UK online together with IoD (Institute of Directors) has published an online guide entitled "Your Business and the Internet". The objective of the guide is to provide useful information that smaller businesses require about taking advantage of the available resources. By doing so they may be able to operate in a multitude of ways and make their presence felt in the Internet world. The guide focuses on the many advantages of broadband yet to be tapped by some businesses in UK.
In comparison with their European counterparts, UK is lagging behind in terms of broadband usage. Statistics reveals that about 86 - 89% of businesses in France, Spain, Sweden and Finland are connected to broadband. In the UK it is only about 77% despite a prediction that by 2011 about 32 million UK consumers will shop online.

Chris Stening, MD - UK Online remarks that "Being online nowadays is fundamental as the Internet has placed almost unlimited information and choice in the hands of the consumer. Not having a website, even a basic site which describes your business and provides contact details, is a serious omission as the first thing most people do now is 'Google' for what they want - searching for websites to compare services and products before buying. Despite this, our own research shows that as many as two thirds of small businesses with less than ten employees still operate with no Internet connection."

So, this guide is aimed at providing the technical know-how in a simplified, easy to comprehend format. It is argued by the IoD that such a specification is not easily available as most part of the internet throws light on consumer needs.

A copy of this pocket book is available in pdf format at
http://www.ukonline.net/pocketbook/pdf/iodpocketbook.pdf