We need to have an in-depth understanding of the fact that internet has transformed into a primary source of information-search worldwide, making it a necessity as opposed to a luxury. Long gone are the days where people turned to yellow pages or encyclopaedias for information. Where previously students, writers, or anyone interested to acquire knowledge, would turn to libraries and books will now only type in the key words into a search engine and get exactly what they are looking for within seconds. Even the benefits of exposure from travelling, which were apparently, the “road to self discovery” can now be gained through the sitting at home surfing the internet. So keeping the internet dependency in mind, companies and businesses worldwide feel that the web can bring in the right amount of traffic and clients needed to make their website successful.

However, considering there are 234 million unique WebPages available on the web, our mind comes up with a common question; what does a website need to survive or attract its customers?

1. Define Your Purpose  

   The primary reason behind your need for a website. If you’re making a website in order to sell products/services (e-Bay, Marks and Spencer etc), then you need to ensure your web design is such that makes it search engine friendly, convenient, with fast loading, and effortless navigation structures. And in case your website is supposed to serve as a presentation site, like the PR websites, then it needs to be designed in such a manner that can use flashy graphics and focus on images. Point being, the main reason behind your website, needs to be incorporated into your design.

2. Think Out of the Box
   

   Take a risk with something that hasn’t been tried out before. Allow yourself to explore what your mind tends to suppress due to the fear of not getting accepted. Get the perfect blend of social technology combined with raw creativity. Make sure you’re well researched as to what’s out there already. And then come up with something that gives you an edge of originality. Many organizational/institutional psychologists have attempted to create awareness as to how to become successfully creative, ranging from concepts of brainstorming, to just incubation, meaning temporarily letting go of ones conscience and allowing the sub conscience to take, over from which once comes up with the so called “ah ha!” idea.

3. Make it Attractive

   Color is an extremely effective way of way of attracting attention to the essentials, especially if the remaining site has a fairly limited palette. Other than that, go for vibrant and happy colors that help reinforce your positive image. But make sure to not over do it, using too much color, or too much contrast could have a negative impact and probably overpower the written content, losing its value as a whole.

4. Textciting
   

   Text is capable of serving as the crucial point of a design. You should be able to experiment with text effects and typography, and learn to be inspired by the work of other people. For example:

Image Courtesy: Vandelaydesign.com

      5.      Keep it Minimal

      6.     Keep it Updated

It’s very important to keep your design portfolio up to date. This is one way you can sustain your customers. So as you upgrade your service, launch new deals, or launch new catalogues, update your webpage accordingly. Because at the end of the day whatever’s current, keeps the customers interested. .

      7.     First Impression is the Last Impression

It’s very important to get the right design, meaning the image your website is setting. It’s a well known fact that a visitor takes not more than seven seconds after arriving on your website, to create an impression of you. It’s the design that will make it, or break it for you. So it’s very important for your Web-page design to inculcate credibility and an attractive image of what you’re selling.

     8.     Lay Out a Marketing Plan

By either investing in a smart pay-by-the-hit strategy or by hiring a proper search engine optimization company. Because getting the right design isn’t the only success factor, since your Website will deem pointless if no one knows about it. So you also need to be searched for on the web. This factor is particularly important for the sites that rely on the number of hits for success.

Be professional and descriptive at a glance. And Make sure you include proper META tags in the HTML of each page of your website. What are META tags? They are HTML codes that facilitate the search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Msn etc to determine what keywords are related to a specific website. About 80 percent of all web site traffic originates from the eight major search engines. So it would be a smart move on your part to ensure you’ve done your research over how to optimize your webpages before designing your website. This will save you a lot of trouble that may be caused in the long run due to the negligence of this factor.

Lastly, it’s vital to choose website designers who understand your purpose and can inculcate all the above mentioned tips into your website, because this is what you need to do, to make it big!

Advertisement: WebGreeter™ provides live chat support services to businesses looking to improve their Search Engine Ranking and conversion rate from their websites by up to 50%. To find out more visit our homepage.

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It is an established fact that consumers are an essential component to the success of a business organisation, but the true essence is the interaction of these consumers with the business, and in turn, the reaction of both parties, may it be production or consumption.

In today’s world, where mass production, consumerism, alienation, and researchers proving through numerous studies how the consumers are nothing but the purchasers of a product, businesses like Starbucks and Subway have used this to their advantage to create “what exactly the consumer wants” by asking the consumer variations like

• Small, medium or large?
• What vegies would YOU like in your sandwich?
• With or without cream?

All these provide the consumers a sense of authority over their buying decision. Makes them feel a part of the product itself. So the idea is to make the consumer feel a part of the business, and to require their feedback instantly.

It is obvious that if we, the business, have an official website, we are already in the process of interaction. But the question here is, are we involving our consumers well enough for us to have the power to influence their buying decisions by 40.9%. The percentage is not made up; it is in fact a recent study put up by “Oneupweb.”

Most businesses these days use their websites to indulge into what is commonly known as a one-on-one conversation. By doing so the company reaches out to the contact on a personal level, turning the contact into a customer.

For our website to be a success, we not only need the right colours, cool designs, readable font fashions/size, and attractive pictures, but we also need customers to talk on our website  in order to evolve and progress in this highly globalized super sonic world. Customers don’t want to waste time worrying about a return phone call or a mail on their address to answer their problems or questions. They want to get the answers they need as soon as possible, with absolutely minimum effort. Here are a few tips that will help you get your customers to talk.

The Two Magical Words

These two words gain attention instantly, and act as a magnet for the finger to click on it. These two words being, “CONTACT US!” Considering customers are trained to not read each and every word they find on the website, but skim and scan through it, these two words will always stand out. And as a matter of fact, the audience is trained to acknowledge such alarming words.

