April 2005 Monthly Archive
Important Laws for Small Business
April 28, 2005 - allbusiness.com - It´s virtually impossible to give a complete account of all the laws and loopholes that could affect the formation and operation of an emerging company. There are a number of legal issues, though, of which you should be aware. The most common types of laws that may apply to your business fall into several categories.
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An Introduction To eBay Consignment
April 28, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - Consignment Selling Is The Perfect Way To Start Your Own eBay Business. There are no set up fees or investments. You won't need to risk your own money buying items to resell. You don't need a detailed knowledge of antiques and collectibles. You only need to know how to find the right category, write an adequate description and take some high quality photos.
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Size Does Matter: Some Reasons Why Bigger Isn’t Always Better
April 28, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Staying small offers a number of benefits. One web design firm explains why they would rather stay small instead of dreaming of becoming a powerhouse in their industry. After all, bigger isn't always better.
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Managing family time
April 28, 2005 - startups.co.uk - Starting your own business will change your live and it’ll invariably put a strain on your family. If you don’t believe us, ask anyone who’s done it and they'll tell of that having a business is like a new born child that needs constant attention. Therefore, it’s something you need to think about and something you need to discuss with your partner before taking the plunge.
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Are your shipping fees driving away customers?
April 28, 2005 - microsoft.com - Charge shipping fees that Web shoppers consider excessive and you lose — they'll abandon your shopping cart and take their business elsewhere. Charge fees that don't cover your costs and you lose even bigger — you'll be taking your business to the bankruptcy court.
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Are your shipping fees driving away customers?
April 28, 2005 - microsoft.com - Charge shipping fees that Web shoppers consider excessive and you lose — they'll abandon your shopping cart and take their business elsewhere. Charge fees that don't cover your costs and you lose even bigger — you'll be taking your business to the bankruptcy court.
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Laptop Security - How To Protect Your Data
April 28, 2005 - workz.com - It is very important for you to protect your data in your laptop and for that you need an operating system which is efficient and reliable. The latest systems have come with the facility to encrypt data. These systems have a secure logon in addition to the file level security. It is easy for the stealer to access data from the laptop. So, it is important to take necessary precautions to see that nothing untoward happens.
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Earn Money from Your Hobby
April 28, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Many of us have hobbies that we are passionate about. But wouldn't it be great if our hobbies also earn for us some money? Here are profiles of three women who turned their hobbies into successful home business.
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WII-FM: The No-Cost Media
April 28, 2005 - clickz.com - Recent research portrays increasingly fragmented audiences. There are ad skipping and problems measuring return on investment (ROI). Advertisers are challenged to find a way to reach target customers. Think this sounds like the usual noise about online advertising? It's not!
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Yahoo! Search Marketing Kicks Off "Think Big" Contest
April 28, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - Yahoo's Search Marketing, formerly Overture Services, announced the launch of its "Think Big" contest today, which will award one small business with 10 million free ad impressions across the Yahoo! network.
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How to Choose A Name For Your Business
April 28, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Be sure your business name fits these criteria: Indicate what kind of business you are in. Easy to remember. Distinctive - stand out from your competition. Catch the client's attention. Create a professional image. Inspire clients to buy from you.
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5 Tips for Home-Based Business Entrepreneurs
April 27, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Statistics show that only a small percent of all home-based entrepreneurs achieve success? Learn the 5 keys to home-based business success.
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On the go? 5 ways to reduce your e-mail clutter
April 27, 2005 - microsoft.com - The e-mail messages land in my inbox, one after the other, with the relentlessness of a tropical rainstorm. Most of the e-mails are junk, and with subjects like "A humour game" and "Re: Hi," they drain straight into my spam filters.
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Shipwire.com Offers Discounted Shipping for SMBs
April 27, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - LOC Global, provider of transportation solutions, announced today the launch of Shipwire.com. Available immediately, Shipwire.com is a full-service shipping solution for small businesses. From one central Web site and phone number, businesses can seamlessly ship all their envelopes, packages and freight. Shipwire.com is a free service, with no management fees. Businesses pay only for the shipping services they need.
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Responding to and Recovering from a Virus
April 27, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Does your computer system seem to run slower than it should? Does it crash often and display error messages you don't recognize? Play musical tunes you've never heard before? If your computer acts like it's inhabited by ghosts, you may have a virus — a small, self-replicating program that invades your system through an email attachment, a shared file or a floppy disk.
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Limited Time Offers – Time Limits That Will Improve Your Sales
April 27, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - Using limited time offers can spark a feeding frenzy that will sell tons of your products or service. The key to success with this is ensure that you are only using this offer once in a while. If visitors notice you run specials once every month the word will get out and people will always wait for the special promotions to buy your products.
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How to Run a Successful News Release Program
April 27, 2005 - businessknowhow.com - Marketing public relations gives you cost effective ways to reach your audience. The trade-off, however, is time. It takes time to develop and execute public relations programs. It can take time for these programs to yield rewards. Here are six simple steps for developing a news release program that extends your reach and generates inquiries at a fraction of the cost of advertising.
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Free Stock Photo's For Your Ezine - What is Royalty Free Photo Stock?
April 27, 2005 - emailuniverse.com - Everyone who publishes an HTML email newsletter at some time gets the urge to include an image, clipart, photo, graph, chart, etc... Today, we're going to focus on photo stock, or where you can get stock photos (with or without paying for them.)
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Find your strengths
April 27, 2005 - usatoday.com - My wife and I want to start our own business. Right now we are both bankers on jobs that we fear will end in layoffs. We have no idea what kind of business to start, and we don't know where to begin even if we knew what we wanted to do.
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What are the benefits of blogging for small business?
April 27, 2005 - about.com - Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. An opportunity to connect with a wider audience and build a community is a strong benefit for consultants and knowledge workers.
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Dell Unveils New Notebook for National Small Business Week
April 27, 2005 - smallbusinesscomputing.com - In recognition of National Small Business Week, Dell has announced the latest arrival in its notebook family, the Latitude D510. Calling it a "mainstream" notebook, Dell aims the laptop at budget-conscious companies looking to extend the reach of their business by adding mobile capability.
