If that sounds like you, here’s what you may be missing once the new enterprise is launched

Public relations that really does something about the behaviors of those key outside audiences that most affect your new enterprise.

PR that uses a fundamental blueprint to deliver external stakeholder behavior change - the kind that leads directly to achieving your venture’s objectives.

And PR that persuades many of those important outside folks to your way of thinking, then moves them to take actions that help your new enterprise succeed.

That’s why you as a small business owner must gear up to deal with the unattended perceptions out there that could nudge your fledgling venture closer to bankruptcy than success. Perceptions that, if left unattended, may well result in actions that run counter to those you and your banker had in mind.

For example, when new ventures fail, the wreckage is often assigned to undercapitalization. Seldom is failure attributed to a lack of an effective action plan that might have modified the behavior of prospects and other collaborators in a positive way, thus averting that failure.

So why support your new venture with press release public relations when a basic PR blueprint like this one can hold the key to your success? People act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Add to that these kinds of results: fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; customers making repeat purchases; prospects starting to look your way; community leaders beginning to seek you out; and even politicians and legislators viewing you as a true innovator.

Major caveat for a new entrepreneurial venture: because the cost of gathering key audience perception data - an absolute must in this business - can be substantial, it should be built into the original funding budget. That suggests that you, as the new venture leader, must take the lead in assuring upfront funding of the perception monitoring function.

So, with the people whose perceptions of your venture you care most about now the target of your PR effort, you are ready to launch a well-planned public relations program that can reach, persuade and move those individuals to actions you desire.

Here’s a public relations checklist entrepreneurs may find helpful.

From Day 1, you have to be certain your staff or agency public relations people are really committed to knowing how your outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. And further, that negative key audience perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can hurt your new venture. Fortunately, your PR people are in the perception and behavior business to begin with, so they should be of real assistance for your opinion monitoring project.

Professional survey firms are always available, but that can be expensive. So, whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, your objective is to identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, and misconceptions.

First, rank your external audiences as to impacts on your operation. For example, #1 customers; #2 prospects; #3 employees; #4 local and trade media; #5 your local business community; #6 community leaders, and so forth. Then, involve your PR team in plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of those you expect will be your most important outside audiences.

Second, interact with members of your key audience and jot down their first impressions of your fledgling operation, especially any problem perceptions.

Use questions like these: Now that you’ve read our brochure, do you believe our products/services will be of use to people in this area? Have you used the services of our competitors? Did you find them useful? Fairly priced? Any problems? Listen carefully for any rumors or misconceptions about your new operation.

Third, decide which of the negatives you discovered, rates as the #1 corrective public relations goal - for example, clarify the misconception, spike that rumor, correct the false assumption or fix a certain inaccuracy.

Fourth, when you finally have the chance to address your key stakeholder audience to help persuade them to your way of thinking, what will you say? Ideally, you will prepare persuasive and compelling messages that not only provide details about your product and service quality and diversity, but address perception problems that surfaced during your monitoring sessions. As the method of communication can affect the credibility of the message, you may wish to deliver it in small meetings or presentations rather than through high-visibility media releases.

Not so incidentally, here’s where a talented writer earns his or her keep because s/he must put together some very special, corrective language. Words that are not only believable, but clear and factual if they are to correct the negatives and shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Fifth, in the same way Quesadillas come with sauteed onions and smoky cheese, the right PR strategy tells you how to reach your goal. But just three strategies are available in matters of perception and opinion — change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. And be sure your new strategy is a natural fit with your new public relations goal.

Sixth, things get simpler here. Select communications tactics to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. Making certain that the tactics you select have a record of reaching folks like your audience members, you can pick from dozens of tactics. Everything from speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others.

Seventh, how do you decide that your efforts are changing perceptions for the better? As time passes, you should notice increased awareness of your business, a growing public perception of the role your business plays in the community; and, of course, growing numbers of prospects.

