January 2023 - Page 7 of 12

Tips to Choose the Best Business Web Hosting Platform

Are you thinking of taking your business to more potential customers rather than confining to the walls of the shop? Websites are the fastest and easiest way to reach a larger crowd. But to start and maintain one, you should approach a business web hosting company.

Whether you own a big business or your business budget is low, creating your own online platform is considered as the basic promotion nowadays. Most of the potential customers love to shop at home, where they can get their needs delivered to their doorsteps. So the website plays a vital role in the growth of your business and to get great customer satisfaction you should maintain them properly. This job is done by a business web hosting company.

Web hosting is a service provider for your website, where they store and maintain your files, documents, etc. There are diversified options for selecting a web hosting for your business. But basic thing to keep in mind is the type of business you own. Whether you own a big business and can afford good budget web hosting or you are in need of a more affordable choice. Also, consider what you expect your website to provide your customers with.

Commonly found types of web hosting are; shared, dedicated, VPS and cloud hosting. Shared hosting is the cheapest and has less disk space. As the name suggests, more than one website share a single server. They are better for new websites, as they are cheap and such websites may not expect a larger customer traffic.

Dedicated hosting offers a single server for your website and thus provide a larger disk space. They cost big than shared and other types, so it is best for big-budget businesses. They can handle customer traffic and better website tools as they have greater ranges. VPS and cloud type are a combination of both shared and dedicated hosting.

While choosing the web hosting company, check out whether they provide the following features.

The bandwidth and disk space they can provide for your budget: All your documents, website pages, your expectation of the number of customers who approach your website, all depends on the space your host offer. For customers to access every element of your website without any lag and traffic, you are going to need a decent range.

Compatibility and reliability: Make sure that the web hosting platform you approach has a higher availability rate which can also be termed as uptime. You don’t want to upset your customers by keeping your website unreachable or unavailable at times.

The security they offer is also important to keep your website away from malware and viruses.

24*7 customer support is a vital feature of a reliable business web hosting company can offer. Customers may even search for their need at late night, so it is better your website is available the whole day.

How to Use SMO For Your Business

We’ve all heard of SEO or Search Engine Optimization, but these days SMO or Social Media Optimization is just as important. Social media plays an important role in marketing a business online. The best part is that it’s free!

You’ll want to start with joining a social media site. LinkedIn, Facebook and groups on Ning.com are where you will find your target audience. Look for a group that has a lot of members and open forums or groups to join.

Once you have joined a group, take the time to set up your profile with any pertinent information about your business. This should include your website address or business location, contact info and a description of your services or products. Some groups allow you to write your own blog. Ning.com groups usually have a blog that goes along with your profile. On LinkedIn you can add a widget that links to your blog. This will automatically update your profile page with your most recent blog entries.

The second step of joining a social site is to get involved. You cannot just build a profile and expect to connect with people. You need to start conversations and ask questions.

Starting a conversation is easy. Many times there will already be a discussion going on that you can join. You can also start a discussion about current business news, ask for advice, events, webinars or share free information that helped your business. Approach people you admire and either leave a comment or ask to connect. Not everyone will connect with you, but most are more than willing. A great way to let someone know you are genuine is to tell them why you want to connect when you send a request.

Be careful of spamming a forum or discussion area with posts that are only ads about your business. There are certain times when you can write about your business. Look for an “Introduce Your Business” discussion where you can write about your business. Another time to post about your business is when someone is looking for a service/product that you offer. You can always advertise your business by adding a signature with your name and website link at the end of any discussion you post.

Continue to make connections, build your network and find ways to work with other business owners. After you have mastered one group, join another. Join as many groups as you can without becoming overwhelmed about adding content and making new connections.

Blogs are still a viable way to spread word of mouth and build your brand. I recommend using a free blog host through WordPress or Blogger. Your first blog post should introduce your business. Your blog will have a sidebar area that you can add links to your site, product photos, your logo and reciprocal links. Reciprocal links with other blogs is a great way to reach a new audience. You can go a step further and post reciprocal entries on each others blog about the others business.

Post entries to your blog on a regular basis, either daily or weekly. This way people can see that you are reliable and it will fill your blog up with great content. You can post about your services and products. Each entry can showcase a different product or service you offer. Adding commentary on relevant news about your industry makes for great content. You can subscribe to a free service, Google Alerts on specific subjects that are sent your email address. Use this service to learn about news around the world.

