March 17, 2010
The time is now for small businesses to take control of their marketing. Consumers are gravitating towards the internet every day looking for solutions to their problems. We’ve listed a few tips for small businesses that will effectively generate interest and traffic.
Utilize Your Customers
The most overlooked aspect of growing your business could be staring right at you every day. Your current customers already know you and trust, or at least they should know and trust you. Take advantage of your customer base by offering incentives or special deals for referrals. People who experience a good product or service enjoy sharing it with their friends. Use your customers as publicity agents to spread the word of your business to their friends and family. Often business owners don’t like to push their customers for referrals but you would be surprised how many people would do just that when they had a good experience with your business.
Don’t Feel the Need to Advertise Like a Big Business
Big businesses have the marketing budget to spend on commercial slots or print ads. Small businesses typically do not which means you should not treat your marketing plan as if you need to advertise like the big businesses. Small businesses should look to inbound marketing and internet marketing to gain ground on the leaders of your industry. Provide opportunities for people to respond to your marketing efforts with special offers to new members or customers.
Join Forces with Other Small Businesses
Small business owners often know other small business owners. There is a connection between small business owners and the dedication and hard work it takes to run a business. Contact your friends at other businesses and offer a joint promotion. Exchange links or banners to be placed on each others websites. Refer your customers to their business and ask them to do the same. This is a free and easy way to gain new business.
YouTube
The next time you do a job or service have a camera set up and record and narrate the process of your service. After you have recorded go to YouTube and upload the content. You could also upload it to your website as an instructional video. YouTube is a great avenue for exposure and prospects can actually see your results and you or your business in action. You can conduct interviews with industry leaders or have customers comment on your work for others to hear. Introduce your staff or your office/warehouse, taking visitors on a tour is second best to being there in person.
There are many ideas for small business marketing tips and we have outlined just a few. The fact is there are many ways to market your business or brand with a limited budget and there are many internet marketers eager to help your small business compete with the corporations.
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March 17, 2010
Small Business marketing is growing. No wonder, with more people trying their hand at going it alone in the business world.
As a result more and more novices are entering the game and wondering where they “should” spend money. The trouble is with very little knowledge many small businesses are unaware of exactly where they should start. This article outlines a few areas to think about that will potentially save you a fortune and make your small business marketing budget reap the rewards you deserve.
1. Selling something your market does not want
Now this is a habit that is easy to slip into in the thrill and excitement of setting up your first business. Classic business training will highlight the need for a proven concept. If you don’t have that you are not going to sell much. Let’s use an example. There has to be a demand for your product or service and it has to work. A coffee stand at a seminar event will go down well. A captive audience with a necessary product.
2. Not having an income goal
When you first start in business often any customer or client is welcomed with open arms and yet how much revenue might they bring for your business. It is so easy to take on a customer and under price your product or service. If you set an income goal and work back you soon start to realise that you will need an active funnel of new clients and how many you have to convert to hit your goals. For example if your goal is 100.000, dollars or pound and each customer is worth £1000 per year you know what you are striving for. It does not matter what your goal is. At least start with one that you can buy into.
3. Not having an online presence
Traditional businesses will often shy away from having an online presence. Thinking that a small business marketing budget will not allow for it. You could not be further from the truth. Online marketing can potentially be you’re most cost effective marketing channel when it comes to small business marketing. Over 80% of customers now search online for service providers. These are local service providers as well. By having an online presence with even a simple website or blog you can capture this traffic and the new sales leads.
So provide a service people want, set yourself a target and an online marketing presence to help capture leads.These key small business marketing strategies alone will put you ahead of the pack.
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July 31, 2010
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July 20, 2010
This is definitely not a good quality motivation. The good news is that there are a lot of Cheap Web Hosting companies out there that actually offer great technical support. Truth is only a small minority are blood suckers that tend to cheat your money with terrible service. Most low cost hosting companies I knew often over-deliver and provide excellent service for long term. Cloud Hosting services are a part of the internet hosting by which various companies and individuals can create their own websites that can be easily accessed through the World Wide Web. There are numerous companies that. Dedicated Server Hosting: Here users really do get their own server for their private use. The user can often choose whether to be responsible for managing the server or not. Now offered by some hosting services based. The concept of a private server was a moment that even a whole company had a hard time accepting fear. Today things have changed. Companies are increasingly accepting virtual Dedicated Server the gap between viable inexpensive. A is a server that is set up for the sole purpose of hosting a game rather than having one of the players in the game is the host. They are generally less leggy, more reliable, and less prone to hacking.
July 14, 2010
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July 12, 2010
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July 8, 2010
As a result, a more number of South Florida bankruptcy attorney associated in some way to the events in central and state courts. Most refuse to statement for ascription. But they told the Daily Business Review the government doesn’t want money that can go to victims ending up in the pockets of bankruptcy attorney who see the Rothstein case as a cash cow for them.
