The Internet
A Third Age Small Business feature
by our Business & Employment Editor

The Internet is an astonishingly powerful tool and one that is an absolute must for any Third Ager considering setting up a Small Business or becoming Self Employed. Not only does it enable you to transact with customers and potential customers both nationally and internationally, it allows you operate your business from anywhere in the world. More importantly, it creates the potential for you to operate your business from your home, without the need to rent expensive office space, and yet still to give customers the impression of size and success. The Internet could be considered the most cost-effective tool in the Third Age business person’s armoury!

The Internet is a global network of computers. Every single computer – including the one you are sitting in front of right now – forms part of that network. Your computer is connected to a local network via your Internet Service Provider. That local network is connected to other local and global networks via a system of cables, wireless connections and other technologies. It enables you to communicate with your customers and potential customers via a Website (which needs to be hosted by a Web Hosting Company), and via Email (short for Electronic Mail).

Of course there’s a lot more to it than that, but that is all most of us really need to know except perhaps how to connect to the Internet, which invariably these days is via Broadband.

Individual businesses are recognised on the Internet by Web Addresses or Domain Names. Our Domain Name is thirdage.co.uk and our web address is http://www.thirdage.co.uk.

Armed with a Domain Name, an Email address, a Website hosted by a Hosting Company, an Internet Service Provider and Broadband you can transact business on the Internet from your living room or garden shed without anyone ever knowing just how small your Small Business really is!

If you would like to learn more about the Internet and what it can do for your Small Business, we are happy to recommend The Internet for the Older and Wiser: Get Up and Running Safely on the Web by Adrian Arnold. Produced by the University of the Third Age (U3A), a self-help organization for older people no longer in full-time employment, it is a book written specifically for those of us in our Third Age.

Broadband  |  Domain Names  |  Email  |  ISPs  |  Web Hosting  |  Websites

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