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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Is A Franchise Right For You?
Managing Stress While Creating A Home Business
There will be new concepts learned and applied. There will be attempts and failures. There will be disappointments and frustrations. A work at home business can bring success to our lives but it will also bring stress. We can control the pressure that will come. These tips can help us to manage the strain of creating an internet venture. The road to making money online is littered with obstacles but preparing for these challenges can make the journey easier.
1) Get Adequate Rest
2) Develop An Exercise Regimen
3) Improve Our Diet
4) Find Time To Relax
5) Manage Our Workload
6) Create A Positive Perspective
“The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow.”
Winning With Your Unique Opportunities
1st Principle
2nd Principle
3rd Principle
4th Principle
Making Your Business Click
Marketing collateral does not have to be high cost in nature. Resourcefulness and innovation of the company through its current roster of personnel can help ignite and produce the necessary collaterals a business can lean on. Understandably, cost and expenses are two of the things that business owners are not too keen on hearing. But the supplement of expected outcomes from the investment of marketing collaterals through advertising and promotions will provide a better overview of what to results to expect from such programmed marketing efforts by assigned people of the company.
The hardest part of establishing a business is to spread the word that such a company and its products or services are indeed available. The success of a business lies heavily in providing the necessary information of the existence of such, the purpose of which is to try and penetrate a market properly.
To start things off, the need for proper product or service orientation should be established. Consumers will not immediately rely on mere image and word of mouth. This is the job that is tasked for most marketing executives, to build on the product and make the consumers understand the benefits and fruits that the product brings. This is best done through the use of supporting promotional materials in the form of flyers, posters, and TV commercials if costs are permitted. Making such mediums available to consumers in the easiest way possible for them to get acquainted with the product being pushed is the best way to kick off a product’s existence in the market.
After a successful product orientation towards the target market that a company has focused on, the next thing to handle is the places where the product will be available. Supermarkets, department stores, convenience stores, and specialty shops, the mode of availability will be the critical aspect since this will largely depend if the product is readily available. For sure, people will not go out of their way to exert much effort in finding where the product may be. Thus it is the task of the business personnel to make sure that all possible distribution channels are covered, with the target market class under consideration as well. While flyers and posters may be spread all throughout affiliated stores and outlets, it is still the best practice to make sure that the product itself is available in target modes of distribution.
The set price for most consumer goods and commodities today play an important role in enticing consumer demand. While this is more psychological in nature, it cannot be discounted that business executives must determine an acceptable price to jack up their sales and consumer patronization. Pricing has its share of conflicts. Low prices may carry with it low quality product tags, while higher priced goods may push customers to look for alternative products. This is why it is essential that research and development teams must prepare a good comparison of product availability before finally deciding on a set price. The price should also consider the usual costs such as the administrative and operations cost, mark-ups and other related costs for manufacturing the product. The marketing collaterals will also fall under the administrative and operations cost, usually under the advertising and promotions part.
Defining the target market area as well as the consumer class will help determine the degree of saturation in the market a business should aim for. Identifying where the target market class resides or stays in is a good way to help in trimming down the area needed for saturation. Focusing the marketing collaterals in the area where the identified consumer class is situated is a good way to establish identity in the area. This should be a good way to start in effectively covering key areas for segregation prior to aiming for a larger market share.
The attention, complaints and distribution of the product or service still lied in the hands of the people hired to do the life blood of the company. Similar to a soldier going off to war, providing the sales force with business cards, marketing portfolios and other marketing paraphernalia is the best way to make an impact. Other than motivating the sales people to bring in the sales, making sure that they have the necessary materials to show are mirror-like images of the company. They represent the company and whatever they project speaks entirely for the business venture.
11 Steps To Creating The Perfect Business Plan
That’s the million dollar question.
For one thing, it should offer a thorough analysis of the need for the particular product or service you are planning to offer. It also needs to talk about how you are qualified to be making such an offering to the public.
A business plan should address your strategies in terms of production and marketing, how you will be organized, any legal aspects that you must address, and what your accounting methods will be. In short, a business plan should address the following questions:
* What do I want and what am I capable of doing?
* What are the most workable ways of achieving my goals?
* What can I expect from the future?
Keep in mind that there is not one specific format that you should use, or one best way to lay out your business plan. However, there are some steps you can take to make the process go a little more smoothly; we’ve listed what we think is the easiest method, below.
