Here are three common problems small business leaders face when moving their company’s brand into an online presence.

Unfamiliarity with Website Management

Although many people are undoubtedly familiar with the internet and with web sites in general, some small business leaders might have never worked with a web site’s internal workings before. This lack of familiarity with website management can lead to some pretty disastrous website design decisions as well as unfortunate consequences on the company’s chances at making a profit through online stores and so on.

Lack of Experience with Social Media

These days we hear so many horror stories about misused Twitter accounts and inappropriate Facebook status updates that it’s easy to see how small business leaders who are inexperienced with the new media could endanger their company. Especially as a small business grows its league of social media followers, this danger can exponentially increase until one slip up could lead to bankruptcy.

Inability to Devote Enough Time to the Project

Finally, small business leaders are very very busy people. They don’t have enough time to devote to handling an online presence, especially since the online world can be just as complicated as the world in real life. As such, the online world demands nearly just as much attention as the real world, so sometimes it’s best to dedicate certain responsibilities instead of doing it all yourself.

Because of these problems, it’s generally advisable for small business leaders to think of ways to hire someone who knows online networks and internet marketing strategies that could boost the company’s online presence while at the same time minimizing costs. In some respects, it might be worth it to spend some cash in order to do it right.

About the Guest Post Author:

Jemima Lopez is a freelance blogger and writer who writes for Zen College Life, the directory of higher education, distance learning, and best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email: lopezjemima 562@ gmail.com.

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• Company setup. The British Virgin Islands are certainly the best. You can do everything online with a minimum of fuss. Hong Kong has a few more hoops to jump through. Both are tax free, but the real advantage of the British Virgin Islands is we don’t even need to have a representative in the country and the laws are as stable as the United Kingdom. Pay a few thousand dollars and we.
• Secretarial and business support. You might want more than voice mail to take calls while you swimming in the ocean or sipping a Pinicolada by the beach, and so remote secretarial services using VOIP might be the solution. These companies will also supply a full range of help, perhaps someone gives chat support on your website. They might even help you enter markets where you do not speak the language.
• Online presence. There are only 2 ways to go about getting a website built. Either use an online website builder, for simple and yet effective sites – WordPress and Webs are great options. If you need a more professional site, it only pays to get the best in the business of SEO and the like to get it done. Remember, 10,000 dollars on a website is an investment if they do it right.
• Printing. Even on a beach there will be times when you need some paper for your outside office. Websites that take care of everything from business card printing, through to envelopes printing, can even take care of designing you a new logo in a matter of minutes. The sites are systemised and therefore, costs are greatly reduced.
• Phone. With a smartphone and a laptop (and a great Internet connection) you can take advantage of VOIP (Voice/Video Over Internet Protocol) phone systems. Set up your inbound services to match up with your secretarial support and choose your inbound number for a location of your clients. Speak with a VOIP consultant and learn more about what you can do, and how much you can save with these types of applications. You can change the beach you are on, and your clients will never be the wiser.

That is about all it takes in our age of online services and online business solutions. You will be legal, and you will have all you need to operate in the world of business. Use a 3G connection and sit back and watch the sunrise.

Note from the Editor: This was a guest post.

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The internet has made it exceptional easy to earn a living from home. It doesn’t matter what niche you decide to enter, there are great tools to help you succeed. I recently met a local watch dealer in Maryland, US when I visited my Uncle for the Christmas holiday. He clearly explained how he made his small watch business influential across the city.

The lessons are worth taking note of. Read on to discover the five amazing lessons on how to get started growing your small business.

1. Take Responsibility

Have you taken responsibility for your business? Whatever outcome you experience in your business, it’s the result of your efforts and how savvy you are. You can’t sleep all day and expect to make money from your business.

Taking responsibility is crucial and has no alternative. You’ve got to work when the need arises and don’t be complacent when little success come your way. Take charge of your life and you’ll experience growth.

2. Every Business Model Is Good

I want to counter the belief and teachings of most internet gurus. They tell you that some business models are better income generators. But that’s not true; every business is good, profitable and has the potential to make your life sweet.

You should see your business as good, it doesn’t have to be wooden watch business, and even catering businesses have made millionaires. Even though you’ve to choose your business model wisely, have it in your mind that you will excel.

3. Start Blogging Today

One fantastic way to grow your small business, attract paying clients and sell your products and services is by blogging. Have you started already or you’re still contemplating on what the future holds?

Let me tell you something, blogging is like a billboard where you can advertise your skills, products and services and attract the media. What does it take to attract the right person to your business? It takes guts, insight and creativity.

