While Governor Jim Douglas and the Vermont Legislature debate how to best bring broadband Internet connections to all of the state, a goal he has set for 2010, several Vermont companies say they are already thriving as online only businesses.

While this may be so, Mike Quinn, Commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, acknowledged that companies whose only presence is in cyberspace are a rarity in Vermont. Most Internet businesses, he said, are hybrids, brick and mortar companies with an online component.

Quinn said the governor has recognized that for the future of the Vermont economy, delivering broadband is crucial. "That's why he set the goal for 2010. It's not a simple goal but three years out."

According to Quinn, 85 percent of Vermonters are currently covered by broadband and DSL service. However, he admitted, "there are still gaps, and we believe that is critical."

He sees fuller broadband coverage, especially in the pockets where none currently exists, fostering science-based businesses or software developers.

"It is about being able to work wherever you are and delivering your plans around the world."

The Internet is not new to many of the state's businesses. Most companies, from the mom and pop variety to our largest employers, have some sort of a World Wide Web presence usually in the form of a company web site and email contact point. These sites are relatively inexpensive to set up and maintain. They are most often part of a company's overall advertising and marketing program. Some also include a retail component and product is sold through a secure web page. Business web sites have become as important as a business card and brochure and as a means of contacting the company via email.

Expanding on the use of the web, as an informational tool available to anyone with a computer and telephone is the web based business model. Here, companies use the web as their sole business location. A growing number of auction sites use this model. These companies have mushroomed with the explosion of auction type sales attributed primarily to eBay, the world's largest and best-known Internet auction site. Three Chittenden County businesses, Globalgaragesale. net, GoTradingPost.com, and Vbaystore.com, have seen profits surge as a result of this business model.

Also using the Internet as its sole storefront" are businesses whose primary function is the exchange of information. Newsbank, an archive service for media, located in Chester, is an example.

Then, there is Dealer.com, a Burlington company working with the nation's automobile dealerships to set up websites and market cars online.

Online Auction Houses Thrive

Globalgaragesale.net based in Winooski is the brainchild of Erik Holcomb, 29, and his partner Peter Becker, 42. Since December 2003 these two entrepreneurs have seen gross sales at their company go from an initial $76,000 In 2004 to $680,000 in 2006. The two men, who left jobs as landscapers, say they found a solution to their lack of winter work when they turned their penchant for selling unwanted items online through eBay into a business of their own.

Their business was inspired when a friend asked them to sell musical equipment through eBay in 2003. They earned a fee for their efforts and decided to operate a business doing for others what they had done for their friend.

"We thought a business would be a great idea," said Holcomb. "We figured our friend wasn't the only one who needed us to sell for them on eBay."

Just three years ago, said Holcomb, "a lot of people in Vermont were not eBay savvy." Selling the concept of being an online auctioneer to Vermonters took some time and. advertising. The partners began advertising in 2004 in local Burlington newspapers such as Seven Days.

With just $400 start up cash and rented space in a small warehouse on West Canal Street in Winooski that they already used as a tie-dye tee shirt factory, they opened for business.

The company takes a commission in a sliding scale based on the price of the item sold. On average globalgaragesale. net earns a third of the sale price, which includes all fees it has to pay to eBay, which includes credit card processing of sales. Holcomb said eBay sales last year totaled $5 to $7 billion.

What makes eBay so successful, and thus the best online auction site, said Holcomb, is that people worldwide can trade with others with no tariffs or other trade problems. His company has sold items to China, Europe, 40 countries in all.

"Its amazing that anybody can use eBay to buy and sell," he said.

EBay is so popular that many businesses use it to liquidate their overstock and returned merchandise.

"We're trying to get a piece of that action by helping Vermont businesses get a niche to sell their goods," noted Holcomb.