You can track these results by interacting on a regular basis with people from each of your key audiences, especially by monitoring print and broadcast media and through interaction with key customers and prospects.

But eighth, questions will soon appear as to progress. That will demand a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Using the same questions used in the first benchmark session, you will now be alert to indications that the negative perception is being altered as you wished.

In public relations, we’re lucky that these efforts can be accelerated through more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

The stakes are high - the very survival of your new enterprise!

So, concentrate on what’s most important — people in your new venture’s community or marketing area behave like people everywhere, they take actions based on their perception of the facts available to them.

In the proverbial nutshell, here you have a workable public relations blueprint that can help you persuade your most important outside stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to behave in a way that leads to the success of your new enterprise.

Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net.

About The Author

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi- cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net. Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com

When you want to decorate your new living or office quarters, there are many different alternatives available. Whether for home or for business, a furniture rental company can satisfy all equipment needs, from home furniture, to office furniture, to electrical appliances.

Renting furniture for your home or business lets you preserve capital for other endeavors. The above reason is why 80 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies to rent their furniture.

The other reason will be that furniture rental serves as a great alternative to those who cannot afford to purchase a permanent set of furniture. It is also good for those who will only be living in a certain location for a short period of time. Renting furniture satisfies all these requirements.

For example, furniture rental offers the ability to rent an entire room of furniture for significantly less than it would cost to permanently furnish a room. Moreover, many furniture rental companies offer you the chance to purchase the furniture at the end of the rental period.

Shopping for a furniture rental company is a pretty daunting task. You should ensure that the company has a history of delivering furniture promptly. The quality and condition of the furniture should be exemplary.

Other items like economical and stylish furniture, relocation and transportation of the furniture, and whether or not your desired furniture will fit within the space available are also mandatory.

Any reputable furniture rental company is going to have name-brand furniture from all the major retailers. This applies to office furniture, home furniture and electrical appliances. The furniture rental company should have online showrooms in addition to physical locations where different showrooms are set up, showcasing the different styling options available. From living rooms, to bedroom sets, to the office of a major organization, the showrooms should contain the best furniture and appliances available. The prototype of the actual showroom is displayed online; ask your furniture rental consultant for more details.

A good style guide, online magazine, and recommendation center also is preferable for the consumer to see the different furniture options available. A good furniture rental company should be capable of assisting with all of the details by providing a rental consultant. Rental consultants work with the consumer to determine spacing constraints, and also provide assistance with the most modern furniture and appliance needs. They can assist you with moving your equipment if necessary.

Our civilization has seen more new laws and legislation in the last five years than at any other time in human history. Had there been this many laws introduced in the past we would not have gotten to where we are today. There would have been no entrepreneurs, no capital investment, and certainly little if any risk-taking in many of the mainstay industries of our civilization.

It seems whenever you turn around, you find more laws, many which contradict each other and we accept this. Yet if we stopped to think about all the forms we must fill out and rules and regulations we must follow it almost does not make sense to run a small business. Of course most people get into business before they realize this. Something terrible has happened to the small businessperson over the years and made the prospects of the American Dream of owning your own company more of an American Nightmare.

As we enter this next downturn in the business cycle, how can we expect the small businesses to hold up our economic engine without a massive slashing of red tape, bureaucracy and regulations? Tax cuts for small businesses are great, however they are not enough with more tort reform, reduced regulations and a “red magic marker committee” to go thru ridiculous laws and rules which serve no one. If we do not take care of this problem now, the small business will collapse under the weight of being over lawyered and our downturn in the business cycle will last for a decade not three to five years. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Imagine this nightmare scenario…

You’ve spent considerable time and energy putting together what you consider to be a fair proposal for a decorative painting job that you really want to land. You’re finally sitting in front of your client revealing each intricate
detail of the finish that you want to create on their walls.

