I think this is a no-brainer for a successful for startup company. As the world is getting shrinking due to internet, gradually each of your family members would get the taste of it (if they haven’t got it yet). That means as people search for stuff they need, they would use Google (Bing for those who like to search for porn), click on the link and hopefully land on one of your site pages. This makes your website literally the starting point of your business whatever it may be. And what if your website is a real cheap job. Well.. for those who hardly care about these things might give it a shot, but frankly almost all like to see something aesthetically good design. Something which is less complicated and highly usable.
Lately I was rummaging several websites here in India to buy a new house, precisely in Pune. I do realize that India is not at a stage where every new business that comes in the market makes sure to have their own website. But businessman are getting aware of this mistake and taking baby steps towards changing this. Look at these sites I visited,
http://www.pscl.in/
http://www.adityabuilders.com/
http://www.goelganga.com/
Cheap ain’t it? For a web developer such a website creates quite a bit of negative impact, believe it or not. Now look at one of Puranik builders site http://www.spaininindia.com/. When you have something cool, flashhy to sell, why not make your website feel the same?
P.S. – I hope I can instigate this feeling in the company I work!!! http://www.synechron.com/.
Happy Programming!