Small Business

Are you ready to conquer cyberspace? Here are 9 steps to Internet business: 1. Figure out what you can do for a business. Do you have the knack for writing? You can write articles, eBooks, or web content for various website online. Want to sell something online? You can try eBay and other auction sites. Whatever you'd like to get yourself into, internet surely has a slot for you.

2. Create your very own website. Your website will act as your online store where your prospective customers can get more information about the products and services that you are offering and possibly place an order.

3. Get the best domain name. Your domain name can greatly help you generate more traffic and attract more customers online. An effective domain name has these following characteristics: It contains 30 characters or less, it has relevant keywords and it is easy to remember and spell.

4. Find a reliable web hosting service that gives you good value for your rental fees and keep itself operational at all times. You would not want your website shutting down all the time for repairs and frequent maintenance.

5. Drive traffic to your website. Remember, traffic is the backbone of every online business. As such you need to utilize all proven and tested traffic generating techniques to increate the number of your online visitors. You can resort to SEO, link building, article marketing, forum posting, blogging, etc.

6. Advertise your business in whatever way you can as much as possible. Promote your website, products and services through PPC advertising, banner ads or pop-up ads.

7. Offer various payment methods. Accept different payment methods that are convenient for your customers. Paypal, credit card, COD, and money order are the most popular payments methods preferred by more than 80% of online buyers.

8. Offer world class customer service. Make your customer feel special by providing them assistance when they need it. Provide them a phone number or email address for their questions and suggestions.

9. Always keep improving, no matter what. The worst thing a business can do is to grow stale, so keep expanding it to new heights constantly.

Small Business

Reliable Backup Strategies for Small Business

Small Businesses today use technology and rely on the validity of their data just like the big companies do. However, they do not normally have the budgets to have elaborate tape storage or network storage devices to have multiple versions of customer databases, accounting data or any other bits of information that are important to the overall success of their business.

Most small businesses that experience a serious data loss or catastrophe never fully recover or even stay in business. Events in the past few years like Hurricane Katrina or 9/11, have shown the importance of backup and then securely storing your critical business data outside of your office in a secure storage facility.

Here are some basic recommendations so you can sleep at night, knowing that your data is securely backed up and also that you can confidently restore your data when you ever need to. Remember it is not if you need to restore it is when.

Versioning and Saving

One thing that I have found to be effective in my own backup of files, especially this article, is to save versions of the file as you work. If your document or spreadsheet becomes corrupt for some reason, you can always go back to a previous version. Also, ensure you save often. Nothing worse than having a system crash or freeze and you lose hours of work.

Invest in a Server

Most Small Businesses chose consultants or resellers that rarely show the real value that a server can bring to your organization. Microsoft has priced their Small Business Server so that all Small Businesses can put in a server with email services starting around $3,500.00.

What does a server offer?

A server will provide you with a central and secure system to store your corporate data. Permissions can be set on files to prevent unauthorized access, which could lead to data deletion. Most data loss due to deletion comes from accidental deletion or disgruntled employees that are upset with the owner or management.

Also with a server you will have one place to backup your data to tape or disk, your data is not scattered on your computers all over the network. This will also save you consulting dollars due to the ease of administration.

Windows Servers today come with a service called “Volume Shadow Copy” that will take a snapshot of your data periodically throughout the day, giving you yet another level of backup. You can now recover data from your server without paying those expensive IT consulting bills.

Tape or Disk Based Backup Systems

If your company is using tape or disk (hard drive, CD Rom, or DVD) based backup systems, it is important to ensure that you are doing a full backup every evening. This way if you need to restore from tape or disk, you can feel confident that all your data was backed up the night before.

It is important to ensure that you have a GFS (Grandfather, father, and son) backup system in place, you can do this easily with tape based back ups, you need about 10 tapes to make this happen. I recommend have 4 tapes for the Monday to Thursday backups, 4 or 5 more for each Friday of the month, and then 1 tape for your month end. This is a minimum, you can add more tapes if you wish.