Image Courtesy: CEI-Europe

Contact Information

There can’t be a ‘contact us’ if there isn’t any contact information. So if you want the customers to contact you, it’s important you place your number not only on top of the webpage, but also in an HTML format, so it’s convenient for the customers to call you by just clicking on your number. Considering the widespread use of smart phones, everyone needs instant access and no time wastage.

The Simpler, The Better

By this point the customer would be comfortable enough to be willing to share his/her personal contact  information. So now your job is to make the sharing process as easy as possible for them. Which you can do so by:

1. Keeping the contact forms as simple as possible, avoiding every possible obstacle that you can. You don’t want to intimidate your customer by asking too many questions, so keep it precise, restricted to only the relevant information required. As precise as just the name, email-address and date of birth. And if you require extra information other than this, then keep it as an optional choice. So people that are hesitant can bail out.
2. Position the final action button on the lower-right position on the form. Considering the general eye movement pattern top-to-bottom and left-to-right. Make sure the button stands out, and catches consumer attention before they get confused and shut the window out of the confusion.

Leave a Fun-Filled Impact

Make your contact form colorful, fun and one of its kind. Because if it seems fun, the customers will register a positive vibe off it, and in return trust it enough to not fear sharing their information, since it’ll feel reliable.

Make it funny with a funny introduction or pictures, everyone enjoys good humour. The humor will also help give your page a personality, making it see more human and in return more trustworthy. Don’t forget to make a promise to your customers, a promise that you owe them considering they’re sharing their personal info with you. Place this promise of not sharing their personal info with any third party without their consent, right next to the final action button.

Live Chat

Your communication forum for the customers needs to be instant. Like I said earlier in this super sonic world, you don’t want to be left behind. Nowadays, everything needs to be instant for consumers to continue using it. Waiting and boring the customers leaves a bad taste in your customer’s mouth.

Provide the recent and commonly used option of LiveChat. It’s very important as an entrepreneur for you to benefit from these options.  Plus unlike a lot of commonly used services, LiveChat offers third-party incorporation modules along with a wide range of brand new, creative features.

All these tips will definitely help you get the customer talking on your website. And if this article has helped you, feel free to share your comments below.  See what I just did? Encouraged you to talk. So think smart and play smart, since you really don’t want to be a slacker in this, (for the last time) super sonic world.

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There is a wide range of success stories that you can get inspired by. Starting from someone whose life has been the most successful story of the decade, Steve Jobs down to an entrepreneur as ordinary as Mathew Osborne from Columbus OH, who found a way to make money out of dog waste.

Unlike most people who just complain about having to clean it up or stepping in it and getting their shoes dirty, he started a brand new business of removing dog waste from peoples yards. The business however proved to be an immediate success, and after several years, Mathew sold it for a quarter of a million dollars. And even after selling it, he continued to make money from his idea, this time by writing a booklet on how to start a pet waste removal business, further selling it on the Internet.

Another smart thing to do like a lot of successful business owner is to turn your hobbies interests and skills into pleasing and often profitable businesses, by observing a need in the world around you and finding a way to fill it, like Mathews did. A few guidelines or tips for how to start-up successfully.

Start a Business While You’re Already Employed

According to us, the best time to start your own business is when you’re already employed. You’ll have three big advantages that would help you smooth your business start-up and give your new business an improved chance of success while you’re already employed.

• You’ll have the initial funding from your already employed job.
• Getting the first client or customer may be easier. Since you’d have contacts from your already employed job.
• You’ll have testing time. Meaning in case the new business doesn’t work out you can resort back to your old job.

Think Out of the Box

Given the tough competition in the market out there, it’s very important that you think out of the box and brainstorm before you come up with the right concept. The key is to let your creative juices flow and observe the ongoing trends, get inspired and learn from the experience of other successful entrepreneurs. Search for substitute or commonly referred to as the ‘alternate’ ways that will aid the efficiency of your operations. Avail every new opportunity, that you personally think or feel your business can benefit from. Be open to doing things differently and be mentally prepared to look at new perspectives. Remember, do whatever helps you create value for your customers, preferably in ways that haven’t been tried out before, since that’ll also give you a marketing edge.

Image Courtesy: Monkeywong.com

Turn Your Passion into a Success Story

Whether you’re an expert at writing software or you’re brilliant at creating floral arrangements, look for ways to turn your hobby into a business. You can’t start a business by just thinking you want to start one. It requires focused thinking and effort. In short, businesses are made, they don’t just happen. You can either plan to profit by smile-generating shapes of twisted balloons, or you can plan the growth of a million dollar, multinational company. Your success, however, relies on you and what you bring to the table. So if your passion for the business is strong enough, the passion itself will act as a drive for you to be creative, knowledgeable and persistent. On the other hand, if you don’t really like or aren’t interested in what you’re doing, you will be less motivated to work for it.

Image Courtesy: 5min.com

Spin It

It’s interesting to see how most of the new products or new business ideas are spin-offs of old ones. For example Inline Skates are simply ice skates on wheels and are also known as streamlined roller-skates depending on how you view them. Another popular/successful trend is that of finding innovative ways of marketing the same old ordinary businesses in a brand new exciting way. For example florists have been around since forever, running small scale local stores, until Jim McCann of 1800flowers.com, started a retail shop in 1976, got hold of the phone number 1-800-Flowers, since it’s easy to remember and started a brand new network of florists. Jim McCann saw an opportunity to mature online, and started selling on the Internet and hence grew from there on.