Writing articles about subjects within your industry is a way to show off your expertise and advertise your business. You can submit articles to article banks such as Ezine or Hub pages.

Once you have published an article, you still need to market it. Add a link to your article on your site and blog. There are several free services that will allow you to share articles with the public. Popular sites include Twitter, Digg and LinkedIn. On LinkedIn groups you can submit articles to the news section of any group you have joined. You can also start a discussion about your article by asking what others think about that subject and referencing your article via a link to where it is located.

These are the basics of social media optimization or SMO. The longer you’re online the more you will learn. You can use the internet to build lasting relationships with customers and other entrepreneurs.

Hot New Business Idea – Home-Town Article Writing

Article writing as we know it has become a great home-based business avenue for creating an additional stream of income or exposure. Creating mind tingling articles that will keep the attention of your audience occupied is of vital importance. The small town business idea of writing a news article on business ownership for your local newspaper publication is one that I believe is quite overlooked. This newspaper or magazine is relatively small in production, circulation and content. It will usually be locally owned and operated.

Do your research to find out what bi-weekly or monthly articles are published. Nine times out of ten, there will not be anything covering people who own their own business or how to start your own business, a popular niche that you can take advantage of. There will be a bit of leg-work involved, but the exposure, if not income too, will be totally worth your while. Call the editor of the newspaper you chose and set up an appointment to talk one on one with them about writing for their publication. There may not be any monetary incentive for it at first but let them know you are willing to freelance for the exposure. If the offer is accepted, you will now need to make a list of people in your town who are business owners. If you don’t know many, ask friends and relatives for help.

Some idea titles for your column could be: Being Your Own Boss 101, An Inside Focus to B.Y.O.B., All My Own: Business 101, or You Can Start Your Own Business, Too. You will then need to call those prospective business owners, tell them who you are, why you would like to interview them for your column and the name of the newspaper they will be featured in. Most will be flattered to be mentioned in a publication. No picture is necessary, unless you and the business owner agree on submitting one.

The following interview questions should get you on your way.

1. How they started their own business
2. Motivation for wanting to be in business
3. When they started and how long in the business
4. Some difficulties they faced and how they overcame it
5. Would they do it again and what would they do different
6. Tips for others who may want to have their own business
7. In what ways do they give back
8. Business happenings current and future
9. Future plans, if any
10. Family status, faith affiliation, if any, encouraging words or business motto

An important factor is always remember to check for spelling and grammatical errors within your articles. This can make or break your expertise as an article writer. These are just some general ideas for interview questions, you can always alter for your own satisfaction. And by no means should you limit yourself to just writing for your own home-town, contact other small towns after you’ve reached a certain level of comfortable expertise and then accelerate to larger ones. This will be a specialty niche exclusively built by you but geared towards helping others in their own business and those wanting their own business.

I hope this will help someone in their future article writing journey. One never knows, before long you may end up venturing out with your own business publication centered around this one little specialty niche. My sincere hope is that this creative business idea will free you into your own way of thinking and living.

6 Business Benefits of Employee Automated Time and Attendance Systems

Your employees could be stealing $800 or more each year with your blessing. Employee time theft is a rising concern across the small business community as workers come in late, take long lunches, clock out early and waste time on Facebook. If just a single employee making $10 an hour is late 15 minutes each workday, you are handing over $800 annually and getting nothing in return. One of the simplest solutions to get that money back is to implement an automated time and attendance system. Most costs are recouped within the first year, and the accumulated benefits far outweigh the initial investment.

Here are just a few advantages of electronic time and attendance systems:

1. Control employee time theft: Don’t let an employee say he was present on a particular day when he wasn’t. An automated system tracks all hours at a particular worksite and gives managers instant access to attendance reports.

2. Automate reporting: Learn what your employees are doing even if you are out of the office. Many automated time and attendance systems send you notifications about late sign-ins, absences or potential errors in time tracking.

3. Maximize efficiency: Most paper attendance systems require the employee to fill out a timesheet, then the supervisor signs it, a senior manager audits in and a payroll agent enters the data into a payment system. You can eliminate duplicate work by letting employees swipe in and out and sending the data directly to payroll. You also eliminate costly human errors.