Offsite Media Storage

Storing your backup media offsite is critical to the success of your company. I do not recommend taking this home or leaving it in your car, this is not a secure way to store your business data. There are many organizations that have secure vaults and will charge around $60.00 per month for a basic storage plan. I recommend solutions from Iron Mountain, Kestrel or a local organization, in Calgary we recommend Calgary Archives (http://www.calgaryarchives.com)

Electronic Backup

The next level of protection is electronic offsite storage, this is a backup that is done electronically and sends your critical data across the Internet to the service provider’s secure electronic vault. Your data is compressed and encrypted at your office and then securely transmitted to the service providers. We recommend the services provided by eBackup (www.ebackup.biz). Their services will backup your critical corporate data, your mailboxes on your Small Business Server and your critical customer databases.

Conclusion

The most important thing about any successful backup plan is to ensure you can restore from these backups. Proper and frequent testing of your backup plan will ensure that you can restore from backup in the event of a loss of data or catastrophic disaster such as fire, theft or critical system failure. Remember, you can never have enough backups of files or enough types of backup. Better to be safe than sorry.

Small Business

Whatever business you decide to branch out into, the one thing that is guaranteed is that you’re going to need money to start it all up, and no matter how small or simple you think your business may be, it’s not going to be cheap to get started. Thankfully, there is an option called a small business loan grant that can help you out.

What Is A Small Business Loan Grant?

A small business loan grant is exactly what it sounds like, which is a loan that helps small business get started. However, the difference is that instead of it being offered by a bank or similar, the loan is met by private sector companies, should you not be able to get credit through a normal lender.

Obviously, the easiest way to try and start up your new business is to get a loan from your bank, or Savings Company. Yet dependent on what your current line of credit is like, that may be easier said than done. For instance, you may have a large mortgage and little money left over to cover your loan after all your bills are paid. If this is the case, you need to look at a small business loan grant, and for that, you should speak to the Small Business Administration, or SBA for short.

What The SBA Can Do For You

In business for over 50 years, the SBA is a company that arranges small business loan grants between lenders and borrowers (or larger businesses and smaller ones). Since they work mainly with non-profit organizations and state and local governments, they can usually help you find the best solution to your financial needs.

How Much Can I Borrow?

Depending on what lender you go to, the amount of loan you can arrange via an SBA-approved lender varies. Some of the most popular ones include:

· 7(a) Loan Guaranty Program, which offers anything up to $2 million.
· The Microloan Program, which is better suited for the really small start-ups, since it only offers up to $35,000.

What Classifies For A Small Business Loan Grant?

Of course, to get a loan, you need to be applicable for it. To this end, the SBA has set out guidelines for what qualifies as a small business:

· Maximum of 500 employees for manufacturing or mining industry
· Maximum of 100 employees for wholesale trade business
· Turnover ranging from $0.5 million to $17 million, dependent on industry

If you want to know if you qualify, and if you do, for how much, simply visit the SBA website at http://www.sba.gov/ . Also do check out their FAQs at: http://app1.sba.gov/faqs/

Small Business

There are a great many potential buyers out there on the internet and many ways to advertise your small business in America. This article deals exclusively with internet classifieds.

Writing small classifieds is superb training for creating all types of advertising. The internet has developed since the home computer. You can now start a small business from home and produce terrific returns.

Small Business Classifieds, when used effectively, can be one of the quickest and inexpensive ways to increase sales and customers. One or two, well-written small classifieds can generate thousands in sales. Most people in America, don't appreciate the pulling power of classified advertising. They think small classifieds are for selling unwanted items, or finding cheap bargains, not for developing a business. While it's true small classifieds are a good way to sell unwanted items, or find a bargain, it is also true that small classifieds can be used to launch and operate a multi-million dollar corporate or small business.

Many a successful Corporate and Small Business depend totally on small classifieds to generate all their sales. The reason is simple. Once you have discovered how to harness the power of these small classifieds, you really don't need to run expensive display ads.

Creating successful small classifieds is not a job for an amateur. You may become qualified to create killer classifieds, if you study and work hard at it. But without practice, you are unlikely to do a good job. And only good classifieds make money.

How to Write Successful Small Classified Ads

Your small classified ad must compete with other ads for the readers attention. Your small classifieds has no artwork or layout. The whole job of leading readers into and through your classified ad must be done by the first word or words in the advertisement. You must use exciting and interesting words to the potential buyers of your product. The lead words must go to the heart of the product.

