LONDON, July 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

Whilst the media is currently full of doom mongering about the credit 
crunch, many Brits are turning these challenging times to their advantage 
by planning a career change, taking steps to create a better work:life 
balance or finally fulfilling that dream of setting up a successful online 
business.

Now is a good time to get a business online. Online trading is
the one area of the UK economy that continues to expand. New figures out from
IMRG Capgemini's e-Retail Sales Index show that in the first six months of
2008, UK shoppers spent over GBP 26.5 billion online despite the credit
crunch. This is up 38% on the GBP19.2 billion recorded for the first half of
2007 and equates to 17p in every pound spent being spent online.

The spirit of entrepreneurialism has never been stronger than
it is now in the UK with programs such as The Apprentice and Dragons Den.
Levi Roots of Dragon's Den fame even set up a website for his famous Reggae
Reggae Sauce with the Takeaway Website and is Mr Site's most famous fan.
"Getting the website was one of the keys to my success," said Levi.

"Let's not jump on the 'doom and gloom' bandwagon of despair,
for all that will do will drag us down," says Cary Cooper, Professor of
Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management
School. "We can create new businesses, we can weather the temporary economic
storm and we can do better than just survive, we can grow our economy once
again like we did over the last two decades."

The following Mr Site case studies below illustrate this point
perfectly.

1) Geoff Milner, founder, The Image Vault. When Geoff felt the
crunch begin to bite his warehouse business, he set up
http://www.theimagevault.co.uk as a second income selling images to the
publishing industry: "I set up the website as a way to earn a bit of extra
cash but within a few months I was doing so well I was able to close down my
warehouse business and focus entirely on The Image Vault, earning a fantastic
wage from it and working from the comfort of my own home."

2) Alina Moat, co-founder, Duke Flores. Alina was made
redundant from her job in the City last year and used the opportunity to set
up her own online fashion label http://www.dukeflores.com, something she had 
wanted to do for a long time. Redundancy was the catalyst for her success: 
"It was a shock being made redundant, but it gave me the push I needed to 
finally pursue my dream of setting up my own sustainable fashion label using 
organic materials," says Alina. "I sell my pieces through the website. It 
has been hard work but a great success. I am really happy with my life 
now. I see the redundancy as one of the best things that has ever happened 
to me."

Note to Editors:

A picture accompanying this release is available through the PA 
Photowire. It can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net 
or viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.