Business Archives - Page 57 of 134

Securing a Small Business Loan

Insufficient funding is one of the top reasons why 80% of businesses fail within the first year and a half. As a business owner, not only do you have to cover all operating expenses, but the time and effort needed to succeed means you will almost certainly have to bid farewell to your day job and regular pay checks. Unless you’ve saved up enough to pay for everything for at least 18 months, you will probably have to find other sources of funding.

However, here we encounter another problem. A recent survey cited by the Credit Union Times showed that only about one-fifth of small business owners – incidentally about the same rate of successful businesses – rely on a small business loan. The survey showed that 62% were fearful of taking on a loan and almost one-fourth of respondents think they would not be approved for one. A Harvard Business School working paper by Karen Mills (Administrator of the US Small Business Administration until 2013) showed even more discouraging statistics. Banks continue to apply measures that restrict small business lending since the financial crisis hit, since such loans are generally always riskier than those to large businesses. Loans amounting to $1 million or less – the domain of small businesses – have gone down 21% since 2008. These loans made up half of all bank loans in 1995, but only 30% in 2012.

So what can you do to have a better chance at securing a loan?

As the saying goes, “The devil is in the details.” Given the stricter requirements of banks, you will need to come up with a very convincing plan that shows your business will truly make a profit. Each number presented has to be supported by hard evidence or at least some realistic projections backed by in-depth research. There must also be a clear plan as to where the money will go and how it will influence your business’s success.

Aside from this, your entire personal finances will also be scrutinized, so make sure your taxes, mortgages, credit cards, assets and liabilities, and even your credentials are all spotless and in order.

The bottom line is, if you believe in your business idea and do the necessary due diligence in coming up with a sound budget and business plan, there should be no reason to be denied a small business loan. Otherwise, you may want to reconsider quitting your day job.

Economics 101 – Free Trade and Outsourcing Jobs

Free trade is an often misunderstood and polarizing subject. In my musings with everyday folks to academics it is shocking how confused the subject can become. Speaking in generalities, most Americans want a healthy, robust economy here in the United States. That is what I want and that is why I am an avid supporter of free trade. This is why the issue of shipping jobs overseas has particular importance to me. In my experience most people see shipping jobs overseas and the decline of American manufacturing as an unequivocally bad development. Avid supporters of free trade often take a negative stance towards businesses who shift operations overseas. This line of thinking is simply wrong. If this sounds crazy or offends you then that is exactly why you need to read on and gain some perspective. I want jobs in the United States and I want people and businesses to prosper and flourish but demonizing businesses for making shrewd decisions to stay competitive is pointing the finger at the wrong party. The problem isn’t the business that “ships jobs overseas,” it is the policies that make the business “ship jobs overseas.”

To illustrate the point I would like to talk about the sugar industry in the United States. Beginning in 1816 the United States implemented tariffs on sugar imports. These were designed to placate the newly acquired Louisiana territory and their sugar plantation owners. These tariffs were intended to protect the sugar industry in the United States and provide incentive to buy American sugar. In 1934 the government implemented import quotas to complement the tariffs and funnel subsidies to American sugar growers. For almost two hundred years these policies have protected sugar growers in the United States but this encroachment on free trade has not come without its costs.

For 59 of the last 60 years sugar prices have been equal to or higher than the world market price. At one point sugar in the US sold for 21 cents per pound when the world market price was 3 cents per pound. Every cent the price of sugar goes up costs the US economy between $250 million and $300 million to consumers. A commerce department study estimated this costs consumers more than $3 billion dollars a year in the United States. In 2002 Kraft moved its Lifesaver factory to Canada. In 2004 Brach’s moved its candy production to Mexico. Hershey Foods shut down operations in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and California and relocated them in Canada. Chicago, once the candy manufacturing capital of the U.S. has lost thousands of jobs. In 1984 both Coke and Pepsi stopped using sugar in their products and switched to high fructose corn syrup causing a drop in sugar consumption in the U.S. of 500,000 tons per year. Since then a slew of manufacturers have made the switch to high fructose corn syrup. In 2006, a Commerce Department study concluded that for each sugar industry job saved nearly three food manufacturing jobs were lost.

When businesses pull the trigger and move operations overseas we need to have a deeper understanding of why they are moving business overseas. In a previous article I spoke of our minimum wage that raises the cost of labor. The United States also has the second highest corporate sales tax in the world. These things tilt the scales and often make it more profitable to do business overseas. Many people like to spout the mantra “Buy American” but in a global economy this is often difficult to do and racked with confusion. Toyota has three of the top ten most American vehicles. Saying “Buy American” doesn’t hold much weight unless you talk with your wallet. People act in a fashion that gives the most bang for their buck. That is why we get cheap clothing and electronics from overseas.

Buying American is great as long as the price makes sense. When the price doesn’t make sense, it can hurt the economy and cost us jobs. I know this sounds scary and goes against what some of you might feel in your heart but it’s true. When you spend inefficiently and buy American products that cost more than equivalent foreign products, the difference in price is money that would have been spent in another part of the economy. If you spend $100 more on an American bed than you would have spent at IKEA, that is $100 taken from another part of the economy. The aggregate effect of this mentality could cost American salesmen jobs or American distributors. This is just like spending more on sugar to prop up American sugar growers while costing thousands of jobs in the food manufacturing industry in America.

It is misguided to blame companies for making tough decisions to stay competitive. If an American manufacturer decides to keep jobs in the U.S. when it is more efficient to outsource their jobs, they become less competitive. That means their prices will likely be higher. Their profits will be lower which means they have less money to expand or invest in research and development. If they cannot stay competitive then they will likely go under costing all of their jobs rather than just jobs they would have sent overseas. These are all things that need to be considered in free trade. Tariffs and subsidies cause distortions in the market where the negatives often outweigh the positives. Forcing “Buy American” policies when the price doesn’t makes sense may prop up one industry but at a cost to other industries and we often forget that.

Free trade works but we can’t pick and choose what kinds of free trade we like. When companies move overseas we need to stop blaming the companies and look at the policies that push them to do it. We can’t pretend that shipping jobs overseas has only one effect that is negative or that usurping free trade to keep certain jobs here doesn’t have negative effects. Companies don’t ship jobs overseas to satisfy some insatiable greed, they do it to survive in a competitive world market. It gives us low prices so our dollar goes further and our quality of life is higher. If we want manufacturing in America we need to address the reasons why businesses outsource manufacturing. We need to address things like our corporate tax rate, minimum wage, tariffs, and import quotas. Free trade is an amazing way to allocate funds efficiently for a maximum benefit to society. When we see things happening in the economy we don’t like you are likely to find that the source is a policy that hampers free trade rather than free trade itself. Get rid of the sugar program and we will see more jobs in America.

Could Celebrities Be Cutting-Edge Marketers – Leading Online Business Entrepreneurs?

“Where is The Future of Online Business –

Could Celebrities be showing mainstream business the way?”

