Broadband for Small Business & Home Office

Introduction

E-commerce, or doing business electronically, is offering new opportunities to businesses in the UK by allowing them to compete in national and international markets. The best way to take advantage of these opportunities is to have a broadband connection.

Efficiency

• Its high speed helps you to work more quickly and efficiently or find/research information you need promptly.
• Its ‘always-on’ nature means that online access is available quickly and when you need it.
• There is no waiting while you dial-up and no need to postpone tasks until you are next online.
• Broadband doesn't tie up your phone line – you can be on the Internet and on the phone at the same time. This can save your business money by eliminating the need for a second phone line dedicated to the Internet.
• VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) allows cheaper even free telephone calls
• Several computers can be connected to the Internet simultaneously through a single broadband connection. A single dial-up connection only allows one person to access the Internet at a time. This can cause serious bottlenecks in a busy organisation.

Web Marketing

Many businesses these days have a website to take advantage of the opportunities that e-commerce can offer. A website gives you a presence on the Internet that can reap significant benefits:

• Providing an effective marketing tool that can increase your sales. Not only is it less expensive than traditional marketing methods such as newspaper, radio or television advertising, it reaches a far wider audience, expanding your geographical coverage. This is highly desirable, especially in the UK, even when the market for a product may be small. A website overcomes the barrier of distance so often experienced by a small business in country areas.
• Increasing your trading hours as your website is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This makes it easier for customers to access your goods and services or simply find out more about you, whether they live locally or on the other side of the world.
• Enabling you to provide a better service to your customers. Your website might offer time saving services such as online quotes or bookings. You might provide an online catalogue and facilities to purchase goods. You will almost certainly provide information about your business and its products or services and you may gather important feedback from your customers. All of these services are accessible by your customers at a time convenient to them. Not only does this benefit your customers, it will also save you money as fewer staff will be required to answer customer queries.

To be effective a website must be kept up to date with the latest prices, products or information. Broadband’s high speed makes the task of maintaining even a small website much faster and more efficient, saving your business valuable time and money.

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