Category: Visitors
Exit Strategies for Businesses
Many investors are only interested in investing money into an enterprise for a limited amount of time. They want to know when they will get their money back and what sort of return they will be receiving at that time. Both issues are closely linked. Therefore, when preparing your business plan, to pitch to potential investors, you will need to make sure that you have outlined your long term plans and a sound <b>exit strategy</b>.
In order to do this properly you will have to ask yourself a few questions about your own personal plans regarding the business. Do you wish to stay involved in this business in the long run, or are you more interested in getting it off the ground and letting someone else take over then? These are the kinds of questions you should deal with in your exit strategy.
You will also want to know a little about the <b>investors</b> you are pitching to and what their expectations are regarding the future of the investment:
<ul><li>If you are dealing with <b>venture capitalists</b> you have to be aware that they are looking for a <b>high return</b>. They will generally be expecting the business to go public at the end of the period or make some other high profit move. The period they are willing to invest is about three to seven years so you will need some sort of high return exit strategy at the end of that period. However, you should not opt for going public unless you are confident that it is a realistic goal for your company. Public offerings are very rare for small businesses and the investors you are speaking to will be all too aware of that fact.</li><li>If you are considering an <b>angel investor</b> then again they will be looking for a high return but will not be overly concerned with the type of exit strategy under consideration, as long as it seems sound. They will be less sophisticated than the venture capitalists or institutional investors you may deal with and are more likely to be involved because of a <b>personal relationship</b> to you or the business.</li></ul>
There are a number of exit strategies you can consider:
<ul><li>The most basic exit strategy would be to simply <b>bleed the business dry</b>. This can be done by giving yourself a huge salary or other remuneration, regardless of the performance of the business. While it is not appropriate in most cases, there is no doubt that it can get a lot of your investment back out of the company in a short time.</li><li>Another simple option is <b>liquidation</b>. Simply close the doors and wait for the company to be wound up. All debts will be paid off, and then whatever is left over will be clear to the shareholders.</li></ul>
While these two options above are quite practical and effective, they are professionally frowned upon and you may wish to propose a more sophisticated exit strategy if you wish to impress potential investors.
<ul><li>Another option could be <b>selling to a friendly buyer</b>. While you may have come to the end of your relationship with the business, there may be many people who would be saddened to see it end and may well be willing to step in to take over. This might include passing it on to another member of the family, or selling it to employees or customers. There are many businesses where this will be a realistic option, however it is difficult to predict it at the beginning of the venture.</li><li>Another option is <b>acquisition</b>. This is when a rival firm, usually one wishing to expand, agrees to buy you out. You can negotiate the price and terms with the buyer and there is a good chance that both of you can come up with a very <b>attractive price</b>. You will get a good price because together with your assets, the buyer will be willing to pay for good will, market share, client contacts etc. This means you can get a very good price for the business.</li><li>The <b>IPOs</b> that we previously talked about are the final option. These are potentially the most lucrative of all, but when reality kicks in, they might not seem like the dream you thought they were. In reality, a minuscule percent of companies manage to make it through an IPO. The process costs millions, includes lawyers, analysts, publicity agents and a lot of other costly professionals. The odds are against you ever making it. And if you do, you will probably be left with only a fraction share of the company you used to own.</li></ul>
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Find the Right Clients
Computer consulting business owners need to latch on to the right clients in order to get their computer consulting business profitable. Make sure you are not running a charitable computer consulting business.
If you really want to make a decent living and want to have a good, successful, viable computer consulting business, sooner or later you have to narrow down your focus and develop a keen intuition. Additionally, you have to become good at spotting the best small businesses accounts.
The Small Business Myriad
There are millions of small businesses in the U.S. and there are millions of small businesses abroad. There’s a pretty good chance that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of companies that would qualify as small businesses in your local area.
The sad fact is, if you latch onto the wrong ones, you’re not going to have a very good computer consulting business.
Finding the Best Accounts
You need to know where to find these best accounts. In the computer consulting business you also need to know how to say “no,” and when to say “no.”
It’s extremely important that you know where to look, and how to verify that a small business is going to be a gratifying client for your computer consulting business.
You obviously want to feel a certain sense of career satisfaction. That’s probably one of the reasons you’re looking at starting your own computer consulting business as opposed to sticking with a traditional corporate IT career.
Keep the Financial Aspects in Mind
Your computer consulting business also has to be lucrative financially because you need to have a profitable business. You want it to be a stable source of recurring revenue.
Remember, all small businesses are not created equal. Your job is not to be the Mother Teresa of PC support. You are not starting a computer consulting business as a charitable organization.
The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business
Of course, you want to have empathy for the people you support and you want to do a great job for them. At the same time, you have to look out for your own interests to make sure you’re going to be there for them six months to a year down the road.
