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Creating Wealth by Gearing Up

Gearing is where you borrow money to invest. As already mentioned, it is best to clear all your debt before looking at investment. However, there will arise situations where the investment is a good one and it is necessary to borrow a small amount to make the deal work. The borrowing may be for property or shares.

Gearing allows you to increase your investment and potentially obtain a higher return. On the downside, however, if the investment does not pay off you stand to lose a lot more. Negative gearing comes about when the interest you are paying on your borrowing is greater than the income from your investment (for example, from a rental property). You can claim the loss or difference against your taxation and write it off as a deduction against other income.

Negative gearing is not necessarily the best investment strategy. Even though you get a tax break it is still costing you money. That is, you may be saving yourself 25 cents in the dollar, but you have to spend one dollar to achieve that.

People look at negative gearing because they calculate that they will be able to sell the investment for more than they bought it and in the meantime their losses are deductible off other income they earn. They conclude that the Commissioner of Inland Revenue is in reality helping them fund the growth of the value of their property.

If it can be avoided, don’t borrow against your home for investment. This applies particularly when the investment is speculative. Things do go wrong and you wouldn’t want to find yourself (and your family) out on the street without a roof over your head.

If you borrow money to invest, this is known as margin lending. The extra funds raised allow you to invest more, increasing the potential returns, compared to what you would get from your standard savings. It allows you to use other people’s money so you can get a significant increase in your wealth from a small deposit.

The negative side is when share prices fall below a level and a margin call is made. When this happens you will have 24 hours to respond in one of three ways. You have to come up with the cash, you have to sell assets, or you have to provide additional assets to top up the equity.

If you have a margin loan, make sure you fully understand the terms of your loan and also put in place survival strategies in case things don’t work out.

Sales Peak Performance: Creating the Emotional Resiliency of a Champion

Eight decades ago, Dr. Evan O’Neill Kane of New York’s Kane Summit Hospital felt doctors were losing too many Customers in appendectomy surgery, many because of the effects of general anesthesia. He felt that local anesthesia would be better for the Customer but, not surprisingly, no volunteers came forward to test his hypothesis. Until, that is, February 15, 1921. That’s when he finally performed an appendectomy with local anesthesia — on himself! In the process, he changed accepted medical practice. To be your best you can be in sales, you often need to change too; sometimes that change means operating on yourself! Begin analyzing your own situation by simply counting the how many times the letter f appears.

FEATURE FILMS ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE FORMAL EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

How many did you get? 3? 4? 5? 6? 7? There are a total of seven! Most people get four or five. If you missed some, why? Why would anyone miss an f or two or three? It has to do with our mental model or the way we perceive things and act on them. This little exercise points out that what you are missing in terms of sales performance improvement is most likely right in front of you. Sometimes the solutions to your challenges are there, but you just don’t see them. Why? Because of entrenched habits, perceptions and beliefs. When you try to improve, it seems as futile as trying to lose weight with fad diets.

So what’s the key? How do you breakthrough? Dr. Charles Garfield of the Peak Performance Institute has discovered exercises that help individuals tap their personal best performances. Garfield experienced these techniques himself as a world- class weigh-lifter and researcher. Garfield explains, ” In the process, the researchers discovered that mental training techniques not only combated negative reactions, but also threw open the doors to hidden reserves of energy and endurance.” Dr. Denis Waitley identified similar peak performance strategies in his work with Olympic athletes and business people. To begin remember these important principles to achieving sales peak performance:

Self-development is self-management. There is no self-improvement only increasing in the ability to be all that you already are. You can’t change others but you can change yourself.
To manage yourself better to sell more effectively you must be willing to change some habits to increase productivity.
A foundation to self-management is to respond to all events based on your goals and priorities rather than reacting to spot urgencies, problems or needs.

Mind and body are intricately intertwined; to control what you do, better control what you think. Just like a champion athlete systematically physically and mentally prepares to win the gold, champion salespeople do likewise. Know your product, learn selling techniques to be customer centered and prepare mentally too. It will help you handle the setbacks, the no’s and rejection that go with the job and think creatively. We call it Emotional Resiliency.

