Does your business need a web site?Written by Tristan Jud
You've been asked time and time again if your business has a web site. However you feel that your business is too small and your product cannot be sold on Internet. So should you still have a web site built? Well answer is yes, if you have a business you should have a web site. It is also wise not to dismiss your product as one that cannot be sold over Internet. Nowadays you will find that there is very little that cannot be sold over Internet. The rule of thumb goes like this "If you can imagine it, some one will work out how to sell it online". There is no need to invest all your time and effort, into selling your products online, although if product lends itself to easy sales online you should be considering it. The point is that you should at least have a presence on Internet so that customers, potential employees, business partners and investors can quickly and easily find out more about your business and products and services you have to offer. With that said, it is not enough to have just a web site. You need to have a professional-looking web site if you want to be taken seriously. Since many customers search online before purchasing anything, your web site may be first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential customer. If your web site looks not least bit professional more than likely your chance of making a good first impression will be lost. One of greatest things about Internet is it is more or less a level playing field, where any business can compete with "the big boys" so to speak. As stated above you only get one opportunity to make a lasting first impression. With a well designed web site, your little business can project it's self to world, image and professionalism of a much larger company. The opposite may also occur for those who are "the big boys" with badly designed web site, one which is hard to navigate and badly designed, portrays to world that you lack professionalism and credibility.
| | How to Keep Your Business HealthyWritten by Charlie Cook
Can you imagine you're ninety years old and still hiking up mountains with your grandchildren, bench pressing more than most twenty year olds, and making millions of dollars?Recently Jack LaLanne, America's first TV fitness guru, turned ninety. Not only is he still sound of mind, in great shape, he's made millions and is still earning more. How does he do it? You know it is important to eat your fruits and veggies, exercise regularly, avoid drinking and smoking and get enough sleep to stay healthy. To that list Jack LaLanne would add, set clear goals, exercise with weights twice a week, avoid eating between meals and keep your mind active. Of course you can't just eat well and skip exercise or avoid drinking and smoking and skimp on sleep. Jack LaLanne is still going strong at 90 because he does ALL things required to stay healthy every day. Marketing your business requires same comprehensive, disciplined approach Jack LaLanne uses to stay healthy at 90. To attract new clients and retain existing ones you need to set goals, target a need, get attention, prompt action, grow your network, establish credibility, provide a solution, follow up, demonstrate value and stay in touch. These are ten essential steps to marketing your business. Like a staircase, steps are connected and you need to put them together in proper sequence and use each of them regularly. A common marketing mistake is to focus on just one or two of above steps and hope for best. Joan, who owns a sports facility, called last week about her advertising campaign. It was costing her significant dollars but wasn't translating into new clients. What was problem? Advertising can help get attention but to be effective it needs to be focused on clients' needs and prompt them to action. Joan's advertising was focused on her solution, not on prospects' needs resulting in a disappointing response. Once she rewrote her ads to target prospects' needs, her response rates and business revenue increased. Larry's promotional efforts were working but he wasn't having success translating all attention he was getting into dollars and cents. Thanks to top search engine positioning and hundreds of links to his web site, thousands of people were visiting his site each day. Yet, on average, only five people per day were contacting him about his services. Larry was doing a great job of getting attention but wasn't prompting his prospects to action.
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