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What do you think the most important trend affecting small business will be?

 

E-Commerce and Internet in Business mentor Jakob Nielsen responds to the following questions:

What do you think the most important trend affecting small business will be? How best can owners position their companies to take advantage of it?

Jakob Nielsen's response:
The Internet provides great potential for niche businesses: if you specialize at being very good at something very specific, the Internet expands your reach so that you can connect with customers worldwide. Globalization is an important element of this trend, especially for small businesses that provide virtual products and services (i.e., those that can be delivered over the Net). For example, in my own case, I publish a series of reports on Web usability at www.nngroup.com/reports and the distribution of sales for the last three months is as follows:

USA 40%
Canada 4%
Latin America 2%
U.K. 16%
Rest of Europe 25%
Asia 8%
Australia/NZ 4%
Africa 1%

More than half my sales are outside North America. This proves two things:First, it really is true that a targeted business can have substantial sales overseas. Second, since my topic happens to be how you should design your Web site, the huge demand from overseas shows that they are getting into the act. With the Web, business is international. Deal with it.

Related Resources:
Six Ways to Position Your Company for Success

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