4. Integrate time and attendance details with payroll: By getting rid of wasteful data entry steps, your company can process more payroll transactions in less time with fewer employees. You don’t have to collect time cards, track down late submissions, calculate hours or contact employees about inaccurate or illegible details. You also avoid the hassle of missing timesheets and paper record-keeping.

5. Gain more flexibility: Archaic paper systems are typically built on time-consuming processes with little documentation. If the payroll technician takes time off during a pay period or, even worse, leaves the company, the business comes to a standstill. With automated systems, payroll personnel can take vacations and the staff still gets paid on time. Most modern systems are so simple that new employees and temporary replacements can be up to speed within a few hours, even if the official payroll representative is not there to conduct the training.

6. Gain business insights: Most paper attendance systems are so complicated that business owners have little time to look for trends. Automated attendance software lets you review a variety of metrics, including the number of employees off on any particular day, high-volume vacation periods, popular lunch times and even projected absences over holiday weekends. You can use staffing reports to coordinate times for training and other events.

12 Steps to Creating a Business Online

“E-commerce”

A word pervading our society, making headlines around the

world, and causing the stock market to rise and fall with

startling ease.

It seems every business news story centers on some

technology company’s “DOT-com” or “DOT-bomb”!

With all the positive and negative hoopla, business owners

of any size company can throw up their hands and feel the

“E” world has left them behind.

Every business owner, salesperson, or professional asked one

of two questions in the past year, either “Am I using e-

commerce correctly?” or “How do I effectively get involved

in e-commerce?”

You can buy hundreds of books and pay thousands in

consulting fees to analyze and debate the answer to the

first question.

To answer to the second question just follow these 12 steps.

Step 1 – Buy a domain name (your own DOT-com). Go to

http://www.NetworkSolutions.com and research names. Can a customer

easily spell and remember it?

Step 2 – Write down your online goals and prepare a time and

money budget.

How soon do you want your e-commerce site up and running?

How much will you spend?

How many hours will you devote to the site and when?

Step 3 – Surf the web to find other sites you like and

dislike. Learn from others’ successes and mistakes by taking

the best of what their sites offer and adapting it for your

own use.

Step 4 – Design your site on paper. Define elements, look,

feel, colors etc.

Step 5 – Hire a professional to set up the graphics and

navigation, but with the intention of you or your staff

maintaining the site’s day to day operations, communication

and updates.

Step 6 – Invest in a digital camera and web publishing

software such as Microsoft Front Page or Adobe Acrobat to

keep up with the site’s maintenance.

Step 7 – Maintain, change, and update your site at least

once a month. (The one exception to this rule are those one-

page, sales letter websites. Once you have one of those that

performs well and makes sales, don’t change it!!)

Step 8 – Promote your site at every opportunity. Tell people

about it. Put your web address on your business cards and in

all your ads. Some companies even advertise their web

address when they put you on hold on the telephone.

Step 9 – Give people a self-serving reason to visit your

site. Coupon savings, discounts, special incentives, free

information, and free newsletters represent excellent

enticements for attracting visitors to your site.

Step 10 – Concentrate on obtaining an email address from

every customer and potential customer.

Obtain permission to send periodic, value-added malings to

your database.

Use a list server to organize and maintain your mailing

list.

Step 11 – Always look for and use the simplest solution or

option.

Whether adding a shopping cart, database or other option to

your e-commerce operation, seek out and use the simplest

answer for your needs.

Step 12 – Become educated and stay current in the world of

e-commerce.

Learn the marketing and sales techniques of the online

world.

News in Touch

News is essential to be in touch with the latest happenings in the world. Unfortunately news has become something unreliable as a result of biased information presented by broadcasting co-operations and news service providers but it is important to be aware about updates in the world we live in. It may seem overwhelming at times but being informed with the current events around the world would help you to be on top of things wherever you are.

News provide the latest information about current affairs that occur politically; technologically as well as in business and we must consider ourselves as privileged to be educated about them at present unlike the ancient days where global information was the least available. In general, people in all walks of life read news and everyone have their own desired category to read. Whatever your interest maybe, it is important to be educated about the current activities that happen around the globe and maybe beyond. As a younger reader, news feeds in Twitter, Facebook or Perez Hilton would find very interesting, but these do not provide the general knowledge which is part of education. Therefore you need to be informed about all extents; no matter you are young or old.

