Christine Harmel knows how to match companies with just the right Web designers. That's her business. But she didn't know how to run a publicity campaign for her New York start-up, the Interactive Resource. For that, she turned to DigitalWork.com, the Chicago-based company that runs a Web site aimed at helping small businesses do the things small businesses have found hard to do, such as advertising, collecting debts and recruiting employees. 

"We want to revolutionize the way small business works," said Rob Schultz, chairman and co-founder of DigitalWork.com. "We are the business workshop that helps small-business owners, who wear so many hats." DigitalWork.com, which launched www.digitalwork.com in April 1998, is a highly touted and well-financed Web company. Today, it will announce receiving $32 million in new strategic funding on top of the $15 million it already received. The new money, in part, comes from Office Depot, Mail Boxes, Etc. and PurchasePro.com. 

This large cash infusion comes as the company plans to go public in the first half of 2000. DigitalWork.com has 60 employees, and expects to have 175 within 12 months. 

DigitalWork.com and rival sites--including Office.com and SmartOnline--provide small companies with access to low-cost tools that help to level the playing field, said Knecko Burney, director of markets and computing for In-Stat. "Big companies enjoyed the benefits of information technology for years. Now small businesses can get in on the action," she said. Schultz, who has a B.A. in economics from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, described DigitalWork.com as "a do-it-yourself business agency" offering workshops designed to teach a small-business owner to learn and perform a task in half an hour. 

DigitalWork.com provides step-by-step, how-to business tasks. Links to partner sites help clients complete a task, such as ad campaigns, recruiting employees, market research, sales, shipping and business planning. Harmel, 31, has been impressed. For $100--about the cost of a typical service--she filled out a form to prepare a news release with hands-on help from Business Wire, a DigitalWork.com partner. Business Wire sent out Harmel's press release to news organizations in her target markets, New York and Los Angeles. As a result, her agency was mentioned in leading Web business publications, including Industry Standard. Furthermore, she landed new clients, including Union Carbide and Veuve Clicquot, the champagnemaker. "I love this company [DigitalWork.com]," Harmel said. "You know what you are good at doing. DigitalWork.com helps to do the things you haven't done because you don't know how to do them or thought you couldn't afford them." 

Schultz, 32, said small business is an attractive market for Web businesses like his. "Small business is a massive part of the economy. There are more than 10 million small businesses in the world today and close to 1 million new ones start each year that need resources to help them grow and succeed," he said. "There have been traditional hurdles to reaching this market. The Internet is a new medium to target and service small business." DigitalWork.com has relationships with Citibank, Office Depot, AT&T, IBM and Lycos, providing online and offline support. 

Other partners include Flycast, the banner advertising network; Postmaster Direct, the opt-in e-mail company; National Credit Systems, debt-collection, and Mail 2000, printing fulfillment for direct mail. To date, DigitalWork.com has more than 70,000 registered users. Six percent of users have purchased services at the site. "It's a bargain," Harmel said. "My public relations campaign cost me $100. It would have cost $100 an hour to hire a PR agency." 

Online competition for small businesses is intense. Burney has counted nearly 30 companies in that field, most having difficulty generating revenue. "Most companies have trouble getting small businesses to pay $5, but DigitalWork.com averages $200 in transactions from its customers. They have a phenomenal business model," Burney said. Overall, DigitalWork.com came in third in In-Stat's soon-to-be released rankings of 19 companies. Burney placed DigitalWork.com No. 1 in the quality of its partners, No. 2 in its value to customers and No. 2 in value for potential investors.