Business owners should ensure they have a handle on SME IT services and the internet before launching an online enterprise, experts have claimed.

Online marketing specialists, Web 4 Marketing, argue that many entrepreneurs believe that knowing the IT basics and having a website will be enough to succeed with a start-up.

Insisting that this isn't the case, Stephen Orr of Web 4 Marketing, claims that new business should be more aware of their online presence. He said: "The smaller the business and the more specific the product, it's more likely to be focused on the web.

"Business to business and particularly small businesses are going to be more dependent on the web than mass market consumer products."

He added: "The internet has now become so dominant as a part of the process of people searching for all products and services that companies that don't do the right job on it are going to lose out."

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'.