smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

A surprising 16 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses now bring in more than a fifth of their sales via the internet, which shows the commercial value of this channel.

The current trend we’re seeing is that companies initially experiment with retail sites and their own websites, developing increasingly complex pages as they see the number of web-based customers increase.

You can begin with nothing more than an online company brochure, adding catalogues and then making the site transactional so that people can actually buy through the site. The cost of developing a professional looking website needn’t be high, as there are a range of options and tools available to suit every budget.

It sounds like it could be complicated, but the most cost-effective option is to start developing the online space yourself. This can be done with tools that are available off-the-shelf or as part of a broadband package from an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
These start from as little as £25 per month and allow users to build simple websites that include text, photography and click-through links, even if they have little IT or design knowledge. You could also add transactional and payment elements to the site in order to take orders and charge customers.

In terms of the legal status of your company and securing grants for expansion, the best thing to do is to talk to your local BusinessLink or similar service, which have a wide range of advice for small businesses and people looking to start their own companies.