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Tips for Parentpreneurs: Going Solo But with Kids
April 27, 2005 - startupjournal.com - Running a home-based business can be tough. But it's even tougher when you throw children into the mix.
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What's Missing From Your Internet Marketing?
April 27, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Your web site is up and running, you're getting a healthy number of visitors to the site, and many of them are contacting you about your services, but you're having a tough time closing sales. What’s missing?
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Money Doesn't Grow On Trees
April 27, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - As small business owners we are similar to tree farmers. We plant and nurture trees knowing that they will bear fruit. Some business owners grow trees with the idea of selling them when they start to produce fruit, but most of us build our orchards with the intention of selling the fruit.
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10 Quick Ways To Promote Your Web Techniques
April 26, 2005 - workz.com - Think fast! If I asked you to quickly name ten things you could do to promote your Web Techniques, what would you say? If you're like most online entrepreneurs thinking off the top of your head, you wouldn't make it past two or three. Allow me to help; here are ten quickie tips to get the word out on your site.
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Do you need to turn off your PC at night?
April 26, 2005 - microsoft.com - For many years now, I've been shutting off my computer at night. But I'm now convinced you can leave your computer on at night and still conserve as much energy.
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What to Wear When You Work from Home
April 26, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - It's a question I'm asked frequently in my image consultant business, and one that bears thoughtful consideration. For just as your appearance matters when you report to work in the "outside" world, so, too, does it matter when your commute is just down the hall. Now before you snicker at this notion, let's get a bird's eye view of the matter.
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Fast and Fearless: Brands' Blogging Future
April 26, 2005 - clickz.com - You can't avoid blogs. They're so plentiful, and often so well-informed, the opinions they offer help form mainstream news reports. Given their potency, should blogs be adopted by brands as communication tools?
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The Price Is Right
April 26, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - Price is often the first thing on your customers' minds--so you need to think about it, too. Name your best price with these key strategies.
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TRUSTe Issues Guidelines for Protecting Consumer Privacy
April 26, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - With the increasing threat of attacks, loss of critical backup data and numerous reports of outright theft recently on stores of consumer information, data privacy has become a central component of trusting business-consumer relationships.
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What Big Online Retailers Don't Want You to Know
April 26, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Are you operating a small or medium-sized online retail store? Have your ecommerce efforts been thwarted by a big online retailer? If so, take heart! Things aren't as bad as they might seem. In fact, instead of being intimidated by the big online retailers – you should welcome the opportunity to compete with them! Here are some things that they won't tell you that could give you a real advantage when trying to gain more ecommerce customers at their expense.
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How Many Words in a Text Link?
April 26, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - The headings and subheads on your site pages let people know what to expect from the page they are looking at. The link text lets people know what they can expect from pages on the next level down. How long should these text links be? Should a text link be two or three words, or as long as seven or eight words?
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How Can I Advertise on Google?
April 22, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Google offers two advertising programs: Goodle AdWords for advertisers and Google AdSense for web publishers. Go to Google, and select Advertising Programs underneath the Google search block. Then, select either AdWords or AdSense.
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Why You’re Not Blogging - And Why You Should Start Today
April 22, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - Those of you who aren't ready to wade into the Blog pool are taking your time for several reasons, according to my informal interviews with people before and after they blog. Others start blogging and then abandon their projects too soon, unaware of the benefits. Whatever your reason, you should get started now - or get back to blogging as the case may be. Here’s some motivating enlightenment that you may find surprising.
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Which Is Better: Long Copy or Short Copy?
April 22, 2005 - businessknowhow.com - This article describes two methods described by many as ‘new’ online sales techniques, which many people call the long copy versus the short copy debate. It’s actually simply a mix of the ways we’ve all been selling stuff since print was invented.
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Nobody likes cold calls, but they have a place in business
April 22, 2005 - usatoday.com - What exactly is a "cold call?" It's a sales call — on the phone or in person — to someone who has neither approached you nor expressed interest in your products or services.
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Is Your Small Business Privacy Friendly?
April 22, 2005 - about.com - In the last 10 years consumers have become very concerned about privacy. Research shows over 70% of consumers are concerned about the use of their personal information. Is your small business privacy friendly?
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Sorting Out Your Storage Options
April 22, 2005 - smallbusinesscomputing.com - Regardless of how big hard drive capacities get, there will always be a need for removable storage, sometimes called portable storage. The software you buy to install on your computer comes on removable storage media and people will always have a need for making backups and archiving important data or transporting data between computers. These are just a few examples of how we use removable storage in everyday computing environments.
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7 biggest mistakes of business startups
April 22, 2005 - microsoft.com - Your first year of running a new business will chart a steep learning curve. No matter how careful or how knowledgeable you try to be, mistakes will happen. Get used to the idea.
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Choose Your Web-Authoring Software
April 22, 2005 - workz.com - With so many Web authoring tools out there, how do you choose which one is best for you? Many Web designers eschew pure WYSIWYG editors as unprofessional. Nevertheless, most small-business owners are not Web designers. And if a WYSIWYG package meets your needs, then why get anything else? To be sure, first decide on your needs and what features you require.
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Do You Own Your Web Site Design?
April 22, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design.
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Nine Simple eBay Selling Hints
April 22, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Some of these eBay hints will save you money, others will result in higher prices. Either way, these will help you run more profitable eBay auctions.
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Why Moms Should Start a Home-Based Business Today
April 22, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Most Moms think about starting a home based business at one time or another. Maybe the youngest has started school, and Mom suddenly has a lot of free time. Or perhaps Mom was successful in her career before having her first child, and wished to put her skills to good use in a home based business.
