Small business, big problem: No website

NEW YORK – It's cheap. It's easy to do. And it can take less than 20 minutes to set up. Yet more than half of all small businesses still lack a website.

"It's just ridiculous," says Jim Blasingame, a small business author and radio show host. "Every small business needs a website. Period. Nonnegotiable."

Small businesses that don't have one say they don't have the time, think it will cost too much or don't want the rush of orders that comes with being online. But entrepreneurs who have jumped to the digital side say their websites have boosted sales, cut down on time-consuming phone calls and brought more people into their stores.

Not everyone wants that. Steve Love has never had a website for the handmade sausage and meat business he's owned since 1988. He says a website for LoveLand Farms would boost sales, and he doesn't have any more farmland to raise hogs and Black Angus cattle.

"I don't want it to grow," says Love, who sells his goods at a farmers market in Bloomington, Indiana, and a store in another town that's open once a week. "I'm already maxed out. I'm scared it would blow up on me."

But customers expect one. When they ask him at the farmers market if he has a website, he hands them a card with his phone number and a map to his shop called the Sausage Shack in Nashville, Indiana. He has no plans to start a website. But it could happen in the future if his kids want to take over and grow the business.

"I wouldn't say never," says Love.

Small business owners who want to start a website have lots of options that make it easier than in the past. Companies such as Wix.com, Google, SquareSpace.com and Weebly.com require no coding or technical skills. Users choose a template, drag in photos and paste in words.

And with more people searching for businesses online and on their smartphones, companies without a site may be missing out on extra business.

Sales at Bad Pickle Tees have doubled since Cyndi Grasman began selling her quirky, food-related T-shirts online a year ago. She started the business in 2012, selling shirts with sayings like "Oh Kale Yeah!" and "I Heart Bacon" at food festivals. She launched the site using website publishing company Weebly, paying $250 a year.

"I'm reaching a larger audience," she says.

Amy Gilson hired a company to build a website for her Oklahoma City snack food business Healthy Cravings. She is paying $4,500 for it, but she hasn't been able to find the time to take photos and give them other information needed to finish. All customers see on EatHealthyCravings.com is a message that the site is coming soon.

"I can't wait for my website," says Gilson, who also plans to sell treats from the site. "I can just send them there."

FIGURETO KNOW

55%

of small businesses don't have a website, according to a 2013 survey of more than 3,800 small businesses by Internet search company Google and research company Ipsos.