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Computer Consulting: 3 Questions To Ask Your Clients
From a customer service perspective, you can ask your computer consulting clients three questions that will explode the growth of your company.
Question Number One:
ìHow Can We Improve the Level of Service That We Provide Your Company?î
Ask your computer consulting clients this question on a regular basis; at least a couple times a year. You will be amazed at the type of suggestions they give you.
They will tell you some things youíll be able to implement without charging them another nickel or penny more because theyíre simple no-brainer kind of things. For example, ìCould you send us an email reminder the day before youíre coming in?î Obviously you donít have to charge for something like that.
Some of the others may say, ìIt would be great if you could guarantee this kind of response timeî or ìIt would be great if you could also take over finding someone who can help us with our PBXs.î
Youíre going to get some ideas, some of which are going to make sense for you, some won’t. Some of them may require a little more legwork and some of them may be great opportunities for additional revenue.
Question Number Two:
ìIs There Anything Else IT-related That Your Company Needs Help With?î
Question Number Three:
ìDo You Know Anyone Else Such as Business Associates, Friends, Family Members in the Greater Area That Could Use Some Help With Their Computer-related Problems?î
Help Your Computer Consulting Clients Help You
Spend a minute or two to tell your computer consulting clients what they should look out for. If they happen to be on the phone with a vendor or supplier or family member and theyíre complaining and moaning that everythingís running slowly or that the LANís down again or emailís not working or the server crashed.
Get your computer consulting clients trained to listen for those clues and let you know that thereís an opportunity out there. If theyíre a long-term client of yours and theyíre happy with you, they should be more than happy to recommend you. All you need to do is ask and train them to be looking for these clues.
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Don't Ignore Legal Obligations of The CAN-SPAM Act
Most small business owners are not aware that they or an employee may be breaking the law regarding spam. The advice that follows is intended to help you avoid any financial or legal consequences.
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was signed into law and became effective January 1, 2004. As a small business owner, you need to be aware of your obligations under this law to avoid serious problems that could cost you time and money. The law is very specific about the content you must provide in any commercial email advertising piece. Not surprisingly, many of us are victims of daily assaults with unsolicited junk mail from very obscure sources. What these spammers are doing is illegal. Taking time to complain is impractical for many small entrepreneurs, so in most cases we just delete the junk, and go about our business.
On the other hand as a small business owner you are in a different position when sending email to customers. Your credibility is at risk because you are not obscure, and may be easily identified for criminal prosecution or law suits. Understand your obligations and what you can or cannot do. In the US, the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, is the government entity for establishing and monitoring compliance with this law. Their rules are very specific as follows:
Requirements for Commercial Emailers
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A “transactional or relationship message” – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.
FTC Facts for Business
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CANSPAM also gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well. What the Law Requires Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:
– It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
– It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
– It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
– It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.
Penalties May Be Severe
Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising. Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but also:
– “harvest” email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
– generate email addresses using a “dictionary attack” – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations
– use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
– relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.
Department of Justice Facts for Business
The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:
– use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it
– use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message
– falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages
– register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant
– falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.
Conclusion
Fines up to $11,000 per violation should get your attention. Review your commercial email policies, and revise as necessary to make sure you include the 3 most frequently omitted features: identify advertising, your physical address, and an opt-out provision. Continue your review to confirm compliance with all requirements. Finally, visit the official FTC web site for information on additional rules and press releases that may have occurred since this report was written.
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Best Small Business Idea – Overwhelm – Get It Out of Your Head
If you are like most businesses owners, you’ve experienced overwhelm in your business at one time or another. Maybe you experience it regularly and for good reason. Hundreds of things are pulling at you at one time. You’ve got marketing going, production to oversee, calls to return, employees that need your advice. It’s never ending right? How do you possibly handle it all?
Most of the small business owners that I talk to keep almost all of these things in their head. I ask them where their business plan is. It’s in their head. I ask where their employee training manual is. It’s in their head. About the only thing that’s written down is their calendar of appointments. Even a lot of their to-dos are in their head. Here’s one simple and powerful way to get out of overwhelmówrite it all down.
Your overwhelm is in your head because most of how you run your business is in your head. Start writing it down and you will start having less overwhelm. Start taking a little time each day to document your business processes. Make a list today of the processes that you haven’t recorded. Cover marketing, production, training, accounting, etc.
Then take one of these areas and document it in detail this week. Each week, for the next few weeks document another area. Within a fairly short period of time, you should have at least the basics of marketing procedures, production procedures, client follow up procedures, and employee training procedures in place. In other words, you’ve now got business processes. Processes that you can rely on. Processes you don’t have to think about. Processes that you will use to grow your business without all that overwhelm now that it’s not all in your head.
