Posts Tagged ‘Google’

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Sun Tzu stated in his Art of War, that you should attack, where the enemy is weakest.

In the contemporary business world, most business owners seeking company growth fail to understand how to achieve free online business advertising. If they did, then their business growth could be exponential.

In business war terms, your enemies are your competitors, and your competitor’s weakness is frequently identified by business management consultants and business consultancy firms as their online e-commerce presence.

If addressed correctly a companies growth can be staggering.

It doesn’t matter which business sector you hail from, adopting these free small business advertising tactics can lead to exponential growth of business.

Company growth secrets from free online business advertising outlines financial & growth benefits. Growth can be achieved by business owners tapping into a companies growth strategies afforded by the new online advertising options like Google domination.

One of the most restrictive business growth factors is a lack of a business sector small business advertising budget.

Business consultancy firms typically hire SEO specialists to solve this issue.

Every business owner aspires for fast company growth in sales and profitability and always looks for the right means to achieve business growth.

Experiencing business growth is both a struggle and a pleasure, as every business sector owner tries to reduce the struggle and concentrate his efforts on accomplishing their companies growth.

Business management consultants suggest one of the most important aspects relating to growth of business is to systematically re-invest part of the profits back into the business.

Out of the many conventional marketing strategies which a growing business adopts, advertising and brand building should figure at the top of the marketing strategy.

There is a wide choice of free online business advertising and even more free small business advertising strategies available to business owners.

It has been suggested that given the penetration of the Internet throughout the business world, using cyber space as an effective advertising media is fast catching on amongst the business community.

Innovative methods of free online business advertising are being used to effectively increase the reach of the business.

Business growth from free small business advertising is an important concept which should not be overlooked by either small or large business organizations.

Some business consultancy firms estimate the number of websites will shortly exceed the total population of the world, and numerous new websites are being launched every day.

Most of the websites look for different streams of revenues, and posting advertisements is one of the most popular means of revenue for many websites. PPC or Pay Per Click is also popular within the business sector as a means of instantly achieving business growth.

This is because the fees are payable to the websites only when the users click on the advertisement. At all other times its acts as a free advertisement.

Business management consultants and business consultancy firms who work with start-up businesses stress the need for low cost advertisements, since advertising budgets of businesses during the start-up phase are low and often nonexistent.

However one of the best kept secrets for achieving company growth is to identify the online outlets which offer free online business advertising and free small business advertising designed to assist a companies growth.

There are also many websites which allow free advertisements for a stipulated period of time and charge the businesses only after the free period.

Some online marketeers emphasize the need for every business to use innovative methods of low cost or free online business advertising for business development, and the growth of business. Utilising the following free small business advertising, secrets can turbo charge your company growth.

Free Online Business Advertising Company Growth Secrets #1 Web Site Blog

Every business sector seeking business growth is being advised by business management consultants to incorporate a Blog into their business web site.

I suggest writing your own business Blog is one of the greatest free online business advertising strategies required to achieve a companies growth.

It is no great secret that business consultancy firms are also promoting a well written Blog as one of the most effective growth of business tactics.

Free Online Business Advertising Company Growth Secrets #2 Writing Online Articles

It has also been suggested that the internet is a huge source of valuable information which can be tapped into for business growth for any business sector.

Many business management consultants and business consultancy firms have identified the writing of online articles as one of the most successful free small business advertising strategies required to achieve growth of business.

It is unlikely that anyone knows your business as well as you, so it makes sense for you to write your own online articles about you, and/or your company’s products and services. Once published online, your articles will help to drive customer traffic to your web site.

Free Online Business Advertising Company Growth Secrets #3 Online Article Submission Sites

Business consultancy firms and business management consultants promoting business growth advocate submitting your online articles to any number of the online article submission sites.

However caution is advised as there are literally tens of thousands of these online article submission sites, and like any business sector there are good and bad submission sites.

To increase your companies growth by submitting your articles to submission sites, you need to understand the relevance of free small business advertising as opposed to some of the submission sites who charge fees for this service.

In a nutshell you are looking for growth of business, so the concept of an article submission site posting your business article to hundreds or thousands of other business web sites and Blogs will undoubtedly assist in any companies growth.

Free Online Business Advertising Company Growth Secrets #4 Google 1st Page Listings

Business consultancy firms and business management consultants suggest that irrespective of your business sector, fantastic business growth can be achieved by having one or more of your business articles placing on the first page of Google and or other major search engines.

It is generally recognised that online buyers are 4 to 6 times more likely to buy from a business that has a natural organic listing on a search engine first page, as opposed to a business paying for a sponsored link or pay per click campaign.

This medium of free small business advertising really assists any growth of business and all business owners should be aware that 66% of all business buyers now utilise a major search engine for initial research before buying. Having a 1st page listing assists any companies growth.

Free Online Business Advertising Company Growth Secrets #5 Google Domination

The SEO MS advises that Google domination is such a secretive art that very few online marketing companies or business consultancy firms know how to harness this powerful free small business advertising strategy. Growth of business for any business sector can be achieved by implementing the concept of Google domination.

Google domination is simply having your business article or articles dominating the first page natural listings. Business management consultants suggest that when a purchaser searches for a product or service that you or your business sells, it inspires supreme confidence if you or your company dominate the Google listings.

To achieve maximum business growth you want your articles to feature above the scroll, which in reality means dominating the top 5 listings on Google and other search engines.

Achieve this and the likelihood of your companies growth increases significantly.

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Everyone arrives at a website that has management education information. Some help manage businesses. Some teach small business owners how to succeed. Others are communities. At first the new business owner passes these by. The day will come when all business owners stop and consider joining one of these groups. Unfortunately, if that day doesn’t come, the business owner statistically reduces their chances of success.

Management education is the key to small business success. But, according to some statistics only 36 per cent of small business owners take any professional development advice, courses, or read books. This could explain why most small businesses will go under in the first five years.

Too many small businesses are poorly funded with insufficient working capital to allow stable, controllable growth. The business owner’s lack of education and development leave them unable to manage their time and money effectively.

Compare this to large companies where all managers typically receive professional development training on a quarterly or yearly basis. In fact, many large corporations now run their own ‘in house’ Internet based schools. The correlation between education and success has been proven time and again.

Not all types of education are equal. Not all training venues are equal.

Where To Seek Advice

The net is a viable source of free information. Some good, most bad. The best rule of thumb is to follow the success rates. Find a website that offers advice. Then, check them out. Do they own a company? Are there employees? Can you find a business location? Phone the company, ask a few questions.

Do you really want to take advice from a business that has not reached a level of success where they need office space, staff, or even a business phone? The next step is to Google the guru’s and company’s name. You want to see hundreds of references to that company, proving that they are successful and respected by other people in the industry.

Types of Education

There are several types of business management education the small business owner needs.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT skills are needed to learn how to increase productivity, manage time, keep projects on track, and understand business law. A business manager can take this type of education free on the net, by reading books, and by hiring a life coach.

College courses will probably not afford the information needed by buying a ‘get started’ or ‘how we succeeded’ package from a proven success.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT is an art more than a science. All business owners need to take crisis management courses. The confidence that you can handle an emergency effectively and efficiently is often enough to help the business owner ride out the most traumatic down turn, or devastating situation.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT is the ability to bring together all types of people, and resources. The objective is to create a time table, and a budget, that includes contingencies for emergencies and problems. The objective is to make sure that projects are finished before their deadlines.

