If you're passionate about your topic, and understand a few business & comunication basics, you can learn rest as you go along. Take bite-sized chunks, learn one new priciple or concept a week and you will soon be "an expert" in most people's eyes. Remember, every day that you delay someone else is serving your customers, taking your share of revenue, building relationships that you could have influenced. Get going.......Just do something!

5. But I don't have right product, service, info etc.

The beauty of internet is that it is full of opportunities to joint venture. If you have clients that need a particular product or service that you don't currently offer you can go search, find it and cut a deal to supply. You may see a product or service that is ideal for your existing customer base. Again, strike a deal to put supplier in touch them (through you, of course!). If you are eventually successful online, you'll probably be approached with offers of this kind yourself.

My advice...get really good at searching for what you want on web. Go to Google, Yahoo! & Overture and practice using their search tools until you can find anything you need in shortest time. And don't forget offline world either. There are thousands of companies out there who are not fully net savvy, and haven't developed an online presence for their product range yet . Keep an eye on trade journals, magazines etc for opportunities to bring clients and products together to your business benefit.

6. Just one more...and I'll be there!

The final step......uploading your first web site to host server, ready and open for business! But wait a minute...wouldn't it be better if I just added a popup box there, or changed headline over here.

Fact - some of most effective web sites in online business history have consisted of ONE PAGE only. And some of those one pagers have not even looked attractive! Many of best marketers on internet have most simple web sites - that carry their information in an easy to understand format, and that's it!

It's your message that's important, having a fantastic website is secondary...by some way. If you've done your homework well, researched your target market, have an offer that solves their most pressing problem (or one they haven't even thought of yet!) you are in business. Get shop open and start marketing!

7. Poor time management

Have you ever sat at your PC screen, with full intention of investing some serious time in getting your ideas off ground, only to fritter away your limited efforts on any of these?

Reading pointless emails.

Surfing web in an aimless fasion.

Checking out speculative ideas from others / competitors.

Spending money on unrelated stuff from catalogue sites.

Or...........do you just give up, and return to watcing TV instead?

If you make any cursory study of time management techniques you will find most of above listed as time stealers. As already said, you may well find that your budding business empire has to compete with family, day-job and other commitments making 10, 15 or 20 hours a week you can commit to business building critically important. I can tell you that many people I have consulted with never overcome this barrier, and don't take necessary action to produce results. A further study of time management would reveal that following are regarded at "high leverage" activities (ie: for a small initial commitment they pay back handsomely!):

Setting up / monitoring systems.

Learning a new skill, to be applied in short-term.

Reading / studying relevent business material.

Meeting colleagues, suppliers, mentors, customers.

Attending seminars, coaching sessions, conferences with like minded people.

You simply must focus your efforts. Tell yourself "If I've got 2 hours / $10 to spend on my budding business, what will give me biggest bang". Structure your time so that you are uninterrupted when you're online. Choose a (preferably one) good mentor and start to build relationships with like minded people, surrounding yourself with success, and good habits will rub off.

If you want more help with pushing down "The Barriers to Net Success" you can find common sense advice from Les Sheppard at www.netblueprint101.com

http://www.netblueprint101.com/

Over years, studies consistently suggest that customers' vote with their feet when confronted with poor service. I call this silent vote because you don't know customer is gone until it's too late. Most likely after he begins purchasing from your competitor. These same studies state that a direct correlation exists between business shift and depth of your business relationship. In other words, less you know about your customer, higher probability and faster he will turn to your competitor when he has problems. And most business people know it takes more money and effort to get a new customer then to retain an old one. Therefore, finding ways to strengthen bond you have with each existing customer will pay dividends time and again.

Customers tend to remember conversations from non-selling people. Sales people still have a slight stigma attached to them. However, when customers know more people within a company it gives them a ‘cozy' feeling and provides added flexibility to communicate problems before turning into lost business. An on-going customer calling program is an easy and effective way to add more glue to customer-company relationship.

Down in New Orleans, they have a wonderful word: "lagniappe" (LAN-yap). It means getting a valuable extra at no extra charge, sort of like 14 donuts for price of a dozen. You should find ways to give your customer more value. Talking with him on a regular basis will make your company standout. In today's fiercely competitive world giving a customer more than they expect is a sure way of retaining him for future business.

Start your executives calling customers today. The value proposition is immense!

Frank Williams is a marketer and astute businessman. With many post graduate courses in management, leadership, marketing and technology to his credit, Williams is a widely respected speaker, author and technologist. He is the founder and CEO of Global Marketing, Inc. - a leader in business, marketing and sales consulting