Have Your Competitors ‘Caught On” and already Talking to Your Customers in this latest marketing evolution for Web Success? (And are they doing it Auto-matically and VERY Cheaply!) SO MANY Crucial Questions to answer… please read on.

The following Report is the Cover Story for “Australian Business Solutions” magazine“

YOU WILL DISCOVER HOW CELEBRITY MARKETING STYLES ONLINE LEAD ‘AUDIENCES’ TO WANT TO BUY RATHER THAN THE CONVENTIONAL BUSINESS APPROACH OF SELLING AND CLOSING. YOU WILL DISCOVER VALUABE, IN FACT ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS AND IDEAS THAT EVERY MARKETER, ENTREPRENEUR AND BUSINESS OWNER MUST NOW EMBRACE!”

(WARNING: THIS REPORT MAY FRIGHTEN YOU… IT WILL DEFINITELY ENLIGHTEN YOU!)

There is a buzz around on the television news, radio, in the print media, at business networking groups and meetings and especially on the internet right now. There seems to be a shift of focus for how people look for products and services and then decide how they spend their money.

In terms of influence and power, the new way people search for products and services and make their buying decisions online could even rival the search engines. And it’s been said that this buzz could be the single biggest thing to happen in business since the industrial revolution!

Sounds over the top, but is there enough evidence (for you) to be a part of it too? And is this buzz a fad or could it be here to stay?

If you’ve watched TV news or listened to radio or brought a newspaper in the past 2-3 years, you will have noticed references to websites in both stories and advertising, where you can find out more – including how to get more information about a product or service and/or how to buy instructions. In more recent times nearly every news presenter, TV show host, journalist and celebrity are also promoting how you can ‘follow’ their lives, interests and activities online too – and it all seems to be centred around websites such as Facebook.com, Twitter.com, YouTube.com, Digg.com and more, collectively known as Social Engines.

Celebrities are using these sites to raise their profile, build their brand and most importantly, solidify their popularity and [hopefully] longevity in their profession and industry. AND, these sites enable their audience (loyal army of fans) to talk directly back to them. And this is at the heart of the buzz and current shift – and why it’s so very important you read on and learn more.

On the Social Engine Twitter.com, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more followers (fans) than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama. Their brand awareness and popularity building is personal, although as that increases, so too does their value to corporations looking for product endorsements to drive their market penetration and increase their market share.

Sporting stars like celebrities have broadened their talent base too, becoming more entrepreneurial and business savvy, seeing their name, brand and product value increase, in many cases, to a higher income level than the actual core sporting talent. In other words, acting, playing a sport, being a comedienne or whatever is their core talent is no longer their only talent. They have embraced the concept of brand building (and protection), marketplace communications and conversations – opting for direct contact via sources like online Social Engines. Here they can touch far more people quicker and easier than say a traditional autograph signing exercise.

A true business woman, leader and entrepreneur, celebrity Oprah Winfrey instantly connects and updates a loyal army of over 2 million+ people that follow her on Twitter. Her power and influence is no surprise or revolution in itself, but her army of followers are able to directly provide instant feedback and ideas to her too -and marketplace feedback is a life blood to your business growth and long term sustainability. (Try ignoring it and see where your business goes.) Everyone wants to be heard and Social Engines give you, your business and your customers a voice.

A loyal army of followers can also provide a viral effect to disseminate information quickly too, meaning they can ‘spread the word for you’ if you ask them to – this can be particularly useful if you want to spread good news and conversely if your brand comes under attack via other mainstream media mechanisms or on the Social Engines themself.

Although it might be hard to fathom, could celebrity entrepreneurs like these be showing more traditional businesses how to connect, behave, build our brand, increase our marketplace value and build our business too using these Social Engines?

Is this a valid idea and model for mainstream business or not?

Firstly, the power of Social Engines extends far beyond Twitter.com alone. Some of the other leading Social Engine sites sprout some pretty impressive visitor and member statistics, as well as services.

Facebook.com – If it was a country rather than a website, it would be the world’s 3rd largest after China and India.

On Facebook there are more than 250 million active users and more than 120 million of them log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide). The fastest growing demographic is 35 years old and older and within that, the fastest growing segment is 55-65 year-old females. Do people 35+ and women influence the buying decision for your products and services? This is worthy of your attention.

And there’s more… more than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week on Facebook alone and more than 2.5 million events are created and advertised each month. More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site and more than 50 language translations of that content are available on the site. The people supplying all this content include business owners and professionals, some of whom are surely in your industry and probably your competitors. And if you think because you’re a localised business that this doesn’t count, you’ll find this statistic most enlightening- 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.

All of those statistics are just for Facebook alone (source Facebook.com/press/statistics).

You can also purchase Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression advertising on Facebook (and other Social Engines). They take your spend to a whole new level of value and ROI with their member data allowing you to display your adverts for keywords AND additional, specific demographics of the member base. For example you can display your advertising message to women, 55+ in Melbourne who are single. You can even target people specifically on their birthday with a relevant offer.

YouTube.com – take a look at YouTube (which is owned by Google for good reason) – People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube -including promotional videos, education, product consumption/direction videos and client testimonials for business. Plus every video you add to YouTube includes a spot on the webpage where you can put a link back to your website. PLUS you can add these videos to your blog posts, making them more interesting to your blog readers on other Social Engines too (more about blogs in a moment).

YouTube’s user base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies. Fifty-one percent of users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.

And could this be the good reason Google brought YouTube? It’s the 2nd largest search engine in the world today, 2nd only to Google.com. If you want to connect with your marketplace on volume, this is worthy of your attention.

Twitter.com – let’s take a statistical look at that quickly too. Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users in June with 83.1% of users over the age of 25. In July 2009, the Twitter website recorded 23,284,395 unique visitors – who else wants to be ‘front-of-mind’ to an audience of that size? Does your target market include people 25+? This is worthy of your attention.

Twitter has been described as the “Pulse of the Planet” given its instant, viral spread-the-word-to-the-world-instantly nature. It has boosted box office numbers and it’s killed them too, just ask the makers of the movie “Bruno” – overnight ticket sales dropped by more than half thanks to the frank and instant feedback from those that had just seen it. It was so quick too because 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime – imagine what that means for bad customer experiences and you!

Do you let your customers walk away with a bad experience, only to stand out the front of your store or hang up the phone and blast their frustration and disappointment to hundreds, thousands maybe millions of people -in the ‘heat of the moment’?

The true power of Social Engines is not to be feared, it is to be embraced and when done well, you can influence large numbers of people in the ways you want them to know and represent you. This is worthy of your attention.

Understanding the nature of Social Engine participation is important and the question to answer is – What are people doing on these Social Engines? They are looking for ideas, insights, invites, offers, information, inspiration and conversation.

Savvy business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are providing it all to them and at the same time, in a more passive or softer way than conventional advertising, promoting their business, building their reputation and ultimately getting more leads and customers to their web sites. These business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are using resources within services like Facebook that include a Personal Profile Page, Business and Product Pages, Fan Clubs, Groups, Time-sensitive Events/Promotions, Classified Advertising (PPC) and more… and the really smart ones are sharing content direct from their website blog feed too (more about that in a moment).

