Survey highlights South West business lack of web presence
A delighted Caroline Thorner of Jon Thorner Farm Shops was presented with a case of wine after being picked at random from a group of respondents who took part in the recent Old Mill online business survey. The survey, which was the first in a series to be compiled by Old Mill Accountants and Financial Advisers, has just come to an end and has had some surprising results - including 59% of West Country businesses reporting that the outlook for 2007 is looking good and 45% of respondents stating that their business does not have a website.
The online survey asked a range of questions, designed to get a feel of how local business people are finding business prospects in comparison to last year and how they think key business issues will affect them during 2007. Jolyon Stonehouse, Chairman of the Old Mill, comments, “On the whole local organisations seem to be optimistic about the prospects for business. 59% of respondents think that 2007 is looking good and 30% okay. However, a rather concerning 11% commented that the prospects were bad.”
The survey also looked at how much use local businesses were making of their company websites. The most surprising result was that only 55% of those responding actually had a web site - perhaps somewhat unexpected as all respondents were obviously completing the survey online. Of the respondents with websites, 13% used it for active online ordering, 33% considered it to be an advertisement, whilst another 33% used it to generate leads and to allow people to register enquiries.
The survey then went on to ask if those with web sites were happy with the results they had seen from the web – 24% of organisations questioned admitted to finding the performance of their company website slightly disappointing, 71% of people felt it was matching their expectations whilst only 5% had found it was exceeding their expectations.
Overall, the results would indicate that many local businesses are not fully cashing in on the many IT and Marketing opportunities that the internet can now offer. The second issue of the Old Mill business survey attempts to ask questions to identify the reasons behind this surprising revelation and is now accessible to local businesses at www.oldmillgroup.co.uk. Once again Old Mill will be offering the prize of a case of wine to one lucky respondent as an incentive. Jolyon Stonehouse comments, “This is a great way for us to really understand local businesses and the issues that are currently affecting them. The more West Country business people who complete the online survey then the richer picture we will get of these issues.”
Ends.
Peter Haugh, Associate Director at Old Mill Accountants and Financial Advisers, presents Caroline Thorner of Jon Thorner Farm Shops with her prize for taking part in Old Mill’s first on-line survey. High resolution photograph (509KB)
Press release issued by Danielle Delaney at Publicity Matters. For more information please contact Danielle at danielle@publicitymatters.com or on (01275) 544116.