4. Outsource What You Can’t Do

Several small business owners are still in the dark. They’ve failed to understand the importance of outsourcing. We barely have enough time to attend to our customers, reply emails, network with others, research new markets and think creatively. 24 hours isn’t would pass away if you do not invest into it.

What are those things you cannot do in your business?

It’s time to outsource your writing, research, designing, project analysis, account and all other aspect to someone else. When I was looking for product key phrases to build my blog upon, key terms like wewood discount code and Fossil coupon codes, I had to outsource and focused on important things that matters.

Outsourcing is important. Plan your strategy effectively and use other people’s time to your profiting.

5. Track Your Progress Creatively

Creative tracking is what several corporate firms are using to achieve tremendous growth. According to my friend who deals on watches, creativity is the only word that separates 6 figure bloggers from beginners.

Every article subject has been written by intelligent persons. Does it mean you wouldn’t write yours?

Absolutely not!

On the contrary, you should utilize these written contents and present your opinion in a subtle manner. Come from a different angle and make your marketing campaigns accessible to your prospects. That’s what creativity does and why you need it in your business.

Marketing Takeaway

It’s time to take action and expand your business. If you want to make money online like my local watch dealer who earns $2,000 from reviewing Rolex watches, you need to take action today and change your life. The strategies above are common, but the effect can never be neglected. See you ahead!

ABOUT THE GUEST POST AUTHOR:

Michael Chibuzor is a Social Media Examiner and business coach and shows you how to grow your social media presence. He reviews coupon for wewood and fossil promotion codes on his blog. These wewood.com coupon discounts and fossil online codes helps online shoppers save when shopping for wooden watches and women’s hand bags.

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With so much progress it would be hard to make some predictions about what we’ll see in 2012 but we’re never one to shy away from an impossible task so here we go with our predictions for 8 of the major Internet companies for 2012.

Google

Google will go from strength to strength although its core search business may take a hit as sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn expand their advertising options and businesses can target entire demographics for a lot cheaper than spending on Adwords. The decline in search will be offset by the increase in popularity of its Android operating system, Chrome browser and OS, new Google Music service as well as it’s Apps for business.

Facebook

One thing is for certain and that is that Facebook will IPO in 2012. On the features front expect to see more features for interacting such as Google’s innovative Hangouts and will become more ubiquitous across the web with their social plugins. Now that Facebook have built a pretty robust platform they are going all out to squeeze as much money out of it as possible and have even gone as far as tracking people across multiple sites (thanks to their ever present Like buttons) to get a better profile of the person so that advertisers can put an even more targeted message in front of them.

Twitter

Famed for its brevity, Twitter seems to be moving away from its core success with the addition of photos and video sharing. We wouldn’t be surprised if this evolved more in to a kind of Tumblr platform where most things can be shared with Twitter’s famous concise way.

YouTube

Once famous for funny clips, YouTube has become the go to place to watch movie trailers and music videos. We expect movie and music studios to fully embrace YouTube in 2012 with the addition of most of their back library of music videos and movie trailers. Amateur videos will make way for Hollywood quality produced short clips and feature films, a new paid subscription service will be started which will let people stream as many premium content videos as they want.

LinkedIn

What is LinkedIn actually used for? I have all these connections but I never reach out to people. Does it sound familiar? The fact is LinkedIn is becoming a major player in the recruitment and hiring industry since it has access to far more data than any other recruitment site. Laser targeted headhunting services will be offered along with a dramatic rise in overseas companies looking to hire foreign talent. LinkedIn will continue to grow as the best place for B2B companies to have their social media presence.

Amazon

2012 will be Amazon’s year because they have laid the groundwork to take on Apple and Google. Once the biggest seller of books online, Amazon have grown to become the biggest seller of well, everything. Not reliant on volatile advertising spending like some sites listed here, Amazon are building up an eco-system for their Kindle range of products much like Apple and Google have done. Furthermore they have introduced a range of services for the businesses like cloud hosting, content delivery networks and payment processing.

Groupon

Is it a scam? Is it a brilliant idea? Hasn’t it already been done before? Regardless of what the media has told you about Groupon, behind the headlines lies a different kind of company. What’s the main business of Google? It’s advertising. What’s the main business of McDonalds? It’s real estate. What’s the main business of Groupon? It’s customer buying data. Groupon now know what even the tiniest demographic wants to buy and can serve up laser targeted deals that are almost guaranteed to succeed. Even without their daily deals business, Groupon are sitting on some very valuable data that other companies would pay big bucks to access. Groupon will grow and expand.