Then there are sites like LinkedIn, a professional social network and directory of business owners and professionals who can communicate quickly and easily with one another. In a 2009 survey, 80% of businesses and companies who are members were using LinkedIn as a primary recruitment tool to find new employees. This is worthy of your attention.

On these Social Engines, people can say what they want about you and it’s uncensored. What do you do about it? Ignore it and hope the customers and prospects that really matter to you don’t see it? Should you take a proactive approach and start by monitoring what’s been said about you and then start providing your brand of information, insights, ideas and inspiration to your marketplace and control the information flow you want through them?

We are living in an era now where what happens in Vegas goes ON and STAYS ON YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and more.

“Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, WORD of mouth has become WORLD of mouth.”

Love them or hate them, social engines are here to stay simply because ‘the people’ love them and trust others on them. Facebook and MySpace are among the most popular destinations on the web. And even though they can be extremely annoying, there is one inescapable fact: the most irritating thing about Facebook is the 200m-strong army of people who use it.

And here’s the final enlightening point- Social Engine participation has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web.

SO Do you get involved or not? And if so, how do you do it easily and cheaply but still ‘play the game’ like a Celebrity with a 2m+ loyal army of followers?

The reality is that even if you’re not involved, your customers and prospects AND competitors probably are – and they’re talking to one another, perhaps about you and without you so the sooner you start, the better chance you have to becoming both a part of the conversation and then lead it.

The answer for businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals is automation – this is the single biggest break-through strategy and tactic that very few people have worked out, including many larger corporations who are successfully using Social Engines but they are not leveraged with automation, also known as things happening ‘auto-magically‘.

In many cases, businesses are employing specialist online staff on top of web masters and advertising/SEO experts. With automation, you can do a whole lot for very little extra time and virtually no money.

HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?

At its essence or core are six words that will transform the way you generate leads and make repeat sales online – those words are YOUR WEBLOG FEED PLUS SOCIAL ENGINES.

A Weblog or blog as it’s more commonly known is a type of website or part of an existing website that allows you to add content as blog posts or articles and display them on your website – content like information, ideas, insights, offers, news, invites, images and more and you can create blog posts quickly and easily without ever needing to get a webmaster to do it for you.

There are over 200,000,000 Blogs online today and that number grows every day. Again, not all blogs and blog owners are equal, many are neglecting to include automation and leverage and integration with Social Engines so there are many nay-sayers about blogging, but that attitude is changing as more people are enlightened.

A Feed or RSS Feed as it’s more commonly known will distribute your blog posts well beyond just displaying them on your website. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates of your blog posts, delivered ‘auto-magically‘ via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for your content (information) to be packaged into “widgets,” “gadgets,” mobile devices, and other technologies as shortened or full length messages, which Social Engines happen to LOVE. Your Feed makes it possible to display blog posts just about anywhere on the web or web connected device and most importantly directly to the millions of people online every day.

That means a Blog with an RSS Feed can ‘auto-magically‘ distribute information you create about you, your business, your products and your services quickly and easily across thousands of sites on the web. And you only have to create your pieces of content once!

A blog is a powerful code (invisible to the human, non-techie eye) and every time you add content to an existing or new blog post, like you would add content to a word document, it is distributed around the web in seconds and is fed directly into the biggest marketplaces and communities of people online every day.

What makes a blog with a feed even more powerful is that it reaches the biggest sources of people (leads) online – who by the way are not just using Search Engines anymore to find out about products and services, they are also using the “Social Engines”. PLUS your Blog Feed can also ‘auto-magically‘ update Google and Yahoo about your site too, so you still stay connected with the Search Engines for no more extra work, or money.

Now if you’re anything like me, when I first heard about these Social Engines, I dismissed them as not being a viable business and marketing channel because they appeared to be for personal networking and friendship (and they are indeed used for those reasons). Whilst many businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals are using these engines and winning new business – only a handful are doing it easily and quickly, because most of them do not know about the power of connecting your Weblog RSS Feed and how it fits in with using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg and hundreds more Social Engines.

In my own experience, I was wrong to not get involved with Blogs and Social Engines sooner (like many business owners and professional managers still are) as my competitors began to build an edge I did not have with my marketplace, simply because I did not understand and connect these two key points about connecting your blog directly to Social Engines. If you want to find new customers quickly and easily and build better sales from existing customers:

Your website must be a Blog with a Feed and/or include one as part of your website
Your online marketing mix and strategy must include sharing your blog post information with people on Social Engines like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg etc.

And here’s why…

Your competitors have possibly already figured out that social engines are where they can connect with people who include your customers and potential customers because the Social Engines are where your customers and potential customers are going online – and they’re going to these Engines regularly and for long periods of time. And people are making buying decisions based on the conversation they are having and the feedback they are hearing.

Even if you [believe you] have no competition, you’re not connecting with your marketplace as directly and as easily as you can, if you are not using the true power of Social Engines. These online sources or marketplaces attract people 24/7/365, who stay for a while each time. How could you NOT promote you, your business and your products and services there?

Every time you add content to your blog, it is circulated out to many Social Engines, once you set up a FREE account with them… people at these Engines who have an interest in what your business offers then come to your website to find out more.

Here’s an example of how your website Blog, its Feed and these Social Engines work together. (Note this diagram also includes the two largest Search engines -let’s not forget them. Using your Blog and RSS Feed, you can ‘auto-magically’ update them too.)

At the centre of this relationship are your website blog and its RSS Feed. Every time you add content to your blog, the Feed distributes it out to the Social and Search Engines with a link back to your website. People on the Social Engines instantly see a summary of your blog post and a link back to your blog/website. If they are interested in you, they click on the link and follow it back to your website to find out more about you and move forward with you.

“Although we like to feed information to the Search Engines for free listings, the Social Engines outperform them in providing INSTANT, FREE traffic (people) to your website… meaning Social Engines host millions of people live online at any given time who are exposed to your blog post instantly… and not only will they follow your link back to your blog/website if they are interested, they also have the power to make your Feed ‘viral’ – voluntarily passing it on to their friends who in turn pass it on… and so on.

The Social Engines and the people on them help you grow your prospect and customer base quickly, easily and cheaply – you can’t get any cheaper than free!”

The Social Engines are places where people go to and stay at; whereas Search Engines are places people only pass through ‘in search of’ a final site destination. This is the major difference and the significant extra power you’re missing out on if you are not involving your business in the Social Engines. Remember though, the Blog Feed is vital to ensuring your participation is mostly ‘auto-magic’ otherwise participating in them could over run your day, your week and your life!

The Blog Feed allows you to ‘auto-magically‘ update the Social Engines, minimizing the ‘air time’ you personally allocate to this.

So, who’s already taking this seriously and using Social Engines as a powerful, quick, cheap and easy tool and media to generate free leads quickly too?

