Title: 
Internet Meetings and Small Business

Word Count:
491

Summary:
The ability to conduct meetings over the Internet opens up many new opportunities for the small businessman or woman. The ability to market products and services worldwide have never been better.


Keywords:
small business, internet meeting, business


Article Body:
The world today is a global village. It is no longer necessary, or sometimes even possible, for all the employees of any organization to come together. Equally though people need to share ideas and information more than ever. Business associates or even family and friends may be located anywhere, but our need to stay connected grows daily. We may need to talk, share pictures and programs, work together or collaborate on many projects.

The Internet has brought the world even closer. It has taken our ability to share information to a new level with brand new abilities to work and communicate worldwide. Internet meetings are web based and accessible to anyone with high speed Internet access. Unlike email, they are real time and they allow you to get immediate feedback and communicate your ideas faster.

At an Internet meeting you can exchange all sorts of information. Internet meetings have many different features depending on the software and service provider used.  Most Internet mettings today use live video and audio. They can also pass files between participants and share a common whiteboard to share ideas as well as the ability to work on Word, Excel or PowerPointdocuments together. Web meetings also provide the ability to share programs running on your PC and let the Internet meeting attendees view your desktop.

With these capabilities, the options of Internet meetings to help us keep connected are endless. Perhaps a family will stay in touch with children at school or university where they can talk and share experiences and pictures.

Small business owners can also benefit immensely from Internet meetings. A small business can present a very large and professional corporate image using Internet meetings. Internet meetings, for the small business user, are a cost effective way to grow the business. They can offer long distance sales presentations to customers or update a sole salesman living and working thousands of miles away.

Small business's now have the ability to have global offices - in reality a virtual office residing on your desktop. It becomes easy and cost effective to invite clients from Europe, Africa, or anywhere in the world to join in a virtual meeting. Working with contractors and clients all over the world has never been easier.

Internet meetings are often hosted by Internet service providers. For a flat fee, you can log in via the web and set up a virtual meeting with participants in the USA, Europe, the Far East and Australia. Even scientists at the South Pole can join in via satellite technology. Once you have scheduled the meeting, your meeting attendees can log in via the web at no additional cost.

Internet meetings make you more productive and can reduce your travel costs and increase your productivity. Internet meetings are a way to meet with one person, ten people or a thousand people virtually. You can collaborate and work without the time and expense of travel or locating physical conference rooms.