ACCOUNTING is vital, even if the business owner never plans to take charge of their own bookkeeping. Millions of business owners have been robbed, and even ended up in jail for tax fraud, because they could not read a general journal.

No one can create effective cash flow charts and projections without first understanding how to manage a set of books. A small business owner may use one of the bookkeeping programs that ‘does it all.’ However, without a basic understanding of accounting procedures the numbers mean nothing.

Learning the basics of accounting will help the business owner translate their balance sheet into a business building, success creating, management tool.

COMMUNICATION STYLES teaches business managers how to get their point across without causing problems. Most clients are lost by someone who does not understand the basic concept of ‘communication styles.’

MARKETING can be the most confusing, and yet most powerful tool in a business owner’s arsenal. It is the one thing that will help them know the difference between an opportunity and a scam. Without a basic understanding of the concepts of marketing, it will be almost impossible to start a business without buying a ‘get started’ or ‘how to succeed’ kit from a business management success and mentor.

Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making “slide presentations” in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations. This event took place on March 21, 2008, as a part of the Authors@Google series.

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Going back to basic, marketing is a system to present your offer in front of your customer. You can go out and present the offer using different advertising channels or you can create a system to attract customer to your product or service. Business Franchising There are tons of ways that you can use to market your business without burning a hole in your pocket.
Most business owners feel that they don’t need marketing because they are doing ok. They forget the natural system of business. If a business is not growing each day then it’s shrinking. Nothing in this world stands still. It can either grow or become extinct. What you choose to do will decide the fate of your business.
Here are five ninja marketing techniques that you can use to market your business both online and offline. It only takes few minutes each day and you don’t have to spend any money. This is not some old school marketing approach. These techniques are measurable and solid.
1. Blog – Blog is a web diary where you can post the daily activities of your business and marketplace. These posts should be more directed towards your customers.
You can create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Blogs can become an automated customer attraction system because search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs.
2. Simple SEO – Most people think that search engine optimization is too technical and scary but its not. If you can create an email account and login to your email then you can perform basic seo to your website easily.
If you have your web hosting details then you can change the following in 10 mins without reading any technical manual. Just get access to your index.html or index.htm page
Title tag – Your offer with a main keyword (no more than 60 word count)  Meta description – Your offer explained in more detail with your phone# (no more than 200 word count)  Meta keyword – few keywords related to your business ( no more than 60 word count)
3. Social Media – Most people use Face book and My Space for fun but you can easily use these free tools for business. You can create free face book groups and MySpace pages with your business details. Add new content each week to these pages and watch your network sky rocket.
4. Articles – One of the easiest ways to generated tons of traffic to your business website is by writing articles. You must writer 2-3 articles every week and submit to popular article directories like EzinerArticles.com. Article positions you as expert and build credibility.
You can go to news.google and search for new content related to your business.
5. Google Analytics – Marketing is not only about getting new customers but it’s also about measuring current conversion.  Google Analytics is free and most powerful tracking system. You can install analytics on a 5-10 page website in minutes.
To quick install Google Analytics you must go to google.com/analytics and create a new account. It will ask you to enter your website address and then it will give you a code. Copy the code and paste it every where before the < /body > tag on your website.
Now you can track your website and get tons of data on customer value, loyalty and conversion.

For years I have seen small business owners struggle to grow their business. Most business owners think that they need lot of money to market and grow their business to next level. I agree that it takes money to advertise and hire a sales team but I can argue whole day about money and marketing.
Going back to basic, marketing is a system to present your offer in front of your customer. You can go out and present the offer using different advertising channels or you can create a system to attract customer to your product or service. Business Franchising There are tons of ways that you can use to market your business without burning a hole in your pocket.
Most business owners feel that they don’t need marketing because they are doing ok. They forget the natural system of business. If a business is not growing each day then it’s shrinking. Nothing in this world stands still. It can either grow or become extinct. What you choose to do will decide the fate of your business.
Here are five ninja marketing techniques that you can use to market your business both online and offline. It only takes few minutes each day and you don’t have to spend any money. This is not some old school marketing approach. These techniques are measurable and solid.
1. Blog – Blog is a web diary where you can post the daily activities of your business and marketplace. These posts should be more directed towards your customers.
You can create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Blogs can become an automated customer attraction system because search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs.
2. Simple SEO – Most people think that search engine optimization is too technical and scary but its not. If you can create an email account and login to your email then you can perform basic seo to your website easily.
If you have your web hosting details then you can change the following in 10 mins without reading any technical manual. Just get access to your index.html or index.htm page
Title tag – Your offer with a main keyword (no more than 60 word count)  Meta description – Your offer explained in more detail with your phone# (no more than 200 word count)  Meta keyword – few keywords related to your business ( no more than 60 word count)
3. Social Media – Most people use Face book and My Space for fun but you can easily use these free tools for business. You can create free face book groups and MySpace pages with your business details. Add new content each week to these pages and watch your network sky rocket.
4. Articles – One of the easiest ways to generated tons of traffic to your business website is by writing articles. You must writer 2-3 articles every week and submit to popular article directories like EzinerArticles.com. Article positions you as expert and build credibility.
You can go to news.google and search for new content related to your business.
5. Google Analytics – Marketing is not only about getting new customers but it’s also about measuring current conversion.  Google Analytics is free and most powerful tracking system. You can install analytics on a 5-10 page website in minutes.
To quick install Google Analytics you must go to google.com/analytics and create a new account. It will ask you to enter your website address and then it will give you a code. Copy the code and paste it every where before the < /body > tag on your website.
Now you can track your website and get tons of data on customer value, loyalty and conversion.
For years I have seen small business owners struggle to grow their business. Most business owners think that they need lot of money to market and grow their business to next level. I agree that it takes money to advertise and hire a sales team but I can argue whole day about money and marketing.
Going back to basic, marketing is a system to present your offer in front of your customer. You can go out and present the offer using different advertising channels or you can create a system to attract customer to your product or service. Business Franchising There are tons of ways that you can use to market your business without burning a hole in your pocket.
Most business owners feel that they don’t need marketing because they are doing ok. They forget the natural system of business. If a business is not growing each day then it’s shrinking. Nothing in this world stands still. It can either grow or become extinct. What you choose to do will decide the fate of your business.
Here are five ninja marketing techniques that you can use to market your business both online and offline. It only takes few minutes each day and you don’t have to spend any money. This is not some old school marketing approach. These techniques are measurable and solid.
1. Blog – Blog is a web diary where you can post the daily activities of your business and marketplace. These posts should be more directed towards your customers.
You can create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Blogs can become an automated customer attraction system because search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs.
2. Simple SEO – Most people think that search engine optimization is too technical and scary but its not. If you can create an email account and login to your email then you can perform basic seo to your website easily.
If you have your web hosting details then you can change the following in 10 mins without reading any technical manual. Just get access to your index.html or index.htm page
Title tag – Your offer with a main keyword (no more than 60 word count)  Meta description – Your offer explained in more detail with your phone# (no more than 200 word count)  Meta keyword – few keywords related to your business ( no more than 60 word count)
3. Social Media – Most people use Face book and My Space for fun but you can easily use these free tools for business. You can create free face book groups and MySpace pages with your business details. Add new content each week to these pages and watch your network sky rocket.
4. Articles – One of the easiest ways to generated tons of traffic to your business website is by writing articles. You must writer 2-3 articles every week and submit to popular article directories like EzinerArticles.com. Article positions you as expert and build credibility.
You can go to news.google and search for new content related to your business.
5. Google Analytics – Marketing is not only about getting new customers but it’s also about measuring current conversion.  Google Analytics is free and most powerful tracking system. You can install analytics on a 5-10 page website in minutes.
To quick install Google Analytics you must go to google.com/analytics and create a new account. It will ask you to enter your website address and then it will give you a code. Copy the code and paste it every where before the < /body > tag on your website.
Now you can track your website and get tons of data on customer value, loyalty and conversion.

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SEOPressFormula, Your Business In A Box System For Driving Massive Free Traffic From Google, Yahoo & Msn. 5 Hours Of How To Videos, Ebook, & 2 Fee SEO Optimized WordPress Themes.
SEOPressFormula: Business In A Box – Free Traffic System.

What are affordable SEO services? If you are looking for SEO services these prices may range from as little as $200 a month to $5000 a month. There are several different factors that affect the amount of work and quality of search engine optimization services you sign up for.

Cheap SEO services: Ironically, the cheaper the services, the higher the promises will be. Such as ‘Get ranked #1′, ‘Get ranked in a week’, ‘Guaranteed 1st page rankings within in a month’. This may sound good and is not actually false advertising. You might notice, that when an SEO company promises guaranteed first page rankings, they are saying what keyword or keywords your website will show up for. In fact, your website shows up #1 by default if your domain name is searched for. For example, if your website’s name is ‘www.discountpetsupplies.com’ you are likely to show up #1 for discount pet supplies. Additionally, if your website domain name does not match what you do, it is easy to have your website show up on the top page of google for an obscure keyphrase that does not match your business. Additionally, there are additional free utilities that will show what your website shows up in Google for in the first or second page. It is very likely that your website already shows in the first or second page in Google for an obscure word or phrase that you are not aware of.

What do Search Engine Optimization services include?: When a company is providing SEO services, it can include internal website search engine optimization, external SEO services, or both! Excluding scam SEO services that are extremely cheap, SEO services may also be cheap because it only includes optimization work performed on a website. This means that your website may be structured to target specific key phrases both in the back-end code of your website and the content. However, this is what is called, ‘partial SEO’. This level of service is partial because it does not include link building. What is link building you ask? Google evaluates every single website in the world that has a link or hyperlink that points to your website. This is Google’s and other search engine’s primary ranking system for determining the popularity and worth of your website. Without including link building, your SEO campaign is not complete and will not be successful.

How long do SEO services take to work?: Successful consistent rankings and results can only be achieved by signing up for at least 3 months of service! The reason for this is because Google will visit and evaluate every website in the work once a month on average. The frequency of visits for major search engines depends on your website’s ranking. If you are starting SEO services for the first time, it is likely that Google will only visit your website for changes twice or three times in the course of a few months. Lately, however, major search engine have been making frequent changes to their ranking strategies to better accommodate for filtering out more spam tactics and rewarding websites that are properly SEO’ed higher! Keep in mind, with these frequent changes, your website could see a down-turn in results if Google makes a major change soon after you discontinue your search engine optimization services. With that in mind, your SEO services should be a long term solution, that continue providing your increase rankings, traffic, and revenue for years to come. SEO services are a marketing tool, if this marketing tool is used correctly, it is the best way to spend money in order to make more money.

How much should SEO services cost?: A complete Seo services package that includes month to month website optimization, link building, and monthly reporting and analysis will cost between 500. and 5000. a month. The reason for this broad range in pricing is the amount of work needed to make your website perform well against the competition. Depending on what your idea, services, product(s), or services are, your website may be very unique or may have a lot of competition. For example, the real estate and legal industries have thousands of competitive websites and therefore require the maximum amount of SEO work to achieve successful rankings. Most SEO companies will offer three levels of SEO services based on that amount of work that is needed to properly rank your services. If you happen to have a niche product that has a unique name, it would take minimal SEO efforts to help you rise to the top and stay on top.

Case Study: An SEO services firm in Austin provided a court reporting firm with complete search engine optimization services for a few years. This firm reaped the rewards from top placement until several more competitors came into play. The firm was suddenly faced with stagnant results. This Austin SEO services company offered to double the level of SEO services being provided from a basic level of service to larger level of service. This particular company was hesitant to increase their website marketing budget but realized the reality of competition is they wanted to remain competitive.

Basic level Search Engine Optimization packages may run between 500. and 1500. Mid-level or professional Seo service packages may run between 1000. and 2000. High-level or premium seo service packages may run between 2000. and 5000. First step is to select the level of Seo service needed to your business website to be successful. The second step in the process is to evaluate your SEO company. Find out what specific tasks are performed, the companies success and testimonials, and make sure your seo provider understands your business and services when you speak to them in person or on the phone.

To be able to climb the steep ladder of success, it is necessary to fine tune your business. Irrespective of the nature, type or size of your business you need to prepare and nurture it in a specific way to be ready for success.

Abraham Lincoln once stated ‘while others were enjoying their sleep I was busily climbing the ladder of success’. He was referring to his phenomenal success ‘from a log cabin to white house’. Like Lincoln you too can prepare, ahead of others, to take your business to the pinnacle of success. And the top of the ladder of success being never crowded on reaching the top it is easy to stay there and excel.

The groundwork to reach business excellence starts with finding answers to a few questions. The important questions are;

A. Where my business is now?

B. Where I want it to be?

C. And how I am going to get it there?

To probe what stage your business is now compare your business with the competing businesses. What is your business’s market niche, the popularity, the size of customer base, current performance, turnover and profits are some of the comparable indicators. These indicators will help to indentify the current position of your business. For example if yours is a website business you can use indicators such as its search engine position, Google page rank, traffic status, incoming links etc to ascertain where your business is now.

Next step will be to evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of your business to understand it better. Then you can determine ways and means to convert the weaknesses to strengths. Business strengths will lead to opportunities.

This analysis will also reveal to you the threats to you business as well. A plan of action will help to deal with threats. Threats are challenges that test your strengths to the fullest.

On identifying weaknesses too work out a plan on how to convert weaknesses to strengths. More strength and fewer weaknesses will provide you with more opportunities.

As a useful step of this exercise you can benchmark your business with the best practices of businesses that excel. The factors such as customer loyalty and retention, product/service features and quality, business image, on time delivery, after sale service, marketing capability etc., can be benchmarked. It is useful to compare your current performance in each operational activity with the best practices and try to narrow the gaps.

The top businesses excel because of their best practices. Some of your business practices may be above or below theirs. Learn what others do better in business and make improvements to your business practices. Accordingly, make plans and implement what you need to improve to excel. It benefits you to follow those who have already reached the top.

Next your focus should be to find answer to the question ‘where I want my business to be? It refers to the Vision of your business that states where you want the business to be. Your business needs a carefully thought out Vision. ‘To reach the number one position in its line of business in five years time’ is an example of a Vision. Decide on a Vision to aim at for business excellence. A Vision has a definite time deadline. The Vision is really a ‘Dream with a Deadline’. And you need to make and follow a strategic plan to reach it.

Our final question ‘how you are going to get there’ relates to the Mission of your business. A business needs a Mission to take it towards its Vision. A Mission Statement should reflect your business purpose. For example a successful apparel company had as its mission ‘Clothing the world in style’. Your business too can have such a rhythmic Mission Statement to constantly remind, motivate and push you and your staff toward business excellence.

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BASICS OF STARTING YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

Launching an online business can seem either simple or simply harrowing, depending on your perception of the internet. Depending on your internet savvy, launching your online business will be either easy or you will need more help and guidance.

There are basically 10 steps you need to follow to initiate, cultivate and launch your internet business.

1. MOTIVATION AND GOAL SETTING

By reading this article we can assume that you have already thought about starting your online business and therefore the motivation exists. But, are you ready to invest the time and money needed to realize your vision?

You have to have the right mindset and a list of goals that you plan to accomplish, step-by-step.

First you have to gather the support of those who will be closely involved with you in your endeavour. In most cases the people most influenced by this decision of yours is your spouse and/or children when working solo from home.

Starting an online business is not for the faint hearted and a lot of work and dedication needs to be put in before you start to see results.

The problem we have in South Africa is that most Affiliate programs are designed for the overseas market and are difficult to employ in South Africa.

Therefore, I am not going to waste time on affiliate sites etc.

If you want to start an online business you must start something that will appeal to the South African market.

Therefore you need to do market research. Seeing as you are planning to start an online business, you need to do online market research.

The places where you can do this research is:

E-bay (Even though this is an American site, you will get valuable information about what people are looking for)

Google Trends (We either hate or love Google, but you need Google for any online business)

Amazon Movers and Shakers (A great way to establish popular products)

Keywords (These are the words that searchers use to find a product or service)

After you’ve done your market research you can start with your business plan. It doesn’t mean if you want to start an online business, you don’t need a business plan. This is usually where most people go wrong! Aspiring Online Entrepreneurs that an online business does not need the same attention to detail that a brick and mortar business needs. But the reality is that it might need more attention initially and will demand a lot of study and learning if this is a new avenue for you.

Your Online-Business Plan

The business plan is placed under the motivation part of this book, because it will keep you motivated when you feel down and want to pull your hair out and when you start wondering why you started this business in the first place.
Along with the plan you need goals to be set, but keep in mind not to bit of more than you can chew!

Setting your goals:

1. Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not just something that sounds good.
2. A goal can not contradict any of your other goals.
3. Develop goals in the 6 areas of life:
Family and Home
Financial and Career
Spiritual and Ethical
Physical and Health
Social and Cultural
Mental and Educational
4. Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative.
5. Write your goal out in complete detail.
6. By all means, make sure your goal is high enough.
7. This is the most important, write down your goals.

On the internet, your growth rate can be much quicker than with a brick and mortar business because your audience is global and not restricted to your immediate area. Just make sure that you are equipped to service a global market. People using the internet are people who want instant gratification and are not usually willing to wait because you are unable to deliver.

2. IDEAS FOR INTERNET BUSINESSES

These are only ideas of what I’ve seen and have thought about starting. You can add any ideas. Internet is not discriminatory. You can sell/promote anything you wish.

2.1 Property – Yes there are a lot of property websites. But maybe you can offer something different than what they are offering. Have a look here:
http://www.sherlock-homes.co.za
2.2 Cars – You can start your own “selling cars” business without ever buying a care. You can get people who want to sell cars, to place them on your website and you can either charge and advertisement fee or a percentage of the selling price.
2.3 Careers – Start a career website. Get people to post CV’s on your site and even offer them video streaming as a preliminary interview. Income can be generated by getting people to advertise jobs on your site.
This site is for sale: http://www.careerexpress.co.za
2.4 Niche markets such as bridal, photography, sport, hobbies, crafts. Here is a site that is for sale http://www.bridescorner.co.za
2.5 You can start and run an online forum about certain interests. Your income here will be generated with banner advertising. (More about this later)
2.6 You can write content for business websites. There are a lot of businesses with websites out there that feel that the websites are a waste of time. And the only reason is that nobody visits the sites because there is never fresh content on the site. Fresh content is the most important ingredient for a successful website.
2.7 Auction site – you can offer an auction site for people that have white elephants lying around their house.
2.8 Online shop – this will be much the same as the auction site, with the difference that products will be sold at a set price. You can generate income by claiming a percentage of the selling price.
2.9 Sell second hand books. There is a vast market for second hand books out there! You can canvass for people who want to sell their second hand books and sell it for them here http://www.books-on-line.co.za
2.10 Online classifieds. The market is open for these types of sites. Gumtree is currently the biggest classifieds site in South Africa but it only caters for certain areas. You can have your own site by visiting here http://www.klerksdorphost.co.za
2.11 Selling ebooks. An ebook is a book that people can download and print or read on a pdf reader. These are very popular because they are usually concise and filled with a lot of interesting facts.

These are only a few ideas. I’m sure there are a lot of other ideas out there.

Let your imagination loose and think of something you might be interested in. Chances are that if you are interested, there are other people interested in the very same.

3. TIME MANAGEMENT

I cannot stress this too much!! When I started with the internet, I spent hours and hours on it, achieving absolutely nothing. I spent my time on forums, social sites etc and then one day I just decided that if I wanted to get somewhere, I should start somewhere.

Starting an online business is a big learning curve. And it is not so complicated as everyone would want you to believe.

You do not need to know HTML, Java, PhP or MySQL at all. You can make use of people who know these languages. I know you might think that it will be expensive, but it needn’t be like that! You can visit http://www.filing4africa.com and see what they have to offer.

Filing4africa.com is a South African Site made with South Africans in mind. Our packages are more than affordable and you can be sure of after sales service.

Hosting packages start from as little as R39.00 per month and the setup of a basic website as little as R1500.00

Why am I putting this at time management?

TIME IS MONEY!

You want to start an online business. You do not want to create the tools to start an online business. You can spend your time on doing further research and getting your content ready for your site.

Make use of the people out there who already have the expertise. Apply your expertise to your business.

You must make sure that by the time your website is launched, that you are familiar with how it works and that your backup plan is in place.

If you are planning to do this part time, make sure that your online business is fully automatic. You don’t want to lose clients because of their impatience. Ask your web developer to set up auto responders on your website. People want feed back, and they want it yesterday.

Make sure that you check your e-mails every day and answer each one of them promptly.

I have found that in South Africa, companies who do have websites, don’t bother to answer online queries. And that is defeating the purpose of a website. Your website is the welcome mat to your business!!

If you are planning to do your online business on a full time basis, you need to set out time for research, upgrading your site and keeping abreast of new things in your niche market. Do not stay behind, because if you do, no one will visit your online business. And all your efforts will be wasted.

Having an online business gives you the freedom to work in your pj’s and in your bed. No matter where you work from, it is important that you reply, research and keep your customers happy!

4. SITE STRUCTURE

Think back and try to remember a store where you do not like to shop. The reason most probably was “the lack of structure”.