Think about the world leaders. How many of the names of the world’s presidents or prime ministers are you aware of? If you know it all, you are well updated but if you are not, it is time to read. Understanding about the society that you live in and the societies around the world are significant as we are living in a globalized village.

Haven’t you felt clueless about your surroundings when you return home after a long holiday? Similarly you would feel ill-informed about the affairs around the world without making yourself educated about the news. Of course, it is not as easy as it sounds and would be the most uninteresting toil to sit at one place and read news but today the option of reading news online on desktop, laptop or even on mobile phone is available.

Newspaper companies have enabled their news to be read online but they are updated instantly. However, the latest news can be attained through news aggregators who are available online on the internet. A news aggregator is a web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts and video blogs that arise globally within one site for easy and quick viewing. Online aggregators provide up to date information on various categories such as business, technology, entertainment, politics, travel, health, world news and many more where interesting and useful information on every topic is available. This helps to be in touch with all latest affairs at one place at one time as and when it happens.

Top 10 Advantages of an Online Appointment Scheduling Service

Discover the top 10 advantages of using an Online Appointment booking software for your business.

1. More time to spend with clients

As clients can book online the number of telephone calls to make appointments reduces so more quality time can be spend providing your services, removing the need to call back clients to make appointment saves the business time and money.

2. Reduced No-shows

A modern online booking service will provide automated SMS and email reminders prior to the appointment giving clients adequate advanced warning. This reminds the client of the pending appointment reducing no-shows or allows the client enough time to reschedule. If the client reschedules the business gets the opportunity to fill this time slot with another client. Reducing no-show generates more income for the business.

3. Client convenience

Clients can make bookings outside of normal business hours as an online booking service is always available 24/7. As Clients can see the available times they can find a timeslot that best suits their needs. Clients are more likely to wait for an appointment with your business than go somewhere else if they can see the businesses availability.

4. Payment in advance

Combining an online booking software with a payment gateway allows a client to book and pay in advance. This allows the business to take payment in advance prior to performing the service.

5. Virtual Receptionist

An online booking service works like an online receptionist for a busy business. This frees up the receptionist to provide a better quality service when clients arrive and depart. For a smaller business the online booking system can reduce the need for a full time receptionist.

6. Professional system without the cost

As an online booking system is based on a software as a service model a monthly fee is charged to use the service instead of directly purchasing standalone software. Most small business cannot afford to build their own booking system. Using an online booking service allows them to offer a professional booking system for their business. The business also benefits as the online booking service often add new functionality that will benefit the business.

7. Supporting your business

Small business needs to concentrate on the service they perform and do not have time to build and support their own booking system. Using the services of an online booking system transfers the support of the system away from your business. When issues occur you have someone to support you and resolve the issues.

8. Promoting your business

All businesses need to be promoted as many ways as possible, using an online booking system further promotes your business and services as the business appears in a directory and will be found by search engines.

9. Mobility

Having all your bookings in a paper based book or on a single PC restricts access to this information Having your appointment online allows the business to access this information from virtually anywhere with an internet connection. With data connected phone you are literally online to your appointments all the time, wherever you are.

10. Client Management

All client contact details can be stored safely and securely online. The Client Management feature should allow you to communicate promotions and special offers, invite customers to events and update them with current news about your business.

Small Business Marketing – Rip and Read Marketing Techniques That Work

Keeping in touch with your existing customers and clients is a critically important part of your small business marketing system.

The cost of securing a new customer is much greater than the cost of getting an existing customer to use your services and products again. Some studies indicate it takes seven times more money to acquire a new customer than it does to sell an existing customer the same product or service.

It’s no wonder the lifetime value of a customer or client is calculated to be worth at least ten times the money you made the first time you did business with them.

What you need to do is find ways to make your business, your product, and/or your services applicable to your customers and clients again and again. Some businesses have “one-time-use” products. These are products that once purchased are not purchased again.

Finding ways to sell the same product or service again, requires some strategic thinking. I’m not suggesting planned obsolescence. Find ways to up-sell or cross-sell the same customer with variations of our main product or service. For example; if you sell an information product in the form of an audio tape series, then offer a video version of the same program.