The Best of the Best Exercise

Think of a time in your sales career when you did your best work ever. Choose a situation that exemplifies your highest performance. Get a clear mental picture of the event. Replay it in your mind as if it were a movie. Think of the details –people, problems, sounds, feelings, and surroundings. Review in your mind what happened, how you behaved, what you felt and achieved. Capture your thoughts with the questions below:

What was the situation?
What was your motivation to succeed or act?
How did you feel?
What key behaviors or strategies did you use?
What lessons can you learn or relearn about your Peak Performance?

By learning to replicate that experience and improving the result as well, you’ll become a sales leader. To be the best you can be, make a commitment to personal development and excellence. If you want to be exceptional, do exceptional things. The difference between sales winners and losers is that the winners do what losers won’t do at all or won’t do enough. Never forget that success is not accidental. Achieve peak sales performance by continuing to learn from your experiences and others.

How Creating Digital Products Can Give You Passive Income

Have you heard the statistic that millionaires have up to seven income streams? That’s seven different ways that they’re making money each month. Now take a look at your business; how many streams of income do you have?

If the answer is one, then it’s time to open up that creative part of your brain and create more income streams. One option is passive income products.

“Passive income” is something of a misnomer. Creating products or setting up different forms of income still takes work. But the difference is that these streams of income can work for you—almost on autopilot—for years to come.

Benefits of Passive Income

1. Increase your bottom line profits. This is the most obvious benefit, but worth mentioning, because who doesn’t want to earn more profits? And (as you probably well know) limiting your practice to 1:1 coaching can be a “feast or famine” proposition. Passive income streams can help you get through the “famine” times.

But, even in “feast” times, your income from 1:1 coaching is limited to the number of clients you can handle. Passive income streams can help remove that “income ceiling” and create a cushion.

2. Regain time in your day. Hold up… I know I just said that creating products and other streams of income takes time! But jump ahead with me for a minute and think about the back end of the process, when your income stream is completely set up, and the upfront work is done. With a strong marketing plan, you can easily earn money on these passive income streams even while you sleep. That means you can take off a little earlier or take an entire day off for fun, because your “passive” products are still earning money.

3. Increase your credibility by helping more people. Think of passive income as a way to share your expertise with an ever-expanding audience. Imagine a snowball at the top of a mountain representing you with your inner circle of coaching clients. As the snowball travels downhill, it gathers more and more snow until it reaches mammoth size. The same is true of you. As you reach out to more and more people, and providing guidance through your books, webinars, or courses, increased exposure and word of mouth leverage your knowledge and showcase your expertise to more and more people. This all can lead to increased sales and an army of people who rave about your work. So (at least in this case) the snowball effect is a very good thing!

Planning Your Passive Income

Now that I’ve hopefully sold you on the benefits of having passive income streams, it’s time to plan out what those streams should be for your business. Passive income includes affiliate marketing, membership subscriptions, or writing a book. But by far the most popular and engaging is creating courses or digital products based on your coaching specialty.

Digital products allow you to solve other people’s problems from the comfort of your home. And your customers get answers to their particular questions almost immediately, and in a format they can use—their home computer, or smartphone.

“A successful digital product has almost unlimited income potential, and there are dozens of examples of successful digital marketers earning millions of dollars each year from products they released several years ago.” – C.M. Burns, BigHappyProfits.com

Imagine what your business & life could look like, say, if you had your own online course…

âœ“ Students excited to learn from you

âœ“ Working fewer hours while transforming more lives (and without exhausting yourself with 1:1 clients)

âœ“ Building your credibility & becoming an authority in your niche

âœ“ No more cap on your income

By creating a digital course, you will finally have a valuable business asset you can launch & sell again & again.

Creating Your Product

There are many steps involved in creating a product but once you’ve done one, creating others will be easier. When creating a digital product, you want to be sure to make it relevant to your main topic of interest. So, if you are a health coach, you want your product to be about a health issue, not a career issue. Also, you want to further hone it down by asking your audience what they need. This is something you can determine by quick surveys or just by keeping track of their frequent questions.

Next you need to validate the product, double-checking to make sure it’s the right one. Ask clients if it would be helpful and/or relevant. Put out questions about it on forums. You could even do a prelaunch with valued clients to test the product for you. I have a colleague who I give my products to in exchange for her evaluation of them.

Then you will need to write content for launching and promoting your product, and, finally, determine your pricing.

Launching Your Product

When you are launching a product, you need both a series of anticipation emails, and a series of launch emails.

