Profile of Small Business Online Behavior

Fortune magazine has created a profile of small business, based on its own Zogby/Fortune Small Business survey of 2000 entrepreneurs, as well as other published surveys.

So what does it show about small business and online behavior? An interesting picture emerges:

• 81% of all entrepreneurs plan to increase tech spending by 20% in the next two to three years



• 68% say they'll adopt new tech products in the coming year



• 36% plan to buy laptops in the next year



• 10% include blogs in their marketing plans



• 51% of all U.S. small firms lack a website



• 60% of all companies on the Internet use their site primarily to provide information about their business



• 10% of small firms with websites use the site primarily to sell goods and services over the Internet



• 26% of small firms use the company website both to provide information and to sell goods and services



• One-third of all small firms have been affected adversely by a computer virus. Some 83% currently use antivirus software

Note: although the article doesn't specifically credit the Hewlett Packard/Harris study we reported on back in May 2005, some of the statistics are clearly from that survey.


Tags: Business; small business; ecommerce; entrepreneur