1 Familiarise yourself with how you can use the internet to improve your business. The Business Link website has advice including links to additional information, training and funding

　　2 Speak to equipment and web-to-print suppliers to see if they offer training and consultancy

　　3 Analyse your business to establish which products are suitable for trading online and how customers want to deal with you through the internet

　　4 Identify the areas where you will need additional skills and establish if you want to outsource them as a service or bring them in-house, remembering to consider recruitment and training

　　5 Once you have an e-commerce strategy that includes details of the type of products, customers, routes to market and the method of payment, start talking to suppliers to select the appropriate products

　　6 Plan and phase the implementation throughout the business in order to ensure the maximum benefits from integrating e-commerce with the sales, administration, production and despatch processes

　　7 Phase the roll-out to customers, including training their staff to use the system, to give your team time to iron out any teething problems