The answer to that question is relatively simple.
Everyone is talking about the Internet. It's new! It's
fun! It's exciting! And it's not just for kids. The
Internet, particularly in its graphic interface known as
the World Wide Web, is probably the most important
communication vehicle developed since the
telephone. And more importantly for the small
business, the Web levels the playing field between small
business and big business. Let's look at the variety
of commercial uses for the Internet:
The Web is the newest medium for
advertising. It offers significant advantages
over traditional advertising media in that it is dynamic,
interactive and inexpensive. The Internet is making it
possible for small- to medium-sized businesses to compete
with the big guys. Of course, as the Web matures,
advertising rates for the most popular sites will
increase. Advertising is not the only way to make your
business known via the Web. Search engines are another
powerful and low cost way to increase awareness of your
products and services.
The Web is an important customer service tool. Did you
throw away the TV guide this week? You can check out your
local TV station's Web page for its weekly schedule or
the network specials this week. Have you ever wanted hard
facts comparing natural gas to electricity? This type of
information and much more is available on the web.
Soon you'll be able to schedule appliance repair times
and make changes to your gas service account by sending
an email, at your convenience, either during or after
regular business hours. Wouldn't you rather shop for a
new car from the comfort of your home, in the quiet time
late at night after the kids are in bed? This is now
possible in many areas of the country. The Web allows you
to communicate with your customers at their convenience.
Don't you want to offer this level of service to your
customers?
Network connectivity makes it possible for you to hook
up your local area network (LAN) directly to the
Internet. Who wants to do that? Lots of companies! For
example, a wide area network (WAN) connection offers
multiple simultaneous connections through a dedicated
data line at a tremendous savings over individual modems
and standard telephone lines. This makes your existing
internal email addresses work as Internet email
addresses. It also allows you to set up your own Web
server with your own domain name, to provide volumes of
information to existing and potential new customers, and
to take orders on-line.
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