Do not deceive people with your small classified ads. What you want are quality names of potential customers... not a large quantity of useless names. It would be easy to promise the stars in your small classified ads. But if it can't deliver, you will not only lose the initial sale, you will have alienated your buyer.

Place your small classified ads under the most appropriate heading. If you were offering something appealing to health, the classifieds heading would be HEALTH. If you're aiming at a specific type of sportsman such as cyclists, swimmers, or bodybuilders, you might find such a classifieds heading.

Small Classified advertising is a powerful tool. You must first become aware of the effective use of classifieds advertising as a business builder. Understand exactly what can be expected from small classifieds advertising and what cannot.

Stir Emotion with your Corporate, or Small Business Classifieds

Your product or service must contain the "emotional appeal" that is the key element of many display ads. This "emotional appeal" must have the power to attract the reader. After the lead words, the good small classified advertisement will contain whatever descriptive words are necessary to tell enough about your product to make your prospect want it and to convince him you are telling the truth and are reliable. Concentrate on benefits, not features. Include your contact details, so that you can follow up on leads from your small classifieds. If you are making direct sales, include the price. Study the small classified advertisements of your successful competitors.

Write the Best Small Classified Ad you can

Include all the classic advertising words: "news", "new", "discovery", "bargain", "free", "save", etc. Hone and polish your small classified ad. Try to use the most powerful and evocative words. Make your small classifieds ad look exciting and big.

Mail Order Classifieds in America make Big Money !!!

Are you ready to make lots of money in your Small Business in America? Do you want to spend little time and money? If you are prepared to fulfill your dreams and realize your goals, mail order classifieds in America are your best bet to success. You have what it takes - right now. Small classifieds in America are the best dollar for-dollar return in advertising, and you can earn a high profit on your product investment.

People in America read small classifieds for a purpose. They aren't interrupted - as in most advertising - and are specifically looking for products, services and information that appeal to them. Well-placed small classifieds in America will bring hundreds - thousands - of replies month after month, year after year.

Don't forget the value of the names of your customers and enquirers. Satisfied customers can later be sold other products and each customer's name can be very valuable.

Small Business

Just where is the business community headed for VoIP technology and applications? The answer is not that simple as it can vary greatly by region of the world. The difference in scale and application between small business networks and enterprise VoIP for larger organizations is also a factor in the equation.

What seems to be the practice in the US is that businesses adopt VOIP because it is budget friendly. Most companies deploy VOIP in new offices because it is cheaper than a new digital phone system. Existing offices are migrated to VOIP as leases on digital equipment expired. Interoffice voice communication occurrs without long distance costs as VOIP traffic travels the corporate WAN (VPN/MPLS/etc.) alongside or parallel to data traffic. I see this trend continuing domestically until digital phone systems are phased out completely.

The next challenge is replacing small business (analog) phone systems because they generally keep pace with consumer technology instead of larger businesses. You currently see VOIP for small business and personal use independent of the ISP. A combined offering of Internet data and voice could easily induce universal acceptance of VOIP in even the smallest business (as well as households).

The only thing left behind is conference equipment in businesses of all sizes. Your desktop phone provider rarely provides your digital/analog tripod conference phone and associated equipment. I expect technology advances for VOIP to be in the conference room as opposed to the desktop. When I hear convergence, I think of the unification of voice and data. The conference room is where you can really take advantage of this union.

Today in India especially; many small, medium & large enterprises are looking forward to VoIP technology as companies become more conscious about spending money on PSTN. With recent changes taking place in VoIP technology, and as it becomes more and more affordable, most organisations are coming forward to adapt these newer technologies to fulfill there communication requirements. To tap the growing requirements and market potential, not only the small phone companies but even the PBX manufacturing giants like Nortel, Avaya, Alcatel and Panasonic are continuously working on providing more advanced features and facilities utilizing the maximum possible technical advancements of VoIP. The current trend of unified communication concept is an example for this.

Australia/New Zealand were early adopters of IP telephony particularly in large enterprise and Government sites. The most likely reason to deploy IP Telephony was office relocation, and large enterprise customers replacing their aging legacy PBX with IP Telephony on the basis of future proofing, Toll-Bypass, and lower maintence cost compared to legacy pbx.

