Business Features
One Small Step - With A Giant Leap Yet To Come
A snapshot of the Internet scene in the USA (With apologies to Neil Armstrong….)It’s been some time since my last trip to sunny Florida and, sorry to say, we’re still a good few years behind our American cousins. We’re lagging in many things by the way, but crucially so in the use and understanding of the Internet.
Almost without fail every small business has a web presence – the few who don’t have their own website certainly include an e-mail address in their literature. Really aggressive, Internet led marketing is a way of life, even for small businesses, and it’s just a matter of a few short years until we follow suit. There is no doubt at all that those in the UK who continue to bury their heads in the sand will not survive.
Nobody is phased when the Internet is mentioned – it’s accepted in a similar way to how we backward lot accept the telephone.
Terminals abound; they’re all around the shopping malls – outside the loos and even in the chemist shops you can spend your Internet dollar.
Cyber cafes? No such thing – every café and bar is linked – even when you’re leaving the Wal Mart store (ASDA to you and me), there’s a load of terminals next to the banking machines. Your tour reps use the Internet to book your excursions and your car hire – well the Virgin reps do!!
For casual hotel visitors they’ve just 5 or 6 terminals in reception. It’s not a problem for the hotel guests; of course there’s Internet TV in every room…
I took the opportunity to speak to a few local small business proprietors. They all found the Internet a total necessity not only in their business ventures but also to suit their personal needs. The owner of the Cricketers Arms at Orlando’s Mercado area uses the Internet widely to promote the business, and personally as a reference for his personal use. People haven’t exactly thrown away their copies of the Yellow Pages but find it’s much easier to do a quick check through an Internet search.
So basically we’re just a short time from having a degree of dependency on the Internet just as we now depend on the telephone. Every business, no matter how small, will need a website because the Internet is where people will search first for information.
For those of you who are delaying, you’ve been warned. Like it or not, the Internet is here to stay and you need to move – now!!
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