e-skills UK Guide

Getting your business online

How to get your business online

There are very few small businesses that will not benefit in some way by being connected to the internet and worldwide web. This can range from having a website through to collaborating online through to having a blog to raise your company profile. All of these have one requirement in common – the need to connect to the internet.

This guide will take you through the basics of internet connection. By connecting to the internet you will be able to make money by promoting your business and attracting new customers to buy your products and services.

The cost of internet connection is fairly small. Some providers will supply you with a free connection, with limitations. Others will charge you about £25 per month for a connection suitable for most small businesses.

Why bother getting your business online?

Think about what you do and how you do it. What products do you sell? How do you market these products? How do you recruit and retain customers? How do you find out what your competition are up to? You can use the internet and world wide web to help you with all of these facets of your business. In addition email is now a standard way of conducted business, and without an online connection you cannot send and receive emails. We cover email in more detail in the Using Email Guide.

What products do you sell? How do you know if your products are the most relevant for your market? By searching on the world wide web you will see what other products are available to compliment or maybe supersede the products you sell. You will be able to search across thousands of potential suppliers and see what they have to offer.
How do you market these products? In the old days we used to use the Yellow Pages and advertise in the local trade directory. Now almost every business needs to have a website or other online listing – even if it is an online version of the Yellow Pages. If you do not have a presence on the internet your current and potential customers may find other suppliers online.
How do you find out what your competition are up to? By searching online and viewing competitor websites you can see how you fair and maybe even the pricing your competitors charge. You can also monitor web sites used by trade and industry bodies to make sure you are fully informed and up to date with your industry trends.

If you do not have an internet connection you are at a considerable disadvantage and risk loosing a lot of business. A reliable internet connection should be very high in your list of important tasks and objectives.

Options for internet connectivity

Internet technology and connectivity is changing at a huge rate. Many years ago dial up - using a telephone line to connect to the internet - was the preferred option as it was widely available and other technologies were too expensive or not generally available for small businesses. Now broadband is the preferred connection tool.

Bear in mind that other connection technologies are emerging, but we will only talk about practical solutions available today for small businesses.

Establishing a dial-up connection

Dial up connections are made using ordinary telephone connections. You plug your PC into a telephone connection and it automatically dials phone numbers that allow it to connect to a service that provides the internet connection.

Benefits	Drawbacks
Can be free - you need only pay for use of the telephone line	Very slow, which means browsing the world wide web can be very time consuming and irritating
Easy to set up and shut down	Requires you to connect and disconnect
Needs just a telephone line and a modem	Expensive for heavy use
Easy to separate charges for office and home use	Blocks the phone line when in use
Available anywhere there is a suitable telephone line

Home dial-up connections are mostly suited to low or casual internet use, or in areas where broadband is not yet available. Dial-up connections for remote workers are mostly suited to occasions when other types of connection are not possible (for example, in a hotel room that does not have a dedicated internet connection). If you do travel a lot you may wish to consider having a dial up account for use in emergencies when broadband is not available.

Getting a Broadband connection

Broadband is a general term for fast internet connections that give you a permanent connection to the internet. Broadband is the preferred connection tool for small businesses.

The benefits

Fast compared to dial up connections.
Can be used without tying up a telephone line.
Gives you an ‘always on’ connection to the internet so you do not have to connect and disconnect. Emails appear automatically in your inbox, for example and people can contact you immediately via Instant Messaging if you are online.
You pay just one fixed monthly fee for normal use.

The drawbacks

Costs more than dial-up for low use.
Normally requires a 12 month contract.
Having an always on connection may make your computers vulnerable to malware unless they are suitably protected.
Not available everywhere – you need to be within a certain distance of a telephone exchange.
Difficult to separate home and business usage charges.

Broadband is the best way to connect for small business use unless you find it difficult to justify the £15-£25 monthly cost.