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Buying your way to the top with Pay Per Click Advertising
April 21, 2005 - myaffiliateplace.biz - Imagine if you could advertise ONLY to people who have actually expressed an interest in doing business with you? That’s basically what happens whenever a prospective customer or client types a phrase into a search engine that’s relevant to your business. But how do search engines decide which sites are worthy of top placement in their search results? It turns out that some of the results are ranked by the search engine’s computers while others are simply paid advertisements from companies willing to buy their way to the top using Pay Per Click Advertising.
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7 things to know about virus writers
April 21, 2005 - microsoft.com - I spend a growing percentage of my time getting rid of unwanted e-mails that contain viruses. If I open one of them, it potentially could overwrite files and disable my antivirus software. What exactly is in the heads of these virus writers? Anything?
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The E Writing Bulletin...26 Ways To Spruce Up Your Newsletter!
April 21, 2005 - workz.com - If you’ve been publishing for a while, your newsletter content mix may be static. Maybe each issue includes the same tired content: one press release, one “Top Ten Tips” article, and one “News From Headquarters” feature. Or maybe your newsletter is still relatively new, but in the hectic days of launching it you concentrated on building your subscriber list and graphic design, not content. If so, now is the time to take a hard look at your newsletter content.
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The Sweet Success of Smell
April 21, 2005 - businessweek.com - Downloadable odors? Clothes and jewelry with switchable scents? All that and more is heading to a nose near you
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Home-Based Franchises
April 21, 2005 - allbusiness.com - When people hear the word "franchise," they tend to think of fast food restaurants and gas stations. But there are all different kinds of franchises -- many of which can be run as home-based businesses.
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Ten Sure Fire Ways To Lose Bidders
April 21, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - The way some auction sellers approach their auctions, it’s clear there are as many ways to lose bidders as there are to skin a cat. If you spend enough time in the auctions you’ll see a lot of basic mistakes, but the question remains: why do so many people consistently make the same mistakes over and over again. Is it that they are just placing auctions for the fun of it - without expecting to sell the item- probably not. Here’s our top ten sure fire ways to lose bidders
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How a Benefit-Rich Headline Can Build Your Web Business
April 21, 2005 - businessknowhow.com - A strong, enticing headline is the single most important element of your Web marketing copy. It is the opening statement and first impression you make.
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Take the 5 Minute Brochure Design Trash Test
April 21, 2005 - about.com - You only get one chance to make a favorable impression with your brochure design. An effective brochure design that communicates to your prospects isn't about spending your entire ad budget on design and development. It requires the use of good brochure design and brochure writing principles.
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Limited Web Site Budget? Focus on Content
April 21, 2005 - marketingprofs.com - Web sites run by small businesses far outnumber the Web sites run by large corporations. This means that most sites are produced and operated on a relatively small budget. Each dollar counts, and must be used carefully.
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Top Seven Reasons to Network Online With Reciprocal Links
April 21, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Networking can make you rich with wealth, referrals and sales. And much more, it can bring adventures, challenges, friends, relationships, and passion. Exchanging reciprocal links is the Online version of networking. Here's seven reasons for exchanging links.
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When is Wholesale Really Wholesale
April 20, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - You’ve finally found the wholesale source for the high demand widget that is selling like hotcakes on the Internet. Thoughts of watching the money pouring in and celebrating the new found success selling widgets has you so excited that you can’t wait to buy 5 widgets at wholesale and double the investment.
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Hooking up with Wi-Fi: 6 things to know
April 20, 2005 - microsoft.com - When you have a broadband connection at work, it's hard for many of us to stomach a dial-up line on the road. That's why my laptop is Wi-Fi-enabled. I used my wireless connection on a recent vacation to Maui. I was cruising the Internet and checking e-mail at blazing broadband speeds free of charge
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9 Highly Effective Marketing Tips
April 20, 2005 - morebusiness.com - Here are 9 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help you boost your sales and profits fast.
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What Does Adversity Do For You
April 20, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Doesn't it just seem that the more you try to get things accomplished, the more problems and obstacles that somehow, just crop up and are required to be dealt with along the way? Becoming a success doesn't just happen.
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How To Boost Web Sales With An Auto-responder
April 20, 2005 - workz.com - A web site with products but no traffic is a liability. It costs time and money to set up and maintain a site. Then, it takes more effort and usually more money to generate traffic. Which leads to the key question that a profitable web site must answer: Once you get traffic to come to your web site, how can you maximize the value of their visit? A very important answer is to use an auto-responder.
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Building Customer Engagement
April 20, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Customer satisfaction is just the minimum; your goal is to engage your customers. Engaged customers assure a business of sustained and profitable growth. Learn the four emotional building blocks for an engaged customer.
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Starting a Business as a Remodeling Contractor
April 20, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - Using your carpentry or construction skills to help people remodel their homes could just be the perfect homebased business for you.
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How to Market Your Business With Email
April 20, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Email marketing continues to be a favored method of reaching consumers among U.S. businesses. In a survey by the Direct Marketing Association, two-thirds of companies say their sales increased because of email marketing, and sixty-three percent credit email as the most effective way to retain customers.
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What Do Women Want Online? Ten Tips for E-tailers
April 19, 2005 - smallbusinesscomputing.com - Clearly, women have become a prime driver — perhaps the prime driver — of e-commerce. In 2004, female shoppers made 64 percent of online purchases, according to Resource Interactive. "And that figure just continues to rise," says Kelly Mooney, one of Resource Interactive's lead partners.
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Business Card Lesson Plan 1 Create Your Own Business Card
April 19, 2005 - about.com - It is not easy to condense yourself down to the size of a business card but doing so may help you to focus on the most important aspects of yourself. It can also help to develop your vocabulary as you search for new words to describe yourself. It should also be clear that it is almost impossible to tell everything there is about a person from a single piece of paper.
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Free Tee Shirt
April 19, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - You may have designed your web site to express yourself on the web, or like most of us, you are hoping to earn a little extra cash; but how do you get your new baby site out there and get it noticed? you do after all want to get some visitors,... don't you?