And so it will be with your site. Your site needs to have a logical structure. Your customers must find it easy to navigate your site.

The basics things your site needs are:

4.1 Homepage (landing page) – this page is the welcome mat of your site. Important information and ticklers should be placed here.
4.2 Services/Products pages – these are the pages where you tell your customers more about your service and/or products. It should be interactive, in other words, your customer must have the option to request more information.
4.3 About us page – this is where you place the information about your business structure, your mission, your vision and accomplishments.
4.4 Contact us – this is most probably the most important page of your site. Contact details should be clear and easy to find. Your customer must be able to contact you straight from that page.

It is better if you write the info of these pages yourself. You know your business way better than any one else. Your web developer can upload the info for you.

All graphics should be optimized for web use. Customers do not want to wait for a page to load. I have found that if I struggle to get a page to load, I do not return to that site.

Basic tips:

• Do not use too many colours and weird fonts. People do not take sites seriously when they are over decorated.
• Do not make use of large photo’s, graphics that slow down your site.
• You need to have your own domain name with e-mail addresses from that same domain. People don’t want to visit a site like www.yourdomainname.co.za and then receive emails from you@hotmail.com. It is not professional. You can grab a domain name here http://www.filing4africa.com. Please keep in mind that your domain name must be easy to remember and must not contain wild cards like *()%$#@!
• Test your website in firefox, IE and google chrome to make sure your site is not distorted on the different browsers.

Try not to make use of “free sites”. These sites are riddled with advertisements and are very irritating to your customer and more important, will distract their attention and lead them away from your site.

5. CONSTRUCTIVE CONTENT

Content is not just there to educate your customer. No, it must be used in such a way that your customer will be convinced to use your service or buy your product.

Put testimonials on your homepage. Many browsers like to see what a difference your service/product made in other peoples’ lives.

When you work on your content, work with the 5 W’s

Who: Who will benefit from the product/service. Who are you?
What: What the product/service is all about, bonus material etc
When: When does the offer expire?
Where: Where can your customer reach you if they need more information.
Why: Why do they need your product more than any other similar product on offer.

Your content will play an important role in your search engine placement. Therefore you will have to learn to write for search engines. This is where keywords become important for Search Engine Optimization. If you are making use of a web developer, you don’t need to worry about this.

Content is not just confined to your website! Email marketing is a very important part of your online business.

The content to your customers should be professional with a balanced blend of relationship building, soft sell and hard sell copy.

Off course you cannot send out emails if you do not have any emails to send to. That is why you need to have a “subscribe to our newsletter” opt in function on your site. No site should be without such a tool!

6. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

The more know term for this is SEO. SEO is very important to you online business. In addition to previous tools mentioned, there are several other tools you can make use of.

Steps in SEO

6.1 Get the right keywords (You can help your web developer by brainstorming keywords for your online business here: http://adwords.googlecom/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox
6.2 Linking. Search for online businesses that would compliment your service/product and add their links to your website.
6.3 Fresh content on a weekly basis

So how will you do all this if you are not a web developer? You must make sure that your web developer gives you a step-by-step guide on how to add fresh content to your site.

Therefore it is better to make use of a content management system on your website than a normal HTML site. HTML sites have to be changes and reloaded every time you want to add something to your site.

With a content management system you will be able to post new news from the backend and it will be published in your frontend which is your actual website.

With a content management system, you can retain control over the content of your site. This is very important as you are in the end the one that has to market your online business.

7. ADVERTISING ISSUES

Without advertising your online business doesn’t stand a chance! And because it is an online business, it doesn’t mean you only have to do online marketing.

Successful marketing starts offline!!

The other day I met a wedding dress designer at a networking event. I asked him if he had a website for his business. He replied that he did, but never got any business from it.

By asking a few more questions I realized that he hasn’t marketed his website in any way. And he could not understand why he should!

Many people believe that the internet is some magic wand that creates customers for you! Do not be fooled! You cannot launch a website and then sit back and wait for customers to “accidentally” discover your online business!

You HAVE to put out the word that your website exists!

And this is how you do it:

7.1 Advertise in local media and make sure your website domain name is shown prominently.
7.2 Put your domain name on ALL printed material.
7.3 Use your dedicated e-mail address (ie admin@yourdomainname.co.za)
7.4 Create a signature for your e-mail with your domain name and make sure the domain name is on each and every e-mail you send out! Your signature should include:
• Your full name
• Your domain name
• Your e-mail address
• Your phone number
• Your fax number
• Your tag line or Slogan
• Your company name
7.5 Place an advertisement in publications from your industry.
7.6 Your domain name must be listed on each article you write and if it appears on a website, it should be linkable.
7.7 Networking. Yes I know, we South Africans see networking as a four letter word ? but what I mean is … everywhere you go, talk about your online business. Hand out your business cards with your domain name. Talk, talk, talk and yet again talk about your business!

Online marketing

Online marketing can be divided into two categories namely, free and paid.

If you have time and no money – go the free way.

If you have money and no time you can visit this link and have it done for you:

http://filing4africa.com/virtualbiz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=46

The free way.

This method is very time consuming but definitely worth the trouble.

Here are some links where you can add your site for free!

http://www.klerksdorphost.co.za
http://www.sa-linx.co.za
http://www.business-directory.co.za
http://capetown.gumtree.co.za
http://www.vottle.com
http://www.netads24.com
http://www.theclassifieds.co.za
http://www.online-classifieds.co.za/classifieds/
8. CUSTOMER SERVICE

Off course it is easier to secure a client than actually keeping a customer. And usually we don’t keep a customer because our customer service is not up to scratch!

I had a surprising call yesterday. I stumbled upon a website in my search for a specific business I would like to start. And I filled in their contact form, not really expecting them to call me. Because I’ve done this numerous times on different sites and never even received a response until yesterday when I received a call from Barcelona. I nearly fell off my chair!

And this is exactly what you want. You want to shock your customers by giving them superieur service! Service they expect but don’t really believe they will receive!

You must be willing to listen to your customer. South African online business owners have this strange notion that they are invisible and therefore they never need to react. If you don’t react to customer complaints and enquiries, you will become invisible!

If your customer has a legitimate complaint you need to thank him first and foremost! Yes, I know it goes against our grain, but in the end, this customer has saved you a lot of embarrassment and future mistakes! And keep your customer updated on how you are fixing the problem.

Why is this important? One word – internet!

The internet has given the normal off the mill customer the opportunity to lodge complaints on public sites and smear your company. Just visit Facebook or Hellopeter to see what people are really capable of doing!

No matter what the situation, you must always be courteous and friendly when dealing with your customers.

The biggest ever complaint is “slow response”. Combat this by staying in touch!

9. KEEP ON MARKETING!

I know we all feel that one marketing campaign is enough. But is enough ever really enough?

You have to keep at it. Spend at lest an hour a day researching new and innovating ideas on how to market your online business. Keep on posting advertisements, and yes, on a daily basis.

There are so many places to place online advertisements that even if you do it on a daily basis, you can never deplete the supply of online advertising sites.

Thank you customer for using your service or buying your product by sending him/her a special thank you e-mail and follow that up within a week with a newsletter stipulating other product that they might be interested in.

This is where your auto responder comes in handy. It sends out an automatic reply to your customer, promptly and on time. What more could you ask for?