Cisco has sold something like over 5 million IP Phones worldwide. Australia & New Zealand combined sold over 500,000 IP Phones.

VoIP Technology is no longer about making cheaper calls in Australia/New Zealand. Its about optimizing business processes with fully integrated communication options. IM, Video Conferencing, Presence, Unified Messaging, and Mobility. I anticpate Australia and New Zealand to be early adopters to Unified Communication in Asia Pac.

Malaysia is an interesting place because, despite the lack of large "enterprise" sale of IP Telephony compared to Australia, there appears to be a large acceptance of VoIP Technology from open source such as SIPX, Asterisk and OpenSER. In fact, a lot of VoIP innovation coming from Malaysia is based on Open Source (ie. Free to download but you have to put long man hours to get it working). A fascinating application is one where you use your 3G mobile phone's camera to capture a video stream that sends automatically to your blogsite. This application is used also in Insurance companies where members are encouraged to record the "car accident" video clip as part of the process in submitting a claim. Also, the same VoIP technology is used in legal proceedings, in court, where lawyers can access the judge via 3G Mobile phone and IP Video Phone. These applications all use VoIP technology as the foundation.

On another note....the convenience of using the same cable infrastructure, manageability, cost involved maintaining Public Switching Telephone Lines, and quick and easy deployment are just a few parameters which attract most companies to buy the voice communication systems which support VoIP. That's a cottage industry in itself which will only grow as acceptance and deployment of VoIP takes a firmer hold in the business world.

For example, several Soft PBX softwares can be found on the Internet which are freely available for download and usage. This develpoment implies that the requirement for Hardware PBX is decreasing day by day. This also is an early indication that most of the voice communication techniques and products emerging in the future will be based on VoIP......and software aspects.

Lots of improvements are still needed in VoIP no matter where you are in the world.....but they are in the pipeline. For example, SMEs require simple to setup aid rather then technically rich products. An example of an improvement here would be products like the iSpeedBump from Interworking Labs. This goes outside your firewall and looks at your traffic. If it sees VoIP, it prioritizes that traffic over things that can go slower like e-mail. The device has four main settings to match 99% of cases and you just plug it in, set the switch and go. No more. Cleans up garbled VoIP yielding a better quality voice exchange.

Personally I think VoIP still has a long way to go to really compete with the landlines for business customers....particularly for small businesses. Not so much for large enterprises. For most VOIP installations, especially in a small company, though it is significantly cheaper VoIP doesn't work anywhere near as well as a landline. Nor are all the security concerns alleviated. At least yet.

The trick, and VoIP companies seem to have done a pretty good job of this, is to convince people that phone service doesn't always have to be perfect. Sounding like a cell phone is fine, and probably the other end of the conversation will think it is their end anyway. So don't waste your money on a landline. However, as VoIP quality and reliability catches up...no one will really notice a difference (or really care about what little difference there may be). Then the answer will be narrowed down simply to cost....and the most cost effective communication will win out.

Small Business

If you've ever seen one of those "Top 10 Small Business to Start" lists then you probably know that the house painting business opportunity has been a contender for years.

One of the nicest things about owning a painting business is the flexibility it can offer. The income potential is so high that it is quite possible to work just three to four days a week and still make $50-$60000 a year.

House painting is one of those rare business opportunities that is nearly recession proof and can put financial security within reach for a great number of people.

There are no formal education requirements and basic painting and business skills are all that are necessary to succeed. (Most of which can be learned with the right painting business building home study course).

The demands of a house painter are typically only light physical labor, which can be done by men or women, young or old. A painting business can be used as a full time or part time income source.

Being a painting business owner not only offers the potential to quickly earn a professional income it also offers the feeling of fulfillment and pride that comes with being self-employed and self-sufficient.

Not to mention the instant gratification you get every day you complete a job and add another satisfied customer to your list, followed by depositing another large check into your growing bank account. It's a nice gig!

The best advice I can offer the person considering starting their own painting business is to spend some time gathering information from reputable sources about how to market your painting business as well as how to bid and estimate paint jobs, or what I like to call the business side of the painting business.

One question I get asked quite frequently by new painting business owners is "what kind of jobs should I go after..."? This is a marketing question.