Image Courtesy: 1800flowers

You might not have the contacts, finance, management capacity, or the longing to launch a brand new product like inline skates or the energy to transform your single, small-scale store location into a multimillion-dollar sales company. But the whole point is that it does not need to be that large scale, to start a business or introduce a new product you need to ponder over the ongoing trends and avail the best opportunity they may have to offer. Just like 1800flowers.com, you can spin almost any skill or ongoing industry trend into marketable new services or products.

Devise a Business Plan

A business plan is like a 24/7, readily available outline for your business that helps you manage and steer your company. This plan doesn’t only help you, but also helps potential investors, partners, lenders understand your strategy and pushing you up the success ladder. A business plan needs to always be reassessed, modified, and improved according to the ongoing trends. This business planning process, should be carried out on a regular basis, so you can keep your business running in the right direction, aiding you to focus better on your final destination. A usual business plan includes details about your product or service (depending on what you’re selling), the competition and people you’re selling to, plus a cash-flow projection. You should also come up with a catchy name, a name that’ll sell, and as you contemplate over name ideas for your company, make sure you check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s website to ensure they’re available.

Gather the Best Support System

You need a full fledged support system while you’re starting new and of course after you’ve established your company. Support can stem from a friend or a family member that you can discuss ideas with and people who will listen sympathetically to all the latest business start up issues and will suggest ways of resolving it. It’s even better for you to find yourself a mentor or, if you succeed, try out for a business start up program such as The Self-Employment Program. When starting new, business experienced guidance is the most excellent support system of all.

Be Professional from Day 1

Everything about you and the way you work is representative of your attitude and lets people know how professional you are in running a serious business. That means getting all the accessories such as a business phone and a business email address, professional business cards, and last but definitely not the least, treating people in a professional, polite manner.

Finance Opportunities

All your effort will go to waste if there is no finance. Keeping the financial crisis and the recession in mind, we need to understand that getting loans has become very difficult, to the point where even the ones with good credit records are having issues applying for and getting loans. The conditions are very strict for the existing companies, and are worse for the new entrants, since keeping the recession in mind banks only prefer lending to companies that have profitable cash flows. So if you’re planning to enter the market now, it’s advisable for you to rely on the unconventional sources of financing, because otherwise you’re bound to be disappointed considering the strictness prevailing in the market. The top alternative approach would be saving up for the capital you’d need, or relying on friends and family for short-term backing with an added incentive, for example, agree to a percentage ownership or a certain share out of the initial profits.

Legal and Tax Issues – Get them Right

It’s way more complicated and expensive to untangle a mess once after you’ve started. Questions like:

• Does your business need to be registered?
• Will you have to charge GST or PST?
• Will you have to have Workers’ Compensation Insurance or deal with payroll taxes?
• How will the form of business you choose affect your income tax situation?

In short you need to gain knowledge of what your tax and legal responsibilities are before you start your business and operate accordingly in order to enjoy a healthy future performance.

Keep the Organization Flat

The general trend of managers-reporting-to-managers will only create Politics. So it’s extremely advisable that you keep your chain of command as flat as possible.

Image Courtesy: Small Business

Make it Fun for the Employees

Keep a constant check on the stress levels and achievements of your people and reward them. Every time MicroSolutions, recorded the highest sales month, or whenever someone would do something special or worth recognition, the owner would hand out a $100 bills to that salespeople as an in incentive. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, the owners would send their employees out to a bar every now and then and buy one or ten drinks for everyone.

Image Courtesy: buildingabrandonline.com

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The consumer mind is known to be like a black box, because it’s extremely unpredictable when it comes down to making purchase decisions. Initially, I thought it was the convenience/cost factor, but then you see shops or services which are located far away, and yet you find this bunch of people travelling far away distances in order to purchase products and services from these shops. Leaving a big question mark in my head as to why someone would travel a very long distance to obtain a commodity. There’s the cost of petrol involved, the diffidence of traffic, and the wasting of one’s valuable time, etc? Come to think of it, it is not exactly a question of cost. It is possible there are other factors.

Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, devised what is famously known as the 80/20 rule; a rule that was based on his eager observations about the insignificant many and the critical few. According to Pareto 80% of the possible value of business activities tends to come from only 20% of the effort put into it. To benefit from Pareto’s rule, you need to identify your critical few customers and target your marketing directly towards their needs. According to many surveys, the cost of acquiring new customers runs 8-10 times more than the cost of sustaining existing ones. Point being, you’re bound to earn a stronger return on your marketing, leading to better sales.

Customer loyalty is crucial for the success of every business. You want to satisfy your customers so that they will remain loyal to you. In order to earn their loyalty, it’s very important for you to make them your top priority. By this I mean that you should make a conscious effort to identify the needs and wants of your customers, in order to gain their trust, respect, and loyalty by focusing on them. Fast and friendly customer service is a must to earn customer loyalty and to keep them coming back to you. If your customers don’t receive fast and friendly service from you, they’ll be disappointed and in return choose to do business with your competitors. There are three factors according to us that can help you ensure customer loyalty.

1.      Identify Your Best Customers

Identifying your best customers is as important as identifying their needs and wants. You should heavily rely on observation and analysis of their profiles, habits and preferences before you can differentiate them. All this aids you in creating a customer database that can be easily accessed and used by the staff, no matter which department they belong to. Marketing, sales, customer service, and billing, all these departments are very much integrated and can work together to sustain loyalty of existing customer.

Information that always proves beneficial to collect, with the customer’s consent of course, includes:

• Name, phone number and/or e-mail address, full address. .
• Date of birth of the customer, and/or other family members of the family, so you can send out E-cards or cards with birthday discount offers or gifts, or even the wish alone is god enough.
• Special offers, the customer availed.
• The amount of purchases – annual earning through this one person.
• Type of products purchased, and past purchasing patterns.
• Special orders and requests made by the customers.
• If some valuable feedback was provided.
• History of customer services.
• Information regarding the participation in any events or loyalty clubs.

