By Karen E. Klein

Tony March first took his 32-employee business, National Private Annuity Trust, online just 18 months ago. The firm's late entry into cyberspace was neither due to technophobia nor ignorance: March had worked for an Internet outfit during the '90s. But he and the other partners in the Northern Virginia firm were skeptical about their chances of finding new customers via the Web. The financial product they sell, a private annuity marketed mainly to professionals, is complicated and typically requires multiple face-to-face contacts before a deal can be closed.

But six months after creating an electronic brochure, March hired a firm to expand and market his outfit's Web site. Result? The response has been so overwhelming that he's now exploring franchising. "We've had thousands of potential customers calling us out of the blue because they saw us on Internet searches," he says. "It was like we got billboarded overnight. We had no idea the product was this marketable. It's a beautiful thing."

GRAVY TRAIN.  Like March, some entrepreneurs remain reluctant to spend money establishing a presence on the Web, figuring the Internet isn't a fit with their niche or business model. But at the same time, increasing numbers are discovering that not only is a Web site mandatory but if marketed aggressively and used effectively, it can enhance visibility -- and the bottom line.

Mark Stillman, managing partner of an Atlanta-based restaurant group called 101 Concepts, was another online latecomer. His restaurants had individual Web sites where menus, directions, and hours were posted, but not much else.

That changed this year, when his wife heard about an online table-reservation service that some competitors were using. "She showed me their sites and said, 'You have to do this, too!'" Stillman recalls.

PULL OR PERISH.  Worried about investing tens of thousands of dollars upfront to update and improve his Web sites, Stillman asked his IT staff to hunt around for bargains. They found a local Web-design and hosting outfit that created a centralized home page aimed at cross-promoting the group's five eateries and its new catering service. The best part: The designers required no money up-front and offered 100% financing.

"We'll end up paying more in the long run -- between $10,000 and $15,000 total -- but it's good for us to be able to bring in new customers without having to make a big outlay of capital," Stillman says.

101 Concepts is using the Web site to push its holiday-season gift cards and to draw newcomers to wine and beer tastings, gourmet dinners, holiday parties, and other special events.

Many restaurant patrons who visit the site realize for the first time that the group also owns other dining establishments nearby, Stillman says. And the online reservations service, at a monthly fee of about $200, also has paid off, bringing in new customers and around 2,000 new contacts for the customer database.

Small businesses increasingly have to pull in customers online in order to stay competitive, says Peter Chambers, CEO of Web services firm Affinity Internet. The term "Internet business," which scared many small businesses a decade ago, is becoming obsolete as the wall separating online and offline business disappears, he says.

SIMPLE WORKS BEST.  "It's all driven by ease of use and the high-speed and wireless connections that are becoming more and more common," Chambers says. "If you don't have online catalogs, logistics controls, and secure-payment systems, you're dead in the water these days." Even companies that rely on face-to-face business transactions, like restaurants and real estate agencies, are providing interactive services such as Internet takeout orders and virtual property walkthroughs.

Chambers, whose outfit specializes in small and midsize businesses, urges entrepreneurs to work with professionals offering not just Web-site design and/or hosting, but additional support for marketing and search-engine optimization (which makes sure your site rates high on the list of keyword results). Affinity sells a series of additional services that drive traffic to clients' sites and keep them running smoothly.

"It also can't be too complicated," Chambers says. "We see Web sites that companies have obviously spent loads of money creating, and they're so incredibly complex, there's no way the customer is going to understand how to use it." And as many entrepreneurs are learning, getting customers to do just that pays off.

Karen E. Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues