The growth of the Internet has seen the opening of a new avenues for business. These extend from using the internet as a means of communication through the use of e-mails to the development of your own web site to advertise its products and therefore a medium to sell its products.

• Establishing a web presence
• Design & creation
• Update & maintain

See also:
Useful links

A web presence can have a powerful effect on your sales and reputation. Even if your business is concentrated in a local market, your web site will enable customers to request further information.

There are many issues for you to consider in the building up of a web presence. As with other decision making you should consider e-commerce as a separate business planning exercise.

From a strategic level you will need to establish why you are creating the web site and what you are seeking to achieve and how this is to be monitored in order to ensure that the site contributes to the business objectives.

You will need to source both computer hardware and software to enable the internet activity to be kept separate from the mainstream computer activities.

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You will need to give consideration to the design and creation of the web site. Your web designer should carry out interviews with you to determine your needs for the site and their practicality.

A project plan will need to be created to monitor the development of the site. If you are to use the site for selling on-line, you will need to ensure that there is appropriate security on the site to prevent unauthorised transactions being processed but also that the customer records are secure.

The site will fall within the remit of the Data Protection Act.

The name of your site will need to be considered as many businesses may already be using your preferred name.

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After the site has been created, you will also need to ensure that the site is regularly updated for news and other developments. This will encourage web traffic to revisit the site.

A good structure to your site and good navigation will enable your site to be marked highly by the search engines. This will result in your site appearing higher in the list of sites containing your site name.

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• The CTE - Centre for Technology Excellence
  The CTE organises ICT workshops & training sessions that are FREE for small & medium sized businesses in the East Midlands

• e-Skills UK
  An industry-driven organisation responsible for improving general skills in IT in the UK

• The UK IT Association
  Business Growth / Business Development / Business Influence

• Web Design for Business
  A tool to help SMEs manage the process of designing a web presence
  

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