Firstly, no matter your business, products and services, you’ll find prospects and possibly existing clients already participating in these sites on a regular basis. You are bound to find your competitors there too, it makes good business sense to be present on an Engine where millions of people congregate, converse and seek out people with the products and services they require – someone in your industry is probably joining them and being ‘front-of-mind’ and it should be you.

Everyone that gets it commits to it. These world-wide companies, brands and industry leaders have dedicated resources to connect and cultivate relationships with prospects and clients on the Social Engines with reportable, measurable results:

Motor Vehicle Industry: Chevrolet, Ford, General Motors, Honda

Travel and Tourism Industry: JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Luxor Las Vegas, Marriott International Hotels and Resorts, Carnival Cruise Lines, Hertz Car Hire

Sporting Teams: Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego Chargers

Entertainment: 92Y, The Travel Channel, ComCast, Marvel Entertainment, Direct TV, Pop Caps, TV Guide

Finance: Wachovia, H&R Block, Intuit

Retail: Best Buy, The Home Depot, American Apparel, Rubbermaid, Whole Foods, Zappos.com

Food and Beverage: Starbucks, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Popeye’s Chicken, Tastidlite, Kraft Foods (see Vegemite Case Study below)

Other Global brands: Dell Computers, EMC and Kodak – all benefitting by directly connecting with their target marketplace – whether that’s existing customers and/or potential customers.

Case Study:

Kraft Foods have taken an interesting Corporation-Consumer collaborative approach to product promotion and development using Social Engines. Here’s what they say about their social engine strategy:

For many of our strong brands such as Vegemite – we acknowledged that we are simply (proud) brand custodians and that the brand is owned by ‘the people’. We focused our first two years of social engine participation on simply listening and asking questions.

Two of these questions were:

How do you individually like your Vegemite?
If there ever was to be a Vegemite variation what would this be?

Recently Kraft launched their latest product “Name me” a vegemite plus cream cheese experience. Here’s how they are using Social Engines to develop it.

“This is a work in progress; we spent two years listening and now with the product on shelves the Kraft Communications team is engaging with Vegemite loyalists and cynics alike on the 12 top social engines. They are engaging and getting samples out on and off line- and encouraging debate on the new products. There are a number of Facebook groups sitting in the following camps: pro original, pro new flavour and anti new flavour.”

This is just one way Social Engines are helping businesses already to grow brand, product and corporate awareness. There are many other ways to use it too that can and do lead to direct and immediate sales. No matter the size of your business and marketplace, Social Engines, like the internet at large give you a level playing field with industry leaders like Kraft Foods and the others mentioned here.

Your website with a blog and feed will provide regular content to the Social Engines ‘auto-magically’. You need to support that by also visiting the main Social Engines and engaging people on a weekly basis, as it forms part of your marketing, CRM and all the other pay-offs mentioned previously.

Adding content regularly to your Blog Feed, ‘auto-magically‘ keeps you in touch and front of mind to millions of people around the world, on the Social Engines (and Search Engines) so they can access your business, products and services quickly and easily.

The buzz appears to be more than a fad so for your business it becomes not a question of ‘if’ these Social Engines are going to be a valuable marketing tool for business. Rather, the question now is:

“How quickly will you get your business on the Social Engines

… to Capture Your Competitors Clients too?”

HOW TO GET STARTED

Here’s a checklist to help you get started with your new, exciting and FREE Social Engine Strategy:

1) Get a Blog website with a domain name of your choice OR if you already have a website, get a new sub domain or folder added called blog

2) Open an account with at Google, Feedburner, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and LinkedIn.

3) Install an RSS Blog Feed and set up a Pinging list on it then add your Blog feed to the Search and Social Engine accounts you created in the step above.

4) Create content-rich education videos that can be added to your YouTube account and your Blog – that is then ‘auto-magically‘ added to your Search and Social Engine accounts.

5) Actively participate in or create new Facebook Groups, Events and Pages.

6) Make promotional videos about you, your business, your products, how you help and support people and upload them to your YouTube Channel then add them to your blog posts.

To really make this all work well for you, you need to know there is a big secret in succeeding with growing your business using Social Engines. You’ve read this far, so here it is: Social Engine success rest largely with you getting to grips with:

Being a ‘face’ of your business and allowing people to connect with your ‘authenticity’ as a person ahead of a product, and
the need to ‘listen’ to your marketplace, innovate with change to meet their ever-changing needs and then share information that will help them, rather than push product.

Millions of dollars are spent monthly with pay per click advertising on these sites and more millions are paid to ‘search engine specialists’ who supposedly help you reach number 1 ranking on keywords relevant to your business. It’s a fierce fight between serious players for top spots on search engines, both free and paid listings. An entire industry is built on it and around it. But you now know how to become a leader in your industry on the most powerful Social (and Search) Engines online today and how to do it Quickly, Cheaply, Easily and Auto-Magically.

In some cases, target market demographics may not be using Social Engines; therefore it would not be worthwhile. Consider these statistics when making your evaluation:

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Do you rely on 3rd party endorsements to build buyer confidence? If this is not a necessary part of your marketing and sale process, you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing.

Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy – Listening first, selling second. Would your competitors be prepared to connect and listen to your prospects and customers directly to discover what they want, and then give it to them? If not, then you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing… and least for a little while.

The worst part is the first part. When you start, your ‘following’ could be small but that is far better than not monitoring what’s been said about you at all! The only way to change that is to get in the game!

Get started right now, before your competitors do -it’s the future of marketing your business online, because that is where the people you want as your customers are going online. It’s only a matter of time before someone in your industry emerges as the leader on the Social Engines – get you and your business front-of-mind first. Enjoy the experience and I’ll ‘meet and tweet you’ on the Social Engines of the World!

What Every Company Needs To Know About Business VoIP And Unified Communications

A business voip solution is an alternative to a traditional switched-voice service. Instead of using dedicated trunks between PBXs, you can share the bandwidth with your data services, making better use of the available capacity. Also, in today’s business world the availability of a plethora of Unified Communications features within the VoIP ecosystem is a huge boon to business communications at all levels.

No matter which direction your business goes with a business VoIP solution… the key is understanding how you communicate and what you want to achieve.

The search for a business VoIP solution, or more appropriately Voice Over Internet Protocol, can confuse any business. There are many flavors of VoIP… and many pros and cons… that you need to be aware of when considering which service to choose. The goal of this article is to help you navigate through the technospeak so that you can make an informed decision that will save you time and money.

BUSINESS VOIP

The first thing you need to know about business VoIP Service is that it can replace your local phone company. Whether you have just one POTS (plain old telephone service) line… or a voice T1 (24 bundled dedicated lines)… a business VoIP solution is meant to replace your phone company. Instead of using your local phone company’s voice connection, VoIP will digitize your voice signal and send it over an internet connection.

