Making the Investment Worthwhile

Going on-line can be absurdly simple - some Internet service providers even insert disks with the software you need into business or computer magazines. But to make the investment worthwhile, you must have a purpose in mind. Understanding the Internet, setting realistic goals for your enterprise, recognizing the commitment entailed, and maximizing your efforts are four key steps your small business must take to ensure your Internet venture will be successful.

• Before you begin to make decisions, or commit dollars to services you may not need or equipment you may not want, take some time to learn about the Internet. Read books, consult with experts, or talk to friends who are using the Internet for their business and ask them what they would recommend. Research the potential of common business applications such as e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups and World Wide Web pages.
• After you have learned what the Internet can do in general, you need to determine what it can do for you specifically. Carefully examine your business and ask yourself how you might utilize this rapidly expanding resource.
• Do you want to use the Internet just to give customers e-mail access to your company? Do you want to use the Internet to network with colleagues? Do you want to advertise and sell your products or services on-line? Make your goals specific: "Within six months, we aim at bringing in $500 a day in on-line sales" or "In 30 days, we will establish one industry contact a week through newsgroups."
• After going through this thought process, write down your plan and share it with your employees. Presenting your plan will help them in their training efforts as well as focus them on your particular Internet goals.

Next, you have to think about how much Internet you need. Will one connection and a single address for your entire company accommodate your needs, or does every employee require an individual log-on? Does everyone who will use the Internet have a computer with adequate speed, power, a modem and a phone line? You might need to budget in some computer upgrades, and possibly

some training for employees and yourself, and set aside enough time so everyone can learn how to make use of the new resources the Internet offers.

If your goal is to provide access to the Internet for research purposes, then providing the equipment, training and management plan might be sufficient for getting underway. If, however, your plan calls for creating a World Wide Web page to attain the sales goals you set, a lot more effort is required. Find in-house computer experts or hire a consultant who can set up your Web presence. Research your competitors' efforts and determine what you need to do to be more effective. Once you are convinced that you have considered all aspects of this project in a reasoned way, you are ready to get started.

Bringing your company on-line is no different from any other business initiative; it requires careful research, focus and execution. The rewards can be enormous, but make sure your first step onto the information superhighway is a deliberate one.

The Basic Steps

A World Wide Web presence can be an effective way of promoting your company and its products or services to the on-line community. As with any marketing initiative undertaken, however, you need to think carefully about the purpose, and make sure that the finished product fulfills your goals and meets the needs and expectations of your target audience.

The programming involved in putting together a Web page is relatively simple. Several how-to books on the subject are available, and certain software packages can help you set up some plain-vanilla designs relatively quickly. However, if you want to create a more sophisticated Web page, you should either develop your own computer skills more fully or hire a consultant to do the job. If no one on your staff is an Internet wizard, you might even be able to find a skilled and enthusiastic college student with the skills you need. Depending on the complexity desired, the costs can vary from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars.

One of the best features of the Internet is its ability to communicate rapidly. For example, a restaurant can post its menu, and change it daily. A hardware store can open up its inventory of certain items, saving customers the frustration of finding out that what they need is out of stock. A florist can display color photos of various arrangements and take orders on-line. An art gallery, assuming no copyright problems exist, can show off its latest works. Remember that your Web page must be both active and current. If you neglect it, so will your customers.

Decide what to put on your Web page in the context of your overall marketing and sales goals. Your Web presence must have a purpose, a good design that makes it easy and attractive to use, and a timeliness that keeps people coming back to look at what new things you have to say. Having a Web page simply for the sake of having a Web page will do you no good.

You also should think about how a marketing vehicle seen around the world could change your business. For example, will you have to be shipping your products to new customers overseas? Do you have enough security built in to protect credit card orders? Do you stock sufficient inventory to be able to fulfill a jump in the quantity of purchases made?

Your Web page should be functional, logical and easy to use. To get ideas of what to do - and what to avoid - scout around the Web yourself. Visit different sites and note how some Web pages make getting the information you want easy while others turn it into a test of patience and perseverance. See what's eye-catching and what's dull. Notice whether a page pops quickly onto your screen or requires long lags before all the words and pictures are assembled.

Also look at what your competitors are already doing on the Internet. Think of what you can do better, and develop that angle. Notice how other Web pages in your industry look - what tone do they set, and what image do they convey? What works on-line for a retail store won't be appropriate for a commercial bank. A competitive analysis is an important step in your planning - you don't want to show up on-line wearing the wrong clothes.

Finally, remember that there are hundreds of thousands of Web pages. People can't find you if they don't know you exist. Register with Web "search engines" and promote your page in advertising, newsletters, mailings and press releases.

Promoting Your Home Page

Once you have undertaken the effort and expense of developing a World Wide Web presence, you want to be sure people know about it. You must promote the page, both on-line and off. Here's what to do:

• Get installed into search engines. The Web is a disorganized, decentralized system. To help users navigate its choppy electronic seas, search engines keep track of the sites on the Web by category. Just about everyone who uses the Internet starts by asking a search engine to identify locations containing information of interest. It is therefore critical that you alert the search engines about yourself. In most cases, registration is free and almost immediate. Your service provider and your own Web navigating software will be able to give you a good list of search engines.
  
• Register at "What's New" sites. Managing the entire Internet is impossible. Keeping track of what's new within it is only slightly easier. "What's New" pages list new arrivals by category, country of origin and other means - even just alphabetically. Listing is usually free. Some good general places to start include Mosaic/GNN What's New Page, Special Internet Connections and the Netscape What's New Page. Some valuable business pages include The Internet Mall, the Open Market's Commercial Site Index, Apollo Advertising, BizWeb and Product.Com.
  
• Be active, both on-line and off. Word of mouth is still an excellent way to advertise your Web page. Include your site address in all of your documents, advertisements and other materials. Mention your home page when you visit with friends or customers. Mail out post cards to your customers announcing new services or references as you initiate them. When you are exploring the Web and find a page that complements yours, send its owners a message offering to establish a link from your page to theirs if they will reciprocate.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Web Site: http://www.sba.gov/library