By Justin Lee, theWHIR.com
November 8, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The past few years has seen a boom in North America among small businesses, including an enormous number of very small home-based businesses.
Advancing technology has eliminated many of the barriers to business, and enabled a new breed of entrepreneur to balance work and family obligations by operating their businesses from their homes.
And while many of these business are small, local operations, they are no less focused on longevity than their larger counterparts, and their efforts are often better suited to – or rely more heavily on – the Internet.
Domain registrar and Web host provider Register.com (register.com) has taken these factors into account as it develops solutions designed to target entrepreneurs involved in what the company has taken to calling the “spare bedroom economy.”
“We use the phrase ‘spare bedroom economy’ to refer to a large segment of this audience,” says Peter Girard, director of marketing communications at Register.com. “It really accurately describes the way a lot of people dive right in, create businesses, come up with ideas and launch them without the trappings of a traditional business.”
Girard says that the recent influx of home-based businesses has created new demands for Web solutions.
“There are any number of studies that [the home-based market] is always growing and that it’s always been a large segment,” says Girard. “We certainly see evidence based on our customer growth that it is expanding as more people either work from home or start up ventures that begin at the dining room table.”
Many of these entrepreneurs surprisingly lack the technical expertise to start a Web site, says Girard, which is part of why Register.com developed Build-It-For-Me, it’s Web site building consulting service. This complete Web site design and development service helps get businesses online, providing full technical and customer service support through telephone and email.
“We’re actually talking to them,” he says, “consulting with them, launching a site for them. We’re giving them information on how to maintain that site, and we will continue to play a role in suggesting other areas of a business that can be benefited from our help.”
Girard says that it is this unfailing support that distinguishes Register.com from other home-based business Web hosting providers. With many of these users new to the Internet, a hands-on style of customer service can be the key factor in the decision to host with, and stay with, register.com, says Girard.
“We’ve been able to get a lot of people online without having to tax them with learning software or consulting with all kinds of complex processes. Our service is really the difference for this audience.”
