It surprises me every time but I still get asked this question by other business owners. Unless you’ve got more clients than you can handle (and even then it’s a good idea) YES YOU DO! And really, as cheap and easy as it is to get a web site up these days (less than $5 a month for some plans on Go Daddy’s Web Site Tonight–just make sure to hide their logo please) there is no reason not to.

At minimum, you need two pages, one about your services and one about your background and experience. And if you’ve got a retail location, your hours as well. Because no matter where or how people get your name, they like to visit your web site before contacting you. You become a little bit more of a known quantity to them.

Last year, a local educational organization was looking for a writer to work with on a pretty significant project and they had gotten six names from a variety of people. But only one had a web site–guess who got the project? The woman told me later that’s exactly why she called me, she felt the web site gave her a better idea of who I was and the kind of work I would do for them.

Of course, there are many other reasons to have a web site as well–and ideally you have a web site designed to sell people on your services instead of just a “brochure” website. But hey, first steps first. It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in, if you don’t have one, get one and get going!