In order for your voice to transmit digitally through the internet, you need to be sure you have enough bandwidth to facilitate the communication link. To optimize the quality of your business connection we recommend a minimum of a T1 Line (preferably ethernet fiber depending on the size of your enterprise) – a dedicated link directly to the internet that is guaranteed to be up over 99.999% of the time. Since you will be entrusting all of your business voice communication to this technology, your connection to the internet becomes the critical link. You don’t want to risk a company-wide phone outage to save a few hundred dollars on your bandwidth connection. So always opt for at least a T1 Line (preferably ethernet fiber) over DSL. It just makes business sense.

If you need assistance finding and provisioning bandwidth… we have developed software that will allow you to generate a circuit price in just seconds. You can request a bandwidth quote (as well as quotes for Business VoIP solutions) by simply asking at Business-VoIP-Solution.Com. Of course the quotes are free and no obligation. NOTE:… all circuits acquired through this resource also include FREE independent circuit monitoring.

Once you have your high-speed internet connection taken care of, it’s time to select a Business VoIP Service provider – the company that will actually route your digitized voice signal to a real telephone on the other end. In essence, your VoIP carrier will become your long distance carrier. The service providers we work with offer unlimited telephone calls to the United States and Canada, all for one fixed price. For companies who average more than $40 in local and long distance usage per employee, VoIP is well worth the initial investment. In some cases there are also very cost effective options for international calling also {just ask if you’re interested}.

There are likewise other hidden benefits of Business VoIP service, the main benefit being the reduced bandwidth required to conduct a regular telephone conversation. Since a VoIP transmission only requires 32KB of bandwidth, you can fix up to 24 ‘VoIP lines’ on a Data T1, and still have 768KB left over for dedicated high-speed internet access! This means that you can migrate your entire phone system on to your existing T1 and still have half of the bandwidth allocated for data.

Another benefit of VoIP lies in the prioritization of the digitized voice signals that are generated when you speak. In the event no one is talking, the VoIP line does not transmit any data. This allows your T1 Line to dynamically allocate bandwidth as it is needed, instead of permanently blocking out an entire channel of data.

Business VOIP means intelligent communications. Whether it is toll-bypass call routing, unified communications (integrated phone, email, IM, etc), or a specific application on the phone itself, the power of IPT is in the applications. In fact, the robust capabilities and functionality of the unified communications applications available are a real selling point in adopting Business VoIP.

In a highly mobile sales organization “find me follow me” functionality may be priceless. In an organization where deadlines have to be met, point and click call control settings may be crucial. Other organizations may benefit with high level call log metrics to track billable time. Enabling true mobility across your work force, enhancing video/conferencing activity, and easy use when traveling globally are also very attractive attributes to businesses.

With so many features available on most platforms… rarely do you see every user applying the same controls and features. It’s the freedom to control communication at the single user level that makes VoIP a great business solution. Additionally, the marriage of Business VoIp technology and Unified Communications features opens up a world of unlimited possibilities and applications for today’s business communications.

Lessons Learned From the Rise of the Tech Start-Ups in Silicon Valley

All successful business strategies are founded on certain guiding principles, like Google’s famous maxim, “You can make money without doing evil.” Whatever your line of business is, the key to long-term sustainable growth are the right principles and remaining true to them no matter what.

Even if your business is not in the technology sector, you can still profit from knowing the unspoken principles underlying the successful business strategies that continue to serve Google, Facebook, Apple, Sun, Cisco, Amazon, and the other Silicon Valley heavyweights well.

These high-tech companies weren’t always big. In fact, all of them started small. Many of them weren’t even the best or the first in their field. Yet, by the mid-1980s, they had outperformed their older; more established and better-funded counterparts in Route 128.

How did this happen?

Sociologists suspect it may have something to do with the cultural and institutional values in that part of California. The industrial systems in Silicon Valley were built on regional networks, which are more flexible, adaptable, and more dynamic than other business districts in the US, which were based on independent, autonomous mega-sized companies.

Silicon Valley vs. Route 128 Boston

In Silicon Valley, the organizational boundaries within and among companies, trade associations and learning institutions are conducive to knowledge sharing, collective learning and collaborative undertakings. Big CEOs, start-up owners, interns, and new players would meet for coffee, brainstorm ideas, and interact with one another freely.

In contrast, the Route 128 companies were super-secretive about what goes on within their organizations’ walls. Information was highly compartmentalized, similar to that of military settings. Ideas flowed in systematical, hierarchical chains. This may sound like a logical process to you, but this process actually hindered innovation- another reason why those companies didn’t survive.

The companies in Silicon Valley have implemented many successful business strategies from their start-up days up to the present time, no doubt about that.

Three of these strategies though, are consistently present in almost all companies there.

Innovate or perish, it’s as simple as that.
Innovate, otherwise you stagnate and become redundant. Remember that there will always be better, faster and cheaper ways for consumers to get something done. The good news is there are always new needs to fill, problems to solve and wants to fulfill. Your company’s job is to find those opportunities and take advantage of it.

Take risks and don’t be afraid to fail while experimenting. Failure, for the resilient, is the first step that must be taken to succeed. Embrace your failure and learn from your mistakes, and then iterate and experiment some more until you hit it right.

There wouldn’t be an iPod today if Apple allowed their failure with Newton PDA back in 1993 to hinder them.

Of course, no man is an island!
No business can survive in a vacuum. Communication should not be limited to a one-way, or even just a two-way street. The digital age we’re in requires leaders and company front-liners to have excellent, business communication skills. This means having the ability to sell the company’s vision with colleagues, customers, and investors regardless of the person’s role and position in the company.

Listen to what the public, the staff, and stakeholders in your business have to say. Share your ideas and get their feedback. Most Silicon Valley software makers release free beta versions of their next products, which anyone can try out, comment on and even retool, and improve. Emulate the practice and chances are you will be learning something new to improve your product or service. You will also be earning a lot of respect and goodwill.

You may even forge lasting authentic relationships, which is much better than the I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine networking arrangements typical among many commercial establishments and professionals.

Pay it forward
Lastly, helping others is its own reward. Organizations with successful business strategies that incorporate social responsibility will earn the respect of their community.

Brand: You, Creating and Self-Marketing Yourself to Find a Job During Tough Times

A career brand is an image that portrays you as an expert in your field, attracts your ideal employer, and reveals how you can help their business. How can you promote your career brand effectively, to stand out among increasing competition in the workforce? Self-marketing!

Before you begin self-marketing, you need to understand:

1. What you are going to market about yourself

2. Who you are going to market yourself to

3. Why you are going to market yourself to them

This article offers some important tools to develop your career brand and understand your self-marketing plan.

Goals of Self-Marketing

1. Provide direction to help eliminate trial and error. As a result, save time and money.

2. Network with key industry players.

3. Identify your transferable skills. Marketing these skills, not just job history and accomplishments, puts you in higher demand (i.e., more interviews).

4. Determine what other industries your transferable skills fit into. The industry you are in affects the success of your career. Market yourself in growing industries (green-collar, biotechnology, nutrition, IT). Steer away from dying 5. industries (textile, printing, newspapers, steel manufacturing, etc.).