Ebay

We believe that eBay will see a decline in fortunes as pressure from Amazon continues to take away the full time businesses selling on eBay. On a similar note, the rise of collaborative consumption with sites like Freecycle and Yoink will mean more people give away their unwanted stuff to locals rather than going through the hassle of selling it on Ebay. For crafts and handmade items, Etsy will continue its growth. By the end of the year, if eBay don’t come up with something new, we expect it to become an ‘also ran’ of Internet companies.

Let us know what you think in the comments below. Are we spot on or so far out of the loop it just isn’t funny. Well, we’ll see you same time, same place in 2012 and see what we got right shall we?

Guest Post Author Bio:

Peter Claridge is the Online Marketing Manager for Agriya and is passionate about web startups and helping people build their own successful websites. Agriya is a 10 year old company and develops software like the Airbnb clone and Groupon clone.

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The 80/20 rule simply states that approximately 80 per cent of your business will come from 20 per cent of your customers. Business planners who have learned how to recognise these loyal patrons and identify what qualities and characteristics they possess can then tailor their marketing efforts to finding and drawing in more of them. This will help you make the most out of your time, efforts and business tools. Here’s some advice from ConstructaQuote.com to help you get started.

Your Business Blueprint

Using the 80/20 rule can help you tailor your business plan to earn significantly more profits whilst doing less work. If you follow the rule, you will end up targeting the most valuable kind of customer–the one who buys the most and buys often. You can do this by gathering information about your customers and your sales figures on a regular basis.

How to analyse your data

Once you have all of the paperwork in front of you, analysing your customer and sales data isn’t as difficult as it might sound. Here are several ways to do it:

• Gross profit. You can use your invoices to find what your overall profit is over a period of time. Then organise the invoices from highest to lowest, concentrating on how much money you made in each sale. This will make it easier to find out which customers are spending the most money at your business.
• Repeat customers. Next, focus on the invoices belonging to repeat customers, and calculate how much money each of them spent at your business over a specific time period. This will show you who the big spenders are so that you can compare them and find out what common characteristics they have. If you can hone in on a specific kind of customer, you can target them with more efficiency.
• Best sellers. Focusing on the customer is only part of the picture. Next you can use your data to figure out what they’re buying. Try to pinpoint the products or services that bring in the most of your revenue and those that are popular with your most valuable customers — the 20 per cent — so that you can sell more of them. You may also want to eliminate the products or services that are least profitable.

Drawing conclusions

Once you have your data sorted, you can ask yourself important questions about your current business strategy. For example, are there popular products or services that you can move to the foreground? Have you pushed those products or services to the right kind of customer? And speaking of customers, what can you do to keep your most valuable customers and attract more of them?

This last question will probably correlate to your marketing strategy. Once you figure out what makes your most valuable customers come back to you time and time again, you should incorporate those tactics into your marketing, namely your promotional sales and social media. You can do this by offering specials that target these particular customers and recognise their interests. And in addition to targeting the 20 per cent, you can also think of ways to convert the other 80 per cent of your customers into high-value patrons.

Note from the Editor: This was a guest post.

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As a small business you need to remember that building a good customer base is essential for your business. So reaching out to more clientele and ensuring that the present clientele are satisfied with your services are essential to the company’s growth. For generating more clientele you could take the use of technology, like the social media and the medium of internet as such, it provides lesser costs of advertising and promises more returns in most cases. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are great means to advertise and reach to a large base of potential customers without much significant costs on the part of your company. Moreover, it is pretty easy to market and sell your products through the online medium as people get to view and take an in depth analysis of your product before buying it. Moreover, the internet selling medium has really caught up now in most countries and people are buying lots more than before.

As an owner you need to see that even if the profits do not seem great at the end, you could maximize your profits by efficient labor and time management. Thus you need to look at those aspects too, for increasing your firm’s gains. Your employees should be happy and content, as they would then be able to give more output to their work and thus increase the profits of your business. Another way to increase profits is by experimenting. Experimenting is a great way to realize what works best for your firm. Do not take too many risks but nonetheless be open to new ideas and new ventures which might help your company’s cause.

Also, it is better to concentrate on the volume of products you sell rather than concentrating on the profit margin of each product. If you sell more, the profit would definitely be more as a whole! Not coming out with the right cost for your product can backfire. Thus having a fair price for your product is a must, especially initially when you are trying to enter the market. Also, as a budding entrepreneur you are expected to know and learn what exactly the market wants and how best you could contribute to it through your product. People will only buy what they want.

Lastly, you also need to keep a track of the future plans of your company. Fix goals of the company which you want to achieve, and inspect from time to time whether the company is on course. If you do feel that the company’s prospects are not on track, look towards newer opportunities which will help strengthen your company’s current financial position. The potential displayed by smaller business, if harnessed in the right directions, with some smart decisions can go a long way to make the business hugely successful.