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Types of Deals When Buying a Business
April 19, 2005 - allbusiness.com - There are basically two types of deals when purchasing a business—either a purchase of the assets of the business, or the purchase of the stock of the company (assuming it's a corporation). In addition, a merger is a special type of stock acquisition, as discussed below. In general, a seller prefers to sell the stock of his or her business, while a buyer will often prefer to purchase the assets.
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Wills can save your business
April 19, 2005 - microsoft.com - Let's cut to the chase: You should have an up-to-date will. C'mon, you know you need a will, if for no other reason than you are going to keep hearing this message from nags like me. And the need for a current will becomes greater with every day that your business becomes more successful.
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The E Writing Bulletin...26 Ways To Spruce Up Your Newsletter!
April 19, 2005 - workz.com - If you’ve been publishing for a while, your newsletter content mix may be static. Maybe each issue includes the same tired content: one press release, one “Top Ten Tips” article, and one “News From Headquarters” feature. Or maybe your newsletter is still relatively new, but in the hectic days of launching it you concentrated on building your subscriber list and graphic design, not content. If so, now is the time to take a hard look at your newsletter content.
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Four Common Mistakes of Business Start-Ups
April 19, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Many small-business owners find the business end of their operation a chore. They would rather pursue a more exciting task, like developing their business strategies and identifying new markets. Here are the most common blunders that small entrepreneurs make when starting their businesses
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Escrow Fraud: Alive and Well and Living Online
April 19, 2005 - auctionbytes.com - Unknown to the seller, the buyer has no intention of paying for the item, a diamond gemstone. The buyer is perpetrating what's known as escrow fraud. The "buyer" has sent the seller a link to a site that is purportedly an escrow site that will act as a trusted third-party.
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Buyer Beware
April 19, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - In the market for a notebook computer? Before you buy, make sure you're spending your hard-earned dollars at a reputable vendor.
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Talking with One Tough Mother
April 19, 2005 - businessweek.com - Gert Boyle says she knew nothing when she took over at Columbia Sportswear. But she learned fast, turning it into a billion-dollar concern
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What's Missing From Your Internet Marketing?
April 19, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Your web site is up and running, you're getting a healthy number of visitors to the site, and many of them are contacting you about your services, but you're having a tough time closing sales. What’s missing?
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Is Your Web Site Sticky? Eight ways to make your site a traffic magnet!
April 18, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - You must stay in touch with your target group's needs and format your site in interesting and useful ways. This is especially important as the fast-paced changes in technology continually reshape the manner in which we communicate with consumers. While it does take some work on your part, you will find it's a lot more effective than throwing gooey blobs at your computer.
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Starting Small
April 15, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - With discipline and determination, these four entrepreneurs launched businesses with less than $1,000 each. See how they've grown from those budget beginnings to today's successful companies.
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Register.com Introduces New Templates, Forms for SMBs
April 15, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - Register.com, Inc., a popular provider of domain registration and Internet services, announced Wednesday the introduction of new Flash-based animated templates and interactive Web form capabilities into its flagship do-it-yourself Web site building solution, WebSiteNOW!(WSN). The announcement comes the same week Yahoo! announced free starter sites for small businesses.
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Two Men and a Lot of Trucks
April 15, 2005 - businessweek.com - The moving company with the stick-figure logo was launched almost by accident. Today its franchises operate in 27 states.
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Why You Need a Computer Network
April 15, 2005 - allbusiness.com - If your business has more than one computer, chances are you could benefit from networking them. A local area network (LAN) connects your company's computers, allowing them to share and exchange a variety of information. While one computer can be useful on its own, several networked computers can be much more useful.
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How To Accept Credit Cards
April 15, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - If you plan to do business online, then your website will need to accept credit cards. For many, the idea of applying for a merchant account sounds like a daunting task, but the truth is that building an online store is incredibly easy these days. The major credit card processing companies have improved and streamlined the process of setting up accounts, and software companies have had several years to improve their software to the point that it is easy for non-technical business owners to create and operate an online store effectively.
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Re-thinking business cards
April 15, 2005 - usatoday.com - What's the most important marketing item you have? Here's a hint: it's small, inexpensive, and you probably haven't given it much thought. It's your business card.
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Low-Budget High-Impact Marketing Plan
April 15, 2005 - about.com - The secret to creating a high-impact marketing plan is to optimize your limited budget. A one-time radio ad blitz, glossy brochure, or flash-enabled website will quickly erode your budget and derail your marketing plans. Use low-budget marketing to get your message out to your customers on a regular basis, and watch sales revenue grow.
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V-Secure Aims to Stop Intrusion Attacks
April 15, 2005 - smallbusinesscomputing.com - No small business owner enjoys the countless intrusions in any given workday, annoying interruptions that keep you from being productive and efficient. But those daily disturbances are nothing when compared to the digital intrusions waiting to assault your network and — literally — bring your business to a crashing halt.
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SWOT Team: When Marketing Campaigns Flop
April 15, 2005 - marketingprofs.com - Every organization, at one point or another, has been an unknown entity. After planting the marketing seed, and with appropriate care and feeding, the company enjoys growth. Many small businesses start simple, perhaps passing out business cards, brochures and putting up a Web site. But what if such a campaign isn't bringing in new clients.
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Which Password Did I Use? Don’t Forget to Remember
April 15, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Passwords are for your protection, but you can’t take them for granted. Develop an easy to remember system and change your word often.
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Go ahead, sit under the bodhi tree
April 14, 2005 - usatoday.com - Business is bad and we may have to shut things down. I don't want to – this store is my baby. As the song goes – "Should I stay or should I go? If I stay there might be trouble, if I go there might be double." But the fact is, business, like life, is indeed cyclical. The challenge is knowing whether the down cycle is just that – a cycle – or instead represents something more permanent.
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Beyond Passwords: Stronger Authentication: Part 1
April 14, 2005 - smallbusinesscomputing.com - Today, many small businesses rely on passwords to keep their company and customer data secure. Although passwords do offer a certain amount of protection, stronger and more effective options exist that can significantly improve your company's data security.
