THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 19, 1997 TAG: 9702190369
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FRANKLIN LENGTH: 85 lines
Judy Riddick opened The Peanut Patch with family members in 1973 with the idea of selling fresh peanuts to folks passing through Southampton County.
Last week, she got an e-mail order from a government worker stationed at the American Embassy in Kuwait.
Carlton L. Cutchin III always thought his success in the family business - Farmers Produce - would be in giving good prices and excellent service to local farmers, contractors and homeowners.
Now, he's selling power tools to the Russian Embassy.
Both have used the Internet to broaden from hometown businesses to worldwide ones.
``This is the future,'' said Nancy Joyce, a Peanut Patch employee who recently attended a locally sponsored Internet training program. ``In the class, they pulled up the Internet page for L.L. Bean, and then they pulled up our page. On the Internet, a small business can look just as good as a big business.''
The worldwide web is opening the worldwide market to small businesses throughout Franklin and Southampton County, thanks, in part, to a training program sponsored twice this year by the Franklin/Southampton Economic Development Commission, the Franklin/Southampton Chamber of Commerce and the Franklin Downtown Development Office.
The first free seminar, taught by Bruce Benson, computer systems coordinator for the Franklin City Public Schools, was offered in early January. When nearly 70 people signed up, another was scheduled, said Carol Fox, a research assistant with the industrial development commission.
Last week, a capacity crowd attended the second Internet offering, designed specifically for small businesses. Students included stockbrokers, real estate agents, bankers, insurance agents, employees of Franklin Equipment, Union Camp and the owners of a small convenience store in out-of-the-way Branchville.
``We want to keep our businesses and our community aware of what's out there,'' Fox said. ``And we don't want it to stop here. We're going to get together now with our community college, and we hope we can offer continuing classes.''
Fox said the three organizations decided to join forces to offer the seminar after they got a number of inquiries from small businesses about using the Internet for advertising and resources.
When Benson joined a local marketing committee designed to promote two new industrial parks in Franklin and Southampton - the Pretlow Industrial Park and the Southampton Agribusiness Industrial Park - the Internet training program started.
Fox said the marketing discussions helped the group realize that small businesses in the area needed to learn more about taking advantage of computers that were likely already in place.
``We are maxed-out in here tonight,'' Fox said, when the most recent seminar was held at S.P. Morton Middle School. ``And we already have a waiting list for the next class. The opportunities are wide open, and I think more and more small businesses are becoming aware of that.''
Riddick's business has been on the Internet for several months. The Peanut Patch page offers a full catalog, complete with pictures of the products offered, and a convenient order form. Riddick said that they have gotten orders virtually from all over the world.
``We got an e-mail thank you note just this morning from Alaska,'' she said. ``Somebody had sent the man peanuts from here for Christmas.''
Cutchin, at the Ace Hardware, is a local Internet success story, Benson said. The store specializes in selling power tools, and it offers the tools in 220 volts for use in Europe and Asia.
His store was one of the first in the Southampton/Franklin area to go on the Internet, Cutchin said.
``We have some good customers in Russia,'' he said. ``But we also sell to Japan, Australia, almost any country you can imagine.''
So far, he said, he's been pleased with the results.
``Basically, it's cheap advertising,'' Cutchin said. ``We probably average about 30 or 40 catalog requests a month, about seven orders a day. It's been very nice.''
Even the economic development commission has benefited from being on the net, Fox said.
When the organization got a recent inquiry from a Singapore company expressing an interest in the agribusiness park, Fox surfed the web to find out more about the kind of information to send the company.
``I actually went into the Singapore Chamber of Commerce's web site,'' Fox said, smiling. ``The possibilities are endless, and we need to keep our business people educated.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Seminar Information
Call (757) 562-8511, 562-2999 or 562-4900
KEYWORDS: TRAINING INTERNET