? In just under 10 minutes I was able to determine that their current business model could be ported to web and greatly reduce travel time and expenses, supplement their revenue stream unify their billing processes and much more. It's the nature of the industry right now but there is something to be said for getting the right consulting at the start. Before you hire the developer maybe you should ask a consultant or hire a webmaster. Work with that person to get it right the first time and save big in the long run. It's a great time to be online right now. Internet sales are up and lot's of people are ambitious about what they can achieve. That's great but just remember the more lofty your goals the more you'll need expertise in website development, maintenance and management.