It is important for small businesses to have a web presence because so many people use the internet to look for their services.

That's according to Adam Wayland, the editor of the website smallbusiness.co.uk, who made a point of flagging up the benefits of retailing online.

"If you can conduct business online without having to worry about the overheads of an office or renting space then all the better," he said.

Having adequate IT support in place is essential, of course, but the basic tenet of having a web presence holds true.

Mr Wayland continued: "For any business it's important to have an online presence and you can't really do that with a dial-up connection."

According to recent figures from UK Online, more than half (51 per cent) of those companies that have an internet connection do not have a company website, so there is clearly potential for firms to grow.

He also suggested that outsourcing IT services would be a good way forward for those without an in-depth technical knowledge.

"It's very difficult if you have no technical knowledge, it's almost impossible to be able to set up a website where you can have transactions on a site and interactive aspects to it," he said. "There were some figures recently that suggested it was better left to the experts."

However, he did point out that there are networking sites such as BT Tradespace where an internet presence can be established very quickly.

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'