UK grants help SME get online

Financial support is currently available in many areas of South East England for SMEs who want to:
- connect their business to the internet via broadband
- take some professional advice on the best way that their business can utilise the internet
- implement a system (eg website) for their business to make use of the internet

Tracking down the sources of this funding is not easy, but you will find these websites a good starting point:   SEEDA, Connected Berkshire, e-Bucks and Oxfordshire Broadband Partnership.

You will also find that, in some areas, free seminars are being run to provide internet briefings for SME. 

Best Wishes

Tony

18th August 2006

Net Facts & Figures

1. By 2007 there will be 1.1 billion Internet users worldwide. - Source: IDC, 2004

2. Worldwide broadband subscribers exceeded 150 million in 2004. - Source: Point Topic, 2004
   

3. Over 40% of all Americans have made a purchase online. - Source: NDP Group, 2004

4. Over 75% of online consumers do not care whether an online store is run by a large or small company. - Source: TNS, 2004

5. 1.6 trillion was made via e-commerce in 2003; US$7.1 trillion is expected in 2007 - Source: IDC, 2004

6. A recent UK study indicated that 82% of Internet users go online to research products and services. - Source: UK National Statistics Office 2004

7. More than 60 million Europeans now shop online, an increase of 50% since 2003. - Source: Forrester, December 2004

8. US online retail sales will more than double over the next six years, reaching US$316 billion by 2010. - Source: Forrester, August 2004

9. 61% of small and mid-sized enterprises believe the Internet is a significant advertising medium. - Source: The Kelsey Group, November 2004

10. In 2004, paid search advertising grew by 51% to US$3.6 billion in the US alone. - Source: eMarketer 2004

Links

If you want to visit one of the linked sites but not leave this one, right click the relevant link and select 'open in new window':