This is a guest post by Sam Peters.
When you’re starting an online business, you probably have no shortage of ideas, motivation, and grand plans for the future of your enterprise. But there is one notable area where you likely have a short supply: finances. Unless you have personal reserves or an already-set collection of investors, there’s a good chance that your ideas will have to initially be implemented with a tight budget in mind.
This is a guest post by Abhishek Bhan
There is nothing quite like celebrating New Year’s Eve in Scotland. Whether you are in a local pub, on the streets of Edinburgh or enjoying a party with friends and family Scotland seems to be in its element at Hogmanay.
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Rapid responses have a great deal to recommend them. If you have a problem situation to resolve, it is usually advisable to handle it quickly before things get worse. Conversely if you are waiting for an answer from some other person, the earlier you get the information or advice, the quicker you can take action. That all sounds fine and dandy, but we all know that is not how things turn out in reality.
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It is estimated that there are more than 6,000 wineries in the U.S., another 6,000 in Australia, and over 360 in Canada and each may produce 10 different wines or more. Add in Europe and South America and you clearly have a very, very crowded market-place. Even if you decide to purchase through your local wine store, the choice is formidable. The BC Liquor Stores Product Catalogue, for example, lists 3103 table wines. If you are one of those wineries, how can you try to ensure prospective customers hear about your wine.
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This is a guest post by Mariana Ashley.
I will preface this post with the cold fact that not all blogs or websites will benefit much from using the Amazon Associates program. That being said, since the program is free to use, it is at least worth trying out. It is a great affiliate program that is simple to implement and can make surprisingly large sums of money. But for any site or blog to make any serious money from the program, they should fit at least most of the following criteria:
The White Spot Restaurant chain started 83 years ago and is going from strength to strength. Its early years are perhaps best typified by what you will find on the website of the brand that was its flagship product, Triple O’s.
Here is how it all started during the years, 1928 – 1938.
It all started with a man and his truck. The man was Nat Bailey, his truck was a 1918 Model T, which he transformed into a traveling lunch counter to serve hungry sightseers at Vancouver’s Lookout Point.
One day, a customer leaned out his car window and asked, “Why don’t you bring it to us?” So Nat did. He hired three energetic young men to take orders from his customers. Because these servers “hopped to it” they became known as carhops.
Nat’s energy and his passion for service set the stage for the first White Spot drive-in, which he opened in 1928 on Granville Street at 67th Avenue in Vancouver.
If you wish to be reminded what their key product looked like, here is how they portray it.
Many years later, White Spot looks very different but as the Vancouver Sun points out, White Spot restaurants keep the iconic brand sizzling.
Under the leadership of president Warren Erhart, they’ve expanded from 27 full-service restaurants in B.C. to 64 restaurants and 55 drive-throughs — including markets in Alberta, Hong Kong, and soon, Singapore.
White Spot was recently named as one of Canada’s 50 best managed companies. Erhart also emphasizes that being market focused and having a good understanding of the pulse of the market, is really important as well.
For him there are two attributes that distinguish every successful company.
In his opinion, every successful organization is continuously improving all attributes of their business.
You can get a sense of both attributes in one of their TV ads about their Red Seal Chefs program, with their slogan, Fresh Thinking, Fresh Cooking.
Those two attributes are also the central theme of the SMM free PDF book on ‘Marketing Right Now’ Time is the most important attribute of service in a customer’s eyes and yet so many companies neglect this aspect of quality.
That does not mean that you must always be rushing around and be stressed by always keeping busy. You need to follow those wise words of Stephen Covey and do those priority tasks that are both Urgent and Important.
The key way of measuring time is what customers are expecting. Luckily most companies are pathetic in the time-based service they feel is adequate. It’s often determined more on the basis of minimising costs than of maximizing customer satisfaction. If your company reliably provides a response in a timely fashion, then your company will certainly stand out from the crowd.
The Marketing Right Now book gives you the essential steps you need to use Time to your advantage and have a very effective Internet Marketing action plan. Why not check it out NOW.
According to one online business coach, Internet Coaching can show you how to earn more, work less, and enjoy life online by living the Internet lifestyle. It's an alluring promise so perhaps it is no surprise that a search for 'Online Business Coach' results in 26.7 million items. Here are some of the top ranking resources:
Clearly there is intense competition and it is gratifying that at least in this search SMM Internet Marketing Consultants came up at #2. Given that Google now delivers personalized search results, you may find that a Google search for 'Online Business Coach' produces a slightly different list.
You will usually find that Terry Dean is in the top few, but perhaps the most surprising entry is Ken Troyer at #1. He describes himself as an online business coach and mentor, who is quietly working behind the scenes. In a previous post on online business coaches, we did give a link to Terry Dean but he was the only one we mentioned. However working 'behind the scenes', Ken Troyer clearly amasses large numbers of back links to appear so high in the Google rankings.
There is a real need for honest business coaching, since in some ways the Internet is a field of dreams. It is true that you have the ability to communicate globally with a vast potential audience. And yes, even if only a very tiny fraction of them could potentially buy your product or service, that can still total up to very significant revenues.
Where the dreams come in is that of course anyone else can look at that potential market place and jump in too. If it is far too easy, then that could encourage a vast number of competitors. Avoid such markets like the plague. What you should consider is a market place where there is what the strategy experts call a barrier to entry. For example if you must be certified to provide a particular service, then that is a barrier to entry. If you are not certified, then you are not permitted to offer your services
Even if you have the skills and certification to be able to cross that barrier to entry, you may still find too long a list of potential competitors. This then presents two challenges:
Both questions require serious effort to find effective solutions and in some cases solutions will not be possible. If you have really become extremely enthusiastic about your potential product or service, you may be blind to the reasons why success may be elusive.
