Introduction

Every year the total dollars spent over the Internet grows and grows.  Additionally most large retailers are increasing their overall sales by use of the Internet.  With use of the Internet, a merchant can sell his products nearly anywhere in the world.  And Opportunity Florida wants to do all it can do to insure our local businesses, large and small, have the ability to participate in today?s global marketplace.  Opportunity Florida understands that the learning curve and financial exposure in most instances can be considerable and thus unattainable for many small businesses?.and we want to change that now!

This program is meant to overcome those barriers.  The funding and underwriting of this program was made possible by a grant from the Chipola Workforce Board to Opportunity Florida.  The intent of the grant is to assist and allow the citizens of the counties that comprise Opportunity Florida to experiment and potentially grow an ecommerce business.   This program has greatly reduced the expense and research for a person to explore this ever-growing marketplace.

This program is also available to businesses that might want to simply graphically display their service or products and not participate in actual on-line sales.  That is why we allow three choices of ecommerce options.  They are as follows:

1.         Store.  This site will serve as an actual store that will display and transact sales on-line for up to 15 items.  If you choose this option, visitors will be able to order your products, and pay for their order using PayPal. To use this option, you will be routed to PayPal, where you can easily set up a free business account at PayPal.

2.         Catalog. Display up to 15 products WITHOUT the ability for a sales transaction.  However, if you choose this option, visitors will be able to see the products you offer, but they will need to contact via mail, phone, or email to make a purchase.  This site is usually used by firms producing more high-ticket items, such as utility trailers, etc.

3.         Marketing Only.  This option allows for firms to advertise or promote businesses such as services, or restaurants, building trades, hotels, condos, landscaping, etc.

Obviously, Opportunity Florida can not guarantee that exploring ecommerce business will be successful or not.  As in any business, elements of quality, performance, value, price, competition and all the other elements of free enterprise will be working for or against a successful business venture.  But this program is a way to test the waters, with less risk and learning curve.  The entire cost is ONLY $80 per year, which includes: a) your domain name -owned permanently by you, b) one years hosting, and c) automated web construction and on-going self-revision ability, with over 80 options from which to choose. 

This is a great way to supplement a full time job and slowly build a business, while risking very few dollars.  Our real hope is that every singe business will be super successful and outgrow the program.  Remember that old saying, "no guts, no glory".  Good luck to you all.

Take me to learn more about this program.

Take me to an example of a site.

Let me see the 81 options for a website.