The answer I give is always the same. Begin by targeting residential repaints. They are plentiful and by far the easiest jobs to paint, they have incredible profit margins and very low overhead.

The residential repaints niche is insatiable; there is enough work in that segment of the painting industry to stay booked and profitable for a lifetime.

Another wonderful benefit that makes starting a painting business so enticing is that you don't need a large budget to get started. One of the biggest misconceptions about growing a profitable painting business is that you have to spend thousands of dollars on advertising in order to bring in work.

This is simply not true especially if you target residential repaints. It is a fact that you can grow a thriving 100% referral based painting business with next to zero traditional advertising.

With the help of some very simple systems even a person who is starting from scratch can have their painting business up and running and making money in seven days or less on a budget as small as $250.00.

These are just some of the reasons starting a painting business gets so many people excited and why this outstanding opportunity winds up on the list of the best small business to start nearly every year.

Andy Thompson is a successful painting business owner, consultant and the author of "Painting for Profits - A Complete Insider's Guide to Starting and Growing Your Very Own Wildly Profitable Painting Business". Discover how his information can help you by visiting

Small Business

After spending months in meetings, logging a ton of phone calls, and sitting across from a prospective client for days in negotiation, you get the project. The hard part is behind you - or is it? Bringing in your dream deal is a great achievement, but if you cannot deliver on your promises, that dream could turn into a nightmare that buries your company.

Stiff competition exists in pretty much every market niche today, whether product or service. Growing revenues means selling more, which means offering better, faster, cheaper, or, better yet, all three. A tempting trap that snares many salespeople as they race the competition for prospects' business is to make commitments that are beyond the company's ability to deliver, that will stretch available resources to a dangerous extent, or that commit too many resources to a single client.

When you or your sales staff submit a proposal to a prospect, you put a lot on the line - your company, your reputation, even your employees' salaries. Regardless of what you are selling, the only way to justify that kind of investment is to deliver on your promises. Offering the prospect bigger, faster, or cheaper will only work if you can follow through; if you can't, it's only a matter of time before you get replaced by a competitor. Having this happen even once can put your company in jeopardy - negative word of mouth travels almost at the speed of light, and an unhappy client can tarnish a company's reputation beyond recovery.

So you have to be able to beat out the competition and deliver the goods, which is no small feat. How do you motivate prospect to hire you instead of someone else without over promising or making commitments that don't make strategic sense for you? Here are some recommendations for getting the business and staying in business.

Understand exactly and clearly what you are offering. If you have a sales team, train them properly so they can sell what you offer without extra embellishments.

Know your competition. Gather as much intelligence as possible about what they are offering, how they are selling, and why prospects do or don't select them.

Do your homework. Gather as much intelligence about your prospect as possible. The more you know about the customer's company and the challenges they are facing, the better edge you will have.

Have a clear objective framed before you meet the prospect. Stay focused on this objective and avoid improvisation. For example, if your objective is to set up a demo of your product in a second meeting, quell the temptation to make a sale even if the conditions seem conducive.

Be prepared to answer any and all questions about your product and/or service. Rehearse possible scenarios beforehand so that you will be prepared to field a range of issues, queries, or objections.

Demonstrate your belief in what you are selling. Prospects can spot a hard sales pitch a mile off, and they know whether or not the person in front of them really believes in what they are selling.

Stand beside the prospect. Not literally, but in the sense that you see the product or service from their point of view and understand the benefits within their context. This allows you to make a connection beyond the sales pitch.

Be honest with the prospective client. This may not be as easy as it sounds. It takes courage. If the customer asks if you can deliver something that you know is beyond your capability, tell the truth. Focus on presenting solutions if any are available. For example, if the request is outside your capabilities but you know of a company that can fill the bill, offer to include them in your proposal as a sub-contractor that you will manage. Make sure that whatever you propose fits your own company objectives and can be delivered as promised. Analyze your own risks and have back up plans for any occurrence that could jeopardize the successful completion of the proposed project.

Finally, leave the prospect with a positive and accurate memory of how you can help their company. If you have shown them realistic and proven ways of supporting their objectives, they will have realistic view or your product or service, and you will keep their attention and interest long after you've left the room.