(FORTUNE Small Business) – After traveling nearly every week for a decade, real estate consultant Patrick Veling has his share of road warrior horror stories. The canceled flights. The lost luggage. The sleeping in airports. And the 15 pounds he gained living on airplane food and Hershey bars. But all that was nothing compared with the fear in his family's eyes on Sept. 11, 2001.

Two weeks after the tragedy, Veling's wife vetoed a business trip that he had scheduled to the East Coast from his home airport in Los Angeles. "I told him he would have to change the expectations of his clients," says Susan Veling, 46.

What to do? Patrick Veling, 45, had relied on client service to build Real Data Strategies, based in Brea, Calif., to $2.5 million in annual sales. Veling provides sales statistics to residential real estate firms. If a broker wants to hire new talent, for example, Veling can mine local sales data for agents who sold the most houses for competitors.

Veling admits to being blunt and even caustic on occasion, so most clients weren't won over by glad-handing. But they relied on his in-person database training and keen grasp of the numbers.

"I was under pressure to come up with a change in strategy," says Veling. That's when he discovered WebEx Communications, a San Jose company that offers remote conferencing through an Internet browser. WebEx controls 67% of the online conferencing market, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan. Competitors include Microsoft-owned Placeware, with a 17% market share, and Raindance, with a 4% share. The U.S. market for web conferencing totaled $472 million last year and is growing 30% annually. Even so, less than 10% of U.S. businesses use the technology.

Veling joined the early adopters, choosing WebEx because it offered the most flexibility. He invested $7,200 in upgrades to his computer system, including increased bandwidth, a flat-screen monitor, and a telephone headset. Then he bought a $1,600 monthly subscription to WebEx, allowing him to hold videoconferences with as many as eight clients simultaneously anywhere in the world.

Veling got the knack of WebEx in just 20 minutes. Integrating the service into his business took longer. Some of his clients lacked the necessary bandwidth, causing lags. At times Veling found himself talking about numbers that weren't yet on his client's screen. And he learned the hard way that screensavers must be disabled before the start of a conference. Otherwise the system will automatically log off a user whose screensaver pops up.

Veling eliminated the most irksome delays by making sure all his clients had a fast Internet connection. And he bought a $60 web camera so that his clients could see him onscreen. The image is jerky but watchable, somewhat like the original Godzilla—except that Veling is really much friendlier (and definitely more knowledgeable about real estate).

Some clients missed the face time at first. But two years later Veling's old clients can't imagine paying his $1,200-a-day travel rate. And many new clients have no interest in seeing more of Veling than the face and shoulders that appear on their screen. "He could be a transvestite—I have no idea," says Richard Rose, chief operating officer for Coldwell Banker Premier in Southern California.

By doing more business online, Veling shaved $100,000 off his annual travel costs and halved the time he spends flying. He has hired two consultants to take over much of the on-site training. And in part because he can concentrate on growing his business rather than traveling to maintain it, he expects revenues to rise 30% this year.

Recently Veling used WebEx to pitch potential customers in Ohio and Connecticut. He had time left over to pick up his daughter from dance class. Another benefit for the recovering road warrior: "I'm a lot less cranky."