"Should I have a web site?" is just another one of those questions. The answer depends upon your expectations, your financial commitment, and your endurance.

At one extreme, you can set up an electronic store where customers can safely place credit card orders for your products WORLDWIDE. You can do it without an additional investment in real estate or staff (except to handle the increase in business). Done properly, it can be a bonanza. It requires a substantial up front investment. On an ongoing basis, it requires monthly service charges, programming expense (to make changes to your web site as needed) and advertising (yes, you still need to advertise). Unless it becomes an overnight success, it will require your endurance (financial and other).

At the other extreme, you can establish a simple web site which simply states "Here we are" with the usual product list (complete with pictures), business location, phone numbers, and email addresses. This would be the equivalent of a billboard along the Information Super Highway. It requires little investment and can be set up by a computer literate teenager (or pre-teen). There are probably several hundred thousand to choose from (possibly one in your own home).

There is a wide range of choices in between. The decision starts with the question "WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS".

Start with three assumptions. First, every business has customers who have access to the web. Second, more and more people have access to the web every day. Third, more and more businesses are getting on the web every day (possibly even your competitors).

Most people have heard about electronic stores with electronic shopping carts which take credit card orders and have 48 hour delivery. At the other extreme are simple web sites which put out some basic information about a business with the idea that someone will see it and call.

There are untold other solutions. Here is one (of many) which can be done with relatively little effort or expense.

One important point to remember is always include your web site address in any print, radio, or TV advertising you might be doing.

One way is hire a programmer and graphic artist, contract with an internet service provider, and buy your own hardware, software, and dedicated high speed telephone line. An expensive proposition at best.

Most businesses opt for a different solution. Instead of buying the hardware, software, and telephone lines, they rent disk space and computer capacity from an Internet Service Provider or other business which already maintains such facilities. Setting up a web site often involves a third party to analyze your needs, construct a plan, and implement it on your web site.

The perception is that when you are on the Internet, there are organized gangs of geeks just waiting to destroy your system, steal your credit card and other personal information, and read your most personal email thoughts. In the real world, you have the same problem unless you live in a vault, only deal in cash, and burn all your trash. The only difference is the playing field.

People are hesitant to send their credit card number by email, an understandable concern. When you use a credit card in person at a store, you generally leave behind a signed receipt with the credit card information on it. At that point, you are dependent on the integrity and the caution exercised by the clerk, the bookkeeper, the owner, and anyone else who has access to the store records. That's quite an exposure that most of us don't think about. Security is already a problem in our everyday lives!

From a technical standpoint, security does not need to be an issue. Currently, there is Internet security which makes it nearly impossible for intercepted data to be read. This is done by means of encrypting the transmission so that only the destination computer can decode it. This encryption rules is so complicated that it's not worth the effort to crack the code.

Would I send a credit card number over an insecure link? Probably. Over a secure link? Definitely. Would I send the secret formula for Coca Cola over any kind of link (if it was mine)? Never!!

Yes! Internet security has evolved to the point where this is practical. The problem is not with the technology but with psychology. Most people have had no experience using credit cards over the Internet. After all the ruckus in the media about Internet security, they are justifiably wary. After people try it and become confident that it works and is secure, it will become just as common as using credit cards in person.

Yes! Say, for instance, that you have vendors who automatically replenish your inventory, as needed. Rather than faxing the information, it would be possible to put it on a web page for them to see. Of course, you don't want everybody looking at your inventory. The solution is to place a part of your web site under password protection. Anyone trying to access the protected pages will be asked for a user ID and password. The information will not be displayed without a valid ID and password.