6. Resolve any setbacks that hurt your career and prevent you from getting interviews. Fix your resume so it does not portray you as “a job hopper”, “lacking education”, or “unable to advance at a company”.

Create Your Own Mission Statement

Just as mission statements provide direction and purpose for companies, individuals can benefit from having their own personal mission statement too.

Your mission statement says what is important to you. Write yours before starting a career to get on the right path and connect with companies that have similar values and beliefs. You can revise it or write a new one at a career crossroads. Its sense of purpose is great motivation!

What to include:

1. Goals – Aspirations in life (short-term and long-term)

2. Core values – Who you are and what your priorities are

3. Successes – Professional, personal, etc.

4. Offerings – How you can make a difference for the world, your family, employer or future employers, friends and community

Integrate Assessments into Your Career Branding

Career and personality assessments reveal consistent patterns in your traits, characteristics, strengths, preferences, and skills. The assessment results may lead you in a new career direction. If you have an established career, they tell you how well your traits and branding messages align with your career path.

Present your distinctive and noteworthy traits to your targeted employers. Remember that not all recurring patterns contribute to good branding (e.g., introversion). Disregard any pattern you feel is not really you.

Incorporate the assessment results into your career branding materials: resume, cover letter, elevator speech, interview responses, portfolio, business card, etc. Convey a consistent branding message throughout all of these materials. But you can use different branding statements for different industries.

Tag! You Are “It”!

Self-marketing is not just about selling your specific skills. Everyone has skills. They get you in the door, but not necessarily get you the job. There can be 100 or more applicants per job posting, and they all have the same or better skills as you. How can you stand out as “the one”?

Develop a tag-line. A great tag-line tells people exactly what a product is and how they will benefit from using it. This is what employers want to know about you! Specifically, how you will help them make and save money. Tell them how much money you helped a previous or current employer make or save on a given project, sale, or time period.

Dear Career Journal…

Did you have a diary or journal when you were young? It helped you express feelings when no one else would listen, or when you did not want anyone else to listen! Similarly, a journal can help and guide us in our professional adult life too.

Writing in a career journal allows you to set aside time to think and learn more about yourself and your career. Just as when you were younger, using a journal allows you to express emotions (good and bad) about career progress. When you read past entries, see how far you have come!

Use your career journal to:

1. Write your personal mission statement

2. React to self-assessment tests

3. Do a SWOT (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats) analysis

4. Evaluate your current situation

5. Reflect on your successes and failures

6. Devise career goal ideas (breaking into a new career, as a volunteer or consultant)

7. Think about career alternatives

8. Establish daily or weekly career-related objectives or tasks

9. Develop action plans to achieve your objectives and tasks

10. Make checklists

11. Record network contacts, job interview results, etc.

12. Develop job correspondence material (cover letters, resumes, thank you letters, etc.)

13. Practice job interview questions and answers

14. Gather salary information

15. Jot down ideas and information you like and want to use in the future

16. Record things you want or need to learn, skills to improve upon

17. Discover and explore your workplace values

18. Record your job-related likes and dislikes (and employers’ likes and dislikes)

19. Note lessons learned

20. Develop ways to improve the workplace

21. Review job-search trends

22. Develop plans for achieving promotions

23. Document the career paths of your peers that you want to emulate

24. Prepare for job performance reviews

Do not keep your career journal at your workplace. Keep it at home on your computer or in a notebook. Try to set a regular time of day to work on your journal, maybe right after work. Maybe before work to get yourself motivated and focused on what you can achieve that day!

Your journal is always ready, and no matter where your career path leads you, you can continue to use it throughout your professional life.

Key Marketing Tools:

Strategic Marketing Plan

Your plan answers these questions:

1. What have I accomplished, where am I now, and where will my career be if I do not take action?

2. Where do I want to go with my career?

3. How do I get to where I want to go?

4. How do I put my plan into action?

5. What do I need to change if I am not getting success?

Market Research

Understand trends in your career field. Consult resources such as the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook. Interview industry professionals. Study the companies you would like to work for. Use this information for your cover letter, resume and job interview.

Marketing Mix

You are probably already familiar with the 4 P’s of marketing, or the “marketing mix”. The 4 P’s are product, promotion, place, and price. Translate these in terms of you and your career for job search success.

Product

You are the product with unique characteristics, features, and skills. Expose your “product features” in your tag-line and resume. Let employers know your work experience, leadership experience, professional memberships, technical skills, education and training.

Make sure that your on-line marketing tools (i.e., Facebook or Myspace) are cleaned up and employer ready. You do not want a potential employer to see something on your personal networking sites that will land you in trouble.

Do not forget “packaging”, to properly present yourself and your credentials to potential employers.

Promotion

This is your cover letter, resume, phone calls, correspondence and interviewing. Promotion tools include anything that you can use to get a job interview and ultimately get a job offer.

Be memorable by utilizing multimedia marketing like email, follow-up phone calls, or try using regular priority mail envelopes to send resumes, cover letters and other “marketing materials”. This increases your career brand and distinctiveness.

Place

This includes everywhere employers can access you. How are you reaching employers or people who can connect you with employers?

1. Internet job-searching and applying to job postings

2. Cold calling

3. Networking with current and former coworkers, colleagues and alumni

4. Speaking with recruiters at staffing and employment agencies and company HR departments

5. Visiting your university career centers and alumni offices

6. Attending professional association meetings and seminars

Price

Price includes all aspects of the compensation you can receive from potential employers, as well as your strategies to get the price you want, and that the employer feels you deserve. Your price not only includes salary, but also insurance, benefits, paid time off and perks.

Call in the SWOT Team!

Performing a SWOT Analysis, used in marketing planning, is helpful to use in your career planning. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It answers:

1. What are your Strengths and Weaknesses (in your internal environment)?

2. What are Opportunities and Threats in your career field (external environment)?

Strengths

Internal, positive aspects which you can capitalize upon, such as:

1. Work experience

2. Education

3. Technical skills and knowledge (e.g., computer skills)

4. Personal characteristics (e.g., superior work ethic)

5. Strong network of contacts

6. Involvement with professional associations and organizations

7. Enjoying what you do

Weaknesses

Internal, negative aspects that you plan on improving, such as:

1. Lack of work experience

2. Inconsistent major with the job you are looking for

3. Lack of specific job knowledge

4. Weak technical knowledge

5. Weak skills (leadership, interpersonal, communication, teamwork)

6. Weak job-hunting skills

7. Negative personal characteristics (e.g., no motivation, indecisiveness, shyness)

8. Weaknesses identified in past performance appraisals

Opportunities

External, positive conditions out of your control, but you plan to leverage or add value:

1. Field trends* that create more jobs (e.g., globalization, technology)

2. Field needs your set of skills

3. Opportunities for advancement in your field

4. Location

5. Strong network

Threats

External, negative conditions out of your control, but you may be able to overcome:

1. Field trends* that diminish jobs (e.g., downsizing, obsolescence)

2. Companies are not hiring people with your major/degree

3. Competition from college graduates with your same degree

4. Competitors with superior skills, experience or knowledge

5. Competitors who attended better schools

6. Limited advancement in your field (too competitive)

7. Limited professional development in your field

8. Find hiring/employment trends in your field. Go on-line to ABI/INFORM, Business News Bank, and Lexis/Nexis.

After completing your SWOT Analysis, add the results to your Strategic Marketing Plan. Also, use your SWOT results to develop the following in your Plan:

1. Career goals

2. Marketing strategies

3. Action plan with deadlines

The Elevator Speech

The Elevator Speech is a clear, concise introduction that can be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator from the top to the bottom of a building. It can be as short as 15 seconds or as long as three minutes. Write down your Elevator Speech, and practice it so it comes naturally. Be ready to deliver it!

