Websites use distinct colours, themes, layouts, fonts to create its own unique style that can gain recognition between its customers. The website needs to have a professional look and be distinct. It needs to stand out from its competitors and want to be looked at not just there for the purpose to make money but to provide a visual exciting look that will make you want to go back again.

A website has to show what is marketing straight away so the customer knows exactly what to expect from the site although there have been some very successful sites that gained media attention throughout the Internet by announcing something would happen at a certain time and has a countdown. These sites are good for short term marketing but will loose interest after the plot has been revealed and the product, service or system has been announced. These sites are hard to pull off as they are made mainly in flash and have to have special domains that when traced don’t give away the business location.

For a small business it’s not a good idea to make a website like this as it will cost a lot of money and won’t make a lot of profit if no one has heard of your company. Recommendation A small business should start off with a cheap good looking website with little flash or complex actions. It should build its way up and in term grow stronger and more complex as the business gains more profit. In the future when the website has grown then it can included a customer database and link up to the goods so when a customer logs on it can take their debit/credit card and work automatically and check stock levels, send invoices etc.

The website would need to be secure to stay true to the Data Protection Act 1998. E-Mail E-Mail is used in business all the time it is important way of communications and to get messages to staff quickly. It can also be used to send small files to and from members of staff in the business such as finance reports, new products etc. Business have gone a long way in terms of communications from the early businesses communicating using pen and paper sending messages would involve someone hand delivering them or if its to another building located far away from the current building then it would have to be sent by the mail.

E-Mail has very successful in new business and can make businesses operate smoothly and efficiently. E-Mail can also be used to mail its customers with new and upcoming products, Special offers, and gain more profit. Methods of Communications Telephone Telephone has been around for years now and proven a very effective form of communication for a business. Unlike the internet it’s very hard to tap into phones or make them go wrong. The only way it will go wrong is if it brakes which rarely break and are cheap to buy again.

Telephones in business can be used for a wide range of things such as financial reports, setting up important meetings, discussing future projects etc. Now with today’s technology increasing you can now use a phone connecting to the internet to get free calls. VOIP (Voice of IP) this technology is new and a cheap alternative but however it relies on your IP addresses which could be tapped into. VOIP phone can only connect to other compatible handsets so if I business wanted free calls then every normal phone would have to be replaced with the special handsets. They also require a computer to plug in via USB to work.

Broadband Broadband is used in every business it’s now essential to have as business can send large files to other departments very quickly. Business broadband has the lead over normal personal broadband with business connecting at around 8 MB broadband and personal connecting at 2MB. Broadband has enabled business to set up web conferences using web cams and microphones to discuss projects, ideas, marketing etc. Broadband prices have dramatically gone down over the years as many ISP (Internet Service Providers) are competing against each other to provide the best services, fast speeds and at a low cost.

Business can afford broadband and it’s a worthy investment. You pay a one off fee for a modem and then you pay a fixed monthly fee some ISP won’t expect a one off fee and give you a free modem. ADSL ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) uses a normal telephone line to send and receive high speed data without blocking the phone line. ADSL is asymmetric in the sense that it uses most of the channel to transmit downstream to the user and only a small part to receive information from the user. Wireless

Wireless internet is popular with many businesses now as you can broadcast the internet on a wide area network allowing multiple computers to connect wirelessly by WIFI cards to a wireless router and share the internet connections. This is good for any business as means you can move laptops about such as using it for meetings. You even use PDAs to connect to the wireless internet. You can use WIFI for linking up many computers to a WLAN(Wireless local area network) allowing you to access other machines meaning you can send/receive files.