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Merchants Balk At Credit-Card Fees
April 14, 2005 - startupjournal.com - The letter that arrived in late February at 30 Minute Photos Etc. was so nondescript that co-owner Carl Berman nearly tossed it in the trash. But then he read the fine print that infuriated him: As of April 1, merchants like 30 Minute Photos would pay a higher fee when customers used one of several premium Visa and MasterCard credit cards issued by the country's biggest banks.
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Top 5 Reasons to Use RSS
April 14, 2005 - marketingprofs.com - Over the last six months, blogging has gained recognition and understanding in the corporate world. However, there's still some confusion around a complimentary, equally useful technology called RSS.
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10 things you need for a home business
April 14, 2005 - microsoft.com - You've got an idea for a winner of a home-based business, and you're about ready to announce it to the world. Good for you. I certainly don't want to delay you from joining the millions of people now running viable businesses from the comfort of their own homes. But take a moment to read this checklist. It's the 10 things you need — besides customers — to start your home business off on the right foot.
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What's in a Name?
April 14, 2005 - morebusiness.com - Trademark lawyers are used to getting telephone calls like this: "I just received a threatening letter from a company charging me with trademark infringement . . but I registered that name in my state." More often than not, the caller has a real problem. There is a great deal of confusion over the legal meaning and significance of "fictitious" and corporate names
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You Need an Effective System to Grow Your Business
April 14, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Chances are, you have a system for attracting new customers, and a system for selling more products to your current list of customers. But, are these systems as effective as they could be? Are they producing the level of results you want each month?
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Promotional Blogs on the Rise
April 14, 2005 - clickz.com - Marketers use blogs, both in text and video form ("vlogs"), to connect with audiences and generate buzz about products, offerings, and events. Blogs are reaching new creative heights, and companies are establishing a new standard of blog marketing.
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Pricing New, Used and Collectible Goods for Sale
April 14, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - Pricing new, used and collectible products for resale is more difficult than most people new to the buy-and-sell game think, yet pricing is a very important element of the marketing mix. If your prices are too high, you will meet with great resistance to buying. If your prices are too low, you may also meet with resistance because of perceived quality issues, and you probably won't make any money on the sales you have.
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Yahoo! Announces Free Business Web Sites
April 14, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - Yahoo! today announced a new feature on Yahoo! Local that provides free Web sites for small businesses — with some limitations. This service enables small businesses to quickly and easily establish an online presence and connect with the increasing number of consumers using the Internet to find local products and services.
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David vs. Goliath, the Rematch
April 14, 2005 - businessweek.com - Have you ever lost a sale because a prospective customer favored a larger competitor just because of its size? It's a problem almost every small business faces at some point. So I asked some of my David-sized readers for their solutions to fighting Goliath competitors. Here are some of their nuggets of wisdom.
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Top Ten Great Headline Ideas
April 14, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Headlines are far more important than the copy beneath them. If you don't use headlines within your chapter or in your Web site sales letters and article titles, you will lose your audience's attention in a few seconds. And, that's serious.
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Planning Ahead With Your Designer
April 14, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Whenever you work with a designer other than the original who created your logo, stationery and marketing materials, we suggest a few practices that will prove invaluable for ensuring a consistent look and feel across all of your marketing communications.
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Drop Shipping Secrets and Sources Revealed
April 13, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - Unfortunately for those just breaking into the wholesaling business, drop-shipping source information is jealously guarded. With a firm understanding of the service they offer, it isn’t hard to see why. As opposed to the typical wholesale resource, drop-shippers offer a myriad of benefits to their buyers.
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60-Second Guide to Retaining the Records Your Business Needs
April 13, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Don’t get caught in the business records runaround. In just 60 seconds, we’ll give you some guidelines for culling that plethora of paper down to the essentials.
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Don't get busted: Get a business license
April 13, 2005 - microsoft.com - Up against the wall, spread your feet apart. You're busted for running an unlicensed business. Take it easy; I ain't no copper. But get wise — there are probably millions of small businesses running their rackets without the necessary permits and licenses.
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Basics Of Marketing
April 13, 2005 - workz.com - Knowing what marketing actually is can be fundamental to any business, however small. No business can avoid marketing; without it, no one would know you existed. Of course, your actual merchandise or service is just as important, but without marketing, a brilliant idea is wasted.
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Yahoo! Offers Free Sites to Small Businesses
April 13, 2005 - Yahoo! is offering every small business with a physical U.S. address a free, five-page Web site, the company announced today. Those sites will automatically be integrated into Yahoo! Local search results.
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Do You Know: All About Web Site Hosting
April 13, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - The time has come to give your business a presence on the Web. Once you've created (or had someone create) a Web site and content, the question of where to put it still remains. You can choose from a wide range of Web site hosting options, and the good news is that the more expensive ones may not always be the best choice. It all comes down to your budget and the type of presence you want on the World Wide Web.
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How To Edit Your Articles As You Write
April 13, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Increase your ezine subscribers by submitting articles once or twice a week to the opt-in ezines. Read by thousands, even hundreds of thousands, you get 10-25 new subscribers for each submission. Your articles also bring people to your Web site to buy your products. Use this checklist to edit your own work.
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Tips for Starting a Home Business
April 13, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Starting a home business is a dream that many people share. You can work according to your own schedule, "fire" difficult clients, avoid difficult bosses, spend more time with your family, escape a lot of the daily stress faced by employees at their jobs, and pursue your own interest more. It's a big leap from being an employee to working for yourself, so a little preliminary planning can never hurt.
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Small Business Tax Basics
April 12, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Next to profits, taxes may be the most important issue facing every small business. And like your firm´s profits, your annual tax bill will in part reflect your skills and knowledge. You´ll want to be sure that you are meeting all of your responsibilities to the tax man -- and also seizing every opportunity to reduce your taxes. Use these five tax tips to make sure you´re not giving Uncle Sam more than his due.
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Make old software work on a new Windows XP machine
April 12, 2005 - microsoft.com - Windows XP is the most stable and secure of the Windows operating systems. That's why it's crucial that all of the desktops on your network run it. But many small businesses are using at least one computer with an older version of Windows.