Your client seems excited and eager to get started. At
last, you reveal the total estimated cost of the project. Your
client is speechless and just gasps at you in wide-eyed
astonishment muttering that this is a lot more than she’d
hoped.

Are you left scratching your head wondering where you lost your client in your sales pitch? It’s simple. You didn’t
get a feel for your client’s budget during your initial
consultation.

Most clients won’t reveal their budget to you even if you ask them because they always want to get a lower price. So
ultimately you need to know a couple different ways of
discovering out how much money your client is willing to
spend.

The first way is to come prepared with a sample price list of all the wall finishes you do. This is not a price list,
per se, but a general list that breaks down the starting
rate for a basic room that measures 12 x 12 feet with 8 foot
ceilings.

So for instance, let’s say your starting rate for a
colorwash finish on a basic room size of 12 x 12 x 8 is
$500. You show your client this price on your list and tell
them that this is your starting rate and that you still need
to factor in windows, doors, actual measurements of the
room. By doing this your client will have some indication
of your prices when you do come up with your actual bid
amount.

The second way to gauge your client’s budget is by using
your samples. After you’ve been decorative painting for
awhile you’ll have a good idea how long each finish takes
you to accomplish from planning to completion. So if you
take the total cost of the finish (including materials and
labor costs) and divide by the square footage of the room
you’ll come up with an average cost per square foot. Take
this amount and write it on the back of the sample of this
finish in black marker.

As you’re reviewing your samples with the client you can
either casually point out the cost per square foot or let
them see it as they’re flipping the pieces over. You can
guarantee they’ll be sitting there doing some quick
calculations in their head as they’re looking at the square
footage cost for each finish.

If you’re worried about whether your bid is too high which is causing your client to now flinch at the price, there are a couple of things you can do to prepare yourself to bid
fairly.

First, do your homework in regard to the going hourly or
square footage rate in your area. Call around to some other
faux finishers or decorative painters to find out what they’re charging. When you’re speaking to them pretend you’re a buyer and ask for their basic rates. Now you’re armed with comparative prices.

Should you bid high or low on a project? I’ve always gone by the rule that if there are a lot of obstacles that will
be a nuisance such as high ceilings, lots of windows,
children or pets that’ll be running around, or if the client
will be difficult to work with, that I can justifiably
charge more for the contract.

Sometimes, when you’re first starting out and you’re really hungry for the job you may find yourself bidding low just to land the contract. On the other hand just make sure that you’re not bidding so low that you’re working for minimum
wage.

Also, when contractor’s bid low they skew the value of the work within the market unfairly for other decorative
painters, which is unfair to the industry as a whole.
Remember what they say: “if you get all your bids, you
probably are not charging enough”.

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when you price
out a painting job. But with a little preparation you can win
more painting contracts and prepare your client for your
proposal.

Sylvia Jaumann has developed an A to Z guide to
starting a decorative wall painting business called
“How to Start Your Own Decorative Wall Painting Business” –
Proven tips, tricks and techniques from an expert
Click here now => http://www.startwallpainting.com

When deciding what kind of internet business you want to do, there are a few factors you need to look at before plunging into building your website.

a) TYPE OF BUSINESS

The first thing you need to consider is exactly what kind of business you want to build. There are generally two types of internet businesses out there: a full-fledged online store selling a product or service, or an informational website earning income from affiliate commissions and advertisements.

i) You might want to consider setting up an online store if you fall under one of the following categories:

- You have a product that you are already selling offline, and want to use the internet to increase your market.

- You provide a service (such as consulting or web design) and want to use the internet to sell your services and increase your clientele.

- You do not have a product or service, but want to start an online store by partnering with a product manufacturer or wholesaler.

ii) On the other hand, you might want to set up an informational website and earn from affiliate commissions and advertisements. This is possible if you fall under one of the following:

- You want to create a website about something that you really like or are interested in.

- You want to promote an affiliate program or product that you like and want to tell the world about.

