Building such sites is expensive. Up to now companies have had to pay cash for their site. This has forced many companies to put up a less effective site than they wanted, or to delay putting it up at all until they had cash to pay for it. Each of these "solutions" costs company in lost revenues as well as market share lost to competitors who have quality web sites.

Small companies have limited options for getting on Web. Traditional loans are next to impossible to obtain. Banks won't finance software, much less a Web site. To banks, a Web site is an intangible asset.

The few lease companies that have taken on concept of Web site financing are by and large gearing their programs toward Web developers, who can offer this service to potential clients. By offering a finance option to a prospect, Web developers are overcoming cost objections, and are thus closing more business. The key here is that with newly emerging financing options a company can have its web site now and let web site generate income to pay for itself over time.

E-business is creating a brand new world. New World - New Rules!

Chocolate, most likely, will continue to see growing consumer demand with an improving world economy. The problem for this market will continue to be that Indonesia, Ghana, and Nigeria are too eager to expand production when prices are profitable. These governments, along with Ivory Coast, need to reassess their production incentives to keep their markets more profitable. Even so, this appears to be one of those small windows of opportunity when cocoa prices have a chance to head higher. As always, there are no guarantees.

Dailyfutures.com. October 8, 2001.