Getting Wired In Canso

Posted on Jul 13 2007 in Tourism & Economic Development

by Josh Measures

Aspiring entrepreneurs gathered at the Whitman Wharf House Bed and Breakfast in Canso on Saturday June 23rd. 2007 to discuss a major roadblock in their business - the internet.

Led by Brian Hicks of Coronis Solutions, a Dartmouth based internet marketing company, the workshop was designed to assist rural businesses to use the internet as a leverage in information technology and to expand their business.

“People can do things with computers and the internet with very little cost to help improve their business’ bottom-line. That’s good for the community that they’re in, they end up being taxpayers, employers, and they help visitors which is also good for the economy. It’s a win, win,” said Hicks.

Some of the attendees such as, Joyce Conrad, owner of Queensport House Bed and Breakfast, were so overwhelmed with the idea of building and maintaining a website, they just don’t have one. A big mistake, Hicks said.

“The idea of the internet, and the potential it offers, allows people to timeshift at their convienence to get information they want to know…The potential is there for almost all businesses I can think of to make themselves more accessible to the people that may want to buy whatever it is they’re offering.”

Despite being a self-proclaimed geek, Hicks is understanding of people who just don’t have the patience for a computer. He suggests saving yourself some time and hassle by hiring someone computer savvy, either an aspiring web-developer or promising professional, to take care of most of the design and functionality of the site. Although some web sites can cost thousands of dollars, …there are a slew of hosting opportunities available on the internet for as low as $50 a month.

“It’s a case of shopping for what you need, with the budget you have available. My recommendation of course is to invest wisely, but you do get what you pay for so if it’s free or low-cost it probably isn’t going to be the best solution, but if it’s an interim solution to get you online, that’s okay,” said Hicks.

A key component of the workshop was a review of the participating business’ websites and their effectiveness to be found by search engines. Hicks mentions how some simple strategies such as proper meta-tagging can make a huge difference in the amount of traffic your site receives which in turn can create more sales.

Elizabeth Measures, owner of the Whitman Wharf House Bed and Breakfast, first attended one of Hicks’ workshops more than two years ago. At the time she had painstakingly designed her own website using Dreamweaver. Following Hicks’ advice, she saved her own time for other aspects of the business and hired a developer to redesign the website. Now Whitmanwharf.com greatly exceeds the average amount of traffic received by small business web sites. Measures said she is confident the workshop will be a huge help to all the businesses that attended.

“I think particularly businesses who haven’t previously had a website up and running, felt that this was a huge step to actually get a physical presence on the web. I think by the time we finished the day they went away very confident, and it wasn’t such a huge step. I think everyone got the message,” said Measures.