June 30, 2010
It happens often, when you find yourself sitting amidst an array of used machine tools like press brakes, boring mills, Wide Belt Sanders etc. And now the online world offers the best bang for your dollars as you carry these to the World Wide Web.
With the immense development of technology and with the development of the World Wide Web, the most common form of advertisement has now become the online channels and as a result the machine owners tend to turn to classifieds listings, or more specifically, local classified listings. But still the question remains, why at all the sudden shift? The answer is easy it’s because of convenience, cost and larger viewership. However there are certain steps to be followed to sell your machine and machine tools online.
As a first step try to determine your own pricing for each of the tools like press brakes, hydraulic presses, wide belt sanders,Grinders etc and then follow the trend to tag your price label.
Your next important step is to write crystal clear description of each of the tools. Try and include the details about the usage, condition, and age of the machine and machine tools. This will help the buyers to understand everything correctly. Include clear images of the wide belt sanders. No need to spend a fortune on professional photographers and you yourself can take the pictures with your digital camera. Now start spreading the word of mouth. How? Simply by posting ads for the machinery you want to sell. Include the description, images, and pricing of the machine tools.
June 29, 2010
Internet generated leads are the hot new thing right now, but with so many options available, how do you know where to turn to find the best company to suit your needs and provide you with the most promising prospects? Here are some tips on what to avoid during your search for the perfect partner.
1. Don’t lock yourself in: There are tons of companies out there promising the best leads on the market, but when you’re doing your evaluation be careful with how much you invest up front. Some of the best companies are ones who will let you try out a certain amount of leads for free so that you can check out their service and see for yourself what they are offering. However, there are other companies who will try and bog you down by attaching conditions and extra fees for this service, so do your homework and make sure that you aren’t signing up for a pricey mistake.
2. Keep it short and sweet: Some companies will try and get you to sign up for a long term commitment before you even know whether they’re offering a service that you can really use. You wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive, and same should go for any company that is offering up insurance leads. Don’t sign on for anything until you are sure that you will benefit from such a partnership, and never sign up without testing 5 to 10 leads to see what you’re dealing with.
3. Read the fine print: There are many companies out there offering exclusive leads, and charging several times more for them than for shared leads. Be fully aware of what “exclusive” means at each company, and then evaluate whether the money they are charging is worth what they are offering. Realistically, with the amount of customers shopping all over the web for insurance, the untouched prospect is a thing of the past. Even if you have the guarantee of an “exclusive” lead from your company doesn’t mean that the lead hasn’t contacted several other companies and been on the roster at other lead generation agencies.
4. Stay fresh: On the other hand, there are companies out there who offer up old leads at a cheap rate, and new agents with energy and optimism might fall into the trap of thinking that these leads can be a sales bonanza if you approach them the right way. Yes, they’re cheap and plentiful, but in most cases, these types of leads are a waste of both time and money, as it could take hours of calling (if the contact information is even still correct) to find even one prospect who is now (or once again) in the market for insurance. Save yourself the hassle and put your effort into calls with a higher chance of success.
June 29, 2010
I have seen quite a lot of smaller companies (up to 50 employees) trying to apply risk assessment tools as part of their ISO 27001 implementation project. The result is that it usually takes too much time and money with too little effect.
First of all, what is actually risk assessment, and what is its purpose? Risk assessment is a process during which an organization should identify information security risks determining their likelihood and impact. Plainly speaking, the organization should recognize all the potential problems with their information, how likely they are to occur and what the consequences might be. The purpose of risk assessment is to find out which controls are needed in order to decrease the risk – selection of controls is called the risk treatment process, and in ISO 27001 they are chosen from Annex A which specifies 133 controls.
Risk assessment is carried out by identifying and evaluating assets, vulnerabilities and threats. An asset is anything that has value to the organization – hardware, software, people, infrastructure, data (in various forms and media), suppliers and partners, etc. A vulnerability is a weakness in an asset, process, control,etc., which could be exploited by a threat; a threat is any cause that can inflict damage on a system or organisation. An example of a vulnerability is the lack of anti-virus software; a related threat is the computer virus.
Knowing all this, if your organization is small, you don’t really need a sophisticated tool to perform the risk assessment. All you need are an Excel spreadsheet, good catalogues of vulnerabilities and threats, and a good risk assessment methodology. The main job is really to evaluate likelihood and impact, and that cannot be done by any tool – it is something your asset owners, with their knowledge of their assets, have to think about.
So, where do you get the catalogues and methodology? If you are using the services of a consultant, he/she should provide those; if not, there are a few free catalogues available on the Internet, you just have to do a search on Google. The methodology is not available for free, but you could use ISO 27005 standard (it describes risk assessment & treatment into detail), or you could use some other websites selling the methodology. All this should take considerably less time and money than buying a risk assessment tool and learning how to use it.