- You want to provide information or compile advice from various sources regarding something that you are good at.

b) INTEREST

Another very important factor is your interest in the topic or industry in which you want to do your internet business. It is not advisable to start an internet business relating to a lucrative industry such as online casinos, but you have no interest whatsoever in casinos, and worse if you have moral issues with the running of casinos.

I just want you to be aware of some of the common pitfalls you might encounter if you get involved in something that you are not quite interested in:

- If you have not much interest in a topic or industry, it will show in the content and quality of your website. It takes someone with considerable interest to perform good research on the topic, and to create a website full of relevant and personal information and content.

- Without continued interest, you will slowly start to find excuses not to work on your website. And internet business is a continuous love affair. It requires constant updates and internet marketing effort to enjoy good success. If you’ve lost interest and start to ignore the business, your profits will also start to decline.

In short, internet business (like any other business) requires genuine effort and interest in order to succeed. And it is a lifelong love affair, not a one night stand!

c) INCOME OPPORTUNITY

However, interest isn’t everything. The income potential is important too. After all, it’s no use laboring over something you love with no profits to show for it. But the good thing is that internet businesses are so cheap to start that it doesn’t take much to make a profit!

i) If you want to setup an online store, don’t just look at how big the market is. You also have to look at how much competition you face in your chosen industry. For example, an online bookstore will have a huge market (almost everyone reads), but there are plenty of competitors out there such as Amazon.com with a bigger wallet and are more established. In cases like these, you will have to consider allocating a larger budget for advertising and attracting customers.

On the other hand, if you want to start a online store selling waterproof cameras for diving, the market might not be all that big (probably just diving enthusiasts), but because there are few competitors, it will be easier for your store to stand out. As they say: “It might not be a big pie, but you’ll get the lion’s share of it”.

ii) If you want to create an informational website, you have to keep your competition in mind as well. In addition, you need to make sure that your selected topic has sufficient income potential such as affiliate programs and advertisements.

These affiliate programs and advertisements should be related to your website. For example, a wedding planning website can promote affiliate programs related to photography and event management, but should not promote an escort service! In addition, every website can earn some extra cash by placing advertisements (not too many) on their webpages. A good ad service is Google’s AdSense program.

d) Commitment

The last factor I want to touch on is commitment to your internet business. There are two types of commitment you should be aware of: money and time.

By its very nature, internet businesses require very little money to start. However, profits don’t come immediately. Websites take time, sometimes as much as 6 months, to start ranking in the search engines and getting traffic. You therefore have to plan for that much time of operational losses (including your hosting costs). If you are in a highly competitive industry, you will also have to factor in your monthly advertising budget.

However, the most important commitment you have to make is your time. As they say: “If you treat it like a business, it will pay you like a business; If you treat it like a hobby, it will pay you like a hobby.”

You need to know how much time you can allocate to the business. A simple informational website can be setup gradually on just one hour a day. However, setting up an online store will require almost full-time effort in the beginning. Once your store is done, then your time commitment will drop.

When you’ve decided what kind of internet business you are interested in, and how much resources to put into it, you can then look at the second step, researching the design and content of your website. You can check out the entire Step-By-Step Guide by visiting the website below.

Steven is the webmaster of http://www.onlinebiz-help.com His website contains various resources on affiliate programs and internet marketing advice to help you succeed in your internet business, including a Step-By-Step Guide to get you started.

Now you too can get in on the action! MDS affiliates, get a spectacular 50% commission on an all sales of virtual real estate.

This is by far the most unique project on the internet and you can make some serious cash if you are serious about marketing of this product!

Start making real cash, real soon!

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Becoming a successful entrepreneur in the online world is no different than becoming a successful entrepreneur in the brick-and-mortar world. Both tasks require vision, determination, and hard work.