For example, Sharon McRill the owner of The Betty Brigade, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based design firm, claims that her company keeps track of all the important dates in their clients’ lives and sends out automatic emails to any 400 customers at any given time, whether it’s to wish them a happy birthday, congratulate them on their anniversary or even if it’s to simply thank them for their loyalty. “This keeps our company in the customers’ minds in a positive way,” she says.

2.      Monitor the Database

Once you’ve gathered the information and built a strong database, it’s very important to get into the habit of constantly updating customer information. What is more important is to be able to analyze and verify the data. Meaning, dig into it, if you see a change in the purchase pattern, ask why that is so. For example, why the customer is buying the larger pack rather than the small one? Keep adding these minute details and ensure that the customer profile is up-to-date, because it’s these little factors that make a difference. The more updated the database is, the more current and in-check you are regarding the latest trends. Like I mentioned, these one-to-one interactions help you establish and maintain a good relationship with your customers, by making them feel special and important.

According to a Minnesota based business consultant, Kevin Stirtz, (who runs a website focused on customer service) customers like being involved with the whole project, not being restricted just to the demand and sales. “One of the big issues a customer has is that there’s too much away time – too much time where the customer feels they don’t know what’s going on. Allowing customers to offer feedback on your project or product throughout the process enables you to catch and resolve problems early on.” Stirtz says. 

Image Courtesy: All Business

3.      Carry out Promotional and Public Relations Activities

It’s a ‘help me to help you’ relation that you have with your customers. So if you want your customers to do something for you, in return you have to do something for them. You need to understand one thing that active customers are happy customers, because they feel that they’re in charge and indulge in smart purchases. You should attempt to carry out promotional activities that encourage interaction between you and your company.

Strategic public relations, is another extremely effective way of sustaining customers. Hence, editorial coverage provides the company with a great deal of credibility, because people believe what they see, hear and read in the media as the truth. So good PR offers you the possibility to inform current and potential customers about your company, elaborating on what you have to offer or the latest deals/discounts you’re offering. And in return, they get attracted and interested in your product or service.

The prevalent business environment is extremely competitive and difficult, making right now the time to for you to enhance or build your customer relationships. When the relationship starts taking a toll, you’ll reap the harvest. It’s always exciting to land new customers, but like I said, now’s the time to focus on retaining the existing customers, too.

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• Weak competition
• Low cost advertising
• Retailers willing to offer discounted rates/terms
• Cheaper real estate

We gathered a few low-cost tips/guidelines to help you enter the world of entrepreneurship smoothly, because if you’re planning to launch in 2012, you will need to utilize/make-the-most out of every buck that you invest. Before your launch, it’s advisable for you to do your market research. An entrepreneur should understand that economic recovery is sluggish, financing is rigid and consumer spending is extremely timid. If you’re looking to kick-start your business today, here are a number of things that you should consider:

Image Courtesy: Fast Company

1.      The Right Concept – Think Out of the Box

The right concept is the one that best suits your personality and lifestyle, so you can connect and understand it better. It’s always advisable to step into something you’re comfortable and familiar with. Given the harsh business climate, it’s very important that you let your creative juices flow and make an effort to think out of the box. You should aim to observe the norms and get inspired by other successful entrepreneurs, and by learning from their experiences get on to the road to improvement. Additionally, you should avail every new opportunity emerging in your industry which can benefit your business, look up alternative ways that can help you improve the efficiency of your operations and be prepared to look at new perspectives and be open to doing things differently. Try your best to create value for your customers, in ways that haven’t been tried out before and find different means of earning from your business.

2.      Strategise a Business Plan

A grand business plan is one that is like a living, breathing blueprint for your business that works like a guide, which helps you navigate and manage your company while also helping potential lenders, investors, partners, and others understand your strategy and aid your chances at success. A business plan should always be revised, reviewed, and built upon. The business planning process that you carry out on a regular basis helps you keep your ship headed in the right direction, helping you focus better on your long-term destination.

Tim Berry, president and founder of Palo Alto Software, maker of Business Plan Pro software, emphasizes on the significance of the business plan by saying, “In my company, we’ve been working on the same plan for more than 20 years—we review it every month and revise it every year.  We’ve printed it out a dozen times and shined and polished it. We share it with the team constantly, but it is never done. When your business plan is finished, your company is finished.”

A typical business plan may include details about the service or product, the target consumers and competition, plus a cash-flow projection. You should also try to come up with a clever name for your business, and as you ponder over names for your company, check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s website to ensure they aren’t taken.

Image Courtesy: Learn That

3.      Explore Finance Opportunities

Market research, the right concept and a business plan will all be deemed pointless if there is no capital. With the continual financial crisis and the economic downturn, lending has become very tight, to the point where the small business owners – even the ones with a good credit history/record are having trouble getting credit. The situation is nearly impossible for people starting new, since banks (keeping the recession in mind) only prefer lending to businesses that have experienced several years of profitability. So if you’re planning to start new, it’s advisable for you to rely on alternative sources of financing; ones that do not involve applying for a loan from traditional sources, because otherwise you’re bound to be disappointed. The best alternative approach would be saving up for the capital you’d require, or turning to family and friends for short-term interest free backing with an incentive of a decided percentage of ownership or out of the initial profits.

Try finding business angels, in the directory of the Angel Capital Association or venture capital investors through the directory of the National Venture Capital Association. MultiFunding, a loan advisory firm, provides you with the best search tool that can help you understand how friendly your bank is toward small businesses. And lastly, you can also benefit from the Investment ROI calculator to see how you may fare in the end, in case you’re considering giving up a stake in your company for cash.