Send your customers interesting titbits about your service/product by alerting them about articles you’ve come upon. Customers always appreciate this and they will know that you are on the ball and up to date in your industry.

This is also a great way of getting fresh content on your website. The e-mails you send about your industry can be placed on your website thus keeping it fresh and up to date at all times.

SUMMARY

I sincerely hope that you have learnt something about how to start and manage your online business.

You can visit http://www.filing4africa.com for more information on various subjects and also our blog at http://www.klerksdorponline.com where you can find other interesting articles about online business.

Philipp Schindler – Vice President, Northern and Central Europe – Google – Opening Remarks

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Microsoft Goes SAASy

Flashback

Used to being the unchallenged leader during the early days of information technology, Microsoft never had it as easy since the advent of the internet. No matter the hot new internet technology, Microsoft was forever caught napping. It was never the innovator and forever a laggard in terms of success. Google trounced it at search and online advertising, Yahoo at instant messaging and consumer mail, Blogger, WordPress and Typepad were far better at blogging software, it never even appeared on the battle ground of social networking with MySpace and Facebook ruling the roost.

But there were certain markets, especially corporate markets, in which Microsoft continued at have a strangle-hold, which kept its cash registers clinking, and at a frantic pace at that. These were the PC OS market with its Windows series, MS Office for Office suites, and its prize cash cows – MS Exchange and MS Sharepoint for enterprise messaging and collaboration.

Now, the above mentioned software are essential for every enterprise, and 5 to 10 years back, Microsoft did undoubtedly offer the most robust solutions available. In those days, since every body was eyeing the juicy big business enterprise segment, with their thousands of users implementations and IT budgets bursting at the seams, it was for that audience these software were developed. So although Exchange and Sharepoint required dedicated servers, complicated implementations and dedicated IT to man and maintain the system, nobody really minded, because these mega enterprises had the money and staff to spare.

The Present

But there was a segment which minded it, the small to medium size business (SMB), segment which had neither the staff, nor resources, nor the inclination. Since not many alternatives were available, they either had to bear the burden, or do without these technologies altogether. But in recent times, things have started to change. In the past 3 years or so, a new approach has emerged, spurred on by technology improvements and increased bandwidth – the software as a service approach. And its primary market is the small to mid sized business segment.

In a recent SaaS survey conducted by Cutter Consortium, nearly three-quarters (72%) of the people who responded reported that they are using Web-based solutions to fill unmet needs. More than a quarter of the respondents (28%) are hoping that these solutions will cut their costs by 20%-30%.

It is true that there was some initial skepticism initially about the viability of SAAS solutions, in that it involves letting go of some control and allowing the organization’s critical data lie on a third party SAAS vendor’s servers. But the benefits of this approach have been so overwhelming, and due to providers like salesforce.com and HyperOffice providing SAAS solutions effectively over the years, that organizations across the board, from small to mega enterprises, have been converted.

Microsoft Plays Catchup

With the enterprise market saturated, Microsoft has also been eyeing the relatively untapped small to mid sized business market in the past few years. Considering the success of SAAS with this segment, Microsoft has introduced offered a succession of software offered as a service in recent times, under the Microsoft Office Live banner. But the real success story with this segment was “hosted Exchange” and “hosted Sharepoint” solutions offered by independent vendors; many of them certified Microsoft partners. First, a little refresher:

What is Hosted Exchange (and how it differs from Exchange Server)?

Every company needs dedicated company email for its employees, as well as some basic productivity solutions to lubricate everyday working (task management, calendars, address books). To cater to these universal needs, Microsoft developed Exchange Server whose major features consist of electronic mail, calendaring, contacts and tasks. The front end client for Exchange through which employees access all this information is usually Outlook, but Exchange also supports mobile and web based access (called Outlook web access or OWA for short). But implementing Exchange is hardly easy, as it includes setting up a dedicated server, undertaking a complex Exchange implementation, in addition to additional anti spam and anti virus implementations for the security of the server. Also, dedicated staff needs to be hired to monitor the system and keep it running, and to manage a myriad of complexities that may arise, since Exchange is a vast solution.

Under hosted Exchange however, all aspects of implementation and maintenance of the Exchange implementation are outsourced to the servers of a specialized “hosted services” provider. Customers still get the most of the features of Exchange – dedicated email, shared calendars/contacts/tasks, and premium features like mobile and web access to information (typically at an extra cost). But unlike an in house implementation, where everybody accesses Exchange over the local network, in this case it is accessed over the internet. This approach is especially beneficial for small to medium businesses which are saved the huge costs of in house implementation and instead have to pay a reasonable monthly subscription.

What is Hosted Sharepoint (and how it differs from Sharepoint Server)?

Apart from basic email capabilities, companies also need the ability to manage the company’s information, stored in documents, and the ability for employees to work together on this information. This is what SharePoint, Microsoft’s browser-based collaboration and document management platform does. It can be used to host and create a company’s web site that includes shared workspaces and documents, as well as specialized applications like to do lists, discussion boards, wikis and blogs. But Sharepoint’s power is coupled with its complexity. It’s implementation is no less cumbersome and costly than Exchange. Moreover, it is not end user friendly. Subject matter experts cannot share their knowledge directly; they always have to either go through IT intermediaries, or undergo specialized training which consumes time and diverts attention from competencies.  Knowledge is not dispersed freely through the organization, but is choked by having to pass through the IT bottleneck.

As with hosted Exchange, under hosted Sharepoint, all aspects of a company’s Sharepoint implementation and management are outsourced to third party vendors. Customers can still access all of Sharepoint’s features over the internet, but for a reasonable monthly fee.

Microsoft Takes the Big Services Plunge

As long as the hosted market was not sizable, Microsoft was content selling Exchange and Sharepoint as software products, and let its partners and independent vendors do the hosting. But considering the bourgeoning of the SAAS market lately, and its future outlook, coupled with tough competition from “alternative” collaboration and messaging offerings like Google Apps, Gmail and HyperOffice, MS finally In Oct. 2007, Microsoft finally took the plunge when it announced hosted Sharepoint and Exchange for enterprises with more than 5,000 seats – titled Exchange Online and Sharepoint Online. In Feb 2008, it went one step further by opening these services to all organizations, irrespective of size.

The Hot News – Microsoft’s “Hosted Service Bundles”

Keeping with its recent rapid movement, on July 8, 2008, Microsoft made another announcement, introducing a novel, if not controversial strategy. In addition to offering its hosted services as single offerings, it announced that early in 2009, it would also offer them as “bundles”, a combination of services at a reduced total cost.

Microsoft has introduced two “bundles”, titled the Deskless Worker suite and Information Worker suite. The deskless worker suite is priced at just $3 per user per month, and will include Exchange Online services as well as read only access to Sharepoint Online services. This is supposedly targeted at workers who typically spend only a very small part of their day in front of the computer. The information worker suite is priced $15 per user per month and includes a full range of offerings including Exchange Online, Share Online and Live Meeting, Microsoft’s web conferencing software.

An Assessment

Great Solution?