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Business Tools to Help You Run a Successful Business
Setting up a small business, whether web based or not, can be a very time consuming and difficult task. The increasing popularity of the Internet and the resources available has seen a massive increase in business tools to help you on your way.
When setting up a business, even the best prepared among us will struggle to do everything and remember everything. It is very unlikely that we will understand all of the financial and legal ramifications of a new business, especially when we need to concentrate on getting that elusive first sale or completing the first contract. It isn’t always feasible to employ an accountant and a solicitor as well as a secretary, a salesperson and any other workers needed in the daily running of the business. So, we need to be able to diversify when setting up a new business and the best piece of advice anyone can give you to help is to make the most of the widely available business tools on the market.
Financial Documents and Tools
An accountant is a very expensive commodity that many new businesses can afford full-time. It is down to us to undertake as much of the financial side of things as possible; a daunting task indeed. There is help at hand in the form of business tools.
Spreadsheets have become immensely powerful and can do much of the financial work that any business needs, even invoicing. The Internet is awash with free standard documents for almost any occasions; if you aren’t proficient at doing this yourself, you can find balance sheets, daily cash sheets and almost anything you could need.
The Legal Minefield
Mention legal documents to a new business owner and most will curse you. Again, paying for a lawyer to create all your contracts and other legal documents is a cost that new businesses may not be able to afford. Look at other contracts, get ideas off the internet and take a look at the standard contract and terms and conditions guidelines and when you’re ready, book a session with an affordable attorney and let them look over everything. This way you will only pay once and get all the information you need for an affordable price.
It is important that you get any legal documents checked at least once. A poorly written contract can cost you a lot more than the lawyer’s fees.
Human Resources
Human Resources, or personnel as it was once known, will become very important when you start to employ staff. There are a lot of rules and regulations to abide by as well as a lot of extra information to store that is both important and
confidential.
You can get time and attendance software, standard contracts, standard terms and conditions and software to look after your payroll details.
These are just a few tools available to new business owners. To do a job right requires the right tools. It is better to spend time researching your options first to find the right tools, than to get yourself into a real bind attempting to do the job with the wrong (or no) tools. You will find that the time it takes to get the right tools will pay off time and time again.
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Computer Consultant 101: How to Build a Stable Business
Know How To Bill and What to Charge
Computer Consultant businesses need to implement good business practices. Make sure you implement the strategies in this article and you will become a successful computer consultant.
Without knowing how to bill and what to charge, youíre going to lose a lot of money thatís really yours. If you get your billing and pricing wrong as a computer consultant, you’ll send a bad message to people that youíre trying to quote for business.
You’ll be screaming that youíre a rank amateur rather than a skilled computer consultant. It could take you years to recover from this. A lot of times you would need to scrap existing clients and completely start over because certain clients you brought in at the wrong level.
Perform IT Audits
If you know how to do them right itís an incredibly powerful technique. You get paid to write proposals and do needs assessment work. If you donít know how to do this youíre going to wind up doing a lot of exploratory work for free. You can actually get paid for your initial consultation time for doing the technology assessments and the IT audits.
Build Local Partnerships
Youíll need partnerships as your computer consultant business evolves. These will get you some of your best clients along the way. If you donít have good local partnerships, you can almost guarantee that youíll lose clients along the way with this as well. You need to learn how to find these key players and how to negotiate with them.
Exceed Client Expectations
If you want to get paid the big bucks as a small business computer consultant, your clients will expect a lot from you. Your clients’ idea of perfection may be different from yours. You need to learn the magic words you need to know to avoid a lot of the stress and intense pressure. You want to come out smelling like a rose to exceed their expectations.
Maximize your Utilization Rate and Profitability
Making as much of your work-week billable as possible and eliminate a lot of the non billable, time-draining non revenue draining computer consultant activities. Itís all about delivering small business virtual IT services and how to build a stable business; how to get clients for life.
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Advertisers Embrace 'Rich Media' Format
From ads that dance or sing to MTV-like commercials, online advertisers are now using a new type of technology called “rich media” to attract consumers.
U.S. Internet advertising revenue will have reached about $12 billion last year, up $3 billion from 2004. Of this, advertisers spent about $1 billion on rich media, up from $800 million in 2003, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
So what exactly is rich media? By definition, it is an online advertising technique that combines graphics with audio technologies, giving Internet users an interactive experience.
And with more than half of American households connected online and using high-speed connections like broadband and DSL, it means a potentially lucrative way for online advertisers to get consumers’ attention.
One company taking online advertising to a different level is Centale Inc. (OTCBB: CNTL), based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The online marketing and technology firm offers cutting-edge technology solutions to its clients.
