Google worked with local partners to design the program, which will
help drive economic growth by giving North Carolina businesses the
tools and resources to establish a website, find new customers, and
grow their business.
Get Your Business Online is an easy and fast way for North Carolina
businesses to get online. For the next year, participating North
Carolina businesses can go to http://www.americagetonline.com/north-carolina/
to get a free website as well as free tools, training and resources
to help their business succeed online. Google is partnering with
Intuit to provide its popular Intuit Websites offerings for free
including an easy-to-build website, a customized domain name and web-
hosting for one year. After the first year the website will cost $4.95
a month.
"The NC SBTDC is very excited to partner with Google to offer this
opportunity for North Carolina small businesses to develop a free
website and gain greater understanding of the importance of having
their business on the Internet," said Scott Daugherty, Executive
Director of the North Carolina Small Business and Technology
Development Center. "The expert training provided at the conference
will be beneficial to those small businesses that attend and help them
better understand the benefits and requirements to gain an effective
presence on the Web."
Small businesses need to be online because that's where their
customers are. While 97 percent of Americans look online for local
products and services, 69 percent of small businesses in North
Carolina do not have a website or online presence.
"The perception that getting online is complex, costly and time-
consuming has prevented many North Carolina small businesses from
taking the first step," said Scott Levitan, Director of Small Business
Engagement at Google. "This program makes it fast, easy and free for
businesses to get online."
