Moving your business to cyberspace

Provided by Business Partners Ltd, South Africa's leading investor in SMEs

With the ever-growing world of cyberspace, at some point or another you may have heard that you need to have a presence on the Internet. It is however, important to first make the distinction between the Internet and the World Wide Web and whether or not having a presence in cyberspace will be of benefit to your business.

The World Wide Web is a network of computers that are set up to exchange electronic files in a specific way. While the Internet is a network of networks, a link of millions of computers world wide, into one vast collection of information. The World Wide Web is merely a part of the Internet.

Deciding whether or not to "move" your business to the Internet is entirely up to the business owner. The owner would need to decide what benefits such a move would mean to the company. Having a presence on the Internet could equip employees to use the Internet's capabilities as data storage and as a communications medium to improve efficiency, productivity and profitability of the business.

An investment in an Internet presence for your business should need a plan. This plan should be driven first by your most compelling reasons for being on the Internet, and ultimately by what you intend to achieve by making this move.

If you are thinking of taking your business to the Internet, consider the following:

to establish a web presence
to network more effectively
to make business information more readily available
to serve your customers better
to heighten public interest in your business
to release time-sensitive material more effectively
to sell more of your products
to make pictures, sound and film files easily available
to reach a highly desirable demographic market more effectively
to address Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in time
to stay in better contact with salespeople
to open international markets more easily
to create a 24 hour service
to make changing information quickly available
to allow quick feedback from customers
to test market new services and products
to reach media more easily
to reach the education and youth market more easily
to reach a specialised market more effectively
to serve the local market better

These considerations will help you as an entrepreneur to determine whether an Internet presence will benefit the business or if the converse might be the outcome. Making this move is merely a change in the way business is done.