Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502240039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN NORMAN ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I'll bet the Beach Boys never had cyberspace in mind when they sang that song. But cybersurfing is the newest American fad. And if you own a small business, you must catch the wave.
Well, at least this isn't another information superhighway column full of car analogies.
The Internet is a network of millions of computers all over the world. As many as 30 million people use it. More than half of them are business people.
Why should small-business owners bother with something that is big as an ocean and seemingly twice as mysterious?
``Because it's there'' isn't good enough for entrepreneurs already putting in 25-hour days to build their companies. The Internet better have something pretty special to interrupt that work.
Many small-business owners are already surfing the 'Net. They report having used the Internet to:
Ask for help from some of the Internet's 9,000-plus newsgroups in every specialty imaginable.
Find out what competitors are up to.
Do a patent search.
Get information on government contracts that are out for bid.
Do research on specific markets.
And more.
The Internet just evolved from a tool for government agencies and university scientists, so it's not all that easy to steer through.
Newport Beach, Calif., technology specialist John Adams (online address 74512.1670compuserve.com) was doing an Internet assignment for a course at Irvine Valley College. He jumped into Mosaic, but all he could find were instructions for using Mosaic.
OK, so back to the assignment. He entered ds.internic.net Again, just instructions.
He figured the Internet was a bunch of instructions on how to use the Internet and gave up for the night.
As he left, Adams ran into instructor Peter Young, who listened to his tale of woe and led him back to the PC and the Internet.
``With a few keystrokes, you know where we went? PARIS, FRANCE!,'' Adams reports. ``I looked for a chat line with cancan girls, but all I could find was information on cultural stuff like art museums.''
Like Adams, you're likely to get frustrated with the Internet.
Like Adams, get someone who's been there before to guide you, and who knows where you'll go.
Most people start with a simple electronic mail address on a commercial online service such as CompuServe or America Online, observes Barbara Taylor of Rainbows & Miracles etc. in Trabuco Canyon, Calif. (7777.rainbowswestside.com).
``I have e-mail-only access to the Internet right now through the Westside BBS (that's cyber-jargon for an electronic bulletin board, of which there are thousands),'' she says. ``On this board, there are many public areas to post tips, questions and gain advice on almost every topic imaginable.
``For example, I moderate a pub here on legal resources.''
E-mail will find the recipient whether he's signed up with a commercial online service, an integrated-services digital network or service provider. And it can be a ``letter'' or request for data, such as the latest Gopher sites (a utility that lets you search for information by topic).
Management consultant Bill Birnbaum (73744.64compuserve.com) checks his e-mail daily, no matter where his work takes him. He has a client who prefers e-mail to faxes.
Joy M. White, president of InfoTeam Inc. in Lake Forest, Calif., recommends that newbies (cyber for newcomers) experiment first with local bulletin boards then subscribe to an online service.
``We've found our clients prefer American Online because it is easy to maneuver,'' she reports.
It doesn't take a newbie long to find kindred spirits who can provide all kinds of helpful information related to topics of special interest.
Some call them forums; others, newsgroups. They're like local bulletin boards, only bigger and global.
Birnbaum is one of 10,000 members of the Working from Home Forum on CompuServe. The system operator is Paul Edwards, author with his wife, Sarah, of ``Working from Home'' and other books for home-based businesses.
When Birnbaum's copier broke down, he asked the forum to recommend the best replacement. He even persuaded Edwards to add specialty sections within the forum, including one for management consultants.
``I originally wanted to put together a forum of management consultants, but CompuServe said the universe of potential users wasn't large enough,'' Birnbaum says.
Soon, cybersurfers get a sense of the magnitude of the Internet. There's almost nothing you can't find.
Adams can rattle off a dozen Internet locations to look for work, such as misc.jobs.consult and us.jobs.offered You can even post your resume for potential employers in such places as misc.jobs.resumes
``I've never actually marketed my technology services on Internet because I'm so busy as it is,'' Adams says. ``But when I needed a Visual Basic programmer for a project, I listed it on CompuServe. Two days later, I had seven inquiries and hired one.''
White of InfoTeam advises, ``Any firm that has federal agency clients must learn the Internet this year.''
Most agencies announce their requests for proposal online and soon will require that bids come back electronically. FedWorld provides electronic access to more than 100 federal agencies that have online bulletin boards. And Commerce Business Daily, upcoming government contracts, is available on most commercial online services.
That just scratches the surface, says Peter Shikili of The Answer Store in Irvine, Calif., (pshiklianswerstore.com).
All patents and trademarks are available on the Internet, he says. So are Dun & Bradstreet's company profiles, Department of Motor Vehicle records, 3,400 local and national telephone directories, credit bureaus' public data and real property data from 36 states.
``If you want to find out if someone gave you their correct Social Security number, you can do it on the Internet,'' Shikili says.
The sheer volume of information available can make data searches expensive and frustrating, Shikili says. That's why a lot of companies like his are coming forward with what are called ``answer products.''
You don't get an entire data-base, but you find out what you want to know for a lower price than the whole file would cost.
Let's say you want to check out Joe Job Applicant before hiring him. You can find out for $29.95 if he has any criminal convictions, get his credit report for $11.95, verify previous employment for $14.95.
For marketing uses, you can get a Dun & Bradstreet company profile for $9.95, a customized list of companies fitting a specified profile for $34.95.
If all these goodies don't make you eager to ride the Internet, you're likely to be swept away by your surfing competitors without knowing which wave hit you.
by CNB