Is a Small Business Web Site a Wise Investment?

Written by Ron Scott


One ofrepparttar greatest pitfalls in e-commerce is Field of Dreams thinking,repparttar 104273 notion that all one has to do is “build it (a web site) and they will come.”

“I can’t think of anything further fromrepparttar 104274 truth,” Ron Scott, a Riverside, California web designer, says. “Even if we develop an attractive, content rich web site, that is no guarantee that our client will generate enough sales, let alone traffic, to justifyrepparttar 104275 expense.

“There has to be a market for a company’s products and/or services inrepparttar 104276 first place, and then it has to be properly promoted”, he went on to say.

This is whyrepparttar 104277 firm recommends their small business clients answer a number of questions directly related torepparttar 104278 development of a sound business plan before they open their checkbooks.

1. Have you adequately defined your market reach? Do you offer products and/or services that will be of interest to an international, national, regional, or local community? The larger your target audience, obviouslyrepparttar 104279 greater your probability of success. Could you add one or more products or services that would broaden your reach?

2. What isrepparttar 104280 global demand for your product and/or service? Do you have any idea how many internet inquiries are made about your product and/or service? For an answer to this question, Scott recommends visiting .the “Pay for Performance Search” page listed underrepparttar 104281 heading “Products and Services” at Overture.com. Enter a keyword or keyword phrase you might use to find information about your product and/or service inrepparttar 104282 search engine suggestion window atrepparttar 104283 bottom ofrepparttar 104284 page. In addition to finding out how many inquiries were maderepparttar 104285 previous month using that keyword or keyword phrase, you may find a dozen or more related terms andrepparttar 104286 number of inquiries made about them as well. Addrepparttar 104287 number inquiries and this will give you an idea just how much interest there is in your product and/or service.

If your reach is local or regional, be sure to incorporaterepparttar 104288 names of cities in your search terms. Pay-for-performance programs sometimes do not allow local or regional advertisers to use generic terms because their services are irrelevant to a more global audience.

3. How many of these inquiries actually come from your target market? Let’s assume you do business in Los Angeles and your target market is Southern California. If 85% of all inquiries originate inrepparttar 104289 United States and that 7.1% of those live in Southern California , thenrepparttar 104290 potential market in Southern California represents 7.1% of 85% (6.1%) of all inquiries using any given keyword or keyword combination.

To calculaterepparttar 104291 proportion of inquiries in any market area, visitrepparttar 104292 U. S. Census Bureau’s web site. There you will find population projections you can use to estimaterepparttar 104293 number of inquiries that are likely to be emanating from within your market area.

4. What is your likely market share? Of those consumers actually making inquiries from your market area, how many are likely to visit your site, let alone make a purchase? Assuming thatrepparttar 104294 content of your web site is inviting enough to motivate visitors to either purchase your product/service or to at least make an inquiry, what percentage are actually going to become customers? A 1% return is reasonable expectation if you are in a competitive market and you have a competitively priced product and/or service. Obviously,repparttar 104295 more unique your product,repparttar 104296 morerepparttar 104297 higher this percentage is likely to be..

5. How many sales will you have to make to recouprepparttar 104298 cost of development and promotion, if only 1% of your visitors take advantage of your offering? For arguments sake, let us assume that it will cost you at least $100 to reserve a domain name and to secure a host, $500 to get a 10 page site designed, and that you budget at least $100 a month on promotion. How many net sales will you have to make to recover these costs? Put another way, how many sales would you need to start making a profit?

Check 21 - Changing the Way We Move Checks

Written by Ken Murphy


The way your business handles checks could change dramtically overrepparttar next few years.

Check 21 (The Check Clearing forrepparttar 104272 21st Century Act) is a new federal law which will go into effect October 28, 2004. The law mandates acceptance of a new negotiable instrument known inrepparttar 104273 banking industry as,repparttar 104274 Image Replacement Document (IRD). An IRD is simply a substitute check. This allows a bank that exchanges images a legal means to produce a valid physical image ofrepparttar 104275 check as a replacement forrepparttar 104276 actual check if an institution or an account holder requests a physical check.

This legislation enables banks and other financial institutions to streamline their check processing operations. Most checks processed today are electronically imaged. These images can be moved between banks withoutrepparttar 104277 need for physical movement of paper checks, which reducesrepparttar 104278 cost of transportation and other labor inherent in check processing. It also insures check movement inrepparttar 104279 event of an emergency or disaster that haltsrepparttar 104280 transportation system, asrepparttar 104281 events of 9/11 did.

It is important to note that there is no legal mandate forrepparttar 104282 exchange of images, nor does it require a bank to accept images. Banks that do not have check imaging capabilities can still require a physical document.

But for institutions with check imaging, this will allow it to leverage their imaging systems by participating more in electronic exchanges

Electronic Cashletter Exchange (ECE) lets banks present digitized check images for clearing to each other or through participation in image exchanges. ECE has standards known as X9.37. If images are presented to a Federal Reserve Bank, it must be formatted to those standards. This in effect has made X9.37repparttar 104283 de facto industry standard. Although banks and image exchanges can agree on different formats, X9.37 is likely to berepparttar 104284 most widely used format.

For business owners, Check 21 could openrepparttar 104285 door to opportunities to save on costs associated with research fees that banks charge for check copies, allow control of their check images, and allow for better availability of funds, or even reduce check item charges.

Because this legislation facilitatesrepparttar 104286 movement of digitized check images, it not only will reduce costs for a bank, it will give businessesrepparttar 104287 opportunity to capture their own check images and take advantage of these standards to transmit their check images to their bank for proof of deposit. There are advantages for bothrepparttar 104288 bank andrepparttar 104289 business to make deposits in this format.

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