Training Investments for Early Market Entry

"Can you cut back on this?"

You can bet your life the question was really a suggestion. I had booked an entire Cyber-Cafe with multiple work-stations for an entire week-end. My accounts people were aghast at the size of the invoice I had landed-this for something that seemed to have nothing to do with the core business of serving a farming community.

You can follow others in to the Internet retailing business. I guess it makes sense if you have competing demands of your time and money resources. However, there are gains for early entrants (pioneers is too grand a term) as well.

Helping potential customers use the Internet to buy your goods and services makes most sense if your web site has rare features with plenty of upgrades from time-to-time. The Finance guys may not like the soft features in the beginning, but they too will see the sense in keeping browsers on your web site for as long as possible.

Discretion is the name of the early market-entry game. There is no joy in training people who later stay away from your web site. I have to admit to guilt in this respect for a few cases. However, I have learned my lessons firmly for future training investments. Pick and choose customers who appear to be serious about the Internet. I have also decided to provide for a follow-up round of training to deal with errors that inevitably creep in after some of the first-round agenda is distorted or lost altogether.