Approximately 200 million people in North America have access to the World Wide Web (WWW), with over 70% of the total population actively using the internet. No matter what your business is, you can’t ignore 200 million people. To be a part of that community and show that you are interested in serving them, you need to be on the World Wide Web for them. You know your competitors will.

A lot of what passes for business is simply nothing more than making connections with other people. Every smart business person knows, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Passing out your business card is part of every good meeting and every business person can tell more than one story how a chance meeting turned into the big deal. Well, what if you could pass out your business card to thousands, maybe millions of potential clients and partners, saying this is what I do and if you are ever in need of my services, this is how you can reach me. You can, 24 hours a day, inexpensively and simply, on the World Wide Web (WWW).

What is basic business information? Think of a Yellow Pages ad. What are your hours? What do you do? How can someone contact you? What methods of payment do you take? Where are you located? Now think of a Yellow Pages ad where you have instant communication. What is today’s special? Today’s interest rate? Next week’s parking lot sale information? If you could keep your customer informed of every reason why they should do business with you, don’t you think you could do more business? You can on the World Wide Web (WWW).

Making business information available is one of the most important ways to serve your customers. But if you look at serving the customer, you’ll find even more ways to use World Wide Web (WWW) technology. How about making forms available to pre-qualify for loans, or have your staff do a search for that classic jazz record your customer is looking for – without tying up your staff on the phone to take down the information?! Allow your customer to punch in sizes and check it against a database that tells him what color of jacket is available in your store. All this can be done, and more, on the World Wide Web (WWW).

You won’t get Newsweek magazine to write up your local store opening, but you might get them to write up your Web Page address if it is something new and interesting. Even if Newsweek would write about your local store opening, you wouldn’t benefit from someone in a distant city reading about it, unless of course, they were coming to your town sometime soon. With Web page information, anybody anywhere who can access the Web and hears about you is a potential visitor to your Web site and a potential customer for your information there.

What if your materials need to be released no earlier than midnight? The quarterly earnings statement, the grand prize winner, the press kit for the much anticipated film, the merger news? Well, you sent out the materials to the press with the "Do not release before such and such time" statement and hope for the best. Now the information can be made available at midnight or any time you specify, with all related materials such as photographs, bios, etc. released at exactly the same time. Imagine the anticipation of "All materials will be made available on our Web site at 12:01 AM". The scoop goes to those that wait for the information to be posted, not the one who releases your information early.