Step 1: Making the Commitment – be sure that you desire to work for yourself is truly greater than you desire to work for someone else.
Step 2: Analyze yourself – list your strengths and weaknesses. Determine how you can build off your strengths, and improve on your weaknesses. Remember, this can be a daunting task because you may have to own up to a few shortcomings you’re not prepared to recognize!
Step 3: Choose a Product or Service – this sounds silly, but just because you think you know what business you want to be in, it doesn’t mean your idea will be a profitable one. Take a look at the feasibility of your idea.
Step 4: Research Your Market – marketing research is crucial to the success of any business, large or small. The more you know about your potential market, the greater your chances of securing the customers you want, right out of the gate, and that means making a profit.
Step 5: Forecast Your Sales Revenue – after you take a look at the market your product is best suited for, estimate the percentage of that market that you think you will reasonably be able to take over. Take in to account the number of your competitors, their size, and the amount of market they already have. It is important to be realistic during this exercise.
Step 6: Choose a Location – is your new business going to be on the web? Or will you have a retail storefront? Will you consult out of your home office? Be careful to weight both your personal preferences and what makes the most sense for the ultimate success of your business. You might like the idea of working in your pajamas every day, but if your shingle needs to be seen by the public for maximum growth potential, a home office might not be your best option.
Step 7: Develop a Marketing Plan – here you will be forced to detail you plan to gain customers, and turn a profit. Discuss possible marketing channels, price points, advertising, and sales promotion.
Step 8: Develop an Organizational Plan – what skills and talents do your new business need to not only survive, but to grow as well? If you don’t have all these traits, how are you going to get them in the door? Will you hire freelancers? Are you hoping to bring on an employee right away? If these individuals, and their skill sets, are vital to your success, do not make a plan without them!
Step 9: Decide on Your Status – sole proprietor? Partnership? You need to decide how you’re going to approach this, and investigate the legal ramifications of each situation. As a sole proprietor, you’re in control, but you’re also solely responsible. In a partnership, you share the responsibility, but you also share the decision making and the profits. What works best for your budget AND your personality?
Step 10: Address Your Accounting – if you don’t know how much money is coming in and out of your business, you will never know if you are making a profit, or if you need to make changes. Keeping track of your numbers is one of the single most important things you can do for your business. Decide on whether you will do it in house, or outsource it to a professional; if you take care of it yourself, decide on what software you will use.
Step 11: Put it All into Numbers – this may or may not be necessary for you; it depends on what type of business you are starting. When you approach a financial institution for a small business loan, they will respond better if they see all of your plans in numbers; they are, after all, in the business of numbers. So, go back through all the above steps, and assign dollar amounts to what you can; when you approach the bank, you can tell them exactly how much you need, and show them where their money will be going. You can then show them, with a number, how much of the market you are planning to corner, and your growth, by percentage, over the next X years.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
5 Reasons Why an Article Submission Service Should Be a Cohesive Part of your Online Marketing Efforts
Increase your Position in the SERPs
Through building back-links to your website with targeted anchor text you can increase your websites positions in the SERPs for keywords and phrases that consumers would use should they be looking for the products, services and information that your website provides.
Catch Consumers at an Earlier Stage in the Buying Cycle
The internet now provides a great opportunity for buyers to find out information about products and services before they buy them. For example, a person considering buying a wrist watch may look online to find out about wristwatch brands, battery lifecycle and other elements which will allow them to make a more informed choice. If your company is providing the information that allows them to make an informed choice, then you are already placing your brand in front of the consumer at an earlier stage in the buying cycle; giving you first player advantage and brand integrity when they continue through to making a purchase.
Direct Traffic
Through having articles on hundreds of websites you will experience direct traffic from the websites on which your links are placed. Further more, this traffic will be targeted towards your website since the article pages from which they clicked will be tightly related to your products and services, meaning the chances of making a conversion are much higher.
Become an Authority in your Field
For decades businesses have tempted to make themselves the authority in their given field; fighting for press interviews to give their take on news that relates to their field. That opportunity is now available through article marketing. Businesses can give their perspective on events, provide helpful and educational guides as well as cement a trusted exterior through participating in article marketing. Through providing information in articles, business owners also open up opportunities to be asked for their opinion more often and to further enhance their authoritative status as a result.