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Email newsletters: 12 alternatives to writing ‘standard’ articles
April 12, 2005 - marketingcues.com - Do you find writing for your email newsletter tedious? Do you postpone publishing an email newsletter because you dread having to write articles on a regular basis?
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What Is Spyware & Why You Should Take Precautions
April 12, 2005 - workz.com - Anti-spyware programs will scan your hard drive and files. After the scan process has been completed, the anti-spyware program will supply you with a list of spyware threats. The program can only scan for viruses and spyware its been made aware of, so it is important to download updates on a regular basis. Updates are provided daily and weekly - isn't that scary - to those who have a subscription. Whatever option you decide upon, the sooner you take action to protect yourself against spyware the better.
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Got Feedback?
April 12, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Businesses must use every tool at their disposal to create a successful online presence. With so much effort being spent on crafting exactly the right message and format, entrepreneurs would do well to remember that successful communication is a two-way street. And just as we would never think of hanging up on a sales call, neither should we stifle the vital feedback from our online customers.
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Microloans Can Make a Big Difference
April 12, 2005 - fortune.com - Small-business owners who don't qualify for traditional bank loans may find that they can borrow money from microlenders
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Target Your Market With Appropriate Ad Copy
April 12, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - Follow these four steps to craft copy that's guaranteed to reach your ideal customer.
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Marketing doesn't have to bust a budget
April 12, 2005 - businessweek.com - A marketing campaign might seem like a luxury to many small business owners who don't have budgets for consultants or publicists. But marketing can be relatively simple and inexpensive for many small companies.
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Digital Printing vs. Press Printing — A Comparison Guide
April 12, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - When it comes time to print your brand identity materials, there's one overarching question for you to consider — whether to print the resulting materials on a digital printer or traditional press. There are many differences between the two processes, some of which are outlined below.
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The Benefits of Outsourcing for Small Businesses
April 08, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Outsourcing -- the practice of using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company -- is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. Small companies routinely outsource their payroll processing, accounting, distribution and many other important functions -- often because they have no other choice. Many large companies turn to outsourcing to cut costs. In response, entire industries have evolved to serve companies´ outsourcing needs.
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Seven Ways to Improve Your Results with Follow-up
April 08, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - What follows is a bold statement, but sometimes it takes a bold statement to get people’s attention. One of the most important and yet overlooked skills in business today is follow-up. This applies to many parts of our business: Customer service and care, marketing, leadership, networking, branding, and more. It is a habit and a discipline that, when used effectively and regularly, will change your results and your life. Here are seven ways to incorporate more follow-up into your practices – and therefore seven ways to increase your results.
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Entrepreneurs reinvent the family farm
April 08, 2005 - msn.com - Bill Wilson was 35 when it hit him: He wasn't happy working as a financial planner, and never would be. So he bought the farm. It was a vineyard, actually. Eighty-six acres in Temecula, Calif. Wilson persuaded his family — parents, brother, sister and spouses — to buy it together.
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Intention, attitude are keys to learning
April 08, 2005 - usatoday.com - Intention and attitude make a big difference in how much or how little you gain or lose in any situation. And that includes workshops and business courses.
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Is Your Small Business Trademark Infringement Proof?
April 08, 2005 - about.com - It happens. Small business owners casually name their product or service and step right into the trademark infringement landmine. Has your small business taken the necessary steps to protect against trademark infringement?
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Do You Know: All About Web Site Hosting
April 08, 2005 - smallbusinesscomputing.com - The time has come to give your business a presence on the Web. Once you've created (or had someone create) the Web site and content, the question of where to put it still remains. You can choose from a wide range of Web site hosting options, and the good news is that the more expensive ones may not always be the best choice. It all comes down to your budget and the type of presence you want on the World Wide Web.
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7 ways to look good to a lender
April 08, 2005 - microsoft.com - Even as interest rates remain at attractive levels, many people looking to start or expand a business venture are having trouble getting a loan. Banks may be pushing great deals on home-equity credit lines and other loan offerings, but they also are being extremely selective about who they lend to. Now more than ever, you must engender the trust and confidence of your lender.
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The Domain Name debate: Brand versus Keywords
April 08, 2005 - marketingcues.com - As prices have never been so low, you may consider buying multiple domain names as a cost-effective option to drive more traffic to your website. When it comes to choosing a domain name, there are two schools of thought. You can either elect to register a domain name based on a new or existing brand name e.g. business name, trademark, product brand name or one or more keywords that you perceive will help your target market to find you.
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Learn About Forum Technology And Forum Hosts
April 08, 2005 - workz.com - Once you've decided on a revenue strategy and planned your community, you'll need to choose a structure for your forum and find the software or software provider that suits your needs. Your choices are Web-based, e-mail based, and chat-based software.
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Starting a Medical Billing Business
April 08, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Medical billing is a business that can easily be done at home, even on a part-time basis. However, running it as a business takes more than just the technical know-how: you need to know how to manage and run a business, market and promote to get clients, and possess financial savvy to turn it into a success.
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Contingency Planning: Best Practices
April 08, 2005 - clickz.com - Revenue is lost every year because of unexpected things that go wrong during a user's online experience. Sophisticated companies have contingency plans for when things go unexpectedly wrong -- or unexpectedly well. Today, a look at some best practices in contingency planning.
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Common Business Plan Mistakes to Avoid
April 08, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - In the more than 30 years I've been involved with business planning, I've seen styles and fashion of plans change a lot, but the fundamentals remain fairly constant. To help you craft a plan that hits all the right notes, here's a list of some of the more common business planning mistakes you should avoid.
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Battling Fraud on eBay: Part II - Precautions, Remedies and Antidotes
April 08, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - As covered in Part I, eBay's success makes it a huge bullseye in cyberspace. This grim reality can be countered and the threat defused, with common sense precautions and modest effort.
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Marketing doesn't have to bust a budget
April 08, 2005 - businessweek.com - A marketing campaign might seem like a luxury to many small business owners who don't have budgets for consultants or publicists. But marketing can be relatively simple and inexpensive for many small companies.