1) Anticipation emails build excitement. They should be educating your audience on a topic you’re passionate about (and one that’s related to the course you’re selling). And give them a teaser for the product.

2) Launch emails make the offer. They say that the product is ready and point to where people can buy it.

As this marketer puts it:

“With my launches I built up to anticipation over a matter of weeks, not months or years. Each time I talk about it, the likely buyers get more and more excited. Then I give a clear date for when the product will launch and be available for purchase.

“The day before launch I send out a detailed email providing every bit of information my subscribers need in order to make a purchase. This email covers the benefits of the product, pricing information, and even answers frequently asked questions (that actually haven’t been asked yet).

“The one thing the email doesn’t include is a link to buy the product. Instead I tell them exactly when the product will be available (8:00 AM Eastern tomorrow) and to expect another email from me at that time.” – Nathan Barry, Founder, ConvertKit.com

If your launch runs for 5 days you’ll need at least 5 emails. I’ve been on some lists where they sent out two emails a day—sometimes the same email but different subject lines. To me that’s overdoing it, but it depends on your audience as to how often to email them. Keep in mind that they probably don’t read all their emails. So it doesn’t hurt to send out more than one.

Creating Urgency

Here are four easy ways that you can get your on-the-fence customers to purchase now:

1. Have sale or promotional pricing ending soon

2. Make the product available for a limited amount of time

3. Provide an additional bonus only available to the first x number of customers

4. Limit the quantity available for sale

Pick one or two of these strategies that will resonate with your audience. With careful planning, the urgency in your launch emails can boost sales.

In Conclusion

Working with clients one-on-one is great, but it shouldn’t be your entire business model. You need to have some other sources of income that supplement your coaching program. After all, how many times have you had a month with no new clients? With another source of income, that scenario is less painful.

If people don’t know you yet, they’re probably not going to drop $1000 on a coaching program. But they might be willing to take a chance on you for something that costs them $50 or less—because it’s low risk for them.

The good news is that you CAN create passive income with low-end digital products, and, if you need some help,

Learn how to create, package, and launch low-end digital products here: https://contentcreationtoolkit.com/low-end-offer

Creating an Ecommerce Website

Selling products on-line requires a very different setup from your run-of-the-mill blogging site. Lets look at the things you’ll need to think about when setting up an eCommerce website and help to explain why they cost more to design.

First let me tell you what we’re not going to cover in this article.

We’re not assuming that an eCommerce website is a single web page with some PayPal button codes inserted onto it.

The PayPal buttons are great and work very well for those selling a handful of items, but we’re taking eCommerce to the next level and giving the customer a better on-line shopping experience.

Most modern eCommerce website are applications. They have a user interface, administration settings, store data in a database and follow a work-flow of processes. We’re going to touch on some of these areas.

The Basics

An eCommerce website can be thought of as a play with actors performing it’s scenes.

The main actors in an eCommerce website are:

* The Customer – buys products

* The Website Owner – ships bought products & gets paid

* The eCommerce Application – interface between all the actors

* The Payment Gateway – handles payment transactions (more on this later)

* The Merchant/Business Bank Account – Website owner’s business bank account (more on this later)

The main buying process of an eCommerce website (‘the play’) happens as follows:

1. Customer browses product catalogue

2. Customer adds product to basket

3. Customer buys product and enters check-out process

4. eCommerce Application contacts a Payment Gateway

5. Payment Gateway provides secure customer shipping and payment details entry form

6. Customer securely enters shipping and payment information

7. Payment Gateway contacts Website Owners’ Merchant Bank Account

8. Merchant Bank Account processes payment transaction and returns control to Payment Gateway

9. Payment Gateway returns Customer to eCommerce Application

10. eCommerce Application notifies Customer of successful (or failed) payment

11. eCommerce Application notifies Website Owner of purchase

12. Website Owner ships product to Customer

Of course there’s a lot more detail going on in each step, but hopefully you get the general idea that setting up an eCommerce application is a tad more complicated than your regular blog-style website.

Where Do You Start?

Sounds silly right, but the first step you need to do is think about the types of things you’ll be selling on-line.

Are these products?, i.e. physical items that require packaging and posting or services provided by yourself or another provider e.g. Professional Yak Grooming.