At first view, it would seem that Microsoft has come out with a great offering. The entire range of Microsoft’s best of breed enterprise applications, rolled into one, available at a very affordable monthly fee. Exchange online for email, calendars, address books, task management and access over the web and mobile; Sharepoint Online for collaboration and customized portals for teams and partners; and LiveMeeting to conduct audio and video conferencing with multiple participants no matter where they are. All at the customers disposal, in a single offering, at an imminently reachable $15.

A good opportunity to validate the parts – as in they have the right idea messagin, project collaboration, document management, Outlook sharing, couple with online meetings.

Think Again

Whenever something seems so perfect, it always makes sense to bring ones guard up, and look closer. The first phrase to reconsider is – “rolled into one” or “all in one”. Does it mean that all of Microsoft’s great offerings have been integrated into a single, seamless solution, with all aspects communicating with each other? Or does it mean something else.

Well, it means something else. All in one refers more to “all in one pricing”. The services remain exactly as they were; only they will cost less when purchased jointly. Individually, Microsoft sells hosted Exchange Online for $10; SharePoint Online for $7.25; Office Communications Online for $2.50; and Office Live Meeting Online for $4.50. So a joint pricing of $15 means a saving of $ 9.50 per user per month.

Moreover, even the separate components of Microsoft’s new offerings are bare bones solutions, requiring implementation and configuration, before a workable solution is set up. This is effort most small to mid sized businesses are not equipped to make, nor do they want to make. Although the pricing of Microsoft’s bundles may be very tempting, a major reason companies go to “hosted service” providers in the first place is that in addition to hosting they also offer “managed services”. All aspects of configuration, integration and maintenance are their hassle. If all the components – Exchange, Sharepoint, LiveMeeting and Office Communications; are to be integrated into a single seamless solution, that will require massive implementation.

So, although Microsoft’s offering looks enticing from a distance, it is hardly the end to end, ready to use solution businesses are really looking for. Microsoft offers all pieces of the puzzle, but they remain separate pieces that don’t fit together. Even the measly priced Deskless worker suite has attracted a lot of flak. The verdict is that it caters to an imaginary class of worker who needs only read only access to company information. Although real life workers of this class don’t access the company’s information systems as much, they often interact with the system in critical ways. An example is a nurse who may need to keep the hospital’s drug stock updated.

Hosted Service Provider’s Perspective

With Microsoft jumping into the fray, and at very competitive prices at that, traditional providers (Microsoft Solution Providers) of Exchange and Sharepoint hosting are certainly feeling the heat. Setting up Microsoft infrastructure on their servers, and further selling it as a service offered them a steady and ongoing revenue stream. But Microsoft offering such services directly will certainly cut into their pockets as they can hardly hope to compete with Microsoft’s pricing.

Microsoft was well aware that the latest announcement would pinch hosted service partners bad, and not intending to cut them out of the picture completely, it made another announcement intended to keep them interested. Partners can resell Microsoft’s new hosted service offering and pocket a percentage of the ongoing revenue. Partners will receive 12 percent per user, per month, up front for a first-year contract, and 6 percent per user, per month, of the ongoing subscription fee. So in the first year, resellers of hosted services will receive 18 percent margins on the subscription value, and 6 percent for subsequent years. But in spite of this carrot, partners are still smarting, because reselling Microsoft services won’t be nearly as profitable as letting out on premise implementations. 

Some Microsoft solution providers are worried that this puts them in the feast-or-famine mode of trying to find the next project to generate consulting revenue as opposed to recurring revenue streams associated with keeping Exhange and SharePoint servers running.

There is Hope

Although hosted service providers who provide bare bones hosted Microsoft products will feel the competition from Microsoft’s new offerings, but there barely are any vendors who do just that. A vital part of what these companies do has always been adding value by offering integration, consulting and management services on top of the basic Microsoft products they host for their customers. And this need for integration, management and consulting still remains because Microsoft will merely offer basic hosting of its products, while end customers need ready to use products, without the hassle of implementing and managing the application.

So, these companies can continue to do what they’ve been doing all along and still attract customers – host Exchange and Sharepoint on their servers, and build solutions on top of that and offer them to customers as services. Alternatively they can resell Microsoft’s hosted services by adding value added services on top of that, and attract a premium price. One example could be offering support for email on iPhone and Blackberry that stripped down hosted Exchange does not. Or a company could integrate all the components of Microsoft’s bundle – Sharepoint, Exchange, LiveMeeting and Office Communications, into a single seamless solution with a centralized console.

The Search for Truly “Complete” Solutions

Although with this announcement, Microsoft didn’t quite deliver what it seemed to offer, the need it sought to address is nonetheless very pertinent. The need for a truly end to end, integrated messaging, collaboration and web conferencing solution, with each component fitting seamlessly into the whole and communicating with every other component. Solutions which don’t require any hardware, downloads or maintenance and are ready to use from day one. Solutions which come at an affordable monthly subscription.

So, do end customers have to wait for a couple of years before somebody else takes up this challenge? The answer is a resounding “certainly not!”. Although Microsoft may make it seem like it was the first to serve this compelling need (not that it really did serve the need), it was for the precise reason of pressure from rival products that Microsoft took the “bundled hosting” plunge. Google for one offers many compelling alternatives to Microsoft’s Exchange and Sharepoint with Google Apps, Google Pages, Gmail et all. But even Google’s star products are piece meal, and it hasn’t so far come up with a truly integrated end to end solution. Moreover, it doesn’t have a web conferencing solution at all, which would be vital in a totally complete solution.

But there is a another category of solution providers, who may not be as big as Google and Microsoft, or get that kind of frenzied airtime, but they have for years offered very compelling solutions to small and mid sized businesses. Many of these solutions would put the biggies to shame, and are in intimate touch with the real needs of the small to mid sized business segment. To present my case, I shall discuss the web based application HyperOffice. HyperOffice has been operating in the “Exchange and SharePoint Alternative” domain for years, and they’ve built their solution bottom up, based on experience. It would not be wrong to say, that they’ve been doing for years what Microsoft promised to do just now, and did not do even that.

Now to assess HyperOffice on the basis of the parameters we have defined for a truly end to end solution.

Exchange Features

HyperOffice includes business email, shared contact management, shared calendars and shared task management. It also includes Outlook integration and can be used to power the Outlook accounts of your employees as if Exchange were running in the background, only that its not. Users can access their accounts on their desktops using Outlook or online using any Mac or PC browser and all information is automatically kept in synch. Moreover users can also access and synch their accounts from mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry etc.

Sharepoint Features

As an alternative to Sharepoint, HyperOffice includes a publisher tool which can be used to set up dedicated intranet and extranet workspaces for employees, departments, partners or clients. The publisher allows for deep customization of the workspaces according to user needs. Users can finely manage the appearance, layout, pages, interlinking of these workspaces. In addition they can choose from a range of collaboration tools to add to each workspace – document management, calendars, address books, to do lists, task management, forums, IM, polls etc.

HyperOffice also includes a rich online document management tool. It allows for easy online storage and organization of all file types and allows people to collaborate on documents using features like versioning, notifications, locking, overwrite protection etc.

Web Conferencing

Keeping with growing travel prices and increasing openness of companies to web conferencing as a mode of communication, HyperOffice has recently introduced HyperMeeting, its web conferencing tool. It is as robust as any web conferencing solution, with the ability to conference with upto 125 participants, file distribution, presentations, application and desktop sharing, whiteboard etc.

