2001 was the year when the dot coms crashed and burned. Or, to put it another way, the year when companies with insane and insubstantial business plans went the way of all such companies... So business cannot live by hype alone, what a shocker!

But business... any business... does live by income, expenditure and the balance sheet. When people question the value of the Internet in the 'real world' I've talked about our clients who are:

- re-tooling 25 years of high quality content, and redefining their business (and potentially profits) in the process.

- selling tickets direct to customers over the internet, and in the process increasing advance sales by around 400%.

- moving beyond marketing to create sites that support and grow existing relationships.

- streamlining their production processes, internal communication and (dare I say it) relationships with employees

What's the message? Maybe the Dot Coms were the battering rams that broke down the door to the so called 'new economy', but the real work in the real economy is happening now. If you think the internet doesn't matter to your business then I guess you just need to wait a while to find out. If, on the other hand, you're not so sure then perhaps you'd like to consider one or more of the items below.

Good luck,

Nick Warren
Semantic