Widen the Berth of Opportunity to Catch Consumers
When online being able to widen the berth through which traffic arrives at your website is vital to solidifying your position in the marketplace. With article submission services your benefit from direct link visits, as well as increased search engine rankings. Being able to do that is also good because it widens the scope and amount of opportunities for consumers to find out about your offerings. For example, if a potential customer performs a search for a phrase related to your product, they could be met with 1 result being your website and 4 results being websites that syndicate your article. You are therefore significantly increasing the chance that your business will be found.
Friday, January 4, 2008
How To Combine The Internet and Playing Games To Make Money
Link Building Services
Empower your business with VoIP Solutions
SEO Services - Competitive Analysis
Offers services to end users
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
You Can't Sell Consulting Services Over The Web, Or Can You?
Of course it's true that people won't get their credit cards out to buy high priced intangible products that normally have long sales gestation periods and require expert conversations before a deal takes place. However don't let this fool you into ignoring the stages of the sales and marketing process where the web can make massive contributions, it can shrink sales cycles and automate lead generation by taking people out of the process. What it can do for you is bring more prospects to the table, win their trust and get them deeper into your sales funnel without expensive people ever having met them!
Once you've moved to this way of thinking, you'll have prospects knocking on your door rather than you on theirs, your sales pipeline will be a lot healthier, your expensive people will be better utilized and your cost of client acquisition will be much lower than it is today.
If you are going to move to this mindset you need to work on three key things:
1. Talk in the ‘needs' language of your target audience.
2. Provide useful information that educates them and earns their trust.
3. Make your website the hub for all marketing campaigns.
Here's how:
1. Talk in the ‘needs' language of your target audience.
The buying language of consulting consumers is often very different to the selling language used by consultants on their websites. This results in a misalignment between the buyer and the seller. We all know that consultants like to talk about themselves more than they do about their clients! When your clients go online to do their research, you want to be the one that sings their song and presses their buttons. So if you do your homework and identify with their needs, wants and issues, rather than your products, services and company, then you'll be the one to grab their attention and bring them one step closer.
2. Provide useful information that educates them and earns their trust.
Most of the time consumers of professional services do a lot of online research to develop their issue or thinking before they decide on their provider. Would you like to help them do their research? You bet! These people will be grateful to you for good quality information, help and advice. Consulting is a relationship business, so when they're ready to buy, you'll be right up there in their mind as someone they trust to provide the expertise they need. So if you make it easy for them by providing valuable and useful information in the form of white papers, advisory articles, presentations, research reports, podcasts etc. then you'll be the one they trust and they won't be reserved in picking up the phone to you.
3. Make your website the hub for all marketing campaigns.
Most consulting firms who have a marketing plan treat their website like a separate strand of activity, along with direct mail, telemarketing, event speaking, sponsorship, advertising etc. The problem with much of this is the difficulty in measuring results. If you make your website the central hub for all marketing activities, then you can measure the return on investment from all of your campaigns. Make sure you've got a good visitor tracking tool installed (e.g. Opentracker), build special landing pages for each campaign, automate the delivery of your information products and capture contact information for use in on-going marketing communications. If you do these things you'll be well on your way to ‘lights out lead generation'!
So is it stupid to think you can sell professional services and consulting over the web?
Well it's doable for advisory products at a sub $1000 price point, but generally speaking you cannot close a complex deal online. But you can use the web to get your first meeting with a prospect, and if you use this as your main objective then you'll soon be pushing leads into your sales pipeline with much less effort and cost.
Are You Ready To Start Your Own Business?
Sadly, while many people dream of starting their own business, all too often those dreams fail miserably causing professional and financial devastation for those involved. How do you know if you have what it takes to start your own enterprise and make it a success? While some people like to point to the market idea, economic climate and other outside factors, I believe success and failure are determined by one essential factor -- the entrepreneur involved. Successful new business owners bring three essential qualities to their dream. I call these the MAT factor which simply stands for Money, Attitude, and Time.