About the guest article author: Alia is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of autos. Recently she was reading about product design. These days she is busy in writing an article on video camera.

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These proposals will go through a round of public debate and possible adjustments before they are made official, but at first glance they suggest a promising change to an energy industry that many business owners feel takes advantage of its customers with unfair practices.

What do the Ofgem proposals mean for small businesses?

Transparency in marketing and selling is a major concern for Ofgem, as demonstrated by its suggestion for a more comprehensive code of conduct for energy suppliers. These new standards would require companies to be more forthright in both advertising and selling their services, which includes communicating to the customers in a simplified language, no matter the medium. Sales activities would also be subjected to more scrutiny to ensure that energy providers are not engaging in unfair or misleading practices.

Ofgem has also elected to extend the definition of a micro business to include those that have up to 50 employees. This significant change in terminology would mean that more businesses are included in the umbrella of protection that Ofgem provides in terms of how energy companies negotiate contract conditions and requirements for contract roll over.

The final proposal of the gas and electricity regulatory body is to prevent energy providers from exerting pressure on consumers who would like to switch companies. This is part of Ofgem’s attempt to make sure that the energy market maintains a competitive and consumer-friendly landscape.

Could Ofgem have gone further?

While small businesses are happy to witness a more robust conversation about how to protect them from the unfair practices that energy companies sometimes engage in, many of them would like to see a few more changes. Amongst concerns not addressed in Ofgem’s proposals are back billing practices that some business owners view as unfair.

Currently, a small business can compare prices for business energy using services like uSwitchforbusiness, but they may not be able to make the switch to a cheaper service if they receive push-back from their current providers.

And though Ofgem proposes a more strict code of conduct as it relates to allowing consumers to switch to another provider, some companies would like to see the regulatory commission go even further by requiring energy providers that prevent consumers from entering a contract with a competitor to provide a justification for doing so.

Note from the Editor: This is a guest post.

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WRITE A THOROUGH BUSINESS PLAN

A business plan outlines exactly what your business strategy is, what your business does, your target market, goals and a number of other things. It consists of the following:

• An Executive Summary: as the name suggests, this is a summary of all aspects of the business
• The Mission Statement: dictates the business’ purpose
• Industry Analysis and Trends: a synopsis of your target market/industry and its trends
• SWOT: outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities of and threats to the business
• Business Strategy: specifies the position of the business, the products and services to be offered, etc.
• Marketing Strategy: states how you will be able to inform your market that your product/service is available
• Sale and Pricing strategy: outlines how you will go about serving your customers and the cost of your product/service.

This document should guide your every business move, so it must be carefully considered and thoroughly evaluated before you begin operations.

Work with people you can trust

The business relationship, like all others, relies heavily on trust. If the trust between you and your team is mutual, it will boost morale and help your company to grow and progress.

Live your mission statement

Display it in your office, ensure your employees know it, and build your business on it. Your mission statement represents everything your business should stand for. By ensuring that it is fulfilled on a daily basis, you also ensure that the business is meeting its objectives. This will almost guarantee your business’ success.

Customer Service is KEY

A happy customer is a loyal customer, and without loyal customers you will have no business.  Ensure that your service is as pleasant, convenient and helpful as possible and customers will keep coming back.

Monitor your finances

Make sure you are fully aware of your revenue and expenses, profits and losses and every other financial aspect of the business.  If not, you may eventually end up with serious financial problems.

Running a business takes diligence and precision. Additionally, you must have a clear vision of your business’ purpose. This combination will guide you on your road to business success.

About the Guest Post Author

Christa Blair writes for Entrepreneur-Support.Com. She writes about how to become an entrepreneur and gives advice on how to run your own business.

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How To Select A Free Autoresponder

Just as your free email service provider allows you to use email for free, there are companies that provide autoresponder services for free. It’s all very well to get something for free, but when it comes to something that’s as vital for your business as an autoresponder, you need to be careful. Here are a few criterions for selecting a free autoresponder.

What message formats does the service allow? Does your Autoresponder service company allow both Text and HTML message formats? That’s important; you don’t want to be stuck using only Text format. Your emails should look rich and professional with great visual appeal, and that’s possible only with HTML.

How long can you use the service? Will you be able to use the autoresponder for a long time, perhaps permanently? Be doubly sure that what you’re using is not trial software. You don’t want to start using an autoresponder for your business only to discontinue use soon after.

Does the service allow you to schedule followup messages? Here’s how it works. You schedule followup messages, and your autoresponder is out there, delivering your message, helping you make money even while you’re offline.