4.      Work On a Marketing Plan.

In this post modern, highly globalized, digitized world, we have a wide array of marketing options to choose from, from traditional media to social networks, blogs, e-mail and pay-per-click ads. The entire trick is to determine which option will help you reap the best return on the investment you’ve sown for your particular business.

If you have questions like, what is a marketing plan and how you can work around it? You can become a member, of the Foundation for the Advancement of Marketing Excellence in Entrepreneurs and benefit from taking one of its online courses.

5.      When You Sell

Make sure you great and treat your new customers with enthusiasm, as that would help you pitch the right sort of profitable sales. Friendly treatment would help customers remember your business as a friendly positive one encouraging them to come back. And once you start selling, and have attracted enough customers, read up on various ways that will help you sustain them. Because starting a business when the economic situation is this tight is troublesome as your customers may still be reluctant when it would come down to spending as much as they used to, which makes selling difficult for you. But if you decide to launch today, make sure you commit 100% to it, and put all your heart and soul into its survival and attainment of success.

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Price wars are at a high and companies are aiming their best to get the customer flow coming back in, by giving them fancy offers that keep luring these customers.

Image Courtesy: Karain Moonlight

However, despite these unfavorable circumstances, businesses can keep their sales boosted by following these five simple steps:

1. Limited offers

One of the best ways to get the consumers to come forward and shop, especially after saturation of winter and holiday sales, is to tag a sale “limited”. When a consumer knows that there are amazing deals that they can enjoy and benefit from, they always want to attain them. Now on top of that, if they are tagged “limited” the value of that product rises and the consumers are more eager to make use of them. This is a perfect way to speed up slow January sales and motivate the consumers to once again engage in the cycle of shopping and hoping to save on good deals, no matter how much they have already bought.

2. Tricked discounts

Who doesn’t want to benefit from a great discount, especially if it’s on a worthwhile product? Companies can place a discount by encouraging to sell holiday products and offering discounts on the new season range. This will benefit them in three ways; first, the stuff from the holiday will be sold out and no bulk will be lying around, second, the new season products will get a quick sale and promotion, and lastly, the customer will feel that he or she has invested in something both useful and latest.

Another way to trick the bored consumers in to speeding up their shopping, is to place tags like, buy one get one free. This is a great way to empty out goods from the last season as well as make profit and speed up customer turnover.

If this kind of sale doesn’t feel feasible, than stores can always do the ‘buy one and get half off on the other’. These strategies are very useful in trying to speed up slow sales and get the profits flowing in.

3. Cashing in on the “New You”

One of the feelings at a high peak during January is resolutions and dreams of being a new person, with new goals and hopes. Marketers need to cash in on these ideas and convince the customers that they can find their new and polished selves, by purchasing these products and upgrading their lifestyles.

Try to make the atmosphere of your store a happy and encouraging place, where consumers wish to take off their new year products from. Make them feel that the products you are selling are unique in nature and will be able to give maximum use.

This can be done by decorating the stores in a new look, which is more happening and exciting, and different from the winter fiesta. This will make the consumer feel like a new time of the year has started and they need to start over. You should give your products a visual oomph that will make them appear pleasing to the eye, and reset the winter shopping fever, into a New Year shopping plan.

4. Arrival of New products

Businesses need to understand that the time when they launch their products becomes very critical to the success of that products sales. At times when sales are low and the market has slowed down, is the best time to introduce the new season look or the latest range in this case. This will motivate the consumer to be the first one to buy these goods and feel good. If it’s an accessory range, then consumers are always waiting in line to be the first one to grab the latest trends and show them off. No matter what kind of good it is, if it is marketed correctly and makes a place in the mind of the consumer, then that’s half the job done, if not more. Businesses need to plan for this in advance, since there is a lot of commotion and activity going on during the winter/holiday season that it becomes difficult to manage.

Hence it is best to launch your new product range in order to speed up slow business sales.

5. Marketing strategies

Companies need to brush up on their marketing strategies in such seasons and change them in accordance to the previous strategies, since the customers have been over saturated with shopping, from benevolent Christmas and winter sales, that it’s very hard to find them a better deal.

Businesses need to find a separate marketing or promotion plan so they can boost their sales. One of the ways to do this is to get customers involved and get more ideas on what kind of products they would like to have and try to gain customer knowledge to help design your upcoming plans. This keeps the customers engaged and results in revenue, through higher customer turn over.

Another important factor would be to curb expenses. It is necessary to curb and control expenditure in such slow times, so that there are no extra losses on top of slow sales.

New Year’s is a very important time of the year, and shouldn’t be seen as just one month gone without sales. If it is treated under that light and sales aren’t speeded up, then that will cause a spillover effect on the next month and trend of lack of sales may be created. It is best not to allow such loop holes and try to generate as much sales and revenue as possible.

The morale of the consumers are high and they have geared themselves for new goals and projects, hence its best to get them in this state of mind and make the most out of it, by marketing correctly, through strategies and tools that are focuses and sales generating.

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When college life is over, one is over ambitious about his career to start. But the world does not await him with the same excitement; in fact it asks a college graduate to come looking for his opportunities. When you are going to find yours, here are some points you need to ponder about:

Time for a Quick Reality Check

When Abraham Maslow presented his famous Hierarchy of Needs¹, he placed “Self-Actualization” at the top of the Need pyramid. This made ‘realization of one’s full potential’ the greatest achievement in his life because one can only achieve the best when he knows what he’s best at. When you are leaving college, it’s high time you work on your self-actualization. You can start by asking yourself some introspective questions like:

• What is it that you want the most out of your professional life?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses and how do you plan to make the best out of both as a beginner?
• If you were an employer would you hire someone of your caliber and qualification? Why or why not?

