Do Small Businesses need websites?

Should Small Businesses have a web presence? In one word, yes! The internet is the most effective marketing tools in existance nowadays, have the capability of reaching far more people than any leaflet drop or advertisement in the local paper ever will. Should you produce your own website? It all depends on your skills, if you have the ability to produce a site that looks good, then go ahead, it will save you money and will work wonders as a marketing tool. However if your skills are limited or non-existant then we'd say no. Why? No, not because we want your money (although we don't mind if you want to give it to us...), because if your site doesn't have a professional look to it, then it is going to reflect badly on your company's image....

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Choosing a Company Name

When forming a limited company the name of the company can be an important decision. Some people may choose the first name that they think of and others may select a ready made company for speed or because they like a particular name. However, many businesses may prefer to select a company name that either clearly distinguishes itself from its competitors or contains something unique or personal. Company names can be chosen for different reasons. One of the most common ways of selecting a company name is to use something personal. A quick look through your local newspaper will probably introduce you to many personalised business names. Johnson Consulting Limited, T Smith & Son Limited, Stephens & Barley Limited are some fictional examples of what may be found. This may instantly make...

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Local Businesses and Web Sites

It seems that most successful businesses these days have web sites, even businesses that service only certain geographic areas. On the web, where the market place is global, localized businesses can be at a great disadvantage. A Local Business Web Site Example Lets use the example of a car cleaning businesses. The business only cleans cars in a specific city, yet wants to use their web site to create more business. Time and money is invested in marketing the site in the search engines, paying particular attention to marketing the site for the specific geographic region the service provider covers. Nonetheless, many visitors from around the globe are likely to stumble across the site if it is well marketed. Offer Non-Geographic Specific Products and Services If a local business does not...

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Internet Meetings and Small Business

The world today is a global village. It is no longer necessary, or sometimes even possible, for all the employees of any organization to come together. Equally though people need to share ideas and information more than ever. Business associates or even family and friends may be located anywhere, but our need to stay connected grows daily. We may need to talk, share pictures and programs, work together or collaborate on many projects. The Internet has brought the world even closer. It has taken our ability to share information to a new level with brand new abilities to work and communicate worldwide. Internet meetings are web based and accessible to anyone with high speed Internet access. Unlike email, they are real time and they allow you to get immediate feedback and communicate your...

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Guidelines for Online Small Business Owners

you are contemplating setting up a small online business you should realise it is simply to down to a numbers game. The difference between businesses that succeeded and ones that do not is down to their conversion ratios, meaning the ratio of visitors who actually become paying customers. If one in 50 of your visitors become a paying customer, then you will have a conversion ration of 2%. All businesses should aim to increase this ratio, simple things like using enticing tactics such as a sale can help. The trouble is nowadays people seem desperate for visitors, they panic and pay for batches of visitors. Unfortunately these systems rarely increase your conversation ratio at all; in fact all they do is give you a false perception of your business. A lot of online small business owners...

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Business Tools to Help You Run a Successful Business

When setting up a business, even the best prepared among us will struggle to do everything and remember everything. It is very unlikely that we will understand all of the financial and legal ramifications of a new business, especially when we need to concentrate on getting that elusive first sale or completing the first contract. It isn’t always feasible to employ an accountant and a solicitor as well as a secretary, a salesperson and any other workers needed in the daily running of the business. So, we need to be able to diversify when setting up a new business and the best piece of advice anyone can give you to help is to make the most of the widely available business tools on the market. Financial Documents and Tools An accountant is a very expensive commodity that many new businesses...

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Best Small Business Idea -- Get Focused And Get Going

I used to give a talk titled, “10 Ways to Overcome Overwhelm in Business and In Life”. It was an excellent resource for getting into action and taking charge of your business. If you’d like a copy, just email me and I’ll send it to you. After I’d given this talk for awhile, I realized that getting out of overwhelm was even simpler. You don’t need 10 ideas. That’s overwhelming in itself. You just need one essential key. If you can master this one key, you can pretty much get whatever you want out of your business and your life. Here it is. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. Focus. That’s right, focus. When you are entirely focused on what you are doing in the moment, you don’t have any attention left for being in overwhelm. Focus and overwhelm are opposites. Think about it. You are overwhelmed...

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A Call to Action

Because of a recent boom in business, my company needed to update our office phone system. We had a very nice system in place already, but our business had tripled within a matter of months. Since we rely on phone orders for the vast majority of our sales, we needed to upgrade in order to handle the increase in call volume. We were lucky to have a great relationship with our telephone equipment provider, as within days we were able to have a new system ready to put in place. It's not often that businesses find themselves in situations like this, but when they do come up, it's important to know that the companies you have chosen to do business with are capable of meeting your needs in a timely manner.  Prior to this happening, we had a trunk study performed, after which we were told...

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I Don't Need a Business Plan...Do I?

