4 Must Have Elements To Keep Your E-Business in Business!Written by Christine Weymouth
Imagine walking into your neighborhood Home Depot store and there's not a soul in sight. There's no one around to answer your questions, or assist you with your purchase. Suddenly you are filled with thoughts of dissatisfaction, confusion, and anger. Why would you buy from a store that made you feel like that, and why would you ever return? YOU WON'T! And if your web site isn't set up to offer terrific customer service, YOUR VISITORS WON'T either. If you've got products or services to sell, but don't offer customer service to go along with it, you can say goodbye to your Internet business dreams, and hello to bankruptcy! Lucky for you, I've outlined 4 major elements that you MUST HAVE on your web site if you want to STAY IN BUSINESS, and be PROFITABLE doing it!#1: Be Prompt in Responding to Your Email Requests! We are now living in an age of convenience. And on Internet especially, your site visitors expect instant service. Email is prime communication tool used in e-business --- USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! An instant email response may not be possible, but a reply to your customer within 48 hours is a must! If I email a company and request info about their products, and I don't get a reply back within at least 48 hours, I'm moving on to someone who wants my business and is eager to answer my questions. You want to let your visitors know that they are important to you, and your prompt email reply will show them that they are. They'll return favor by making you money! Making this simple modification to your email communication will most certainly turn your common visitor into a paying customer - making MORE PROFITS FOR YOU! #2: Offer a Phone Number To Your Visitors! It may not be enough just to offer your email address. Some people are still weary about e-businesses, and not being able to talk to a real person will certainly turn visitors away from your site. They will move on and find someone else who does offer a real person to contact. Offering a business phone number will also help to build confidence in your visitors. You'll be letting them know that you are a stable, well-established company that has actual people behind scenes. You'll also want to ensure that you display your phone number in a prominent location on your site. If it's located in a hard to find place, your visitors may get frustrated trying to find it, or may not be able to find it at all. That's not going to help your business or your visitors. If you have means, providing a 1-800 number would be ideal. If your visitors know they don't have to pay for call, any concerns about cost have now been eliminated. When your business in on Internet, you have to remember that your potential customers are WORLWIDE. Make it as easy as possible for your visitors to contact you, and more business you'll generate.
| | The Coming Home Business BoomWritten by Rob Spiegel
There is a coming home-business boom. You may not read much about it, since home business activity takes place quietly, but it's coming nonetheless. All of elements are there to support this quiet boom. Layoffs are increasing. Home-equity gains of past few years provide modest capital needed for a home-based launch. And people are getting tired of reporting to offices where salaries are frozen and advancement opportunity is narrowing as people hold tight to their current jobs.The biggest recent factor to fuel this boom came on September 11. There are certain to be millions across nation now who shudder as they commute to a tall office building. The attack has also dramatically increased our desire to stay close to family. Parents of young children are probably growing disenchanted with life of daycare and office buildings in new world that abruptly appeared on September 11. Since job alternatives are scarce during this downturn, you can expect people to start visiting business opportunity fairs seeking home-based enterprise opportunities. Two or three years ago I spent a few months working with a leading business opportunity and franchise show, living gypsy life while giving seminars on how to shop for franchises. This was during late-1990s boom years of early ecommerce and high employment. It was a great time to start a business. Yet attendance at these shows was down across country. Who needs risk and trouble of a business launch when you can raise your earnings simply by jumping from good-paying job to better-paying job. And with stock market sky-rocketing, you could accumulate wealth simply by shifting your nest egg from one fast-flying stock to another. With fewer choices in job market and no opportunity in stock market, people will naturally start to consider a business launch. Just 15 years ago, that meant rending office space or a storefront. Not any more. A home-based business is perfectly respectable now. It's even coveted. The home business is accurately perceived as offering more personal freedom than out-of-home launch that comes with strings of large capital investment and staff management.
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