The answers will help you analyze yourself and evaluate where you stand and where you should be heading. It doesn’t matter what people expect you to be, you first have to know all that you CAN be.

Explore Your Horizons

During the journey of one’s life college is the most significant part as it provides the foundation of professionalism. College introduces you to the horizon of opportunities that await a graduate.

But when you get professional exposure you find things are not the same as they were taught in the classroom. Here you don’t have a teacher to guide you through an assignment, you have to do it all on your own. So enjoy this decision making part of life and explore the world. Be confident when you make the best choice without investing time in worrying about a plan B.

Choose a Career Path

First job shouldn’t just be for the sake of having a job or an income resource. It is the first brick in your career so you have to pick it wisely. Ask yourself where you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years. This will keep your ambitions alive and encourage you to keep your efforts directed.

There are a lot of career options for a newbie from college. You can be attracted to freelancing, entrepreneurship or an office job. Every platform has its own pros and cons when compared to the other, so make a wise choice by analyzing your personal interest and life setup. For instance if you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to have basic contacts, a skill to make public relations, and a sufficiently heavy pocket along with the drive to do all this.

Life does not offer everything on a silver platter and more often than not, you have to take a risk to land surprisingly good opportunities. Be willing to take that risk.

Technology is at Your Doorstep – Avail It

Technology has become an inherent part of our lives bringing the world in our palms. In college you learn how to take help from resources like Google, Wikipedia etc.,  now it’s time you imbed this technology in your professional life as well.

Whichever career path you chose, you can use Internet as your work station. For entrepreneurs, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter give you a platform to reach out to masses and help you to interact with your competitors. For freelancers, applications like Drop Box and Google Apps are heavenly. All you have to do is to make the most of these facilities and be as much productive as you possibly can.

Be Practical

You might have some practical exposure through internships during college but a full time job requires a lot more from you. When you step into practical life you find most of your colleagues are of your age group and are just as smart and ambitious as yourself. Don’t opt for leg pulling to get noticed rather make your work speak for you. It’s not bad to ask for help, and the sooner you do it the better for you, so don’t hesitate.

For a newcomer from college, strict job hours change the meaning of social life. Where on one hand you are getting to know more people sharing similar career goals, you get less time to spend at home with family and old friends. Accept it and learn to live with. Maybe that’s why college taught you something called ‘Time Management’ so that you can enjoy both personal and professional life to the fullest.

Your attitude says it all about your personality and professionalism. Since college is over, it’s time for you to get mature and take responsibility for your actions. Here work is not just about getting a good grade; it’s about retting recognition and appreciation. Be flexible and adapt to changing surroundings and people. Once you adapt to the environment, life will start opening doors to endless possibilities, and this time you’ve earned them.

Books taught in college cannot teach you the practical application of concepts. They give you the theory of life and tell you inspirational life stories of great achievers like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. At the end of the day it’s the path you chose that decides whether you will make a success story, history or remain a mystery. Be willing to face tough choices and have the faith in your “Self” to be competent with every challenge life throws your way.

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Facebook Took the Lead in 2011

On the 22^nd of February, 2011, an Egyptian couple was reported to have named their baby “Facebook” in a hearty attempt to honour Facebook, and its contribution to the revolution that not only shook Egypt, but the whole world as we know it. Facebook, not only is the name of a social networking website, but has also become an adjective, like Google. Its mindboggling how these social networking websites have brought around an entire evolution in the world of Internet.

Facebook alone has affected the social lives and activities of people in various ways. Especially with its availability on mobile devices, Facebook allowed its users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as they have access to the Internet. Facebook’s known to have united people with similar interests and/or beliefs through groups and other pages, and has become the best place to search for lost family members and friends.

According to Mashable.com 40 percent of global internet users use Facebook everyday, making it worth $65 billion, as quote on the 3^rd of March, 2011. However, the social media war heated up on the 20^th of September, 2011 as Google+ went public with its social network offering and entered the Social Media war with Facebook and other popular social media websites like Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. Two days after this launch, Facebook reported to have reached 800 million registered users.

And soon enough, we saw Facebook unveil a set of new features to its site, in order to provide something new to the users – their way of stepping-up their game. Meaning, Facebook took away the previous option of choosing between the top stories and the most recent posts and offered only the top stories, which were featured relevant to your interests. Furthermore, a ticker was placed on the right-side of the home page, showing you comments and real-time posts from your friends and fan-pages, so you could easily view their updates. So from the way the top stories were featured on the user’s Facebook feed, to the news Ticker, the entire profile was transformed!

On the 13^th of June, 2011 Facebook saw a decline in their monthly growth, from 20 million users in 2010, down to11.8 million new users in May 2011. To overcome this decline, Facebook partnered up with Skype, and on the 6th of July, 2011, launched its video calling services on the social network.

The users now, could not only share pictures, post on walls, create and follow fan pages and chat, but also video call while on their Facebook profile.

As users started thinking Facebook’s provided them with everything they could ever imagine under one shed, Facebook on the 9^th of August, 2011, introduced a Facebook Messenger App for Androids and iPhone, which allowed users to conveniently send messages and texts through the service.

A lot of users resisted/condemned the new changes, claiming the new features have crowded their page. In an attempt to divert the attention of these critics, Facebook offered the largest privacy initiative of the year. By changing a few settings, they made sharing easier for the users, allowing them to restrict who all they wanted to share their updates with. On the 24th of August, 2011, studies showed Facebook to have received one trillion page views per month, and the number of visitors to have increased to 870 million in June.

On the 14^th of September, 2011, Facebook launched a Subscribe button, which allowed the users to follow public updates; by public I mostly mean the public figures. Interestingly the benefits of this feature weren’t restricted to friend lists, meaning you didn’t really have to be friends with the person you wanted to subscribe.