Money is an important factor when you start a new business for three reasons. The first consideration is of course the old adage that it takes money to make money. While it is possible to start an Internet enterprise with nothing, it is easier to have at least a little start-up capital. Another important financial factor is your personal financial standing. If you need to hold down a full-time or part-time job while also trying to start a business it could be too much to handle especially if you have other personal obligations. Finally, your attitude toward money is a big factor. If you are a wise personal financial manager then you will likely be able to apply those same skills and knowledge to your business finances, but if you can't manage your personal finances then likely you won't be able to manage your business finances. Businesses with a good cash flow can sometimes forgive a little financial mismanagement but new businesses struggling to get off the ground often demand very wise financial management to survive.
Time is also an important element in new business success or failure. Many new entrepreneurs far underestimate the time they will need to spend on developing, growing, and maintaining their business. Many entrepreneurs who fail are not good managers of their time. It is important for you to know that you can dedicate a certain number of hours each day or week to your new venture -- and that time can be spent on all areas important to the future success of your business such as planning, ongoing work, and promotion and marketing. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the actual servicing of existing customers that you forget to cultivate new customers. Sometimes it is easy to become overwhelmed by the day-to-day work and overlook planning for the future. Both these mistakes are time management problems that can lead to business failure.
Finally, the most important quality involved in the success of new ventures can be summed up in one word -- attitude. Do you possess the right attitude to become a successful entrepreneur? One of the most important qualities that determine a successful attitude is self-direction. Can you work effectively without supervision? Are you goal-oriented and self-sufficient? Can you make effective decisions on your own? Self-direction is not enough though. You must also be flexible and open-minded to recognize opportunity when it knocks. Some entrepreneurs have worked their new businesses right into the ground because they were not willing to modify or change their business plan. The right attitude also encompasses the ability and willingness to learn. Successful entrepreneurs are constantly learning and evolving. They learn more about their market niche, they learn more about marketing, they learn more about general business skills, and they learn more about themselves.
And so, if you are considering whether or not you have the right stuff to start your own business then you should consider the MAT factor. Where do you stand when it comes to Money, Attitude, and Time? Really consider all the angles before venturing out on your own. You can be a successful entrepreneur and make all your dreams come true, but you need to start with the right ingredients.
How To Earn Part-time Income At Home
Anyone with basic computer skills can make money part time at home. There are many companies out there that rely on independent contractors to sell their products. Those with time on their hands can use internet marketing and call lists to make a part time income at home through sales and commissions. Some of the companies out there are scams, however, so watch out.
Those who are not interested in sales but have basic typing skills can make a part time income at home by performing data entry tasks online. There are many opportunities available with companies, both positions and as an independent contractor. You can also find work in data entry through bid for work web sites.
Those with more advanced computer ability can perform work as a virtual assistant. This can be a great way to earn part time income at home without getting bored from doing the same thing over and over again. As a virtual assistant you never know what type of projects you could get. You may be doing spreadsheets or you might be typing from scanned pages. Whatever you will be doing, you can be sure to earn a great part time income while staying at home.
If you have writing ability you can also look into getting a part time income working as a copy writer. Copy writers write much of the content that you see on web sites, in advertising, and even in many online magazines. You can make a very good part time income while working at home, exercising your creativity, and enjoying a variety in work.
There are many other ways that you can earn a part time income from home such as transcription, medical transcription, affiliate marketing, and through running a blog with Google AdSense. Whatever type of work you decide to do to earn a part time income from home, make sure that you check out the company thoroughly. For every legitimate income opportunity there is a scam. Make sure that you get involved in a legitimate income opportunity.
Use of Videoconferencing Services for Home and Business Users
MyVideoWebChat features a multi party robust live streaming audio and video web chatting platform that does not require any downloads. This breakthrough videocommunications product permits member-to-member communication via multiple, resizable video windows. MyVideoWebMail which is a Streaming videoemail! Record, save and send is all it takes to "put yourself" in the home or office of the people with whom you communicate
MyVideoTalk offers one of the highest quality, user friendly and versatile streaming video email solutions in the marketplace today. MyVideoTalk's versatility offers the latest and most extensive high end features for the corporate user, but is so user friendly that the personal user may send greetings to friends and family members with ease. MyVideoTalk is your solution. Streaming video on demand by MyVideoTalk streaming video is the perfect way to enhance your website and ensure that visitors see and hear what you have to say
With MyVideoTestDrive system, you can build your global customer base quickly and easily as all you have to do is send them to your videotestdrive page - allowing them to "try before they buy!" MyVideoConnect doesn't just provide the prospect's phone number, but actually allows you to introduce yourself live and in person. MyVideoConnect facilities the relationship that is essential in business. MyVideoWebMeeting is more than just one-way broadcast communication. It is true interactive communication. MyVideoWebMeeting quality and reasonable pricing make it a feasible solution for anyone needing to assemble a group for an interactive meeting.
