For some reason, when we think 'Business and Internet', we think "man;" it just seems to be a 'bloke-thing,' but recent findings highlight the misconceptions in this. Did you know that in the US, women-owned businesses now employ 18.5 million workers? That's more than the Fortune 500 companies combined.

This isn't a trend that's confined to just one country -- four out of five Japanese small business owners are women, and it's estimated that now, in 2005, 40 percent of all firms will be female-owned.

Since 1987, women have increased their ownership role in business by nearly 80 percent and now own 8 million (or approximately one third) of all US businesses. In fact, a new business is opened by a woman every sixty seconds!

The figures are similar when it comes to Internet usage: findings from The Face of the Web study (by the Angus Reid Group) show that 59 percent of Internet users are male and 41 percent female. However, the report indicates that 54 percent of the people who intend to go online will be female and 46 percent male. In the U.S., Canada, Australia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the percentage of women intending to start using the Internet jumps to 60 percent.

The Strategis Group's latest survey of Internet usage shows that in the US, 53 percent of the adult population use the Internet (either at home or at work or both), and women now make up almost 50 percent of the online population.

This continues a trend that was noticed back in 1997 when a study showed that women business owners increased their computer investments by 60 percent to $170.3 billion in the previous year, and told researchers that they were planning to invest an additional $67.2 billion in computer hardware and software in the current year.

Research shows that women in business do $2.3 trillion in annual sales; so what's to be learnt from these statistics?

In order to market to these netrepreneurs on a business-to-business and business-to-customer basis, you must understand the difference between the way women like to do business and the way men do it! This can best be illustrated by the following story by Faith Popcorn (www.brainreserve.com)

"Imagine that you're out to dinner and the waiter comes up and introduces himself. 'I