#10: Businesses that don’t have websites

It’s 2012, people. If your business doesn’t have a website, you must not want to make money. And for the sake of this post, “business” includes schools/daycares, churches, medical offices, apartment complexes and any other establishment that hopes to attract new clients/members/patrons. If I want to find information about you, I will not open a phone book. I will open Google. If you don’t come up in my search, you might as well not exist. So why on Earth do businesspeople still think they don’t need a website?!

To help the web-challenged decide if they need a website, I’ve come up with this quick questionnaire:

• Do you have business hours?
• Do you have contact information (a phone number, an email address, a mailing address, a business address, etc.)?
• Do you offer products or services?
• Would you like to get more business?
• Would you like to make money?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, YOU NEED A WEBSITE! And your site doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy. In fact, you can make an easy, free site using Facebook, WordPress or any of a slew of other sites out there. So don’t delay. Your business depends on it!

#9: College Sports rivalries

I am a die-hard LSU fan (go Tigers!). Not because I was raised to love it (trust me, I wasn’t), but because I spent four of my best years there and earned a degree that has led to a lot of good things in my life. And since I graduated, I’ve seen my Tigers earn two national football championships, fair and square. Yet, no matter how hard those boys worked to get that trophy, people always seem to argue that they didn’t deserve it. The only good reason I can see for their arguments is that they are jealous that LSU has historically had a great football team.

This year, I don’t think anyone is debating whether LSU deserves to be in the national championship game – they had an undefeated season! But still, the “haters” are out in full force, hoping that LSU loses tonight’s game. And why? Like all schools, LSU is not perfect. It does have its problems. But when a team of hard-working college students persevere through the season, winning every single game and making it to the championship game, you have to admire that.

For those who don’t know, LSU is an all-around great school. It has top-notch, nationally ranked programs and the faculty and staff truly care about the quality of education they provide. And it happens to have a really great football team. So tonight, I’ll be cheering for the purple and gold, and I predict I’ll be happy about the outcome.

Go Tigers!