Most people venture to the cafe in search of a refreshing latte, but e-business expert Deborah Collier ended up leaving with an entire business in tow, after spending hours at Montreal and London cafes building a new range of online e-business training courses for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Despite an 80 percent year-on-year rise in Internet sales, reports suggest that just 18 percent of SMEs have e-commerce solutions in place. For many, it is the sheer cost of paying an external company to do work, so Collier, who is the founder of Echo E-Business, a company which delivers e-business courses and qualifications to blue-chip organizations around the globe, decided to show small businesses how they could save valuable time and money when setting up their own e-commerce site.

After spending many afternoons in her local cafe building her new E-BusinessKnowHow training courses, Collier announced the launch of the first course in the series entitled "Selling Over the Internet" priced at just CAD $76.81 (£49.99).

The price includes 30 days access to the course material, which includes powerful interactive modules and a quiz. Future courses in the series include "Search Engine Optimization for the Business Owner" and "Twitter for Business," which all draw on Collier's extensive experience working with brands such as Skype, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kenwood, Saudi Post, Orange and more.

"The courses are non-technical and have interactive elements to help small businesses really get to grips with the concepts of e-commerce. The web is now an essential route to market for most businesses, but many often lose money by not understanding the pros and cons or how it fits into their existing model," Collier said.

Collier, who has a loyal following of over 30,000 subscribers to her e-business newsletter at Learnebusiness.com, developed the courses as part of her own business strategy to respond to market changes and expand into web-based training. She urges other businesses to explore whether e-commerce could help them battle the global economic crisis and emerge on top.

The economic climate has had a huge impact on the way business is conducted with more emphasis on the web than ever before. There has also been a breakdown in the barriers to trade for SMEs, and for the first time they are on an equal playing field with big global brands. A good e-commerce site could be just what they need to gain valuable market share to drive the business forward and I want to help them succeed in achieving the best possible site for their business," Collier averred.

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