I get asked that question a lot.  In fact, after “how do I start a business?” it’s probably the most asked question by new clients.   I decided the best way to describe why you might decide to write a business plan is to tell you a few stories about a client of mine.  The name and business are fictional.  We’re going to call him David and he’s going to have a mechanic shop.  The stories I’m going to tell you over the next few months are a combination of things that have happened to me and to some of my clients.  David’s smart.  He’s got a memory like a steel trap.  And he’s ambitious.  He wants to start a small mechanic shop with the inheritance his dad left him, and he’s been very busy trying to get it started.  But he’s also young and...

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How To Get Your Small Business Off The Ground

Many people have what they think is a great idea and would love to set up their own small business. The problem many of these people face is how to fund this idea, to get the business off the ground. Unfortunately many of these ideas never come to fruition because of these lack of funds, where in reality there are many avenues people could take to find this initial start-up capital. I run a small business and have been doing so for about ten years. I remember at the outset worrying about how I would be able to afford to advertise the services that I offer. I would also need a certain amount of money to pay for marketing, such as producing brochures and leaflets, money to have a prescence online via a website and many other initial costs. I would also need to be able to pay my bills and to...

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How To Get About Starting A Small Business!

People toy with the idea of starting a small business at various stages of their lifes. Some think of starting a small business after their educational career is over. Some think of starting a small business because of unpleasant or unhappy situations they have encountered in their work places. There are also others who think of starting a small business, because that is the only way they will be able to work again following a break from work for reasons such as health or redundancy. Toying with the idea is one thing, but if you are taking positive steps to get started, then certain myths associated with starting and running a small business should be dispelled from your mind. 1. Starting a small business might appear to be an easy option to many who are desperate to get out of a situation...

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Small Business, Big-Time Office

For small businesses in a never-ending fight for clients, first impressions mean a lot. So when a home-based financial planner wants to impress a millionaire CEO, talking stocks at the corner coffee shop just won't do. Trouble is, a one-man shop can't afford a well-appointed office at a prestigious business address. Or can he? As National Small Business Week recognizes the more than 25 million entrepreneurs who form the backbone of the U.S. economy, it's ironic that high-priced commercial real estate keeps many of them from realizing their true potential. But the rules are changing. "More flexible workplace arrangements now give small businesses access to the same premium office space that Fortune 500 companies enjoy, but at a fraction of the cost," said Mark Dixon, CEO of The Regus Group,...

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8 Important Elements for Small Business Web Sites

Key visitors to your commercial pages include web robots that crawl the internet and catalog your content. Having proper HTML source code, plus the right combination of text and graphic presentation, is just one secret to success. Proper code may mean higher robot ratings, and the "look" is equally important. Once a new prospect finds your web site, you have 5 seconds to get them to stay. As a small business web site owner, you may have asked "Why don't we get any hits?". Did you know web pages can load and appear correct with improper or deprecated HTML code? A browser may ignore your mistakes, and display what it thinks you meant, and it may look great. Web robots may not be as forgiving. Following is a list of 8 basic elements for good search engine placement that need to be considered...

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5 Simple Steps to Small Business Success on the Internet!

For years, the website design market used to fall into three separate entities for website design and development: (i) graphics and animation studios, specializing in custom graphic design and creative animations, (ii) website marketing/promotion firms, (iii) Web programming companies specializing in database-driven website development. Nowadays, however, you get to see a fusion of these three entities in several dynamic Web Development and Promotion companies operating from any part of the globe. These web design, development and web promotion firms are virtually allrounders that cater to a diverse range of clientele, include those coming up for creative web design, web databases CRM / ERP as well as for SEO (search engine optimization) needs. Most small business firms all over the world...

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20 ReasonsTo Have Your Own Homeworker Website

1. Improve your Credibility as an Internet Marketer, as a Teamleader, as a home based business entrepreneur, whatever your niche is. 2. Send email using your chosen domain name. 3. Make your training info/tips easily available to your affiliates by writing it on a webpage. 4. Setup a Blog on your site. Posting to your Blog on a regular basis will improve your site's exposure on the Search Engines. I have just been learning about how to use a Blog to get traffic to your site from the Social BookMarking sites. It is in some ways similar to posting ads to Free Classified sites. I will tell you more on this later. 5. Similarly auto-install a Forum where your Team's affiliates could help one another and you could help them all. You could make a private formum for your SFI Team Members only. 6....

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10 Tips to Succeed in Your Legitimate Home Business

Virtually everyone would jump at the chance to start a legitimate home business so they could work at home and attain financial freedom. But not everyone has what it takes to transform a home business opportunity into financial success. Here are ten tips that will help you achieve your personal and financial goals through running your own legitimate home business. 1. Secure your start-up funds. Any successful business owner will tell you that you need to invest money in your business in order to make money. A home business is no exception. Expect to spend a maximum of $5,000 for a legitimate home business opportunity. If the opportunity is sound, you should be able to get back your initial investment within a matter of days or weeks, but you do need that initial investment. 2. Get high-speed...

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