Yesterday, May 17, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Mr. Tomas de Leon, the Program Director for Retail Management of the Ateneo Center for Continuing Education (CCE). They were coming up with an AVP to be shown at the CCE Business Solutions Expo at Cebu City Marriott Hotel on May 25-26, 2007.

The special event will highlight two seminars that offer concepts and strategies on business operations and management. Strategic Store Positioning and Site Selection, a program designed to give budding entrepreneurs and retailers a clear idea of the emerging trends in retailing, and Fundamentals of Family Business Management, a program designed to prepare business owners and family members in handling unique challenges of managing family-owned businesses.

The conversation centered primarily on how the Internet can help entrepreneurs and retailers and what I told Mr. de Leon is what I always say in my talks on going online. There are 3 main ways the Internet can change your business:

• Expands your reach to a global market. Going online will extend your store beyond its geographic limitations and showcase your products and/or services to an international market. Having a company website is like having a branch of your store that is open 24/7, accessible by anyone from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Evens the playing field. One of the most recognized and yet overlooked benefits of the Internet is that it’s a leveling field. Online, it doesn’t matter if you’re a small, medium or large company, what matters is you are able to maximize your presence online and the business tools the Internet offers and make it work for you. Cost is not a hindrance anymore since there are so many Web services which offer very inexpensive or even free ways of going online.
• Extends profitability. The bottomline for any business is not simply to break even but to earn bigger profits. Going online will help an entrepreneur to achieve that. Whether it’s to drive people to your offline store, to gather sales leads from interested customers, to provide more information about your products and services, or to right away sell to a potential buyer, going online will help an entrepreneur, an SME to increase their profits.

This is definitely good news since I’m sure the CCE Business Solutions Expo will be a big help to business owners, budding entrepreneurs and to students and professionals as well. Especially to Cebu residents where it will be held. I just hope what I said will serve as an eye-opener for entrepreneurs to consider going online.

For more information about the event, check out their website at www.cce.ateneo.edu.