Remember the George Peppard character on the old A-Team TV show? "I love it when a plan comes together," he always said. Two things in this issue illustrate what he was talking about.

First: The 1997 RM panel on computerization shows a lot more interest in the Internet this year. It's clear that the Web holds great possibilities for rental companies. But if you're going to set up a Web site, "Do it right." That good counsel comes from our own Susan Stapleton, RM associate editor and Web designer for the A.R.A. She means don't fall in love with all the cool stuff and let the technological possibilities take over: make it usable. Plan it.

Example: This month we were trying to find a picture of a product for the magazine. We turned to the Web. We went through menu after menu, flying blind, not knowing which button would produce the answer - and all we were trying to find was a company's phone number! We found the company in two minutes but after 20 minutes of monkeying, going hither and yon from button to button, scrolling endlessly and waiting for all the cool pictures to download, we still hadn't found a phone number.

Susan advises: Watch that download time - keep those graphics simple enough to get through efficiently. And organize the information so people can figure out what it is. Skip the cutesy stuff. Give information to people the way they're accustomed to looking for it. Talk to the ordinary person who visits your Web site; don't assume everybody's a computer geek.

The Internet has created a virtual city in which you can find things, as you might in a real city by looking in the Yellow Pages. But as more and more information packaged in ever more elaborate trappings floods in from all points, honking and shoving and hogging the consumer's time, the Internet is also creating gridlock.

Good news: unlike the real city, the virtual city puts you in charge. You can solve the problem for the Web site visitor and give yourself a competitive advantage by keeping it simple, so your information is delivered quicker, and organizing it so the visitor can find it easily. Just plan it in terms of the user's need, says Susan, not how neat you can make it look on the screen - which may be cool, but will it get you business?

Second: This month's cover story is the remarkable tale of Tolar Rental Store in Mooresville, N.C., which existed in the minds of Scott, Glenn and Pat Tolar long before it opened. When they decided to create their dream, they wanted to be sure to make no mistakes. They started by picking out a town, then a building site, and then proceeded with the rest according to a plan that would have impressed the A-Team.

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