First, let's define "small business". Drive down the main street in any town, and you will see everything from taco shops, pizza places, coffee shops to gift shops, travel agencies, and dry cleaners, and the list goes on.

We all know the world is changing, but when it comes to your business, what is changing is the way your customers find your business.

I recently threw my phone book away because I felt as if I didn't really need it anymore. Here's why, let's say you're at the office and your computer printer gives you an error message and quits. You could thumb threw the phone book in search of a repairman, or you could simply type the error message in to your favorite search engine in your computer's browser, and in minutes know the problem, the parts you need, and the business that sells the parts.

Here is another example. You are out of town in your car and would like to locate one a pizza place, but you have no idea were to find one. Simply type in pizza and a city into Google maps, and pick the one you like, with directions. In fact, the new iphone with GPS has software that lets you know all the restaurants around you. That is great, unless your restaurant not on the list.

Yes, the way the world finds your small business is changing. That is why your small business needs a web site. It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive. It could be just a single web page with a photo and information about your business. You just need a presence on the web.

You have a couple of options. If you like to do things your self, there are programs available with pre-built templates in which you could have a web site up and running very quickly, and for as little as five to twelve dollars a month. The second option is to have a designer build a professional web site for you. This cost is a little more per month with prices ranging from forty nine to eighty nine dollars.

As you can see it is very inexpensive to have a presence on the internet, but it could be very expensive if new customers don't know you are there.