The online world of the web offers many exciting opportunities for entrepreneurship because it is fresh, new, and exciting. The cutting edge of development has always been the most fertile ground for growing a new enterprise. In the 1800’s, the new frontier was the American west and many fortunes were made there. In the 2000’s, the new frontier is the web, where many fortunes have yet to be made.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com is worth 4.85 billion dollars. Pierre Omidyar of eBay is worth just over seven billion dollars. David Filo and Jerry Yang of Yahoo are both billionaires. These men made fortunes on the web, and so can you.

The path to becoming a successful online entrepreneur has changed in the last few years. The over-optimism which characterized the late ’90s and ultimately led to the subsequent crash in the technology sector has matured into a cautious and reasonable optimism grounded in traditional business values.

The party is over; it’s time to get to work.

What Are You Going to Sell?

The #1 thing you need to succeed in business is the customer. Whether you have one customer, fifty customers, or millions of customers, it is critical to remember that customers are the foundation of any business. Without customers, you don’t have a business; you have a hobby.

Going into an online business, people usually either know what they want to sell or know how they want to sell it. If the online business is an extension of a brick-and-mortar business, the entrepreneur knows what he or she has to sell and is looking for a new channel for their good and services. If the entrepreneur is looking to start a new business online, they may not yet know what product or service will offer the best opportunities for success.

Product or Service

Every business sells either products or services, a few businesses sell both. Products are easier to sell online because they can be more easily commoditized. People have become comfortable buying known commodities online. Services which are sold online are sometimes delivered online and sometimes delivered offline.

Selling Services Online

If you choose to sell services, the next decision to consider is how the services you sell will be provided. You can choose to:

• Sell your own services
• Sell the services of others
• Sell an automated service

Selling Your Own Services Online

Each of us has specific talents, abilities, and skills which can be useful to other people. These things which we have can be offered to others over the web. Perhaps you are a lawyer, a web designer, or a painter. It should be the easiest thing in the world to create a web page to tell the world about who you are and what you can do for them.

The key to success in selling your own services over the web is to focus on the needs of your customer. For every sentence you write about yourself online, write an entire page about what you can do for your customers.

Selling the Services of Others

Selling the services of others allows us to leverage a larger workforce, and ultimately to build revenue more quickly.

Perhaps you run a lawn-care business where you sell monthly lawn-care packages to home-owners. Your lawn-care staff may be employees, or they may be independent subcontractors who do business with you at pre-negotiated rates. In fact, you may not be in the lawn-care business at all, you may simply be in the business of being paid for generating referrals to existing lawn care firms.

Selling Automated Online Services

Selling automated online services presents a very lucrative business proposition, because it represents a potential revenue stream with very low maintenance costs. The trade-off is often in the form of considerable up-front development cost.

If you have the right idea, and the determination to follow it through to a successful conclusion, there can be no better business opportunity than selling an automated online service.

The first step, of course, is to determine what people want and what people are willing to pay for. Will people pay $9.95 for an online personality test? Will they pay $19.95 for an online personal wardrobe analysis? What would someone pay for a personalized online horoscope? How about an automated resume writing tool?

Selling Products Online

If you choose to sell products, you are not limited to selling products which you manufacture. If you are already in the manufacturing business, that is a significant advantage and the web is an excellent sales outlet for many products.

Greater opportunities exist for the rest of us by working with the distribution channel. We may buy products from manufacturers and sell then over the web, or we may buy products from wholesale distributors and sell them over the web.

We may inventory our products and oversee their shipment to customers, or we may send a request to have the products drop-shipped from our suppliers to our customers. We may never even see the products we sell.

Setting up IT

Information technology is daunting to many entrepreneurs. Each little sub-field of IT has its own culture and terminology. It is difficult for the novice to understand all of the jargon and to determine truth from hype.

You will not be successful if you try to separate yourself completely from the technology, but you will also not be successful if you immerse yourself in it. You must understand IT decisions from a business level in the same way they you understand decisions which your business makes in terms of setting prices or acquiring real estate.