Soon after this, on the 22nd of September, 2011, Facebook announced the Timeline, a huge Profile redesign that was supposed to feature a cover photo, searchable user history and revamped organization.

The timeline however, is still in the process of being implemented.

Facebook also launched a new advertising strategy, by promoting ad sharing and Brand Page interaction on Facebook, making it the hub of advertising related activities carried out. The company began  its drive by inviting a select group of British advertising leaders to meet Facebook’s top executives at an “influencers’ summit” in February 2010. Facebook has been reported to have been involved in marketing campaigns for True Blood, American Idol, and Top Gear.

Today, Facebook is the leading website in Social Media arena. But in 2011 the competition came down to one competitor; Google+. With Google already claiming up to 40 million plus users on Google+, it was still nowhere near Facebook, keeping the growth and user base in mind. We need to, however, admit the fact that till now, it’s only Google+ that rose up to challenge Facebook in this social media war, as till date Google is the biggest internet company.

However, we shouldn’t forget that right now Facebook is a completely functional social network whereas Google+ is still in its early stage. So if you’re expecting to see the kind of user base, applications and features you enjoy on Facebook, you are bound to be disappointed. But the positive is, that Google + is in development mode and they keep updating it. So in the coming few days, we may get to see lots of new features and applications developed, that would make Google+ a Facebook type concrete social media network.

Facebook, not only focuses on generating revenue and becoming more successful by the day, but has also been participating in some social services in the US. With a growing number of suicide notes appearing on Facebook, many people were taking their own lives shortly after posting them. On the 13th of December, 2011, Facebook launched a new initiative, which aimed at allowing users-with-suicidal-thoughts instant access to crisis counsellors through its instant messenger service. “One of the big goals here is to get the person in distress into the right help as soon as possible,” said Fred Wolens, public policy manager at Facebook.

All that the user having a problem or in distress had to do was to make a request, wanting to speak to a crisis counsellor from the National Suicide Prevention organisation and Facebook took the responsibility of providing free consultancy. In addition to the person in distress, his/her friends who knew of what was going on could also contribute by just reporting it to Facebook which would take it further from there. Three hoorays for Facebook for participating actively towards a social cause!

So, at the end of the day, a factual analysis of the situation clearly shows that as far as the social media war is concerned, Facebook took the cup home in 2011. With things heating up right from the start of 2012, no one can say for sure who the next winner will be!

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With the majority of the world shifting towards wireless and handy technology, and to top that, the invention of smart-phones and tablets, the use of mobile web is becoming increasingly convenient. The idea of mobile networking has become the base of a business flourishing. This needs to be analyzed to its root, in order to have an in depth understanding of how the two are linked. Business communication can only be effective given that it keeps the various different types of modern mobile phones under its umbrella; it may be camera phones or smart-phones, these have become more than just tools of communication for the consumers, but also have become indispensable shopping and information providing treasures. Interestingly, whether it’s for researching a product over the Internet before actually buying it, or finding some local information about a business, mobile users heavily rely on their smart-phone.

Image Courtesy: Mobile Websites

A survey carried out by International Telecommunications Union in Oct 2009, concluded how mobile access to the Internet exceeded that of desktop computers. It’s evident that mobile content marketing represents this new and potentially profitable cutting edge for businesses. And in order to benefit from this trend, businesses must optimize their websites for mobile usage. Everything PR editor, Mihaela Lica Butler wrote, “No one can deny the obvious: mobile is the next big thing. You either adapt, or you stay behind, wasting potential business,”

So the big question is – Is making a mobile website and appointing a separate department of the business to manage and update it really worth it?

The answer is, yes. Not only does mobile networking increase sales, by providing more information online, web survey details, and consumer attention gained through the idea of convenience, but within the organization, it increases productivity as most employees are given their own smart-phones to constantly be in touch for better information sharing, and for faster communication. Coming to terms with the fact that mobile networking has now become an essential component of successful businesses on a global scale, it would be an inefficiency on the behalf of these businesses to not have a mobile website of the products and services their business provides.

In a recent study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that 63% of surveyed companies have increased their mobile marketing budgets in the last two years. For businessmen, understanding the massive impact that mobile websites have on sales is significant, in order to build a thriving multi-channel marketing strategy.

According to the survey carried out by TNS, out of the people who used mobiles for accessing the Internet, 38% were said to be annoyed by slow-loading pages, 27% found sites difficult to navigate, and 25% found that some sites didn’t work on their mobiles at all. Other common user grudges include 62% of consumers showing the unwillingness to wait 30 seconds to complete a simple transaction, 61% refusing to go back to the website they previously had trouble accessing and 40% even said they would visit a competitor’s site instead, and 19% of people have a negative perception of the company if they are dissatisfied with their website’s performance.

Now in order to make a successful website, one needs to keep in mind the various different aspects based on consumer convenience. These statistics become a clear guideline as to how to improve one’s mobile website.  So your mobile website needs to be user friendly and easy to navigate, so the user connects with the convenience, which in return will get you more profits. The good news interestingly, is that despite the problems users face, they still want mobile Internet access. And it doesn’t take much to make mobile access more pleasant.  Among the popular-top-30-mobile-website widely accessed are, YouTube, Google, Google Maps, Facebook, CNN Mobile, Flickr Mobile ESPN, AccuWeather and MySpace.

Now, how to make your website successful depends on this last, but definitely not the least factor; your users! Meaning, you need to focus on the practical problems faced by your users trying to navigate from a phone keypad, because at the end of the day they are who you’re selling to. So the primary concern of your business isn’t just limited to the cost of developing a mobile website, but the entire dilemma of understanding the technical limitations of mobile browsers, and the wide rapidly evolving range of hardware available in the market, which is definitely a big issue. Because a wide range of hardware means that you’re reaching out to a broad audience, meaning that your pages need to work on the small monochrome screen of a one-year-old phone, as well as the higher-resolution, LCD and LED screen of the newest models. Long story short, make it user-friendly.

