10 resources to help you build your small business website in a snap

If you’re looking to create a website for your company, it might take you weeks or even months to get it done. Not to mention the budget–the cost will definitely run well into thousands of dollars. But maybe all you want is something that works now, something you can set up on your own without understanding a single line of HTML. Is that even possible? Yes, with the following tools.

Content Management Systems
1. WordPress

WordPress is by far the easiest open source CMS to use. It’s flexible and powerful too, enough to power your company website and not have to worry if it’s good enough. You can rest assured in the knowledge that WordPress gets the job done with business websites: integrating a contact form, portfolio, gallery, social share buttons for the blog etc. is a breeze, with the extremely friendly admin interface.

2. Joomla

Joomla isn’t as easy to use as WordPress, though arguably more powerful out of the box. But it’s much easier to work with than Drupal and perhaps offers the second best choice of open source software to build your business website with. The admin interface is beautiful and clean, and once you get the hang of it, managing the site won’t be such a pain.

3. Expression Engine

Expression Engine is featured here because it also makes it extremely easy to launch a professional business website in under an hour. Though not open source like WordPress and Joomla, the software is trusted by many business customers, perhaps because of its intuitive interface that makes it easy to build and manage your website with minimal technical hurdles. It’s fairly powerful, and novices love it.

Theme Marketplaces
4. Mojo Themes

A plain WordPress or Joomla installation will never cut it. It’s the commercial themes that bring it to life, and Mojo Themes is one large marketplace where you’re sure to be spoilt for choice. They have themes for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento CMS. So whatever you build your site on, you’ll find a professional theme that works.

5. Themeforest

Themeforest is arguably the largest theme shop where thousands of designers (just like on Mojo Themes) present their amazing HTML and CMS themes. The average theme costs about $50 dollars, and the designs are stunning and you’ll be spoilt for choice here too.

6. Template Monster

This mammoth template marketplace also stocks designs for all the popular CMSs, as well as for ecommerce software such as ZenCart and osCommerce. In addition, you can find logo templates to help you put a makeshift (or permanent, if you like) logo for your website.

Shopping Cart/Ecommerce
7. ZenCart

ZenCart is free, and one of the most trusted platforms on the web for building ecommerce sites with minimal difficult. It’s bundled into Fantastico and Softaculous, the popular software packages found on your cPanel when you buy hosting. You can install your own templates too, and though the software isn’t as flexible as its competitor, it lets you get the job done quickly.

8. Magento

Magento is one powerful ecommerce CMS with advanced management tools, reporting features and user options to let you build a web store that’s easily scalable. And we’re talking about the free edition here. For medium to large online commerce stores, you can upgrade to the even more powerful enterprise edition. It’s not as easy to use as other ecommerce solutions, but it’s available for one-click installation on Fantastico and generally offers more power than its competitors.

9. Prestashop

Prestashop is alsofree and open source and one thing that sets it apart from other shopping cart software is its ease of use – important, if you don’t have the time to try and figure everything out. All the standard ecommerce features, such as order processing, customer management, and tracking of metrics are included, making it a capable solution for an online store.

Logo Design
10. 99Designs

Every business needs a logo, and a professional one for that matter. And if time is not on your side, dealing with one designer can take painfully long before you finally get the final revision. So what better thing than to crowdsource the work on a place like 99designs.com, where designers compete in real time to make your logo? The proposals might be overwhelming when they come, but you’ll sure land the logo much faster.

Ness is currently a writer for www.problogger.net. She is an experienced writer that even majored in English while she was a college student.

With over 5 years of writing experience, she provides very useful and entertaining content to her clients as well as audiences. She started writing for a living soon after she graduated, which then lead to her being a full time writer. This is now her career.