The most obvious need for your new online business will be a company web site. This will introduce you to the professionals known as web designers. If your business sells more than a few products online, you will also have to work with database administrators. If you want to sell an automated service online, you will find yourself working with software architects and software developers.

From there you will learn about shared and dedicated hosting and about the plethora of services (and pricing) available to you as a hosting customer.

The key in these communications is that each of these professionals owes you, as their customer a clear explanation of the business value which they are providing for the money which you are paying them. This may be an unfamiliar concept to many techies who grew up in the public school system. Remember, there are always more vendors for a willing customer.

In many ways, IT is the easiest challenge you will face, because so many entrepreneurs have trodden the path before you. An entire industry exists to market IT services to entrepreneurs. You only have to decide what to buy.

Selling Online - Successfully

Once your have negotiated with your suppliers and you have you distribution system arranged — now comes the difficult part. Now you must bridge the gap between your business and your customers.

Most Internet traffic is currently brokered by search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. To do well in business on the Internet, you must do well in the search engines.

This means appearing very early in the search results for the key words or phrases your potential customers will use to shop for your good or services.

Very few potential customers will look for you by name. You must determine the phrases which potential customers will type into the search engines and make sure that you rank well in the result listings for those phrases. Product types or names are common search phrases, such as “sleeping bags” or “bumper stickers.” Key phrases for services often include a geographic component, such as “real estate kansas city” or “house painter colorado springs.”

Once your key phrases are defined, you must make certain that your company’s web presence is optimized for those phrases. This consist of two sets of tasks: on-site optimization and off-site optimization.

On-site optimization is designing your web site to be focused on those key phrases. This is where your web site designer will work with a professional in the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Off-site optimization consists of networking with others in your field to make sure they know about your web site — and that they link to your web site. The top search engines use the number of links to a web site as one of the criteria for determining which web sites to rank highly in the search results. A SEO specialist can help you in this task, but no one will know your industry as well as you.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical to the success of an online business. The difference between ranking third and thirtieth for your key phrase is significant revenue for your business.

The eBay Alternative

The tasks involved in setting up a web site and driving traffic towards it can be time consuming and resource intensive for a small business. The time delay imposed by website development and search engine marketing can require many months to begin to deliver ROI.

Many web entrepreneurs use eBay and other online auction houses to short-cut this process and begin selling to online customers almost immediately.

On eBay, you create auctions for the products you are selling and potential buyers bid to determine what they will pay. You are able to set minimum prices to ensure that you will not sell products at prices below your necessary profit margin. You are also able to set up dutch auctions where you are able to sell large quantities of the same item.

Summary

The options involved in becoming a successful entrepreneur on the web are extensive. Picking the right path for you own journey is your first step on the road to online success.

Will Spencer is the webmaster of Entrepreneur Support.

In today’s business environment, companies that excel embrace the global dynamics of an international market with conference calling. The international market opens doors in many countries for increased competition, increased business, and increased profit. The international market has affected foreign policy, and continues to be a key point to success for many companies across the board. Larger markets and target groups increase potential clients. These increases provide room for growth, and please investors with the potential for wracking up the dollar signs.

While an international market allows for increased sales and a broader target group, international markets can also increase costs and burden. International markets require significant travel budgets, communication budgets, and increased attention to cultural differences. Companies who work across a single nation as well as with many countries must be familiar with local customs, and must embrace business traditions that may vary across borders.

Business dealings that occur in person present a particular challenge. Deals that require more than once staff member increase travel budget exponentially. As more office members become involved in an international transaction, the travel plans can become more complicated and the bottom line benefits of the deal are lessened with the expenditure. Conference calling to close the big deal offers an attractive solution to the mayhem that is traveling to meetings, and does so at a considerable advantage to both parties.

Conference calling provides a mechanism for meeting with many people in many places across the globe. With a conference call meeting, no one has to pack. There are not expense forms to fill out with a conference call. Because a conference call is not in person, business men can concentrate on the business at hand and not on which handshake or form of eye contact is more acceptable. Conference calls reduce travel costs because participants can take the conference call at their personal desk.

