Often, especially with smaller businesses, management and owners just get "the bug" to go online. Rather than planning, they just dig in. These businesses will definitely be able to make a presence online, but most will not have any direct monetary benefits from it. Though not all businesses expect to make money online, many more expect to make a quick fortune with little or no work, money or planning at all. Often, the thinking is "if I just put the ability for people to order things from me online, I'll get rich quick without any further work." This thinking is completely false.

As for how a company should prepare to go online, there's no set standard. First, however, the management should realize that expanding to the Internet will change at least part of their business. Primarily, the Internet will move faster than their traditional business. Management should be aware of this, and provide their e-commerce departments with the abilities and powers to do what they need to move in the right direction. Management should also keep in mind that they must spend money to make money. If a business wants to go online, they need to throw themselves into it completely so as to not get swallowed up by the competition. Though it is true, doing things online is generally much cheaper and faster than traditional ways, it is important not to rob the Internet projects of enough money to be successful. If you can get your Internet business to succeed at the same rate of success as your traditional business, the Internet side will most likely generate a higher profit ratio.

Most importantly, a business needs to sit back and take a bird's eye view of what it is capable of doing online. Important questions for businesses to ask are: Where could this take us in the future? How would this impact our current customer base? Who are we trying to reach? Will this reach that target market? Do we hope to make money directly, indirectly, or hope to simply have an online presence? How will Internet-savvy consumers perceive us with this move? How will non-Internet-savvy consumers perceive this move? Will this complement our current business model? Will the move redefine our business model? Do we have the infrastructure to handle possible quick growth? Do we have a contingency plan in case the online move fails?

Most really small companies don't even have to worry about most of the above questions. Then it becomes basically a question of cost. How much can we afford? Who do we want to reach? Do we want to try to make money directly from the site? It is important to always consider your current customer base. Will our current customers think we're forgetting about them and trying to tackle the world? Can we go online while still keeping our current customers content?