"When you're trying to get a great idea off the ground, it's near impossible to put upwards of R5000 on your credit card just to pay a website designer," says Wayne Diamond, MD of DiaMatrix, holding company of domains.co.za. "Without a website, the prospective entrepreneur cannot even tap into the most basic of funding avenues - virtual and real world funders still prefer some proof of concept that exists online."
"A further challenge, is that entrepreneurs are usually big picture people with great ideas, but often do not have the knowledge to make their visions reality. Site Builder is affordable to any prospective entrepreneur, while also being widget-based which means site construction is as simple as clicking on icons and moving them around the screen."
A widget is an app for websites that allows for more advanced functionality. The system has over 35 different widgets that can each add a specific function to a website. These include a photo gallery, photobook, external videos, social media feeds, contact form, guestbook, reservation and ecommerce. The eShop.co.za widget, for example, means entrepreneurs can have a full ecommerce enabled website with local and international payment gateways and courier services.
Just this week, Huffington Post suggested that affordable web hosting and free blogging platforms created a technological 'zero barrier to entry' and 'made entrepreneurship accessible to anyone'. "Not so, few commentators understand just what a big thing it is for a start-up to get that first great idea looking good on the web."
Any non-profit, start-up, entrepreneur, home-based business, a retail establishment or a school can now register a domain on the site and have a website they built themselves, at little cost, up and online in 15 minutes, if they have already created content for it. A further boon for entrepreneurs is that Site Builder includes an email address and hosting fees, which means that new business launch need not go over budget.
"The best thing is that users can add pages as they go along and, because they do all the work, they do not have to pay a designer or developer every time they want to add a photograph or run a special," concludes Diamond.
