How Has the Web/Internet changed Business?

The biggest effect that the Web has on business is that it is almost impossible (without outside information) to tell a tiny one-man-

Transactions matter to business?

band from a multi-national conglomerate!

Think about it:

It takes only a few dollars to buy an URL for a business.

It takes a little bit of time to set up an account with an ISP to house your pages, and a few more hours to set up a web site.

If you use WordPress or Facebook, and it would only cost you a little bit of time to have a Web Presence that is every bit as impressive as that of many of the largest multinational company.

With a little bit of effort (and a couple of apps) you can add a ‘shopping cart’, have a PayPal or Google account to handle credit card and virtual cash transactions, and you are up and running as a business.

Do some browsing and ‘surfing’ on the Web.

What is there on the pages you see that tells you the size of the business?

The chances are: NOTHING!

A one-person business can look as professional as one put out by a huge company. It can have as many products, and as many bells and whistles.

The fact is, business is all about transactions – you provide a product or service, and someone pays for that product or service.

In a bricks and mortar environment, the costs of having a store or an office or a slew of stores and offices are indicators of how large the business is. It is  an indication of how wide the service is rather than how well the business is doing. The number of “branches” tells you that your are no longer dealing with a tiny one-man operation.

While the larger business may deliver more variety and the one man business may tailor better to specifics; it always comes down to transactions and the level of satisfaction for both parties.

On the Web, transactions are a critical part of the business, but a business with one transaction a week looks identical to one that  has a million transactions a day. 

That’s what the Web/Internet has accomplished: it makes every business equal in ways that could never have happened in a bricks and mortar environment. It has refocused business on the one thing that really matters: the individual transactions.

The transaction orientation is changing the emphasis of how we do business. It means that transaction costs can now be kept to a bare minimum. It means that buyers have the ability to look at the packaging and handling and buy exactly what they want rather than told and sold. Transactions allow for higher trust and relationship building. Transaction based business have no physical boundaries, no size limitations, no restraints.

Are you managing transactions or are you worried about SEO and web presence? In the comments, tell me what is preventing your one man business from looking like a big business?

Roberta

Passionate Purposeful Performer

Transactions are a key part of the 10 Critical Criteria.

Have you looked at how your business matches those criteria yet? Find out more about the criteria today.