There are two basic ways to get connected to broadband:

Cable Broadband – If you already have a cable TV connection then adding broadband internet to it is almost certainly your easiest way forward.
ADSL Broadband – This method of connection requires special equipment at your telephone exchange installed by your ISP. That equipment will not work if you are sited a long way from the exchange or if the connection is a poor quality one. For remote areas that cannot receive conventional ADSL broadband it is possible to get broadband via satellite. Although more expensive and with a reduced bandwidth compared to cabled broadband it will be much faster than a dial up connection. Your provider will be able to advise on availability and suitability.

ADSL refers to the technology used to place digital internet traffic across a conventional telephone line. You should also note that some providers require you to have a BT telephone line before broadband can be setup.

The simplest way to obtain all the necessary equipment is to order it from your provider which will ensure that everything is compatible. However, you will probably be charged a higher cost for this service compared to the cost of buying the equipment separately.

There are many different ADSL Broadband suppliers. Here are just a few of them:

A broadband installation will normally take a couple of weeks from the time of ordering. The provider will need to make changes at the telephone exchange and then they will send you a broadband router. This plugs into your normal telephone line and then your computers pug into the router. Many of the providers will send you a wireless router, enabling you to have wireless access to the internet from inside your office or home. The router is a box about the size of a small book and it will need a power supply from the mains.

Note that the sighting of a wireless router can have a dramatic effect on its coverage area. Walls and other obstacles between the wireless router and your PCs will reduce the effectiveness of the signals sent and received.

Most PCs now have facilities to automatically connect to the router. You will get a set of instructions and access to a helpdesk from your broadband provider.

If you are using a wireless router then make sure that you have enabled the security features of the device. The security aspects of routers is covered in the Sharing data guide.

We have a range of other guides that cover securing your business - Computer Viruses and Malware, Controlling Access to Data, Protecting Important Data and Securing Computer Data.

Using WiFi

WiFi is the most common form of public wireless connection to the internet. Providers create what are called hotspots, which are areas of coverage in public places such as:

Airports.
Stations.
Trains.
Planes.
Hotels.
Coffee shops.

Benefits

Minimal set up needed.
Some hotspots are free to use.

Drawbacks

Most hotspots are expensive to use.
You might find it hard to find a hotspot when you need one.

To use them you need a WiFi equipped PC. When turned on your PC should find the hotspot automatically and offer to connect you to it. You will then see a web page welcoming you to the service and, if appropriate, explaining how to pay to connect.

Most public WiFi connections require a payment and have different charging plans for casual, low and high use. You will need to consider these plans carefully because costs can ramp up very quickly! Unfortunately there is no common charging scheme so you might have to subscribe to different providers at different locations. For example, if you access the internet from airports, stations and other public places using WiFi via BT Openzone, it can cost 20p per minute, £6 per hour, £10 per day or £40 per month.

You should also be aware that because you are sharing a connection with other users there is a remote possibility that they can eavesdrop on your communications. You should be cautious about working with very sensitive data or high value personal data (such as bank ids and passwords) over public WiFi connections. We cover securing your data in more detail in these Guides - Protecting important data, Securing computer data, Controlling access to data and Backing up data.

The mobile telephone network

You can use the mobile phone network to connect to the internet using a laptop connected via a mobile phone. You may also consider using a handheld digital device such as a Blackberry or Windows SmartPhone to stay in touch.

Benefits

Will work anywhere there is a mobile phone connection.
No set up needed once installed.

Drawbacks

Can be an expensive option; charges can be difficult to determine in advance (especially when using the service abroad).
Slow compared to WiFi or Broadband connections.

As with all mobile phones, charges can be difficult to understand and compare. Not least because charges are sometimes based on the amount of data transferred and it’s difficult to know how much use a set amount of data gets you. It can also be difficult to find out in advance how much the services cost to use when you go abroad (as a result, many have had unpleasant surprises when they get a bill that includes overseas use).

Further information

For further information on this topic, why not take a look at these videos:

Marketing and the web

The Railway Children's guide to getting noticed (on the web)

Online marketing skills

Commercial suppliers

We do not recommend specific products or suppliers; instead we provide you with a representative sample which covers the range of suppliers/products available. You may choose to look at these suppliers or products but this is entirely at your discretion.

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