This is where the right online business coach may render you immeasurable service. Giving honest, frank advice will allow you to put effort into the things that matter.
For more on those key questions you should be asking, check out The NUB Of Your Marketing Strategy. In that title, NUB stands for Niche, Unique Selling Proposition and Bottom Line.
If your choice of online business coach is not asking you tough questions on such matters then be very wary. If your online business coach is only painting pictures of the promised land, then move on. What you really need are strong doses of realism. The online business coach and mentor who can provide that is worth whatever they may charge. Buyer beware.
As we all catch our breath after the highly successful Vancouver Winter Olympics, it is natural to think of ways of remembering those exciting days. One way is to buy a memento that will make a lasting souvenir in the years to come.
Authentic souvenirs can be difficult to verify particularly if you are buying at a distance. Any help you can get is very welcome. You might do worse than check out these tips to insure you’re buying authentic Olympic souvenirs.
Thousands are scrambling to get a piece of Olympic history without going to Vancouver. From mittens to pins the race is on to snatch up a piece of the winter games. More than 1,700 Olympic collectibles are currently on eBay and Craigslist.
These range from the ordinary to the obscure. One Australian Olympian sold her luge suit on eBay to raise money for the family of the athlete from Georgia killed during a luge test run.
It is important to get authentication for such souvenirs often with documentation that carries a signature. You can also use a credit card so you can dispute the charge if you do get a fake.
When buying souvenirs from another country, it is always best to buy from sources that the locals use. That means that to buy Australian souvenir gifts, you will always be more confident if you know that you are dealing direct with an Australian souvenir gift store. Authentic souvenirs are the very best way to acquire gifts that will have lasting value. Buying where discriminating Aussies make their purchases is your very best assurance.
There is a new book available that every entrepreneur and SoHo (Small office home office) owner should read. It is called Marketing Right Now.
You should not confuse it with the book featured on the right. That book may never be on the shelves of your local bookstore, although there is an undoubted need for such a book. What we are talking about here is an e-book.
The correct title does not include that last For Winners phrase, but be assured that what is included can make your business a winner. The e-book is available as a free download.
Although it naturally deals with how to do business on the Internet, the most interesting sections deal with the important steps you should take before you get close to creating a Web page. If you are to succeed, then you must have a clear strategy.
Some people treat the concept of strategy in a somewhat cavalier fashion. Perhaps without realizing it, you are one of these people. You can easily check whether you have a clear strategy by answering the following three questions:
Do not feel bad if any of these three questions stump you. There are a significant number of businesses owners who would be similarly stumped.
As you may note, the concepts discussed here seem to be getting attention from some very important commentators. Strategy is challenging because it defines what you will put efforts and resources into and what you will not allow yourself to be diverted by. This single-minded focus is not easy to achieve and many people almost goof-off in doing whatever comes to mind as they try to grow their business.
This e-book puts the emphasis on this first step of strategy. That starts with the potential customers you feel your business might serve. You must be capable of creating a product or service that they will find superior to what the competition is offering.
You can of course sometimes make a reasonable living by having a me-too product or service. However the Internet is a real threat to such merely adequate suppliers. Buyers can explore what is available and they will undoubtedly go for the best they can find.
Two important operational details are also emphasized. If you put Time as Job One, then this can give you an almost instant competitive advantage. You must also have good communications with your prospects and clients on a continuing basis. That implies an effective blog. Without it your business will be hard pressed to grow as it should.
Since the e-book is a free download, it is almost a no-brainer to check it out for yourself. The e-book itself is a one megabyte PDF file so please be patient when you get to that step.
We welcome feedback on the e-book since this would allow a revision of the contents at some time in the future. Please add your comments here. They will be most welcome.
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The Silent Auction / Pub Night combination like that being run by VTEA can be a most useful contributor to the funding of the charity. Folk get together for an enjoyable evening and at the same time the charity gets a useful influx of cash. Depending on the value of the items being auctioned, the contribution for the charity can be very significant.
Now Jon Carson, CEO of online auction platform cMarket, suggests that, as with so many other events, the Internet is changing the way things get done. He suggests that the time for Silent Auctions is over and that Online Auctions Provide Greater Convenience and Fundraising Potential.
Although he acknowledges that live auctions are alive and doing fine, he believes that silent auctions are broken. He cites a number of reasons for this but the biggest killer in his opinion is the lack of “competitive arousal,” a condition that Carson describes as “when things get silly before the auction closes.
Clearly, a live auction still has this last-minute frenzy built in, as bidders pay rapt attention and vie to get their bids in while in direct competition with one another. A silent auction, however, dilutes the frenzy; conversation, entertainment, and food compete for attention with the items up for bid. “The clipboard doesn’t exactly get up and follow you around the room,” Carson says.
The online auction changes this, allowing charities, colleges and universities to tap into their unique resources, target a wide range of bidders, and use tools that eliminate the need to lug items for bidding to and from the event venue.
The Internet removes the barriers of time and geography. This is particularly important for higher education, because alumni are dispersed. With the Internet a fund-raising auction can reach a much larger audience of alumni, including those who could not travel to a silent auction event and those who could not make it because of time constraints and/or scheduling difficulties.
Obviously, the fundraising potential of an event increases dramatically if one can target bidders in several different time zones and walks of life, rather than simply those who can attend an on-site event.
It seems quite clear that as with so many other events and processes, the online version of the auction brings many advantages over silent auctions and even over live auctions and all at a reduced cost. That’s an unbeatable combination.
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