Another option that has recently gained immense popularity is that of shifting your mobile website to a mobile app, or just launching an app along with a website, like a cherry on top of the cake. This option, however, only works for websites like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, etc. or for stock market related websites, for example the Yahoo Finance website launched an app which is now also a-built-in app for androids and very frequently accessed by businessmen. Basically it’s advisable for websites which users need to be updated with constantly, to launch apps. Even now, users prefer browsers to directly get through to a mobile website.

To sum it all up, here are a few tips to make your mobile site successful. Make sure it’s:

1. Easy to navigate.
2. Local.
3. Easily accessible.
4. Thumb friendly.
5. Designed for clear visibility.
6. And at last, uses mobile site redirects.

Being aware of the global scenario of technological advancements and living in a post- modern world, where diversity is the order of the day, one would be considered a slacker to be letting go of a spoon fed opportunity for success by ignoring the benefits of a mobile website for their business.

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Jim Rohn said: “If you make a sale, you can make a living. If you make an investment of time and good service in a customer, you can make a fortune.”

But when dealing with clients, you are not always lucky enough to land angels who have a “Thumbs Up” for your services in respect for your investment of time and effort. Some clients’ needs are hard to interpret and are difficult to please. If you are a worker and public dealer, you might have come across such difficult clients. No matter how well reputed, a customer is a human driven by natural emotions; and when he is paying to get work done, his involvement in a project can get difficult for you to handle.

I have categorized different traits of difficult clients and explained how you can deal with them when you have to. And believe it, you HAVE to.

The Customer Who’s Always Asking For Something Extra

The Big Picture

This group of clients is always proposing changes to your deliverables. Even when requirements are being gathered; he is unable to elucidate what he exactly wants. By the end of the day when you deliver the work, the client shows disapproval or wants every piece to be remodeled. Such clients often compare the end product to that of the leading competitors’ and ask for changes accordingly.

How to Deal With it

Listen carefully to your client’s requirements and make notes. Document them formally and get them signed to avoid any ambiguity on either end. Follow these requirements precisely and don’t deviate. Work in pieces and get every draft approved so that if changes are inevitable, you can incorporate them easily and in time.

Some clients ask for add-ons. You don’t have to be all generous by bowing down to all additional features apart from what you initially agreed to, or you might end up being over worked. Unless you are being paid, you are not bound to go beyond your agreement just for the sake of customer satisfaction.

 The Customer Whose Payments Get Overdue

The Big Picture:

A client-worker relation is all about money. Where you are looking for some extra coins, customers want to save a few bucks. Some customers always seem to have budget constraints and they ask for a compromise on your end. Also there are certain customers who schedule payments to be delivered after the work is complete. In such scenarios you have to empty your own pocket to build their skyscraper first.

How to Deal With it:

Be professional and make a settlement before getting to action. Discuss money matters especially for costly projects so that you do not end up begging. It’s a client’s responsibility to invest so have him invest in due time.

If you doubt a client’ payment plan, learn to say “NO”. Limit the number of revisions for a certain cost package. Mention specifically to your customer that any additional work beyond the agreement will be charged separately.

The Customer Who Complains For the Sake of Complaining

The Big Picture:

Very often you come across this breed of clients that has no valid reason to complain and no visible error to point out in your work – but they keep whining that you could have done better. Even if the intentions are not catty, they are never satisfied and so they keep saying it.

How to Deal With it:

Keep in touch with your clients and take his reviews after every addition or update to the first draft. Get things approved before moving on to the next level to avoid running back and forth. Your contract is your shield with such clients so use it whenever being attacked by unwanted and unnecessary complaints.

Your attitude counts a lot to prevent or overcome any conflict of ideas. Show your clients your passion and personal interest in their assignment to develop trust.

The Customer Who Is Not Savvy Enough in the Field

The Big Picture:

This is the client category that has no practical knowledge about the implementation details of the assigned task. For instance if such a client assigns you to design a website, he will be unaware of the time required, technical issues involved and usability concerns. He will impose his likes and dislikes being unaware of the consequences.

How to Deal With it:

When dealing with customers be patient and listen to their point of view and requirements. Never disrespect or neglect their opinions rather explain the other side of the story in simplistic terms. Avoid technical jargon during communication and give them time to comprehend the possible adverse outcome of their preferences. If you do not succeed in convincing them to change their set of requirements, merge your creativity with customer’s choices and come up with better acceptable solutions.

Your customer is unaware of your schedule and wants his task to be delivered as soon as possible. When you close a deal, prepare an estimate of required time for task completion and get it approved by the clients to avoid the risk of falling behind deadline.

The Customer Who Knows it All

The Big Picture:

These are the exact opposites of Number 4. These are the savvy practitioners and professionals who are aware of the nitty-gritties of the task so they poke their nose in every matter giving you no freedom of creativity. They have their own implementation of ideas in their minds and want you to translate their dreams into reality.

How to Deal With it:

Savvy customers are hard to deal with because you have to come up to their expectations and do not get the liberty to work in your own style. The key to dealing with such clients is “Documentation” and “Communication”. Make a note of every bit of information they give and communicate with them along with your progress so that you end up with something as close to the clients’ dream project as possible.

You cannot classify a client’s state of mind when making a deal unless you start working with him. So a general rule of thumb to deal with difficult clients is to be pragmatic, professional and empathetic. Develop a concise service protocol for all clients and follow your principles even if it asks you to say “NO”.

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