Use it at:

1. Networking events (including “unconventional” ones, like shopping)

2. Career fairs

3. Cold calls to employers

4. Voice-mails

5. Your current workplace, when you encounter the higher-ups

6. Job interviews when asked, “Why should I hire you?” and “Tell me about yourself”

Your Elevator Speech includes:

1. A greeting

2. Your name

3. Your industry or field

4. Accomplishments, background, qualifications and skills

5. If you are graduating soon, what school and what degree

6. What you want to do and why

7. Why you enjoy what you do or want to do

8. What interests you about the listener’s company/business

9. What sets you apart from others

10. Your tag-line that you developed!

11. Your mission statement that you developed!

Finally, capture their interest and request action.

1. At a career fair: “May I have your business card, and give you my card and resume? Can you add me to your company’s interview schedule?”

2. Networking: “What advice do you have for me? What employers do you suggest I contact?”

3. On a cold call: “When can we meet to discuss how I can help your company? May I send you my resume?”

Arbonne Bankruptcy Business Review – Is it Really True?

The news is swimming with information about the MLM company Arbonne. Arbonne is a skin care and cosmetics company, and they filed for bankruptcy a few days ago. According to mlmblog.net the company was more than $800 million in debt, and distributors were still telling prospects that the company was debt free! Also according to mlmblog.net the company plans to borrow up to $20 million to fund operations during its bankruptcy, known as a debtor-in-possession loan. Now as we know there are many MLM companies out there that are in my opinion not doing so well because the down line is not able to duplicate there up line. This causes a disaster. The MLM business structure used to be a good one but in my opinion after the Arbonne bankruptcy, and other stories I have read about. The MLM structure is not the way to go anymore for many people. If you are serious about finding another company that is not MLM or Network Marketing then here are 3 tips to help you in your search.

Some Tips Tactics and Strategies to Get out Of the Arbonne Bankruptcy mess.

Look for MLM free companies – Another words look for companies that aren’t MLM. Companies that really teach you the different ways to go on the internet, and bring traffic to your website.
Look for companies that are truly debt free – You can find this out by doing some searching around on Google using the name of the company you’re looking at.
And make sure the company is not going anywhere – Research and make sure you are picking a company that isn’t going to be gone tomorrow. A good tip is to call a few people who are already involved with the company you looking at, and asks them there opinion.

For Further review on different opportunities

You can check us out on our website which is listed below for more information, but in my opinion the Arbonne bankruptcy is a tragic ordeal for there company, as it would be for any company. And is even worse now that it’s all over the net, but for those of you who have been with the Arbonne company for a long time now. I really wish you much success in the future.

Easiest Business Loan to Get: What Factors Are Important When Looking for a Financing Solution?

Every type of business requires some sort of loan or line of credit for a wide range of reasons: start up capital, equipment, inventory, office rental, etc. Since every business and every owner is different and has unique circumstances, the easiest business loan to get for another owner might not be the easiest for you.

For start-ups or businesses that have either no credit history or a poor credit history, it will likely be difficult to obtain traditional bank loans. Also, with a low credit score, your interest rate will be high, even if you are approved for a loan.

Lenders will usually look at more than your credit history. Other factors include your time in business, industry, your personal credit score, whether you’ve had any recent bankruptcies or defaults, balance sheet, business licenses and permits, tax returns, purpose of loan, proof of collateral, and several other reasons.

If you can think that your financial situation is likely to improve, you’ll need to provide the documentation to prove it. Always have your documents and financial files ready and organized anyway, so that you’ll be able to get through the application process as smoothly as possible.

Are SBA Loans the Easiest Business Loan to Get?

Many people don’t consider SBA Loans and long-term loans to be the easiest business loan to get, as the application process is very long and complex. Only consider SBA loans and long-term traditional business loans if your credit score is high and you have all your financial statements prepared and ready to go. However, the application process still might take some time, so you’ll have to wait on approval.

If you need cash as quickly as possible, there are options such as merchant cash advances. This type of offer will help you access capital. You’ll receive a lump sum of cash, but you’ll be expected to give up a portion of future sales. You will have the responsibility for paying back the loan itself as well as fees. While there is no set fee, $15 for every $100 borrowed seems to be a pretty typical amount by many cash advance merchants.

Invoice financing and equipment financing are pretty similar with their requirements. With the former, you’ll need to show details of your unpaid invoices, as well as bank statements and other financial information. With the latter, you’ll need to explain the type of asset(s) your company needs to purchase, and provide an equipment quote, business tax returns, bank statements, etc.

There are many other options for business of all sizes thanks to the internet. Online lenders are popping up all the time, although it’s best to stick with one that has been around for at least a decade. Begin your search with US Business Funding, an accredited company with the BBB. They will help you find the easiest business loan to get for your needs.

The Facts About Business Internet Costs

The whole thing about internet pricing does not make any sense to most businesses. That too often includes those who should understand it the best. The computer support staff, in house “computer guy”, or IT cadre. But the key person needing an education is the decision maker. That person who will ultimately decide what solution your company will choose. This is for “them”.

Remember that complex network services are like a Trojan horse. If the boss lets a “solution” in because the price looks good….. the staff is left to deal with the consequences.

Be careful… you’re being tempted by the siren song of price. Woooooo ~~~ low price. Woooooo ~~~ higher speed. Uhhhh Ohhhh ~~~ long term contract. Uhhhh Ohhhh ~~~ bad service, support, maintenance and billing! And Uhhhh Ohhhh ~~~ time to update your resumé.

You understand for example that a T1 connection usually has a very stringent SLA (Service Level Agreement), one that cable and DSL does not. With the number of T1 circuits in existence and the number of years that they have been available, (and the number of abandoned smart jacks at customer sites), You’re apt to be frustrated that it is significantly more expensive to install a T1 than it is to install a DSL circuit.

You might even believe that if the actual physical costs (barring any repeating for long distances) are basically the same as DSL, then if you relax the SLA, why can’t T1 circuitry be used to deliver internet where DSL does not go?

You’re also likely to be confused because you can get a business 15/3 circuit from a cable provider for about $150/mo and the same circuit at home is about $80. Therein is another trap. Don’t get off track trying to compare a business grade line with a residential circuit. That’s like comparing apples and watermelons.

