Online business will do very well today in England, even though it is a Bank Holiday and we are all supposed to be "resting". What tosh! The "Bank Holiday" concept - and British politicians want to increase them - are from an idea that is past its prime, to say the least.

High Street shops will be open today - and will be very busy, Traditionally, furniture stores do a considerable proportion of their business today - a holiday! Furthermore, a survey from the British online bank, First Direct, shows that a sizeable proportion of people who work in offices will also do some work today, on their day off.

Partly, some of these people will need to stay in touch with colleagues in Scotland, perhaps, where today is not a bank holiday. Or they'll be involved in international online meetings, since the rest of the world is at work anyway.

If you are running your own business online, you may need to respond to customers from anywhere around the world, so your business needs to operate today if you are in England. Equally, if your business operates from elsewhere in the world you may well find your English visitor rate rises today as more people go online to shop as they have some "spare" time thanks to the bank holiday.

Yes, we all know we are in a 24/7 society and that business can be global so if your online business is not geared up to that you could lose out. Even so, it's amazing how many English businesses are not. Send some an email today and you'll get an "out of office" autoresponder message. Not very 24/7 is it?

Equally, many businesses don't gear themselves up for the online shopping increase they'll get on a bank holiday. Public holidays the world over are triggers for online shopping. Is your online business offering anything special today because it is a bank holiday? Does it offer incentives for public holiday sales for every country in the world? Doing so could significantly add to your sales.

For a list of worldwide public holidays check the Earth Calendar.