by Cathy Brower
As i was reading this issue’s intelligence section, I came across a statistic that I found extremely interesting — and a little horrifying. According to a recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business Owners, only 16 percent of small businesses currently have a Web site. Sixteen percent! I have been saying for months now that very few small business owners were conducting e-commerce, but I must confess that I didn’t realize how many didn’t even have a site.
That got me thinking. Being in technology publishing, we are considered experts on certain topics. As experts we are privy to information before it reaches the public at large. Because of that we have been talking about Web sites for years and to us it seems old and boring. The current news is e-commerce. But if so few of you even have Web sites, how many are that interested in conducting commerce over the net? We write about ASPs, broadband, EDI, and other hot technologies and services because we know that adopting these things can help your business soar. We assume that the reason you are reading this magazine is because you know how important leveraging technology is in your overall business strategy.
It is our job to stay ahead of the curve and give you cutting edge information. After all, if it’s yesterday’s news what do you need us to bring it to you for? But, can we be so ahead of the curve that we lose sight of reality a little bit. I would love to hear from you on this subject. Sometimes we can be a little isolated here at the magazine. We are not running small businesses ourselves, so the more we can hear from you the better we can serve you. My e-mail address is cathy_brower@ftmg.net.
Speaking of Web sites, we have some news regarding our own. We are currently working hard to improve our own site significantly. We have redesigned it, hired some great new people, and added some terrific content. We will be changing the site daily and in a few months look for a special web icon in the magazine to see which stories have additional online components. There may be live chats with writers and experts, or links to useful small business resources. Please go check out destinationsoho.com and give us some feedback on that as well. I know I have given you a lot of work to do but the more we hear from you, the more we can do for you. Thanks.
