Imagine that the home-based business you've always dreamed of starting has grown into a sophisticated enterprise, with a sales department, a billing department, a customer care department, shipping, management, and all other departments of a large international business. Imagine you are the CEO, meeting with your staff to determine what departments are meeting their goals, and what departments are exceeding your expectations. Imagine the harder your departments work, the more money they produce - and NEVER ask for a DIME in raises!

THAT is the position you could be in, if you use the automation tools available for Internet-based small businesses. Plan from the beginning to use these tools as EMPLOYEES rather than just "time-savers," and your business will grow like you won't believe. Any successful CEO will tell you that a business's success is dependent on the quality of the people it hires - so YOU should "hire" the best to perform routines that can be automated.

AUTORESPONDERS can perform many functions related to customer contact and product delivery. Autoresponders can deliver a campaign of personalized emails over weeks or months, to convince a visitor to your website to become a customer. They can also deliver information products, newsletters, announcements, and other tasks related to staying in contact with your clients. A well-planned autoresponder can act as your customer care representative, responding to common inquiries.

AD TRACKING can act as your marketing department, determining the effectiveness of ads and ad campaigns. Ad tracking programs can provide you with virtually instantaneous feedback on whether a new headline or new sales letter is generating more traffic or more sales.

WEB SITE BUILDER is your own personal "geek" who designs web sites that look exactly the way you want them, and say exactly what you want them to say. Finding and learning the web site editor that you are comfortable with will save you countless hours and maybe thousands of dollars that you would have to spend on hiring someone to design, implement and maintain your website. Plan on hiring a webmaster to expand your website as your company grows in size and sophistication, by automating the web site maintenance function in a powerful web site editing program.

BILLING AND COLLECTIONS is the lifeblood of a company. You can't run a company if it doesn't collect the money. Finding and using a powerful "shopping cart" program, to automatically process payments or generate monthly billings for membership programs, will guarantee that your company's income comes in on time and in full.

TRANSLATIONS and handling international customers can expand your business's market to international dimensions. Translation programs are coming down in price and increasing in functionality, much faster for both than their human counterparts. Incorporating this function in your websites and business from the beginning will give you a presence in the international market, which is a competitive advantage over the other players in your arena.

When you are planning on setting up or expanding your on-line business, plan on what employees you would want working for you. Expect that you will hire the hardest-working, most loyal, and brightest employees you could ever imagine. Know that they will have skills and talents in their areas that far exceed anything you could ever hope to achieve. And then - use the Internet and the tools available to FIND and "HIRE" these employees. And best of all - they NEVER go on vacation, call in sick, ask for a raise, or harass the other employees. All they do is make you money!

ERIK CARTER maintains the Your Business Sales Portal (http://YourBusinessSales.bravehost.com), dedicated to helping you AUTOMATE your sales and DUPLICATE your success by offering programs and bonuses focused on growing and expanding any business, as well as the FITNESS Portal (http://fitnessportal.bravehost.com), focused on making fitness seamless with your life.