Does your service insert adverts from others? Nothing could be more awful than this. Imagine sending out an email campaign to your subscribers, prominently displaying an Ad for someone else’s business! That’s an absolute NO-NO. Some autoresponder services will put up adverts that are similar to your product, but it’s still third-party. It’s ok, though, to use an autoresponder which advertises its own service via your campaign.

How To Select A Paid Autoresponder

Let’s say you decide to buy an autoresponder for your business. What are the criterions for your selection? Here are some guidelines.

Your service should be easy to use: The user friendly aspect of any tool or service cannot be overestimated. If the service is tough to use, you will tire of trying to figure out the kinks. This will have an impact on the quality of your campaigns.

You should be able to update your messages at no extra cost: As a business owner and marketer, you have to constantly innovate and make modifications to maximize your earnings. If you are forced to pay extra each time you innovate your messages, you’re doomed. What you want is free message updates.

You should be able to send personalized messages: If you’re serious about your business, you’ll go out of your way to make your opt-in subscribers feel special and wanted. You do this by personalizing your messages. So this is a very important feature to look for in a paid autoresponder.

You should be able to track Ad campaigns performance: Does the paid autoresponder you’re evaluating allow you to track your advertising campaigns? This is very important. It’s only when you track your Ad campaigns that you can know what works and what doesn’t. You can then figure out what needs to be improved and which Ads to drop.

You should be able to get notifications: When a subscriber wants more information, your autoresponder should be able to notify your email address. This feature allows you to stay on top of your Ad campaigns and your marketing campaigns.

Your autoresponder should offer an affiliate program: It’s great to have an autoresponder that has affiliate programs that you can use and earn commission as well. This way, you can make some money out of the autoresponder service, instead of just paying up the monthly fee.

You should have access to adequate Help text: A good autoresponder service will provide you with context sensitive help, tutorials, help text, training videos and articles. If a discussion forum is a plus point. Not all of us can write effective email marketing text. We all need a little help.

You should have access to unlimited text length: It’s not good policy to inundate your subscribers with long texts, but the option to do so should be available. You need the flexibility to send texts of any length.

You should be able to generate followup messages: You should be able to generate about 5 to 20 followup messages for every campaign. If your software doesn’t allow you to do this, then drop it. Then again, your autoresponder service must allow you to use unlimited message broadcast services.

About the guest post author: This article has been written by David for landing page and conversion optimization Company that helps business in increasing conversion rate for their online marketing campaigns.

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If you’re looking to start a new company, you’ve probably debated about whether to form an LLC, S-Corp or C-Corp, but have you considered this new type of legal entity available in some states? A B-Corp, or Benefit Corporation, is a new form of incorporation that legally recognizes companies that “do good” while making a profit.

Dansko is a good example of a company that could be considered a B-Corporation. Dansko is known for its makes dress shoes, sandals and boots, but you may not know that they also incorporate efforts to effect social change into their for-profit business model. For example, Its office building is LEED® certified, it hosts West Grove, Pennsylvania’s only Community Recycling Center, and it pays its employees to take time off to volunteer, as well as match its employees’ salary and gives that amount to the organization at which they volunteer. You’ve probably seen Dansko at your local department store, but they also make efforts to effect social change as part of their Business Model. Dansko is just one example of a business that could apply for B-Corporation status.

Why become B-Corporation:

• Brand Differentiation: Consumers are starting to demand more social responsibility from the companies they buy from. B-Corp status makes you stand out as a corporation that effects social change.
• Discounts: B-Corp “service partners” offer discounts to B-Corporations
• Investment: Unlike non-profits, B-Corps can attract outside investors.
• Collaboration: B-Corps enjoy enhanced collaboration with other businesses that share their goals
• Accountability: B-Corps can hold their directors accountable for decisions that impact their mission to meet social and environmental performance standards

Applying for B-Corporation status:

According to Bcorporation.net, corporations who want to become certified must take the following steps:

1. Take, and pass, the B Impact Assessment and get a score of at least 80 out of 200.
2. Adopt the B Corporation Legal Framework
3. Sign a Term Sheet and Declaration of Interdependence to make the certification official.

Today it’s only available in a few states (California, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania) but this new type of corporation could drastically alter the way we look at organizations and their ability to effect social change.

About the guest post author: Becky Canary-King is an Account Manager and Press Contact at Direct Incorporation, a company focused on providing a more economical and efficient alternative to using a law firm for common legal/entrepreneurial issues. She blogs for Direct Incorporation, offering tips for the first 6 months of your small business.

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