This article is over 5 years old and may no longer be relevant to current business trends and practices. Please consider this article in the context in which it was written. Enjoy!
With over 2,000 self-employed businesses in Bradford West Gwillimbury and growing (see Data Report: Bradford West Gwillimbury, January 2018), it is no surprise to us that there are plenty of small businesses in Bradford that need a stunning website. While many of these businesses already have their website development needs taken care of (by way of franchise agreements, MLM business plans, etc) there is still a large number of self-owned companies in Bradford that must make the hard decisions about their own marketing entirely on their own - website included.
This is one of the many reasons we love the live, work, play atmosphere in Bradford. But, taking the next step in your business and paying someone else to design a website for you is no small task either. By doing so, you're putting your business success on the line by committing hundreds if not thousands of dollars to a gamble on someone else's skills; hoping that you have chosen right and that the website designer you chose delivers on the results they promised.
Bradford, like many other small towns in Ontario, has a unique blend of businesses, cultures, and residential demographics that shape the way that businesses succeed or fail. As our town grows, so too does the average income per household and average price per home in Bradford, which means that the average affluence of our town's residents steadily grows. With this, we've already seen the influx of housing developemnt and large corporate retail brands staking their claim to neighbourhoods east and west inside the town's limits, like Starbucks (starbucks.ca), Goodlife Fitness, and Walmart (walmart.ca) to name a few.
As Bradford West Gwillimbury continues to become even more of a well-sought-after area to put down family roots, business competition continues to thrive as well, which means that business owners must work even harder to keep their businesses competitive in the Bradford area. Pizza and Fitness are two perfect examples of this growing state of competition. It seems like no matter how many pizza joints we have in Bradford, there is always a new one setting up shop in our town. Albeit, Milanoz is merely only the replacement for it's staple predecessor La Gondola, so it is arguable if that counts as an increase.
Let us know in the comments below if we missed any!
It would also seem apparent that Bradford(-ians?) love their gyms. Gyms seem to follow a similar parallel, if not to a smaller degree. A wide range of options available (ie. super-competitive for business owners) yet for a town of less than 40,000 we have on average one gym for every 6,000 residents, which is a really small ratio comparatively speaking. These figures don't include yoga, youth fitness programs, or martial arts either. The ratio gets smaller from there. Despite the intense competition, there still seems to be some incentive for such a high number of fitness centres per capita in Bradford. If it is in fact easier to sustain a fitness gym in such a highly competitive market versus other types of businesses, it makes me wonder if any of the businesses on this list are stagnant, complacent, or even resistant to change as a result. Usually the consumers correct the market with their patronage (or lack thereof) when there is such a high volume of competition. It would not surprise me to see continued change in this area of the business market in Bradford.
Let us know in the comments below if we missed any!
Don't get me wrong, I believe every business in Bradford is deserving of success as long as the ownership delivers on basic standards of customer service (something I did not personally test out myself having not been a patron of La Gondola when it was open). What appears to me as extremely optimistic for Bradford is the apparent truth that when a retail unit changes hands in Bradford, we usually see an apparent upgrade from the previous tenant with a new promise of future success. Some great examples of this include Kenzington Burger Bar (kenzington.ca), and Paparika (website unavailable).
Whether we knew it or not at the time, our own web design business followed the same industry standard of what seems to be the success of most website development companies; an overwhelming 90-95% of our business comes from referrals. That means, despite our best efforts, most of our Bradford website design clients probablty won't read this blog article (though it won't stop us from trying!). What they will often do instead though in most cases, is talk about whether we did a good job, a terrible job, or a mediocre job. In only one of those three possible outcomes will our business be successful, and I don't think we need to tell you which one that is. If we do a mediocre job developing a website for our client, we get no spin-off success by way of referral, because we simply didn't inspire enough goodwill by our efforts. If we were to produce a terrible result for our clients, it would have a similar negative result to our future web design business growth.
While our business is not always the same as every other business in Bradford, this example is one that rings true everywhere. If you're business is not giving 110% towards making every customer or client one that will enjoy the experience so much that they will rant and rave about you, you're not working hard enough for success. Despite how crucial this task is, it is not the only thing that will determine your business success in Bradford. If no one can find your business, you will simply not have that opportunity to create loyal customers that will pread the message about your brand through word-of-mouth. No matter how hard you work, if your business does not have a website, your work will always be an uphill battle.
Luckily for small businesses in Bradford, we have moulded our business plan around serving small businesses. We actively turn away projects for large companies and most other website design agencies actively turn away small companies! It's true, the website you get from us will not be the website you get from them; we will retain control of all the content changes for the website, and we will develop your website on our proprietary platform instead of giving you they keys to your own Wordpress platform. But, with these conditions, we can consistently offer 50-75% more cost-effective pricing for our small business clients than other website design agencies can.
The simplest reason why we can offer such low prices is this: we sell services to clients; not products to customers. As a result of this mantra, we devote all of our skills and experience to making websites for our clients that represent the best of our work. If a website doesn't meet that standard, it's simply not done yet. That is the approach to customer service that we take, and that we encourage all Bradford business owners to take. If your client or customer isn't experiencing the best possible experience from your business, your job isn't done yet.
If there were any other secrets to achieving success in a business located in bradford West Gwillimbury, be sure we'd tell you. But, thankfully, that is it! Yes, financials play a key role in determining what resources you can add to your business arsenal for success, but without delivering an absolutely positive customer service experience, it is hard to keep your business relevant to Bradford residents. After all, Bradford residents now have a growing selection of predictable consumer experiences (in large corporate retailers).