I had an interesting discussion with our CTO, Jamie Mathy, tonight.  He was at the office reloading his machine and I was eagerly searching for any reason at all to procrastinate on filing my taxes until tomorrow, so when he called to talk about nothing, I happily obliged.  (For those who don’t know, reloading Windows on a PC has become a pretty easy task.  It’s fairly effortless until it is time to start installing Windows patches.  Then, it is an endless series of download, install, reboot, rinse, and repeat.  There’s a lot of downtime.)  We had covered such earth-shattering topics as the former Italian PM’s current legal problems, the various ways in which Microsoft Lync can help a business communicate, the current value of Apple’s stock, and my latest tattoo, which I haven’t gotten yet.  (We also talked about what this blog post should be about.  He suggested Lync, which we would’ve been using to talk except for the aforementioned endless series of reboots.  I decided to go a different way.)

It’s not Lync nor Apple’s stock price that I am writing about.  It’s not even about the ex-PM of Italy, though that would be an interesting post.  It’s actually about my latest tattoo.  I’ve decided I’m ready for my next adventure under the needle and I decided that for this one, I would “shop local.”  While I have a few well-placed works of art, I have never gotten a tattoo here in Bloomington-Normal.

*Wondering yet what this has to do at all with business?  Read on, dear reader… read on.*

So, I did what I always do… I turned to “the Goog.”  (I actually turned to the Bing first, but that’s not nearly as fun to say.)   I found only two local establishments with a website at all.  One had nothing but a virtual business card.  The other had a couple portfolios up, but small and (I would guess) not representative of their holistic body of work.  My initial response was shock.  Is there a better example of a local business that you would want to research before deciding to purchase their proverbial wares?

I vented to Jamie about this (I knew you were wondering when he’d come back into this) and didn’t even realize what I had said until he commented on it.  “It doesn’t seem like they’re a real business.”  That is the point I have reached in 2012 (and probably far sooner, without ever consciously realizing it) – a business without a website isn’t a “real” business.  I am sure I make exceptions for some types of businesses…  I wouldn’t, for instance, be upset if SuperGyros didn’t have a website… I’m heading there to get my Chicago style dog anyway.  But, they do have one.  www.orderstart.com/morethansupergyros  And, like a real business, they have the info on their site that I need in order to do business with them.  In this case, that amounts to an address, phone number, menu, and hours.  (And now I am sad that I used them as an example because a Chicago style dog sounds great and they’re closed for the night… their site says so.)

I’m certainly not saying they don’t need a site.  In fact, my point before this turned into a rambling about me wanting a late night Chicago dog was that nearly every business needs a website.  And certainly any business that is offering professional services needs a site.  Did I just intimate that tattoo shops offer professional services?  I did indeed.  Like an accountant, insurance agent, attorney, plumber, or electrician, they offer a service that I could do myself if only I had the training, skill, knowledge, and talent that were needed for the job.

So… am I alone here?  I cannot believe that I am.  How many of you, if presented with two businesses offering professional services (as defined above) would elect to do business with the one that had no website?

Discuss.

P.S.  “Taking it to the Goog” was a phrase coined by our own Jamie Mathy.  Since he knows you’ll be using it now, he wanted you to know.