Integratedness

The best thing about a solution like HyperOffice is that all parts fit perfectly into the whole. This makes sense, because even in a business, all parts are forever interacting with each other, and so it should be with a collaboration solution. Consider the following scenario – A web conference needs to be set up. Since it is a meeting, invites need to be sent out to all the participants. So an automatic invitation tool will be involved. The invitation tool will need to talk to address books so that the right recipients are selected. Moreover, to ensure that participants don’t have clashing schedules, calendars will need to be compared. Before the meeting is undertaken some documents may need to be distributed to the participants, and collaborated on. So the document management tool would be involved. The conference may relate to an important milestone in a project. So the project management tool would be involved. This is only one situation in which one can envision different parts of the system having to interact with each other; there may be a myriad of other such situations. The synergies that are to be had in such a system are tremendous.

In HyperOffice, different parts of the system come together simply, logically and effectively. It’s no wonder that it’s been nominated for many awards under the “design” category. The solution allows users to set up workspaces for individuals with tools like email, personal document libraries, address books, calendars, to do lists, links, reminders etc. On the second level workspaces can be set up for groups with looks like document management and collaboration, shared calendars, shared address books, group tasks, web conferencing, forums, polls, chat etc. This is a great example of the coming together of messaging, collaboration and web conferencing features.

Moreover, HyperOffice includes a myriad of other features which can only come after years of experience working with clients. These are the ability to integrate the solution with Outlook, mobile access for devices like iPhone and Blackberry, and the ability to manage documents and drag and drop upload documents directly from the desktop.

Another great aspect from an administration point of view is the ability to manage everything from a central console. All aspects of collaboration are contained within HyperOffice and users don’t have to look in different directions and learn a myriad of software for different uses.

Tailored for SMBs

Big names like Microsoft and Google always eye the bigger customers of the range of around 5000 seats because of the juicer profits to be gotten from those clients. So both the products and the services offered around these products take shape with that segment in mind. Smaller companies like HyperOffice, however have been developed specifically for the small to mid sized business segment, and refined through years of experience. The onus is on developing ready to use products with easy “push button” functionality.

HyperOffice just needs a signup and can be set up almost instantly. It is an end-user’s tool, as just about anybody can get on the system and publish information or use the tools. No technical expertise is required to implement or use it. Moreover, they also offer free training and support services to assist companies along the way. If a customer chooses, they can easily scale down the solution, and choose only a subset of the tools offered based on its needs and comfort level, rather than the entire suite.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although Microsoft has opened its hosted solutions to all, they still remain suitable for organizations which are largish if not large. Vendors could also resell Microsoft’s bundles by throwing in integration and management services, but then they will ask for a premium price and the low price tags won’t remain. Frankly, even in their hosted avatar, Microsoft tools are still not suitable for small businesses because they never were developed for this segment, and the effect will always be of trying to squeeze a big foot in a small shoe.

Clearly, the lesson for growing organizations is that although Microsoft and other big names have rather belatedly gotten on the “Small to medium sized business” bandwagon, one has to cut through the hype, and look in all directions for the best solution. And more often than not, the most compelling solutions will come from elsewhere.

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One of the biggest struggles I had in starting my business was actually coming up with the idea.  I wanted something that was scalable as well as needed in our society.  I combed through hundreds of ideas before settling on my current venture.  Through this discovery period, I uncovered what I believe are the five most important concepts in determining what makes the perfect business idea. 

So, what is a perfect idea?  Each individual entrepreneur has their concept of the perfect business.  While Google is a great business for the founders of that company – it may not be a great business for others that are non-tech savvy or who do not want to run such a large organization.  

Therefore, each perfect business is defined by the business owners.  Keeping this in mind, let’s start on my five concepts of finding the perfect business: 

Number One – Understanding your customer:  This might seem strange to start here as how do you know your customers before you have a business idea in place.  The answer is simple – your customers make the business, therefore without customers there is no business.  If you have a business idea don’t try to develop the idea around what YOU think potential customers will like or need, but find out what your customers actually desire.  Too often business owners get an idea in their head and jump right in with both feet.  However, they soon find out that their target market does not want what they are offering.  Spending both time and money on a project just to see it languish is not the perfect business idea. 

Moreover, let’s say you don’t already have an idea – getting out and understand consumers (those who will eventually become your customers) may lead you to the perfect idea.  Knowing what potential consumers need and building products to meets those needs will get customers beating a path to your door – that is a perfect business idea. 

Number Two – Passion:  Passion here does not mean being fanatical about your product or service.  But, it does mean having some interest in what you do. More times than not, you will be spending 15 to 18 hours a day working on your business in the beginning – usually for the first 12 to 18 months (more like 2 years in this economy).  You have to constantly be thinking about ways to improve and grow your business as well as be out talking about it to everyone, everywhere. If you end up starting a venture that you don’t have passion for, something that does not make you jump out of bed each morning, it will be very hard to put in the hours and energy to make it successful – thus not a perfect business idea. 

Number Three – Understand Your Competition:  Every business has competition – either direct or indirect.  Think about movie theaters.  They have direct competition from video rental stores or at home television.  They also have indirect competition from any other activity that consumers spend their disposable income on like bowling, paint ball, golf, etc.  Anything that people do in their spare time. 

Further, some competitors are ruthless.  Meaning that if you promote and offer a product that is similar to theirs but at a lower price, these competitors will just lower their price to match or beat you.  If they are already established businesses – they may be able to undercut your price enough to drive you out of business.  

If you don’t know your competition – what they are willing to do to keep you out of their market – you may be spending more of your time in a pricing war then growing your business – not the perfect business idea. 

Number Four – Cash Flow:  Lots of entrepreneurs enter the business world with great ideas but very poor understanding of the capital it will take to get their venture off the ground.  Most will prototype their product or service and understand what it takes to make the product or provide the service but they don’t understand the capital it takes to manage the rest of the organization – including marketing (very expensive but extremely necessary), employees (more than just salaries or wages), insurance or supplies and all the little miscellaneous expenses that add up very quickly like phone, internet, computer services, etc.  Knowing your total cash flow will help ensure that all of your costs (variable and fixed) can be covered by the business – the perfect business idea.  I have seen way too many businesses with great products fail because they could not cover simple expenses like rent or utilities. 

Number Five – You:  Know who you are.  Know your strengths and weaknesses.  Know that you are ready, willing and able to do what it takes to make your venture a success.  I have worked with many business owners in the past that think all they have to do is hang out their shingle and they have it made.  Thus, when it comes down to actually running the business day-to-day – they are unwilling to invest the time, energy or money necessary for success.  Thus, know how hard you are willing to work. 

Moreover, know your personal financial situation and what you need the business to generate to cover your lifestyle.  If you think your business will pay you a great salary from day one – it will not.  And, if you need it to, it is not the perfect business idea for you. Take away outside distractions like your personal financial situation – get those in order – thus, when your business concept does materialize – you will be able to solely focus on its conception and growth.  In the end providing you the financial security you are seeking – it will be the perfect business idea. 

Regardless of the level of your desire for your business – a lifestyle mom and pop operation or a multi-national conglomerate – if you develop a business idea with these five concepts in mind – your idea will be the perfect business idea for you.

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