No matter how scary the Internet may seem, as a small business owner you cannot afford to ignore this important medium which is changing the way we do business forever. It´s no wonder then that more and more small businesses are looking at ways that they can take advantage of this huge opportunity to increase sales and profitability in their businesses by developing their own online strategy and becoming actively involved in e-commerce. What you need is accurate and practical advice on how your business can take advantage of what the Internet has to offer - without breaking the bank!

So how do you put your business on the Internet without becoming dot-com bomb statistic? It is the same question that has been asked of small business publisher Entrepreneur Business Centre (EBC) by thousands of small business owners over and over again. Now, thanks to EBC, you can access this complete step-by-step resource to guide you through the entire process.

EBC has developed two Business Internet Series designed to cover those who want to expand their existing business by going online and the Netpreneur who wants to take advantage of a gap in the market by creating a business which for all intents and purposes, only exists online..

The first series is Getting Your Business Online which focuses on the major issues associated with getting an existing retail or service business online. The Getting Your Retail Business Online and Getting Your Service Business Online guides take you step-by-step on how to analyse your existing business and what measures you can take to not only have a successful online extension to your business but how to minimise the cost and impact of your business.

The second series Starting Your Online Business outlines how an enterprising business person can take advantage of the many opportunities online to start and run a business solely on the Internet. The two guides Starting Your Online Retail Business and Starting Your Online Service Business and

focus on what your options are when creating your Web site and what pitfalls you should avoid. They also outline the steps you can take to minimise the risk of failure and how you can maximise your profit potential through effective marketing strategies.

• What research and planning you should do before deciding to go online
• How to register your domain name and options for hosting your Web site
• What design specifications you should include in your site and the deadly design mistakes which could affect the success of your site
• How to make your Web site "sticky" so customers keep coming back
• How to set up an online shopping store and what are your cheapest options
• How to process payments online
• How you can make money from your Web site without selling a single product
• E-marketing strategies to get your site noticed
• What you can do to keep your online customers happy and keep them coming back for more
• How to protect yourself against cybercrime and what are your legal requirements when you operate online

Each guide shows you step-by-step how to plan, set-up, promote and manage your online business, plus highlights the common pitfalls to avoid. Over 220 pages of practical and essential information split into 14 tabbed sections covering:

Plus there are work sheets and checklists at the end of each chapter to help you to quickly develop your own online strategy..