The smallest town can have a big business, thanks to electronics. Take Congerville, Ill., for instance. It has 350 residents, but no gas station, no grocery store. But it does have a store - an online supplier of men's hats. But 3,000 people a week visit his Internet store and buy about 100 hats a week.
Customers come from all over the world.
It's not unusual, says Chris Merritt of Kurt Salmon Associates, an Atlanta retail consulting firm. At least in theory, your reach is all across the world. Too many victims of computer attacks still don't talk, the FBI says. Only a few companies hit by hackers or Internet-related security breaches report those incidents to law enforcement authorities. Even victims of corporate extortion, a rising crime area, don't talk.