With the rapid down fall of world economy and dot-com companies

in recent years many brick-and-mortar companies and new

start-ups ask themselves: To Be Online or Not to Be Online?



Not long time ago, I read a comment of a well-known industry

observer, where he stated that companies that are not selling

through Internet by 2007 will probably become extinct. As

dramatic as it might feel, although exaggerated, but there are

some truths in it.



Consider this: Although diminishing due to bad economy, average

growth of e-commerce is around 25 % per year. 81% of small

businesses that have an online presence during last year's

holiday season reached new customers, leading to an increase in

sales and profitability according to a survey conducted by

Harris Interactive. Thirty percent of small businesses with a

web presence and fewer than 20 employees now generate more than

25% of their revenue online claims Gartner research.



If this does not convince you to take your business online,

below I pointed out 10 more reasons why you should start doing

business online right now.



1. New economy Internet has created a new economy, which by its

explosive growth and sheer size already changed our perception

of traditional way of doing business. Companies like Amazon and

Ebay have successfully created domination on areas, where just

few years ago traditional brick-and-mortar companies were kings.

However, in order to be successful on the net, you don't have to

be a giant like them. Many small and mid-size companies managed

to build online businesses quite profitably. In fact, studies

show small and mid-size companies will be the main growth force

of e-commerce in coming years.



2. Internet is a perfect venue for business In order to make a

sale you need visitors to come to your shop. On the Internet,

your shop could be only a click away from your prospective

customers. With proper marketing your Internet storefront can

have more buyers than you ever can get in a brick and mortar

shop. 3. Company's image Whether you sell products or services

online or not, in today's world you have to have a corporate

presence on the Internet. Otherwise, as you must have noticed

that people simply don't take your business seriously if you

tell them that your company does not have a website. A nice

corporate site definitely increases the image of a company

especially if it has great product or service related content to

go with.



4. Provide better customer support



Customer accusation and retention is one of the key factors of

business value chain. Thanks to Internet technology, business

can provide customer support more effectively. This means better

customer satisfaction and increase of profitability.



5. Make information more easily available to customers. Just a

couple of years ago, companies used to require days to deliver

products or services update information to their customers.

Things have changed since then. Today you can add or make any

changes to your company and product related content virtually in

a matter of couple of hours, publish on your site and share with

the whole world. 6. Cut costs New technologies allow you to take

virtually any part of your business online, that include supply

chain management, billing, shipping, procurement etc.

Streamlining these business processes through online systems

will allow companies to cut costs significantly in almost every

sphere of any business. For example: companies can reduce more

than five percents of their maintenance, repair and operation

costs by adopting e-business solutions. This five percent

savings can turn into 50% of a company's net profit!



7. Ability to do business 24 hours How else you can continue

making sales, while your stuffs are sleeping! The biggest

advantages of online shops are that they are open 24 hours a day

year round. Thanks to Internet off time, when your shop is

generally closed, sales in some cases can be more than your

regular business hours!



8. Low start up costs



Building a web site does not require big investments. There are

many low cost tools available today, which can help you create

sites from very scratch. Many business portals allow you to

build web sites from templates. For less than 100$/month you can

have a full-fledged corporate e-business site with all

e-commerce features!



9 You physical presence could be in any location The World Wide

Web allows you to do business from any part of the world. Your

physical location, except for few cases is not that important

since you conduct your business online. 10. Go global Thanks to

Internet you can instantly become a global player. In fact, you

don't have to invest large sums of money to do this. There are

literally hundreds of vertical and horizontal e-marketplaces

available on the net. These marketplaces allow you for a nominal

fee to get access to a large audience of prospective customers

from all over the world. According to AMR Research more than

1,3$ trillion of good and services will flow through the B2B

marketplaces. Who does not want a piece of this pie!



The right determinant of e-business success is the same like any

off line business. You have to have a great idea, you have to

have a business plan, there should be a value proposition for

prospective clients and you should have belief in it and your

ability!



Getting online is becoming cheaper and easier thanks to

emergence of new technologies but marketing on the Internet is

becoming more expensive.



Take your business online now, before the marketing costs become

way too expensive for small companies.