Everybody knows that the web is an efficient and powerful tool for business. But do you know how to make use of that power? What does it take to be able to optimally use the internet for your business plans and objectives? These questions more than a little bit bother even the seasoned businessperson who has yet to experience using or blending in computers and the internet to his business.

Let's take a modest-size grocery store, for example. What are the recurring tasks that the owner and/or manager have to do, every day, every week, every month and/or every year? Listing them down will give us an idea what they are.

1. Conduct inventory of merchandise monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually, depending on the need.
2. Prepare payroll weekly, fortnightly or monthly. There occasionally are contractual or seasonal workers hired for short periods and are paid daily.
3. Update credit and collection record every week to find out which ones are due the following week.
4. Record sales performance per product, if possible, in order to have a sales trend record as basis for merchandise procurement plan/program, which changes with events, holidays and seasons.
5. Prepare checks for utilities and other overhead costs as basis for business redirection or replanning.
6. Make a running projected tax computation to avoid time pressure come tax paying day.
7. Annually prepare income tax return computation for each employee against taxes withheld remitted by the company, usually monthly, to the government's internal revenue service.

Can you imagine the magnitude of work that is upon your shoulder if you are the owner or manager of the outfit? You will be prematurely balding in no time if you do not work smart. The tasks would require a whole accounting and bookkeeping department that could eat up a very large portion of your supposed income.

It is wise to computerise and use the internet for all these tasks and you will just need one full-time employee to handle all of the tasks. Or you can do it yourself with an assistant.

Inventory will be way faster and accurate with a simple point-of-sale system. It may be stand-alone or integrated with payroll and accounting. Warehouse inventory will be done using the barcodes on the packaging of merchandise rather than physical counting. Results will be printed on paper along with graphs showing trends and sales performance if you so require. In addition to onsite functions, you can retrieve business data online with a secure system that may even include CCTV viewing from home or vacation.

Computerised and online business operation and management is indeed of great help beyond what even a dozen workers can do in the same amount of time. Automate and be connected. That's the way to do business competitively.