SERANGOON North is well known as a hub of pet supply shops, bird shops, aquariums and animal clinics. Despite the small area and population, these shops do a thriving business, serving customers way beyond the cluster of HDB blocks on its single main Avenue 1.

In pre-Internet days of the 1980s and early 1990s, word of mouth was almost the only way that these shops promoted themselves. The advent of the Internet, however, changed all that. Tech-savvy people such as the proprietor of Pet Mart - among the oldest pet shops there - hired PC technicians to wire a small network on their premises and ensure access to the Web was trouble-free. Freelance web designers produced simple working sites with a payment gateway, e-mail system and a database setup with a mass mailing feature.

Resources for the Web

Today, you should not dream of starting a business - no matter how niche - without devoting major resources to the Web-based aspect. But many business plans drawn up by consultants still give only a cursory glance, if at all, to the Web side of business, such as online marketing and promotion, network security, e-mail blast and Internet payment gateway.

The Web is your secret weapon by which you compete on equal terms with the big boys. Size doesn't matter, only the quality of presentation on your site and the quickness of your service when customers call.

Think Amazon, a pure play Internet company. No one has ever seen a real Amazon bookshop nor is there a need to, as long as customers can order goods at its site fast and at prices cheaper than anywhere else.

Any business - from pet shops to match-making - will benefit immensely from an active, well-managed web presence. In other words, before you open a shop, plan to open: (a) a concrete-and-glass premises with good lighting, helpful shop assistants and a diverse spread of items on the shelves, and (b) an equally dynamic and rich online 'store'.

Your web site, if managed correctly, may eventually replace your physical store, so that all you need is simply a warehouse, a fleet of delivery vans, and someone sitting in a call centre in Bangalore taking orders, answering inquiries and chasing people for late payments.

You may not even need your own Website, as some enterprising women discovered. On eBay, Molly registered an account and makes good money selling Japan-made Takara Blythe dolls (from $800 apiece), and Esther sells Australian-made quality bikini swimsuits. Customers arrange to come to Molly's shop at Peninsular Shopping Mall to view, buy and collect their dolls. For Esther, customers come to her home or to one of the many fairs that she takes part in.

Before you put aside a large part of your investors' money into the Web side of your business, consider the following:

1 State clearly how dependent your business is on the Web to get customers and keep them. If you are almost completely dependent, your business would be considered a 'pure play' dot-com enterprise. An elegant shop front, pretty receptionist, nice office decor and smart shelf displays would be irrelevant. Think Amazon, a pure play Internet company. No one has ever seen a real Amazon bookshop nor is there a need to, as long as customers can order goods at its site fast and at prices cheaper than anywhere else.

2 Compute the amount of money you need for Web expenses. Folks seem to think that online activities are 'free' or just require a fistful of dollars. Far from it!

There are monthly expenses for an active online presence: 'rental' payment to a Web-hosting company to park your site on its servers; fee for the Web designer-cum-programmer to produce, maintain, secure and update the contents, and payment to buy names from a direct mail marketing firm for an e-mail blast. In the initial months, set aside an estimate of $2,000 a month.

3 An accurate and easy-to-remember domain name. When Jennifer wanted to start a dating and lifestyle events agency, she first tried 'heart-to-heart-connection.com', then 'heart2heartconnect.com' but found both clumsy. Eventually she settled for 'heart2heart.sg'.

Follow Jennifer's example, and use the dot-sg domain, even if you want to reach customers beyond Singapore shores. Dot-sg is so much easier to type, like www.ns.sg, the site for National Servicemen, and www.cats.sg which directs you to the classified ads.

4 Clear, descriptive, simply presented content on the website where potential shoppers can search quickly for the products and services they want and make purchases in a few steps.

You should study already successful business sites, such as philips.com and apple.com. Philips, although a giant manufacturer of practically every electronic and electrical product under the sun, likes to expound the philosophy of 'sense and simplicity' as reflected in its elegantly simple, modular Web presentation.

Its guiding principle can also be adopted by most SMEs: 'Sense and simplicity guides everything we do. We're putting people right at the heart of our thinking and eliminating any unnecessary complexity for all our stakeholders,' says CEO Gerard Kleisterlee.

5 A safe and reliable online payment system. PayPal, which set up its international headquarters in Singapore in January, is now the most popular and secure gateway for individuals and small businesses.

6 Content management system or CMS. You need to change the stuff on your website constantly and you need a software application so that you simply open a series of pop-up windows on your laptop anywhere outside your shop, change the contents and re-post them online. You need a CMS and everyone says that it is expensive and difficult to use. The best approach is to pay a Web programmer to set the whole thing up and familiarise yourself with its use.

7 Calendaring and other update features. To keep customers loyal, follow a schedule to update them regularly. The calendar events section on your site must be current, displaying information about price slash, special offers, lucky draws and other promotional activities.

8 Do e-mail blast but do it judiciously. No, don't blast your customers - it's so rude. Instead, send them 'e-mail alerts', a text-based message, say, once a month, to tell them what you've got specially for them.

9 Customer feedback. The best approach to knowing your customers is to ask for their feedback. Have a prominent feedback and comment message pop-up box each time an order is made online. Have phone numbers, shop addresses and e-mail addresses displayed on every Web page, and not just on the About Us page.

10 Network security. No company or organisation is so unimportant and obscure that bad people would not try to hack in, steal information and cripple the site. Your Web-hosting company or programmer may recommend some IT security expert to hack into your system to see if it is secure. You really must have a well-tested, secure system.

So, find a niche, desirable product or service that works well off line and online. Think creatively and plan imaginatively as you take advantage of the World Wide Web to help you mind your own small business, profitably.

This article has been contributed by NCS Portal City, a member of the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation.

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