As a small business, you may not have the capital required to have a custom designed website built from scratch that can cost as much as buying a car. Because of the cost of website development, small business owners often look for much cheaper options and end up with a website that isn’t built within a CMS (content management system), doesn’t look appealing, and doesn’t have all the features needed to be web 2.0 compatible, which is needed in today’s business climate.

What is a small business to do? Think customization through the process of modification. Enter WordPress software. WordPress rarely receives the credit it deserves. WordPress is not just blogging software; it is an incredibly powerful CMS that can handle almost any job out there and its development community is second to none. We have all heard “there’s an app for that.” Well, in WordPress, “there’s a plug-in for that.” Useful plug-ins for WordPress include image slideshows, Google Analytics, e-commerce solutions, redirections, video, social media and so much more.

There are thousands of WordPress themes (sites) out there that ra
nge in price from zero to a few hundred dollars. You can purchase these themes and install them on your own server. Two terrific sources are ThemeForest.net and WooThemes.com. It literally takes five minutes to install WordPress and a theme on a server.

Once a WordPress theme is installed it can be modified in any way imaginable and can be tweaked toward your business and brand. Hiring a consultant to tweak or change an existing WordPress theme can be significantly less expensive than creating a website from scratch.

By Nick Harrison

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Nick Harrison is creative director for Chicago-based branding, web development and social media firm Dashal, whose client roster ranges from small businesses to best-selling authors to major consumer brands.