MyVideoCommunity is like a big block party where all of the MyVideoTalk independent representatives get together to share; it is a huge information exchange. MyVideoCommunity is the world's first videocommunity. MyVideoCall closes the gap because now you can see each other as well! MyVideoCall brings people into each other's offices, living rooms... their lives. MyVideoCall has taken it to the next level! MyVideoCall is as close to reaching out & touching someone as you can get without actually being in the same room. My Video Talk brings the world closer together. MyVideoTalk will change the world.
Virtual Switchboard Services Are Now Empowering The Small Business In Call Management
In today’s highly competitive market place, small businesses now have the opportunity to increase their flexibility and options by availing of the many online services currently on offer.
Central Statistics Office figures indicate that seven out of every ten businesses have their own websites with a proportion of these developing e-commerce sites.
With Internet service offers in areas such as marketing, sales, management and communications; SME’s are now in a position to retain a competitive edge through greater service availability at increasingly lower prices.
Innovative online services in the telecommunications sector such as the Virtual Switchboard Service for small business continue to evolve and gain popularity. The Virtual Switchboard is essentially an online call management system, which allows the customer to log on to an online account and manage their incoming calls. These services are designed to increase efficiency, flexibility and professionalism for the small business when dealing with their clientele over the phone.
Press1.co.uk offers virtual switchboard services specifically for small business consisting of 1-10 employees. Their aim is to provide a system that allows the user an optimum level of flexibility that will increase their competitive advantage.
Press1.co.uk’s system gives companies the opportunity to log on to their online account and design their own unique call management system specific to their requirements.
Companies will have full online access and control of features including call forwarding to multiple phone lines, IVR configuration (press 1 for sales, press 2 for support) to welcome and direct customers to the right person, voice mail via email, voice recordings and playback manager, email with caller ID, and they can configure their system to take calls differently at different times (of the day, days of the week) i.e. opening and closing times.
Through a personal selection and configuration of these features the user can customise their system to suit their unique business requirements.
The flexibility and adaptability of the virtual switchboard service has attracted a variety of business users ranging from the home-worker to the trades man, events managers to web designers!
Lets try and highlight the flexibility of this service by demonstrating how efficiently it could be adapted within various market sectors:
Scenario 1). An online shop - selling computer hardware.
They may be a small company but they receive a large amount of calls. They would like to offer customer support through email while receiving just sales calls. They use the IVR system to filter their calls, so they direct their sales calls to a manned phone line (press 1 for sales) and their support calls to a voice recording (press 2 for support), providing customers with details of how to receive email support or important customer information. This enables efficient management of calls so that they maximise cost effectiveness by only taking the calls they wish.
The system also provides them with the presence of a larger company and adds to their professional image greeting their customer and redirecting them to the right “department” or person.
Scenario 2). An Events Agency.
Each of their customers is important to them as they offer a high quality service to a low volume of customers. They wish to receive every call that comes through but they are always on the move between home, the office and meeting clients.
They like to use the advanced call forwarding to forward calls to multiple lines. They have their home line, office line and their mobile ring at the same time so they can receive the call on the first phone they pick up no matter where they are. Alternatively they use their IVR system to direct customers to the right person (press 3 for Tom, press 4 for Jerry) and they receive email alerts with caller ID so they never loose prospectus customer.
After office hours they direct callers to leave a voice mail and receive it as an email so they can access their voice mail from any computer with internet access.
They maximise the amount of calls they receive and never miss out on important business opportunities.
Virtual switchboard systems can be customised to specific requirements but can also be managed and changed online at the click of a mouse.
These type of services are really giving the smaller business an increase in competitive advantage - allowing them to appear as a larger company, adding to their professional image and giving them a great deal of flexibility.
As it is easily configured and managed by the customer, it is adaptable and suitable for a wide range of business types.
The fact that the virtual switchboard is hosted online means that most of the traditional costs of providing these telecom services have evaporated making it readily affordable and accessible to the smaller business helping them to gain that all important foot hold in their respective markets.