Several generations have now grown up in the "PC era," which dates to the 1970’s. Even the great inventions of the early 1980s, in fact, are obsolete already, from VCRs to brick-size portable phones. These new generations see PCs as a part of everyday life, and are completely comfortable with highly advanced video games, smart phones, netbooks, WiFi, satellite radio – and, first and foremost, the Internet.  Constant virtual connection to anything you need is now a way of life.

It’s almost magical, that word "Internet," and it certainly was the center of much fantasizing in the late 1990s. At that time, you could get a start-up fund of several million dollars by tacking a "dot-com" suffix on the end of anything – Sports.com, Poker.com, Ideas.com, whatever – and reminding the "old fashioned" bankers and businessmen that the World Wide Web had a new type of economy. Profits were not the most important thing, apparently, and were supposed to simply appear as a result of one’s being hip, slick, cool and relevant.

Reality strikes

The "dot com bust" of 2000-2001 put the lie to the fantasizing, of course, because hipness, slickness, coolness and relevance don’t keep the doors open and bread on the table. Profits do. Yet even with that big, well-documented burst of the tech-stock bubble, a certain cachet still attaches to the Internet, and the businesses that operate there. This article, then, covers what every small business must know about the offline issues of an online business, in case you are thinking of starting a web business or taking your present business online.

You are encouraged, of course, to study further about the various things that will be mentioned, since a thousand words can cover only so much territory. However, that’s enough space to get you well grounded, hit the major points and get you headed in the right direction. You will find that much is common sense (which is increasingly uncommon, of course) as well as some surprising comments, too. Do as much research as you need to do to understand exactly what it is you and your company are getting into.

Truisms of business

Remember now, this is not a "how to start a net business" advice article, but more of a collection of alert messages, such as, "Hey, don’t forget this problem," or, "Avoid this mistake." You know you have to have a business plan, you are doubtless aware of the technical challenges of building and running a website – and if you don’t have that plan and don’t understand website construction, put articles on those topics at the top of your reading list.

Perhaps the major offline issues of an online business involve marketing, Although the Internet’s reach is vast, and people will often find your online business while online – through links, banners, referrals, search results, etc. – there are many more people that you can reach offline. Do not neglect the traditional avenues of marketing, advertising and promotion, or you will seriously undercut yourself and narrow your reach considerably. In fact, some of your customers will be people who go online only for certain activities, such as sending/receiving e-mail and making specific purchases.

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