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Three Brand Identity Myths That Will Bring Your Business Down
April 08, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Having a brand identity is extremely important to your business's success. However, many business owners have misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their businesses.
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Exposing Your Expertise
April 08, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Writing and leveraging articles is my most successful strategy for promoting my Website and my speaking and consulting services. Visitors to your site from targeted articles tend to be higher quality leads than those from search engines, and potential buyers like to see that you're published in many credible outlets.
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5 tips for selling goods through eBay
April 07, 2005 - microsoft.com - Are you looking for a way to boost sales? Well, who isn't? If the people I've talked to for this article are typical, then selling through an eBay store could light a fire under your business.
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Staying Off the Spam Lists
April 07, 2005 - morebusiness.com - If you spend much time doing business on the Net -- or even just using it for pleasure and entertainment -- chances are you're going to end up on some spam lists. How can you minimize your exposure?
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Designing Ads For Your Target Audience
April 07, 2005 - workz.com - So you've done your research into your target audience's in technical sophistication, and you've decided which technology you can safely and effectively use in your banner ad. This is a great start, but there's still something more you should know about your audience: their "sensibilities." What appeals to them visually? What "lingo" do they use? Do they respond to hard-sell tactics or are they alienated by them? Answers to questions like these will dictate the style of your banner ad.
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What Do Women Want Online? Ten Tips for E-tailers
April 07, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - Reaching female consumers is critical to the success of many online merchants. An expert talks about the key principles involved in serving this all-important demographic.
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Spring Cleaning for your Computer
April 07, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - At least once a year, better if you do it twice, take a few minutes to clean your computer. Inside and out.
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Small Business Financing Options
April 06, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Money is the mother's milk of any startup. Access to capital often determines whether a fledgling enterprise succeeds or dies in infancy. There are several common types of business financing options available to young companies.
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Once You've Decided to Incorporate
April 06, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Once you´ve decided to incorporate your business, you have more decisions to make. You have to decide which type of corporation to form and where to incorporate.
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Website Design Basic Concepts
April 06, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - So, what's in a website design anyway? And, how do you get a design that is appealing to the broad and varied tastes of all those Internet surfers out there? This is critical. Your website design is the first impression you make on your customers and visitors.
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Newsletters: Low-Cost Strategy to Create Loyal Customers
April 06, 2005 - nfib.com - Customers are always interested in learning more about what interests them and what helps them in their own business activities. Creating newsletters that are filled with pertinent information is one of the best ways to give added value to customers and keep your name in front of them, and thereby encourage them to continue doing business with you.
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E-mail Delivery Myths: Throwing Out the Good With the Bad
April 06, 2005 - inc.com - Spam filters could be killing your e-mail marketing program. Here are three deliverability myths and how you can break through them.
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Have You Checked Your Web Site Today?
April 06, 2005 - workz.com - Running an online business presents a unique opportunity difficult for most brick-and-mortar companies: Rather than maintaining set business hours at a set location, online customers can access your products and service information at any time, anywhere. This opportunity also presents the challenge of monitoring your Web site 24/7 to ensure that customers don't face the frustration of slow-loading pages, a downed server or access denial to certain parts of the site. Your online business depends on your customers having complete, reliable and uninterrupted access to your Web site and to any online accounts they may have with you.
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Podcasting Grows In Popularity
April 06, 2005 - clickz.com - According to new research from The Pew Internet and American Life Project, 29 percent of Americans over the age of 18 with iPods or other MP3 players have listened to podcasts. Pew had predicted the growth early this year after studying sales of portable MP3 players.
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Battling Fraud on Ebay: Part I
April 06, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - Today, few things cost eBay users as much money and grief as account hijacking. At the vangaurd of this threat is an attack known by the warm and fuzzy name of phishing - emails sent by thieves posing as legitimate online businesses with the intent of hijacking passwords and other sensitive personal data.
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Is Pay Per Click your Best Marketing Bet?
April 06, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - You may already have heard of this method to get people to your web site. From my point of view and experience it turns out to be expensive and you have to write the ads yourself, pay for them, and change and maintain them to be the correct ones to work and be the right price in competition with many others.
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How to Run A Successful Affiliate Program
April 06, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - Many people will sign up with an affiliate program promoting the affiliate's product or program. This makes sense. Starting as an affiliate marketer is probably the easiest way to get started online. There are many affiliate programs out there that will give you everything you need to promote their products or program.
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Typical Funding Mistakes That You Should Avoid
April 05, 2005 - startupjournal.com - Whether you're bootstrapping a new business from your basement or thinking big and trying to raise thousands of dollars from investors, making certain funding mistakes can be fatal.
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Business Planning: Who Needs It?
April 05, 2005 - smallbusinesscomputing.com - Only 42 percent of the businesses surveyed in the AT&T study had a formal business plan — a statistic that hasn't changed much in the past 10 years. Yet according to more recent studies, companies with strategic plans enjoy greater revenue and profit growth than companies that don't have one, and their failure rate is much lower.
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Sales Therapy 101: Breaking Your Fear of Cold Calling
April 05, 2005 - about.com - If you can let go of your old-school belief system and open up to the possibility that there is a more natural, comfortable way to cold call -- one that doesn't trigger rejection -- you'll be surprised by how easily you'll break through and overcome your fear of cold calling.
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Using Infographics in Your Business Communications
April 05, 2005 - soho-it-goes.com - We learn early in life that "a picture is worth a thousand words" and know from experience that this is true. Graphics in general can illustrate information, and infographics take it a step further. By visually depicting the information in a small amount of space, infographics better explain, educate, or inform the reader. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information, infographics assure that the information we share will be considered.
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Minimize Your Shipping Expenses
April 05, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Shipping and mailing can be financial sinkholes for small businesses. The wide variety of shipping rates means that you can end up paying far too much to ship products, send correspondence and mail marketing materials. Those expenses can´t be avoided entirely, but you can limit the costs of shipping by following these steps.