A good methodology should contain a method for identifying assets, threats and vulnerabilities, tables for marking the likelihood and impacts, a method for calculating the risk, and define the acceptable level of risk. Catalogues should contain at least 30 vulnerabilities and 30 threats; some contain even a few hundred of each, but that is probably too much for a small company.
The process is really not complicated – here are the basic steps for assessment & treatment:
1. define and document the methodology (including the catalogues), distribute it to all asset owners in the organization
2. organize interviews with all the asset owners during which they should identify their assets, and related vulnerabilities and threats; in the second step ask them to evaluate the likelihood and impact if particular risks should occur
3. consolidate the data in a single spreadsheet, calculate the risks and indicate which risks are not acceptable
4. for each risk that is not acceptable, choose one or more controls from Annex A of ISO 27001 – calculate what the new level of risk would be after those controls are implemented
To conclude: risk assessment and treatment really are the foundation of information security / ISO 27001, but it does not mean they have to be complicated. You can do it in a simple way, and your common sense is what really counts.
June 28, 2010
The last thing you want when contacting potential clients is to sound like a telemarketer working off a generic call script. There is no easier way to lose the interest of a future client, even a solid one purchased through an online lead generating company, than by reading out uninspired dialogue that does not directly pertain to their particular interests and situation.
To begin with, be pleasant and professional as you introduce yourself and ask to speak with the contact from your lead. When they answer, exchange greetings, ask them how they are doing, and how you can help them with their insurance needs. Give the potential client time to process the information and answer, and be sure to have a pen and paper handy to take down all of the information the client is offering.
A key question you will wish to cover at this point is why the prospective client is looking for insurance. Because of the nature of the industry, when people are looking for insurance it is often because of a significant life change such as job change, retirement, marriage or divorce. These changes will often give your potential client a sense of urgency which will work in your favor when you begin outlining your offerings. Ask who else will need to be covered under this policy, age, gender, and what type of plan they are looking for. After covering these qualifying questions, it’s time to make an appointment to speak with the potential client face to face. It’s important to not leave the time and day open to the potential client, but instead give them a few options for the best times to meet, and let them choose.
At the end of the call, you will want to cover the matter of payment, which can be awkward if not done delicately. You will want to ensure that your potential client has the means to pay for a policy, so a good way to approach the matter is to tell them what forms of payment you can accept at your meeting so that they can have a check or credit card ready. At this point, your potential client may ask how much a policy is going to cost, and good practice is to say that you have policies available from your lowest price to highest price, and that you will work to find the most affordable option with the best benefits for your potential client. If they then answer in a positive manner, you know you are nearing a sale, but if they answer negatively it is a signal that they are unwilling or unable to make a purchase at this time. For those who are not interested in a purchase, end the call by asking permission for a follow up and directing them to your website so that they can browse through your information and policies at their leisure.
For those who seem interested in making a purchase, continue the call by having the potential customer write down the date and time for your scheduled meeting, your contact information and website. Once the appointment is set, you’re completed the pre-sale steps and can look forward to an appointment with an interested and eager client.
June 26, 2010
Having identified the risks further work needs to be done to analyse and evaluate the risks. The risk management process is about identifying risks so they can be managed. The process for management involves a cost benefit analysis. What are the consequences of losing an asset or all assets compared to the cost of putting a strategy in place to reduce or nullify that happening.
There are some simple and basic strategies that can reduce some risks for little cost.
These are:
1. Ensure only the people who have to be directors of your company are appointed as directors. Do not just automatically appoint your spouse. If you have an existing company consider removing your spouse as a director and reviewing your affairs with a goal of ensuring that assets held in his/her name are not exposed.
2. Where feasible keep ownership of assets separate from the business operations. If the business fails the assets are not at risk. Your business premises have the potential to be a significant asset and should not be in the same entity as the business.
3. Family Trusts are still useful vehicles for ownership of assets as a method of protection. They are easily set up by your solicitor or purchased off the shelf form your accountant. Use one to keep your personal assets separate as well as your business assets.
4. Review annually all directors guarantees signed to ensure they are still required. Don’t just sign them for creditors as a matter of course. Even if a particular supplier is the only one you wish to or are able to deal with, don’t sign the guarantee and see if they will still open the account?
5. Review your assets annually. Have you got your entire financial future or no financial future tied up in the business? Can you start diversifying so you have investments other than your business? Does your business have a value in the market place or is it just a job?
6. Changes in legislation such as taxation and superannuation can change the strategies for the protection of your assets. Review this annually also.
7. Properly review your insurance renewals each year. Consider your changed circumstances and ensure your insurances take this into account. Insure what you cannot afford to lose.
8. Have a plan – evaluate it and action it regularly
Future articles will consider other strategies for asset protection that may cost more but may provide greater benefits.
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