When you or your team build a small business website that is more than just company profile, you need to think about the possible integration with other software or plugins to extend the capability of your site.
For instance, when you develop a small business website that can help you capture and manage leads for your business, you need a CMS that can easily integrate powerful software into your website.
My experience with Joomla and WordPress as CMS
I was using Joomla to build an online store 3 years ago – an online store that handles everything you expect an online store to function: order management, storing customer’s data, order processing and many more. I used a premium Joomla template, installed a premium extension and a handful of free extensions. I also add articles on it. To say the least, all went smoothly and everything can be managed from the admin dashboard, including sales report, etc.
Why not WordPress, you might ask? I am now using WordPress to build blogs and news sites. However, there is no other CMS so far I would recommend you to use than Joomla if you are going to build a powerful website that directly interacts with customers and prospects – and actually taking orders from them.
Sure, WordPress can do that, but it’s far less powerful compared to Joomla when we are talking about setting up an online business and CRM.
How Joomla rocks
When you are going to set up an online store, you need an extension or plugin that can “extend” the capability of your basic installation of CMS. With Joomla, all you need to install is VirtueMart – and start setting up a professional online shop with full order management capability.
Let’s take another example. Suppose you want to build a small business website that will capture leads and manage them – in other words, doing CRM or customer relationship management – you will need an extension to help you with CRM, such as the powerful vTiger CRM. All you need is a plugin that can seamlessly connect your website with the CRM software; with Joomla, this is easily done by using CRMVJ Joomla extension; with WordPress, this is difficult to do, in my opinion.
Joomla and web hosting
To support those powerful features of Joomla, you need a Joomla Hosting. Joomla Hosting is actually similar to a “general” web hosting, except the fact that the web servers are configured and optimized for Joomla (yes, choosing the wrong web hosting provider CAN make your website setup a nightmare.)
How to choose the Best Joomla Hosting? You can ask for recommendations from fellow small business website owners. You can also look for Joomla hosting reviews and testimonials from reputable web hosting review sites.
Why Joomla? A conclusion
Joomla offer unlimited possibilities for small business owners; whether you are going to establish an online business, a lead capturing business, or an extension of your corporate website from which you do CRM, the CMS can help you start your small business website on the right foot.
To add, Joomla has a great global community you can always turn for help and advice, as well as accessing new capabilities for your Joomla-powered websites – mostly available for free – developed by Joomla user, for Joomla user. How’s that for a CMS that is open source and free to use?
Ivan Widjaya
Joomla for small business rocks