When meeting with potential Web design clients I always ask questions that will lead us to developing a specific goal and benefit that will apply to their business.

The goal and benefit are closely related and apply to the daily business operation and customer interaction. In other words, start to determine how the Web site can specifically help internal day to day operations and how your customers can improve their experience when they need your products or services.

Approaching the Web site from this standpoint will help to weigh the expense of developing a Web site against time saved or new business earned once it is implemented.

Of course, in cases where we do something like selling products online, it is very easy to track the additional sales and compare that to the actual site development and maintenance costs.

But, in many cases, it is not as easy to determine a hard dollar amount. For example, if the goal is to cut down on repeat phone calls while allowing your clients to benefit from finding common information online 24 hours a day, it can be a little more difficult to estimate the actual time and money saved compared to the cost of implementing the features but clearly a true benefit is being realized.

In these types of cases, it becomes a business decision like any other. However, the important thing is looking at the big picture and working closely with your developer to be able to determine and maximize the goals and benefits that apply to your company, figure out what it will cost to build it and using these figures to make your decision.

Unfortunately, as I said before, the specific goals and benefits will vary greatly from business to business but there are some general features that apply to most which I will outline next.

If you are lucky enough to have a unique retail product or a common product which you can sell at a substantial discount then the eCommerce shopping Web site is a no brainer for your business. Putting your products online with secure shopping and transactions instantly opens your customer base to a global level with a relatively minimal investment.

The one thing to be careful about with retail eCommerce sites is selling products that are common to many other retailers all competing fro the same customers.

In most cases that can result in a bidding war that will cut profits so thinly that it isn't worth the investment unless you are prepared to take on the commitment of dealing in massive volumes.

One local example of a retailer with a specialized product line is Western Date Ranches (www.medjooldates.com). It turns out that our region is home to one of the few places in the world with the optimal climate and soil for growing premium medjool dates.

Several years ago this company saw the potential of putting his products online and now benefits from an entirely new retail audience.

Another great example is Sprague's Sports (www.spragues.com). What is notable here is their ability to recognize that trying to compete with every other gun dealer in the U.S. selling commonly available merchandise would be pointless while still seeing the potential of the Internet from another angle.

Sprague's has established themselves as having a great collection of antique and hard to find products and decided to focus the Web site around those products. By doing so, they are able to increase sales of a specialty item that appelealed to a specific audience and provide products worldwide to people who wouldn't otherwise have access to these items in their own area.

Now, there are obviously times where buying a product online just isn't feasible. But, there can still be a real benefit to displaying them on your Web site. For example, products like homes, cars, rvs or other high end purchases aren't going to happen without seeing the item first hand.

But, there is still a clear business goal and consumer benefit. In all of these cases, the goal would be to cut down on sales time and repeat visits and the benefit is for customers to be able to quickly and easily browse inventory from the comfort of their own home.

Many local businesses have had great success with this philosophy including Fisher Dodge (www.yumadodge.com), Karl Moedl (www.karlmoedl.com), RV World (www.rvworldyuma.com), Pacesetter Homes (www.pacesettercountry.com) and KD Cycle (www.kdcycle.com).

Of course, retail operations aren't the only ones who can benefit from a Web site. Especially in an area like ours where the Winter Visitors and Military bases bring in so many new people to town, nearly any type of business could see a return on a basic Internet presence since all these people will likely be researching our area online before arriving.

Businesses like hotels, restaurants, real estate and entertainment would obviously love to be found by this audience but I believe most other products and services could benefit as well.

In the end, the bottom line is your businesses bottom line and it comes to down to a simple decision based on weighing the costs of developing a Web site against the increased sales and man hours saved from a clear goal and benefit being defined and implemented through your online presence.