If you run a small business, you should be using the Internet to improve your productivity and increase your profits.

This applies whether you sell things, your services, or your knowledge. Institutions and non-profit organisations should also be harnessing this potent business tool.

After all, you use a phone and fax to communicate, you list your business in directories, you have a business card and letterhead, and you use brochures, flyers and print ads to promote your organization and products.

The Internet can help you do all of these – communicating with customers, advertising your business, promoting your products – often more efficiently, and at substantially lower cost.

If you’re new to the Internet or unsure how this can be done, then it’s worth starting with this brief Internet Primer.