Conference calls can be crucial to sealing the deal even when they involve only members from one side of a deal. Conference calls are en effective way to disseminate information across a corporation quickly. Conference calls packages that allow for calls without reservation and at any hour of the day afford companies instant access to all members of their team. This means that company personnel assets in one place can also positively impact company actions in another region.

Conference calls to seal the big deal also offer some unique services. Operator-assisted conference calls ensure quality communication for all parties involved. Operators can be available for only the onset of the call, or can stay online for the duration of the call. Operators monitor the quality of the call, and ensure that all participants have a clear connection and can hear what is being said. Operators can record conversations held during a conference call, providing a record for all interactions during the call.

Conference calls can be beneficial for large-scale important meetings, as well as smaller meetings. Confernce calling occurs regardless of the weather, and can be an effective substitute for personal meetings when inclement weather arises. Conference calls provide increased opportunities for emplyeees at one job site to communicate with employees at another job site. This inexpensive method of communication increases the avenues of communication and opens new doors to coporate communication. Foreign deals, intercompany meetings, and other opportunities to interact that were once neglected due to travel costs can now be successfully completed with conference calling. When closing the big deal, companies can utilize all of their best players at a fraction of the cost with conference calling.

Alan Jason Smith is the owner of www.abeconferencecalling.com which is a great place to find conference calling links, resources and articles. For more information go to: www.abeconferencecalling.com

So you’ve finished building a great website and you’re ready to start raking in the profits - if you can figure out how to let the world know your business exists. Although creating an attractive website is an important first step if you plan to start your own online business, it is definitely not the last. In fact, once the website is complete you’ve still got quite a lot of work on the horizon.

Just because you have a website up and running, it doesn’t mean people will automatically know where to find you. And yet, surprisingly, many first-time web entrepreneurs drop the ball at this point in the game. They assume customers will find them amongst all the other sites floating around in cyberspace, as if through some kind of psychic connection. But if you think about it, this type of thinking is very misguided.

It is the same with any business: customers won’t start flocking to your store unless you invest some time and money into advertising. Depending on your budget, you can either blast the trumpet really loud or toot the horn a little bit at a time. But in the end, you have to make some kind of noise in order to be heard.

But how do you achieve this in the vacuum of cyberspace? Or perhaps more fittingly, how do you make yourself heard amidst a crowd of other aspiring musicians all trumpeting their own cause? Obviously, online marketing is different from marketing a bricks-and-mortar business, so it’s important to know exactly where to begin. If you take the proper steps you will be attracting interested customers in no time.

The first step is to know your customer, inside and out. This is key if you want to be successful in your marketing strategy because you can’t market to potential customers if you don’t know who they are. For someone selling baked goods, targeting the “Carb-Haters of America” might not result in the profits you are anticipating.

Next, determine where you want to market your product. The Internet allows every new or expanding business the opportunity to reach a global market, but not every business is aiming for that goal. If your website is set up as one arm of your existing offline business, you might wish to target potential customers in your local area who also want the option of online shopping. In this case, integrate your website into promotional materials for your store so people will learn about the new branch of your business. Essentially, the efforts you make to promote your business outside of the Internet can be used to get your web address out there as well.

Internet Marketing

But of course, most people who begin an online venture are looking to broaden their customer base and attract a global clientele. There are several ways to start advertising online. Just remember: online marketing is always changing, and nothing works perfectly for every business. You might have to tailor a marketing plan to suit your company’s specific goals, or if Internet marketing makes your head spin, you also have the option of hiring a company to do the marketing for you.

Step one: register with search engines. Unfortunately, this doesn’t guarantee hits to your site, and the promises many search engines make are usually more pie-in-the-sky than realistic, but it is still a necessary evil. If you have to choose, register with Yahoo! and Google, as the highest percentage of web traffic originates from these two giants. In the past, achieving top search results could be done for free; now you have to shell out some cash if you want to get top placement and advertising space. Yahoo! Express and Google’s Adwords program are two examples of this type of paid search engine placement.

