“In Business” by Roland Millward

There is a new phenomenon on the Internet which is growing faster than you can imagine. TWITTER. This is a micro blogging website for those that have not yet seen it. It is now being used by many businesses both small and large to promote their businesses. It is a great way to get good Public Relations and let people know what you do. Follow this link and see how you can watch videos that will tell you all you need to know.

The system is easy to set up and you will be able to have it virtually automated within a couple of hours. I can certainly recommend this from experience!

With millions of websites how can you make sure that yours is successful?

There are 3 principles that you need to follow to make your website work. We can remember these by using the letters A C C. What do these letters stand for?

A is for Attraction
Your website must be attractive to visitors. It must be easy to read and grab the viewers attention in 8 seconds. People that visit the web are by nature looking for information quickly and they need to see that your website will offer what they want in a few seconds. Make sure that is the case with your landing pages. If you are using per per click it is vital that the landing page responds directly to the search terms used and that the page they land on is the one that will provide the information searched for.

Your website is your shop window to the world and once inside your web pages it is your store / office. It needs to represent quality, trustworthiness, efficiency, value, service and all the other qualities that customers are looking for from a business.

C is for Conversion
It is one thing getting customers to your website and staying on it for a while. You now need to convert those visitors into customers.
It is a good policy to try and capture the details of as many visitors to your website as possible by using an online form via a company such as Aweber (this will be vital for the next stage). How do you capture these details? There are 2 ways: You could require everyone has to ‘log in’ to access your website. This method I would not recommend and you will lose more customers than you will gain. The best way is to have a sign up form for a FREE gift such as a FREE eBook or other promotional tool. Aweber will provide you the forms to do this. Here is an example from my website FromeMortgages.co.uk. Notice on the home page there is a drop down form that appears. It is set so that returning visitors will only see it after a space of 5 days between visits. On the left column there is a ‘sign up’ form that appears on all pages. I am only collecting names and email addresses but you can collect more information.

Once you have customers information what is the next step?

C is for Communication

It tis said that it can take around 7 contacts with a person before they become a customer. Good communication from you is vital to build the trust that a potential customer will feel before he buys. This is where email using an auto responder is vital. Then we must not forget the telephone and old fashioned mail.
When you keep in touch with customers it does not mean that each time you try to sell them something. In fact is far better that you don’t. Use your communications to keep them updated. You might tell them about a change on your website or maybe you are extending your stores opening hours or closing for a holiday. Give them information not hard sell. Build up trust for you and your business. Don’t bombard them with forms of communication so that they will begin to get weary. Vary the style and type and make it genuine. For instance if you have posted a brochure of free book then a follow up phone to ask if they have received it would be a good idea, but again on that phone call be brief and don’t push for a sale. This may seem strange for those hard nosed direct sales types but the softly softly approach works far better even if it seems to be a slower process for the impatient one.

So there is my brief of summary of ACC. Take a good look at your website and see how you can put ACC into practice.
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Many people dream of starting their own business. Some of them do and a some succeed and some fail.
When is the right time to start a business?
The answer probably has less to do with the economy than the person themselves. Preparation is essential if an entrepreneur is going to be successful. The product or service must be good and the business run in an effective manner. One thing that is A Must – CASH-.

Cash is king and when you start a business you must have enough cash to see you through the initial start up costs and your living expenses until the business can sustain your living costs. If you have the ideas, the skills and the cash then start your business.

A recession can be a good time to start because of a number of reasons. One is that if you need business premises they will be more readily available and cheaper to rent or buy at this time. Many goods have been reduced in price so deals can be had on office equipment, machinery, cars, trucks and so on.

The other great thing is of course that by starting in a recession your business will be well placed to grow and do even better when a recession ends.

Many successful businesses today started in a recession and they are well placed to survive this one because they know how to survive and indeed thrive in these times.

So if you want to start a business go for it! Plan well, get good advice and you can succeed.

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In order to improve your business skills and indeed to learn new things I am a great believer in having a mentor. A mentor can pass on their experience and encouragement to help you be successful.

Get to know people who can help you maybe through local networks or the Internet through Facebook, Twitter and My Space. Build up a rapport with people and be generous yourself in sharing ideas and helping others. If anyone views help only in one direction they will soon be dismissed as someone not to be helped.

Each of us has our strengths and weaknesses and these change over time. Use your strengths to help others and get help with your weaknesses in return. Great business people will always tell you that you that they always have people they look up to no matter how great they become themselves.

The secret of good business management is really getting a good team of people to help you. These do not have to be employees as you may simply like to run a small business on your own. You can though use others skills and pay them for their services. Typically this would be a good accountant or bookkeeper to help you manage the financial side of your business and avoid trouble with the tax man.

Other skills that would be useful to tap into would be website designers or if you build your own may be someone who does just part of the design where you are not as proficient such as graphic design and scripting.

Getting a list of contacts who can help you on either a regular or ad-hoc basis is essential. You can develop such contacts locally through business networking clubs such as 4networking. Alternatively there are many ways of meeting online the people that you need. This could be Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or many other routes. Get to know people and build a trust and it will pay dividends for both parties and really help your business to grow without the need to employ people and have the responsibility that brings with it.

Advertising a business can be very expensive. How about though doing it for free?

Many businesses have found that they can generate a good amount of business from free sources.

Two that I like are Gumtree and Craigslist. Both of these sites allow free advertising in various categories and by city. Take a look at the websites and get a feel for how they work. To get the most benefit you would really need to submit your ads daily as they are listed in date order the most recent at the head of the page. It is easy however to resubmit ads without having to write them out. Just keep a note of the reference numbers for the ads.

In addition to these methods you may find free directories, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter where you can promote your business.

Having your own company blog can also be a great way of generating interest in your business and keeping existing clients up to date with your products and services.

Go for it! It’s free and so what have you to lose?

Have you tried Twitter yet? This website may seem simple as it is designed for short messages similar to text messages from your mobile phone. You only have 140 characters but you can say a lot with that particularly because you can use web links. You can send messages from your mobile phone to Twitter. Visit www.twitter.com.

You are able to become a follower of people you like and others can follow you. Your followers can view the messages that you leave. The messages are called ‘tweets’. There are lots of add on sites developing that you can use to enhance yout Twitter experience. Twitter works on the basis of one question “What are you doing now?”

Now for the business ideas. You can find like minded people say “internet marketers” or people who live in your area and join up with them as a follower and encourage them to follow you. You will then be able to build a business relationship and direct them to your website.

It is all very simple but very effective. Give it a go today!