As hard as it may seem, the Internet is yet in its infancy. Despite being woven into every aspect of our lives, it really has not been around that long. Consider this: Google only arrived on the scene 10 years ago. Also consider that 50% of small businesses still do not even have a website. Many small businesses that do have websites actually have little more than on line business cards. Small businesses simply are not knowledgeable about the power that a fully functional web presence can have. Clearly, this can not stay this way much longer. Web 2.0 and social media is getting the word out. Greater numbers of small businesses are starting to get it. The ones who start taking action right away will gain an enormous advantage over those who delay. They will be able to grab competitive key words and dominate their niches. This will become harder and harder to do as it becomes more and more obvious that all small businesses need to get on the web.

Yes, a great window of opportunity exists right now for small business to outpace their competition on line, yet many small businesses are being slow to take action. What seems to be the reason behind this?

- It may seem strange to those who are Internet savvy, but many small business owners simply lack knowledge as to what to do. - Small business owners are wearing too many hats and cannot find the time to do it themselves. - In these economic times, a lot of fear exists. Entrepreneurs are cutting costs. - Many who are looking to get on line do not recognize that there are real steps to establish an online presence. They think ranking well in the search engines is either luck or the result of a "get rich quick" scheme.

Small businesses that let these obstacles stand in the way of getting on line will be in the unfortunate position of having to catch up. Those who start now will be in the lead and will be hard to catch.

So let's examine each of these obstacles to taking action.

It is incumbent upon any small business owner to keep abreast of the latest trends in order to stay relevant in any given industry. No doubt about it, the pursuit of relevant industry knowledge is an important part of the small business equation. Knowledge is necessary to make informed decisions. Small business owners do not need to develop the expertise in order to implement the changes. Small business owners need to be working on their businesses not in them.

This leads us to the "wearing too many hats" obstacle. Customer relationship management systems (CRM) that help automate business processes will make small business owners better off. Doing this will allow them to find the time to seek knowledge and stay current in their industries. The most cost effective way to get the job done right is to have professionals who are experts implement the online strategies. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or add another hat on the small business head.

In these tough times, it does make sense to cut as many small business expenses as possible. But even in these tough times, it never makes sense to cut down on marketing. The only marketing that should ever be cut is that which is ineffective and not giving a decent ROI. In order to know this, marketing activities should be tracked. Small businesses who are hunkering down in fear and cutting marketing along with their prices are setting themselves up for a really tough climb back; assuming they survive at all. The fact that so many businesses are behaving this way means that those businesses that keep marketing will far outpace the pack. This applies to those who take action to market their businesses with a professional online presence. Small businesses that get a professionally opitimized web site will experience more traffic to their sites and will have more of their prospects convert to customers. Spending money to build an online presence means investing in your business. Unlike money spent on print advertising which is destined to the trash or recycle bin, money spent on line builds a foundation that doesn't go away.

Finally, small businesses need to understand that search engine optimization techniques (SEO), pay per click campaigns (PPC) and other search engine marketing strategies are legitimate and highly sophisticated. Sites need to be optimized to create a friendly user experience and to be spider friendly. It requires a lot of expertise to make this so. Many of the required activities are very labor intensive. It is unreasonable to expect results overnight. Therefore, it must be recognized that there is no "magic bullet" solution for getting found on line. It certainly is not luck either. Any company that does appear on a page one search engine results page (SERP) has clearly done its homework. Since this is the case, clearly it makes sense for small businesses before their competition does. Time is of the essence.