Another way to get noticed is to participate in a link exchange. Simply put, this involves seeking out other websites that are related to your company or product in some way and asking the owner if he/she will post your link on the site. If the owner agrees, you offer to post their link on your site, hence the term “link exchange.” This is a good way to start advertising your site because it involves targeting the right kind of people (someone visiting a site already related to your business) and forming solid bonds with other websites. And the more links other sites have to your site, the more popular you become with the search engines, without having to pay for top placement.

Finally, don’t sit back and wait for customers to come to you. Be proactive and go directly to your clientele. Of course, this means you must know where to find them, but this sounds harder than it actually is.

For instance, many new businesses actually use eBay to source potential customers. It depends on what you’re selling, but if you know a lot of people looking for your product spend a good amount of time making eBay purchases, that might be a good place to begin and get your name out in public. Use eBay as a marketing tool - sell a few items for very low prices, get people on your email list and invite them to consider future purchases from your website. EBay is more than a place to sell goods; it can be used as a highly effective marketing tool.

Or, as mentioned above, make business connections with people in a related business. Pay to have banner ads displayed on other websites to help spread the word about your business. This will bring you closer to the people who make up your target market.

This is just the beginning when it comes to online marketing, but if you start off on the right foot and persevere, you will succeed.

Article was written by Katerina Mitrou sponsored by templatedogma.com/. Template Dogma offers a huge selection of professional, ready to use website templates and custom products. Build your professional website in minutes with the help of Templatedogma.com. Reproductions of this article must include a link back to templatedogma.com/.

Starting a home based business can be very profitable if done correctly. The problem with most opportunity seekers today looking to start their own home based business is that they lack the knowledge and tools to help them succeed. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling online, once you master the process, it’s possible to sell any product or service. However it’s essential to have various tools available that will help grow a home based business.

When starting a home based business most people enter with the preconceived notion that they can simply sit back and watch the sales role in, when in fact it’s just not true. New business owners looking to work from home need to know three important things.

Find a product or opportunity that you feel confident about and one that fits your personal needs. With some many opportunities available online today, it’s difficult to pick out opportunities that are working for others. Most opportunities will allow you to sign up for a free conference call that will give a bit more insight on what their product is and what they are all about. Listen carefully and make sure to take notes, when the conference call is over, review your notes and ask yourself if this is the opportunity for you.

Joining the right program is only the beginning. In order to become a successful home business owner, you are going to go through changes and they may be uncomfortable. If you want to get rid of the 9 to 5 job making $25,000, $50, 0000 or $70,000 you need to change what you are currently doing. This means that your business will not grow until you make it happen. Joining an opportunity and failing to take action to show others your opportunity will get you nowhere.

Utilize advertising techniques. Some people become scared at this point claiming they do not know how to advertise a home based business. In fact there are free ways to promote your online opportunity and that’s exactly how I got started. Write informative articles such as this one and submit them to article directories where thousands of business seekers may view your article. Search, “free classified” ads online and start posting your opportunity. A few good ones are Craig’s list, backpage.com and US freed ads. Run a search on money making forums and start talking on those message boards. Every time you make a new post, you can have a link at the bottom of your post pointing back to your opportunity. You would be surprised how many views your home based business opportunity will receive.

Follow up with prospects. There is an old saying; it’s all in the follow up. Make a list of all the people that may have e-mailed you, responded to an ad or left you their phone number. Call them back and ask them if you can help. Helping people achieve their financial success is extremely effective. Be sincere and give them an honest opinion and share your personal experience. Building a business is about building relationships.

Tim Rohrer is an established writer and business owner. To learn more about a system that will show you how to earn $500 per day, visit http://www.1step-profits.com