It is matter of maintaining the customer relationship and then offering them more choices.

Here is a technique for maintaining clients and customers that I teach in our small business marketing bootcamp. We’ve used it for years in our business, and frankly didn’t think to share it in this article until one of our “Plutonium Level” subscription members told me his story.

It is called the “rip and read” technique. I read about 15 trade journals, magazines and newspapers each week. As I read, I look for articles and stories that may be of interest to my customers and prospects. When I see it I “rip” it out and send it to my client with a comment on a post-it note: “Saw this and thought it would be of interest to you. Best, Brian” That’s all there is to it. I probably send 20 or so a month. It keeps me in the front of my clients’ minds.

My business associates think I look like fool constantly “ripping” on planes, in airport lounges, and on trains, but once you see the benefits of doing so, you will start ripping too.

One of our “Plutonium Level Inner Circle Member” is a financial planner. I gave him this suggestion in one of our monthly one-on-one marketing coaching sessions and in less than one month he got results.

Here’s what he wrote me: “I cut an article out of the Star Ledger (our daily New jersey newspaper) and sent it to one of my clients. He called back and sent me a check for $40,000.00 (Deposited in his annuity).” One proven and tested system led to a big commission for him. All he did was use the tip.

How often do you contact your existing customers? Clients need contact at least 4 times per year. Try to keep in touch 8-12 times per year, depending upon the type of services you provide to a particular client.

Commit yourself to using this technique for three months and see what happens. Track your contacts and track the results. You will be sold on its value and I know you will continue to use it.

If you’re a small business owner that wants more profitable customers and fewer aggravating small-paying sales, then you need to maintain your VIP customer base. Pick your favorite VIP clients and court them like they were a king or a queen. “Rip and Read” for all your VIP clients.

40 Sure-Fire Ways to Market Your Virtual Assistant Business

Marketing is understanding the needs of your customer, then finding a way to fulfill those needs.

Continually educate yourself, learn new skills to extend your services.
Have a website created by a professional. Portray your “brand” with the look and feel of your business, and that appeals to your type of customer.
Continually add informative articles and updated content (a new page every week?) to your site, information that will HELP your customer.
Create a news feed to offer resources, news, and information about current events that benefit your users.
Optimize your pages’ specific content using the keywords people use most to search for your information. Use keywords at the beginning of your descriptive page title, headings, subheadings, and content for every page. But don’t overuse them, they should sound natural, not “stuffed.”
Research businesses that compliment your product or service and contact them to suggest reciprocal linking opportunities.
Publish informative video tutorials for your customers.
Have a sign-up form on your website, give away something for free of value in exchange for their contact information.
Keep your contact list up-to-date, use a double “opt-in” on your sign-up form to confirm they want to receive email from you.
Send out newsletters on a regular basis. Most clients prefer once a month, some twice per month. Quarterly is fine too, just be sure it’s consistent. Don’t forget to include an un-subscribe option in your message, and never send spam.
Start a forum to create a community of clients helping other clients and for providing new user generated content for your site.
Learn how search engine advertising works, research relevant keyword opportunities, and experiment with the different types available.
Research your target market, learn about their needs to determine the best marketing opportunities. Where did they find their employees, their vendors, where do they socialize, where do they advertise? Be where they are.
Advertise honestly-your main goal should be to HELP people. If your just trying to sell the something they’ll resist and you will lose credibility.
Advertise in local business newspapers and small magazines. Sell your benefits instead of listing your services.
Have professional business cards with you at all times, ready to hand out at any opportunity. Give them two.
Dress for success. Always look the part – you never know when opportunities will present themselves, so be ready.
Ask for referrals from family, friends, clients, and prospective clients. They may know someone who needs your services now, or will remember you when they do.
Join local business organizations, Chamber of Commerce, networking groups.
Attend local business events, offer to do a presentation about your services, teach a class.
Be a great communicator. Use correct grammar and punctuation in emails or any correspondence.
Be a great VA. Find opportunities to offer information, stay in contact, and go the extra mile for your clients. Word of mouth is your best form of advertising!
Be consistent, let your clients know they can count on you.
Under promise – over deliver. Never miss a deadline, and if you think you might, contact them immediately to discuss your situation so you can come to an satisfactory agreement.
Be enthusiastic. It draws people like a magnet.
Have professional business media available for events, thank-you gifts, and marketing opportunities; brochures, business cards, calendars, magnets, mouse pads, pens, etc.
Create a professional marketing letter and send to local businesses via direct mail.
Contact every business you send a letter to, following up with them shows your professionalism.
Visit local businesses in person with your business card and brochure in hand.
Volunteer for your favorite charity, help someone in need.
Offer your services free, as a prize in a drawing or fundraising events.
Create your “elevator pitch.” Memorize your short “mini-commercial” that clearly describes the benefits and how you can fulfill the needs of your clients.
Listen to what people say. If an opportunity to promote yourself comes up – take it!!
Place a magnetic sign on your car or have a decal made for your back window or bumper.
Stay updated on new technology emerging, contact clients that may benefit.
Write Press Releases about news and upcoming events in your business.
Be prepared, organized, prompt, and confident.
Share your knowledge to help other Virtual Assistants.
Live by the Virtual Assistant code of ethics.
Believe in yourself!

