In our 24/7 world of working globally and living locally, online market share expansion has become even more important to a small business.  Your business might make custom bike covers and be located in Southern California which is a great market for biking enthusiasts.  However, your buddy Sam went on a trip to Europe last summer and took the cover you made him and suddenly you have been getting calls from France, Germany, and Italy for your covers (he’s a good friend and can’t help but sing your praises).  Before now you always felt a website was something you wouldn’t need.  It was something that big companies used; your business came from bike shows and the people in your local community.  You knew advertising was important; you sponsored the local softball team and put on bike demos at the schools, but a website seemed like such a waste.  Now with all of this new international traffic you need a way to get them information at all hours of the day.  The time difference alone is making it difficult to capture the growth and allow it to continue.  When it is 3pm in Italy, and the Italian bike team is looking to revamp their image while traveling, you are quietly tucked into bed for the night.  You would really like to see your business grow and become the world’s largest bike cover company, but at some point you need to sleep too.  With this in mind you have decided that creating a website is important and you had another buddy, Sally, put one together for you last week.  Suddenly working globally and living locally has become important to you.  Yes, building those relationships in the community is very important, but international sales will allow for a much quicker and more substantial growth.  Until now it has not seemed important that you had competitors, you were the only one in your town or even surrounding communities so you captured that business.  Now however, since you have decided to play in a larger space, it’s important to know who else makes bike covers and to understand the global marketplace better.  After doing your research and creating a plan you realize there are more competitors than you knew of and you are really coming into the global market a little later than most of them. By the calls you have been getting, half of Europe knows about you but you really want to make a splash, but how?  Online Market Share Expansion is the key to growth in Europe and your overall success.  There are several key steps to this expansion; website design and development, Linking, Pay per Click, Social Media Networking; Facebook and Twitter, etc.  While many small companies choose to start down the path independently there are also many marketing and consulting teams that can assist you with implementing the best plan for your company.