Is the higher cost of a T1 circuit (or DS3 bandwidth and so on) a matter of state mandated tariffs? Is it a matter of the ISPs protecting their profits with an air of exclusivity?

No….. now you’re buying into the conspiracy theory excuse.

This can be especially migraine inducing if you business is one of those bandwidth orphans, stuck out in Boonieville, Any State USA. You cannot use satellite without cutting down big trees. You cannot get reasonable cell phone coverage even if you are willing to live with the 5Gb limit. You have no WiFi and there is no DSL. All you have available is dialup at 45K. Now that would really suck.

We have been waiting for over three years for BPL (bandwidth over power lines) which apparently is still a work-in-progress. For example sake let’s say you may have been quoted say $850 last year for a full T…. with some less competitive prices above $1000.

You may also that we are bouncing signals off of satellites, trying to run IP over high power electric lines and bouncing wireless signals off of multiple towers, when the answer to rural internet coverage may be sitting on a little circuit board in the Demarc room.

Now that’s really reaching…. and too simple a argument. The facts just don’t support that line of reasining.

I can see where you might also think that the problem with bandwidth in the boonies is of our own making.

But here’s the “education” you need to get through all of that cloud cover. Facts…. not excuses and conspiracy theories.

DSL and cable are shared services. Bandwidth is shared in the residential neighborhoods, and is often oversold. Thus many customers are paying for a limited resource, and the low retail price is the result. Even the facility into your residential location is shared…. cable shares the TV connection, and DSL rides on an analog voice grade line.

The flip side is that T1 is a dedicated service (as is DS3 Bandwidth and Business Ethernet for example). The circuit is engineered as a digital circuit, special repeaters might be required if you’re far from the central office, and you don’t share your bandwidth with other subscribers.

If you want to talk about businesses getting thrown under the bus, simply talk to any independent bandwidth consultant who make a living rescuing frustrated DSL and cable customers with T1 service (or any other dedicated bandwidth solution). Certainly not every DSL and cable customer is disappointed, but there are enough of them to support a thriving industry.

You need to understand that the cost of the physical plant is irrelevant. Only the price to you is relevant. And the price to you for an internet T1 is almost always dependent ONLY on the distance from your central office to a carrier POP (Point Of Presence)…. and almost never dependent on the distance from your location to the local central office.

DSL rides on an analog voice grade line. T1 is a dedicated service. The circuit is engineered as a digital circuit, special repeaters might be required if you’re far from the central office. Irrespective of SLAs and oversold/dedicated upstream bandwidth, the wires for T1 and DSL are configured differently.

I can’t speak for the ILECs costs to themselves when they sell a T1, but any CLEC is going to pay $X for an unconditioned copper pair for DSL, and $Y for a conditioned loop (or loops, depending on how it’s delivered) for dedicated circuits.

On top of that, DSL gets terminated in a DSLAM which is, compared to traditional TDM “telco” equipment, way, way cheaper. Old school telco gear for terminating T1, T3 and OC circuits is an entirely different world with insane pricing, and one hopes, reliability. This stuff is built to meet certain standards and it’s all for 5-9’s reliability, which the DSL gear simply is not.

Then there’s the install and maintenance, which involves possibly installing repeaters, picking the appropriate technology (e.g. traditional T1, DSL-based solutions – yes many T1s ride “DSL”, but not the cheap stuff), circuit planning and possibly new construction, in some cases dropping a fiber Mux in the building.

Ongoing you are paying for the reliability of the line and a totally different tier of people to service it.

This is just the circuit itself, I’m not even getting into the handoff to the ISP and any oversubscription issues. Even Frame/ATM services over T1 where you are agreeing to go on a “shared” medium is going to be more than cable or DSL due to the underlying T1 line connecting you to the provider.

But one thing which is a HUGE factor in price is the fact that since it’s a “business-grade” line, the provider’s SLA’s require their Techs to respond to outages “within x hours” (usually 4 hrs). Meaning if you run a business and your t1 goes out at 11pm, an ILEC tech will be on-site (or at the cross connect box) by 3am. ILEC’s build that cost into the monthly price…. whereas shared/best effort services (e.g. DSL, cable) say “within 24-48 hrs” to fix it (if you’re lucky), and you’re on the same dispatch queue as the kid down the street who is complaining because his porn is downloading slow.

Keep in mind that the cost of copper and the equipment to support the digital circuit (Dedicated Bandwidth) is nothing compared to the cost of rolling a truck after-hours with a line tech to your location to fix the issue. AND, if it’s a problem outside your Demarc (which is usually the case), you don’t pay for the fix. It’s the ILEC’s issue…. meaning “someone* did pay that guy to go out there, just not you.

The bottom line is this.

If you’re serious about your business internet needs and understand the importance of having top notch customer service to go with it, you need to go with a carrier with a reputation for great customer service. Dedicated Bandwidth is a very cost effective solution for any company who understands the difference from DSL and cable. Simply be aware that the lowest price rarely means the best service or quality. Because in the internet connection world, more often than not, you get what you pay for.

Create Your Own Olive Oil Line Through Private Labelling

The hype on extra virgin olive oil is real and there’s no sign of it dying down.

As media spurs news about the so-called super food, more and more people are becoming aware of its capacity when it comes to cooking and health.

Aside from the fact that it smells good and tastes delicious, olive oil has a lot of notable health benefits. For one thing, it has anti-inflammatory properties, prevents stroke, and is rich in antioxidants. It can even alleviate the onset of chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and prevents heart failures.

Right now, more and more studies are being done about it, further proving its healing power. Truly, it is considered one of the important foods nowadays, thus many people are also stimulated to start venturing into business. So how can you start earning through it?

One of the most effective ways to start your this business is to look for a private label olive supplier.

What is a Private Label?

Basically, private label is a marketing strategy that is ideal for those who want to create their own line of product.

By doing so, you can put your own logo, design, and branding. Also, you can control your own pricing, production, and all sorts of other modifications you might want.

It is also cost effective and much cheaper compared to those branded ones. This is a significant advantage for those who are still fresh in the industry. Cheaper prices can potentially lead to a higher profit margin.

Who Can Do Private Labelling?

Basically, anyone who loves doing business and has the passion when it comes to olive oil but doesn’t have the capacity to produce their own that can do private labelling.

There are numerous ways to use it so if you are creative enough you can definitely start your own product line.

Here are some examples:

Hotel

Most hotels use olive oil soap and shampoo in their hotel amenity lines. Luxury hotels also use it as skin essentials as well.

Gift Shops

Extra Virgin Olive oil sets make perfect gifts for those who are health enthusiasts or anyone who loves cooking. Since Biblical times, olives have held a high symbolic meaning and have even been called gold liquid. Moreover, it is a unique gift as well.

Restaurants

Restaurants are the biggest potential market when it comes to private labelled olive oil for obvious reasons. By creating their own product line of it, they do not only add potential income, they are also spreading awareness about their restaurant.

If done right, and in partnership with the right private label olive oil supplier, owning a brand of olive oil can be easily attainable.