The Cure For America’s Economy is to Mainstream a Global Mentality

America’s financial and economic wizards know the world is global but America’s mainstream lags behind. Money news programs such as Jim Kramer’s Mad Money demonstrate daily that stock markets are interdependent, currencies interlinked and commodity prices volatile with their dependence on human factors such as politics as well as on environmental events. Those variables affect business and trade but are not reflected in mainstream news coverage, which leaves the mainstream investor, small business owner and even ordinary job-seeker at a considerable disadvantage.

Most large city American newspapers have separate international and national coverage, as do the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The tabloid New York Post, however, does not, nor does the Chicago Sun Times. Smaller city newspapers such as Indian’s Hammond Times carry little news about the world other than major coups, catastrophes and notices about locals in global combat zones.

As a result, the New York Post on Thursday, July 2, as an example, headlined with the recently deceased Michael Jackson, control of local schools and a Yankee baseball team win. Inside stories of international events covered the young French survivor of a plane crash off of the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean and an affair between an American state governor and an Argentine mistress. A coup in the Central American country of Honduras received six short paragraphs at the bottom of page 19. Editorials covered Afghanistan and Iran. Marketwatch in the Business section cited nine worldwide indexes, the majority European, while the Foreign Exchange Hotlist cited 17 majors among the world’s 200 countries.

In contrast, Google News that day reported also on Israel, North Korea, Iraq, Indian, Russia, Pakistan, the European Union through Sweden’s newly assumed presidency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Sri Lanka, Croatia, an African Summit in Libya, France and the question of the Muslim women’s burqa, and finally, the former Soviet satellite country of Georgia.

Throughout the unprecedented global economic crisis of the late first decade of the twenty-first century in which a western industrialized country elected a first nonwhite leader to meet the challenge, the lack of “consumer confidence” was cited as the cause for the continued stagnation of the American economy. Yet in a global world where financial insiders trade on the basis of interdependence, can national “consumer confidence” exist without a broader mainstream context?

American consumers responsible for the robust purchase of products to stimulate the economy through imports, exports, corporate expansion and small business investments, have small chance of resuming their role without a basis for their “confidence” being restored following the crises of American financial institutions and the ensuing bailouts that began with the last conservative administration before the new liberal one went into effect. With trust in the “system” shaken to its core by mortgage defaults stemming from unregulated and unscrupulous banking practices as well as predator banking, in addition to an ill-founded war on the foreign country of Iraq, American consumers are in sore need of reassurance about America’s abilities in a global world, a situation that was a call for the mainstream media to adapt and provide the “medium” circulating pertinent and relevant “news” to the American people.

In a global world, “news” is no longer defined as “man bites dog” versus the other way around. In a world of 200 countries all interlinked, “news” equates with information that is novel, useful and conducive to exchange between little-known neighbors with whom to establish business arrangements for mutual benefit to stimulate growth.

News about the world abounds on the Web but America’s mainstream deserves better than needing to put extraordinary effort into being informed. The mentality of a world leader derives from the “matter of course” attitude with which informed citizens regard the world by knowing its source of information has a finger on the pulse of the world’s workings.