As a small business it is vital that you are able to assure any potential business that your e-business is reliable and secure. Unlike face-to-face trading, ecommerce is faceless and on a universal scale, so it is vital to assure your potential customers that you take all consumer fears and apprehensions seriously. Recent security scares by various organisations have not helped in building consumer confidence, so any measure you can employ will go a long way to slowly building confidences.

There are a number of measure you can employ already, many of them will not cost your business a great deal of time or money to implement.

Email
If you regularly send and receive email messages without the use of encryption technology or use a valid email signature, then you leave your email messages open to interception by a third part.  Your recipient will also not be able to validate the identity of the sender. However, you can apply for a digital signature or certificate.  With this added security you are able to send more sensitive documents or agree contracts online.  Your recipients can will receive your documents knowing it hasn't been read or tampered with in transit and will be assured the document has been sent by you.
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Web Site Security
If your business is preparing to trade online through a World Wide Web site, then you have to consider how secure the transaction will be for your customer.  Without encryption technology, any transaction via an online form has the the potential to be intercepted by criminals.  If this should happen to your web business it could devastate any reputation you may have built up with your online customers. It is therefore vital that you place you web site on a secured server. 
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According to a recent MORI poll, 54% of Internet users expressed concerns related to releasing credit card details online. 30% believe there is a risk from fraudulent suppliers and only 3% regularly shop online

Source: MORI Polls & Surveys