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Blogger's Must Email Every New Blog Entry
April 05, 2005 - emailuniverse.com - So you finally did it. You decided to create your new blog and you even got in the rhythm of adding new posts almost every day or every other day. You've got a few hundred posts but no one seems to be commenting yet on any of your entries. What's missing? If you guessed the "email publishing" component, you win the prize.
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8 ways to make a budget work
April 05, 2005 - microsoft.com - Get started by reminding yourself that your business budget is not a monster. It's nothing more than a set of guidelines for your spending and saving habits. Below, I've laid out some common problems that pop up with many established budgets, along with some solutions that can help you stay within budgetary guidelines.
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Email newsletters: 12 alternatives to writing ‘standard’ articles
April 05, 2005 - workz.com - Do you find writing for your email newsletter tedious? Do you postpone publishing an email newsletter because you dread having to write articles on a regular basis? Readers are looking for fresh, useful and interesting information. The way you present that information can take various forms. Instead of writing a 'standard article', try these ideas for a change:
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3 Secrets To Making Money With Affiliate Programs
April 05, 2005 - workz.com - One of the most common discussions regarding affiliate programs revolves around whether it's good to send visitors away from your site. The answer is simple. If you haven't established a relationship with a visitor to your Web site, that is what you should focus on first. The people who are making good money with affiliate programs use these programs to endorse third-party products and services to their customers.
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10 Weekend Home Businesses
April 05, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - If you are finding it hard to make ends meet, you may want to augment your income by running a low-cost business from home during weekends and your spare time.
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Metrics Matter
April 05, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - I like to think of Web traffic analysis as “market research that cannot lie”. The reports show you what visitors do on your site of their own accord, without prompting or other influence. Not to discount focus groups, surveys and asking your favorite clients for feedback – those are important tools as well, but not as powerful.
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5 Tips for HOT Yellow Pages Ads
April 05, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - The Yellow Pages is generally a reference tool. People look for a name they recognize (or can't remember) or for a name given by a friend. Your ad should help them remember. The only other use of the Yellow Pages is to look for an emergency services. That's why you see lots of tow truck ads and no ads from Sears. Design your ad accordingly.
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11 Simple Ways To Increase Website Conversion (Part 2 Of 2)
April 04, 2005 - workz.com - In Part Two of our two-part series focused on helping you increase website conversion rates, we continue with the last six of a total of eleven easy-to-implement tips to help you turn more of your website visitors into loyal customers.
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Using Contracts for Your Home Business
April 04, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - If you are involved in a service business, contracts with customers are a must. It ensures that both you and your client agree to the services that you will deliver, in what timeframe, and under what conditions.
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E-Mail List Testing, Step by Step
April 04, 2005 - clickz.com - Testing rented e-mail lists' value determines how effectively they generate new customers and how to model them to find similar successful ones to expand your e-mail program. As in the postal world, continually testing, retesting, and rolling out on e-mail lists in a prudent manner is a best practice.
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The IRS and eBay: Tax Season Is Here
April 04, 2005 - auctionbytes.com - It's that time of year - April 15 is looming. As if I wasn't already thinking about it, the Associated Press ran an article about eBay sellers and whether they were required to report eBay income on their taxes. How do you know if you are required to report eBay income in your taxes?
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Choosing the Right Image for Your Business
April 04, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - If you're like millions of other small-business owners, creating a professional, visual image is key to your success. After all, your image--as seen on your business cards, marketing materials, packaging and website--is the first, and sometimes only, chance you have to introduce your company to potential customers. If your customers like what they see, you're one big step closer to getting their business.
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Have You Backed Up Your Data Today?
April 04, 2005 - businessweek.com - Data loss can damage -- or kill -- your business. But new technologies offer ways to make sure every bit and byte is protected
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Hiring Employees for Your Home-Based Business
April 01, 2005 - allbusiness.com - Success for a home-based business can produce a feeling of elation, quickly followed by panic as you realize you do not have enough hours in the day to get everything done. Instead of becoming overwhelmed with stress and spending every waking minute slaving away, you may need to hire some employees to offset your work load.
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How to Get a Knock Out Website
April 01, 2005 - ezinearticles.com - Your website can fuel your sales and profits like no one’s business. With good research, planning and a clarity on website objectives you can make it happen. Make your site usable and valuable to the visitors and keep them coming back for more.
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How to borrow from the SBA
April 01, 2005 - microsoft.com - The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in some ways serves as the cash cow for fledgling businesses through the agency's myriad loan guarantees and direct grants, resulting in an overall portfolio of more than $45 billion. Whether you're shopping for startup financing or expansion capital, the SBA should be a destination. In a moment, I'm going to give you a guided tour of the various options available to business owners.
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Create the Buzz for Your Business
April 01, 2005 - powerhomebiz.com - Word of mouth is one of the most effective and low-cost marketing strategies around. Yet few home business entrepreneurs know how it works and how to use it.
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Put Family First in the Family Company
April 01, 2005 - entreworld.org - The best advice I ever got about running a family business came from a fellow entrepreneur at the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO), and it came just in time. The advice was that sometimes “putting family first means not putting family first.”
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Affiliate Week Profile: Commission Junction
April 01, 2005 - ecommerce-guide.com - For anyone looking to make some big bucks through affiliate advertising, one destination that you must seek is Commission Junction. With a number of online giants behind it, a detailed reporting system and a huge ad selection, Commission Junction offers a bevy of choices almost guaranteed to boost your bottom line.
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Trading Up
April 01, 2005 - entrepreneur.com - No cash? No problem. Here's how smart entrepreneurs use barter to help save money, create connections and grow their businesses.
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People DO NOT Buy From Websites......
April 01, 2005 - smallbusinessbrief.com - For a long time online I believed it was only a matter of putting a website online and that the rest would fall into place. The sales would roll in and if I created the perfect website and sent some targeted visitors consistently then I would be rich. This idea was very far from the whole truth. Selling is more about selling yourself than it is about selling a product.
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