Attention Small Business Owners: 10 Things You Must Know about Web Design….that your Web Developer won’t tell you!Written by Jessica M. Davis
How do you know you are getting a good deal when you hire a web developer? The only advise that can be given is “Caveat emptor…buyer beware!” Like buying a new car or a used computer everyone is not as honest as they should be and before you begin shelling out money for a website there are a few things you need to know. 1. Make sure your web developer runs a usability test. The test will evaluate ease with which customers navigate through your website. 2. Tell your web developer that you would like your website accessible for those with disabilities or handicaps. 3. Insist that your website is compatible with all browser types. Your web developer should design your web site to be compatible with Internet Explorer 4.0 and above, Netscape Navigator 4.0 and above, Mozilla, and Macintosh Browsers. 4. The web developer you select should use web safe colors, so color you select is same as color that appears on your site. 5. Meta Tags are vital. Every web developer should use Meta Tags, codes behind website page that give pertinent information, (website description, keywords, instructions, etc.) to search engine robots.
| | Starting your own Business – Failures to Avoid to ensure your Future Business Success, and Research you Should do NOW if you Haven’t Already.Written by James R. Sanders
Every year thousands of people start a business. With more people stuck in dead end jobs and working for sub-standard pay, it always seems like next logical step. They strike out with dreams of becoming financially independent, being paid what they’re worth, or being able to work their own hours. The sad news, according to numerous government and independent resources, odds are stacked against these budding entrepreneurs. In reality, odds are stacked in favor of failure as most new business start-ups fail in three years, and many more fail before their second year. What are problems new entrepreneurs face that cause such catastrophic results? Biggest Reason for Business Failures – Failure to Plan. The biggest problem seems to be lack of planning. New business owners fail to complete business or marketing plans. They get so fed up with present jobs, or life styles, they jump into self-employment ventures. They fail investigating local competition or potential customer market and start business ventures destined for failure. They open shops and go out of business before their second year. Had they taken some time in research, they may have found local market was too saturated or local business was already struggling to stay operational. They may have found certain barriers to entering their market that would prevent them finding business success. However, they failed to do that research, and many didn’t formulate business or marketing plans. They lacked a road map taking them to their goals, and combined with other reasons mentioned, is why they failed. Without clear plans identifying individual steps to success, how can you become successful? Sadly, most all business failures failed to create road maps. A business plan is critical if you want government funding or a bank loan, but it’s just as critical if you don’t need them. The business plan is a report on research into your chosen business field. By completing it, you find out about your local market, competition and potential customers, if your industry is growing or declining, and a host of other information needed to formulate plans for business success. While business plan tells if it is a wise to open your business, a marketing plan reminds you how to make sales. The marketing plan lists step-by-step instructions to increase business sales. One step may build on another, while some steps are implemented together, but regardless how these steps work together, it is important to think about it BEFORE opening your business doors. Without a clear, step-by-step plan to show where you are, where you want to be, and how you get there, then chances of realizing your dreams will be slim to nil. How can you sell products or services if you don’t know what kind of people buy them? That is just another thing business and marketing plans help you discover. Without information, these plans help you find, you will likely fail in your new business. You can find some valuable information for writing business and marketing plans through Kaufman Foundation’s Entreworld.org at http://www.entreworld.org/Channel/SYB.cfm. If you haven’t written these plans, then I’d suggest taking time to start them now. They will help ensure business success. Lure of FREE Internet – I should get Information & Tools for FREE? With more people flocking to internet to start a new business, many try accomplishing their self-employment dreams with little financial resources. The internet has become a place where people rely on finding information freely and for no financial investment. In beginning, it may have started out that way, and free information was abundant, but as more businesses flocked to net, finding free information is becoming increasingly difficult. Most people depend on search engines to find information, but businesses learned to exploit search engine vulnerabilities to gain visitors and most times you will only find paid solutions for your information needs. Somewhere, information IS available freely, but it is going to take time to find it, and sometimes it takes a LARGE amount of time to find it. The question becomes how quickly you want to start your business, and how much time you can spend searching for information? If you want to start quickly, then you need to realize need to make some financial investments in your information needs. Just be sure to research company before buying their information. It ensures their information is timely and useful. If paid information is not an option, be prepared to spend some time researching information. There are various government resources for information searches. A good place to start is FedStats located at http://www.fedstats.gov/ . They have a toolkit including DataFerrett. DataFerrett is a government database-search tool to find different market and demographical information compiled from census information and other government agencies. Marketing – I Need to Know ALL About it Before I Begin. Another problem stems from ineffective marketing efforts. People spend time looking for marketing materials and ways to self educate about it while failing to take action doing something to try improving their exposure. If I can impart one marketing secret to you, that secret is this: marketing is somewhat a trial and error process. It involves making modifications and doing testing to gauge what is most effective for your market and products or services. Keep in mind marketing works differently for different people too. But in end, marketing is building trust, integrity, and reputation with potential customers and getting products or services out into consumer’s mind. Tracking efforts is important. Without tracking, you will never know what works and what doesn’t work. Be sure to keep marketing effort lists. Include marketing medium, company, an ad copy, dates and times it ran, and add a tracking code to each one to track sales made from them. Lets say you run an ad in your local newspaper to gain increased sales. When running ad, include promotional code or an extension at end of a phone number to know where sales are coming from. When someone calls or mails an order, make sure you collect information from promotional code, or ask them phone extension they are calling. Add up data and it tells you exactly what ads are paying off and which ads might need reworked. To determine what is working and what isn’t, take cost of ad divided by number of sales and see which one is lower. Lower cost per sale is more effective and better. Depending on your marketing budget, place numerous different ads at once and test your ads quicker to see what brings best returns for your marketing efforts. Don’t sit there and do nothing while trying to learn everything you can about ad creation and marketing techniques. Write up a few ads and start testing them. The sooner you begin testing sooner you learn what will work for your market. Without sales, you have no business. Without effective marketing, you have no sales, and therefore will have no business. Don’t let indecision sink your dreams.
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