Centale’s premier application, the Catalyst EV, is a software platform that allows companies to communicate directly to the desktop of their audience in rich media format.
The software also functions independent of e-mail. To date, studies have shown that e-mail campaigns may be decreasing in effectiveness because as the amount of e-mail increases, the likelihood of success of the solicitation or advertisement tends to decrease.
One reason that advertisers are embracing rich media is that it typically entertains and is compelling enough to capture the interest of consumers. It also allows a user a modicum of control by either stopping the ad entirely, or participating in it and clicking through to an advertiser’s Web site to get more information.
While rich media may not endear advertising to online consumers, most users are finding it less intrusive than traditional pop-up, banner and text-based ads. Centale says there is a favorable market for its product, as the industry shifts away from traditional advertising such as print and radio in favor of online advertising.
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8 Important Elements for Small Business Web Sites
Key visitors to your commercial pages include web robots that crawl the internet and catalog your content. Having proper HTML source code, plus the right combination of text and graphic presentation, is just one secret to success. Proper code may mean higher robot ratings, and the “look” is equally important. Once a new prospect finds your web site, you have 5 seconds to get them to stay.
As a small business web site owner, you may have asked “Why don’t we get any hits?”. Did you know web pages can load and appear correct with improper or deprecated HTML code? A browser may ignore your mistakes, and display what it thinks you meant, and it may look great. Web robots may not be as forgiving.
Following is a list of 8 basic elements for good search engine placement that need to be considered in your design and web site promotion. For details on code issues from the worldwide authority, visit the World Wide Web Consortium to view DOCTYPE and other quality standards.
1. DOCTYPE Statement
2. Page Title
3. Proper HTML Code
4. META Description
5. META Key Words
6. First Paragraph of the Home Page
7. An Extra Page of Just LINKS
8. Backlinks (Links to your pages)
These 8 key items are either missing or poorly designed in 85% of all web sites. Some search engines may only list the other 15% in their directories. In other words, as few as 15% of the 6 billion web pages online ever make it into some search engines. Even worse, there are mistakes that may result in your page being blacklisted, and the search engine web crawlers may never come back to see if it’s corrected. This could explain why you “never get any hits”.
Web sites can be simple and professional without using fancy software to create your pages. Veteran programmers hand code and many create the HTML in NotePad. Web authors who choose to use flash, frames, or the latest software may be losing a significant portion of new visitors (customers) because the visitor may lack the technology or newest version of browsers. If they are turned off and leave without giving your site a fair viewing, it could mean lost profits.
Most designers use prepackaged software to create web pages. If the software leaves out any of the key elements, the code is hidden, and you’ll never know your site was not optimized for search engines. The designer may not know, or care, about these items as long as the page looks attractive. Note: Search engine algorithms vary by company, so some elements such as “an extra page of links” may not be as important today with some search robots. Backlinks refer to marketing your site and getting other web sites to link to yours.
Finally, business visitors want information. They do not visit your home page to be entertained. Most have a need (problem) and want a fast answer (solution), so designs should be created to minimize the use of music or video unless that’s your core business. Anything that distracts from a positive first impression may violate my “5 Second Rule”.
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Advertising: Relationships vs Business Decisions
Successful businesses know the importance of building and maintaining good working relationships, whether it is with partners, employees, business or trade organizations, the government, media representatives, vendors, consumers, or the community at large. A business must carefully balance the benefits of these interpersonal relationships and should never allow these relationships to blind their judgment especially when it relates to what is in the best interest of the business’s continued success and growth
Buying advertising media based on interpersonal relationships is a common mistake made by many small businesses. This strategy throws the business’s strategic marketing plan into the winds of chance in exchange for the warm and fuzzy feelings that come with doing business among friends. However, when the smoke clears the business has made costly advertising expenditures with little or no results and the long term negative effects may not readily be seen. Simply, the marketing / advertising expenditures have been made, the budget may or may not be busted, and the results may be none to little measurable penetration into the business’s target demographic market segment.
Is buying media from a friend in the business always bad? No, however in order to choose the most effective media channels a business must first consider the audience or customer it is trying to reach. Developing a strong sense of the target demographics’ buying and shopping patterns, interests and hobbies, entertainment and media choices for example will lend itself a tremendous benefit to making informed media buying choices. Once the advertising business has developed a strong sense of what media channels may prove to be the most effective it should try each a little at a time carefully tracking the results of each. Once this is complete the business will be able to make an educated decision on where to invest its marketing dollars, prioritizing expenditures into the mediums that have proven results for the business.
It is true that strong interpersonal relationships skills and the ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with a variety of people, businesses, and other organizations are imperative in today’s business environments. However, the importance of a well designed and implemented strategic marketing plan can not be understated and is paramount to the business’s development and longevity never taking second seat to friendship.
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