How may products or types of services are you going to offer? Local or International? Are some seasonal? Do you have a finite stock level for particular items? Do you plan to use special offers & discounts? Do you even like yaks?

This leads to customer and payment questions.

Who are your customers? Where are they? How are they going to pay; credit card, cheque, PayPal? Which bank account will I need to set up?

And then there are the support questions.

How do you handle returned goods? How do you refund payments? How do you handle complaints?

Having a think about the products and services you’re going to offer is vital because the first thing a web designer is going to ask you when you’re requesting a quote is “How many things are you selling and to whom?”

The reason is of course time and costs.

Selling 50 products to a UK only customer base using PayPal requires a very different setup and hence costs, to one selling 1000+ products internationally and taking credit card payments.

Lets look closer at some of the important eCommerce application areas.

The eCommerce Application

Essentially, an eCommerce application is a bespoke Content Management System (CMS). So as well as updating posts and blogs it specialises in updating products and services and supporting commerce functions.

Like any CMS, the application splits the eCommerce website into two major parts; the front-end or shop-front where the customer can browse and buy goods and the back-end where you login to an administration dashboard and manage the website options, including the product catalogue.

The Product Catalogue

This will likely be your most important concern and is central to any eCommerce website design.

The product catalogue is where all your goods-for-sale data lives. The product name, description, cost, stock level, pictures etc. are all stored in here.

We sometimes get people asking which files their products are stored in and they get in bit of a tizzy when they can’t find them on the server.

Usually, product catalogues are stored in a database, but don’t worry – you don’t have to know how to use a database. The eCommerce application does that for you through the product catalogue interface in the Administration Dashboard.

Being able to manage this yourself is vital, otherwise you’ll be going back and forward to the web developer and the costs will rack up.

Thankfully, the eCommerce applications that we use, Magento and WordPress e-Commerce, once installed, allow you to manage your own product catalogue from within the web browser.

The Magento product catalogue has advanced options and allows for things like adding discount codes, customer reviews, product videos etc., whereas the WordPress e-Commerce catalogue offers a simpler solution while still covering the essential requirements you’ll need to sell stuff on-line.

So how do you go about entering and updating all this product information?

The Admin Dashboard

Accessing a special web page on your site and entering a username and password will take you to the options part of your eCommerce website. This is commonly known as the Admin Dashboard.

Here, you will be able to update almost every aspect of the website including accessing the product catalogue, shipping costs, currency exchange rates, payment gateways, sales reports etc.

Whichever eCommerce solution you choose from us, we’ll setup some or all of your product catalogue and make sure that customers can purchase items and that you get paid through a payment gateway (more on that late

The Shop Design

Of course your shop will need a look and feel to fit in with your business brand.

Again, just like other CMS’s a web designer will be needed to develop a theme or template which will transform the default shop-front into whatever design you have in mind for your customers.

Themes can be bought off-the-shelf for both WordPress e-Commere and Magento and you can apply these yourself, however, you may prefer to have a design exactly the way you imagined it and different from any of your competitors.

Themes are applied from the Administration Dashboard. You may be able to change a few aspects of the theme, such as your logo, background colour, text colour, however, you’re not going to be able to move parts of the theme around to different areas of the screen. A web designer will need to do this by updating the theme’s code.

Domain Name and Website Hosting

You will of course need a domain name to trade with and a hosting plan to store the website files and databases.

It’s usually best not to purchase a hosting plan until you’ve spoken to a web designer and they have given you an idea of the best solution to implement.

Many of the cheaper hosting plans that are offered to you when purchasing a domain name, do not support databases or database applications. They may charge an extra setup and yearly fee for setting this up.

So try to avoid buying a hosting plan until you talk to a web designer and have an idea of the type of eCommerce solution you’ll need to implement your ideas.

Merchant Bank Accounts vs Business Bank Accounts

Certainly in the UK, you must have a business bank account to legally trade as a business.

Business bank accounts can be used just fine with an eCommerce application but you will need to setup a Payment Gateway service to handle the payment transactions and get the customers money into your bank account.

If you’re opening up a business bank account and your account manager knows you’re going to be running an eCommerce website you may be offered a merchant bank account which is a specialised version of the business account.

The merchant account gives you a Merchant ID number and access to a Payment Gateway service that the bank uses or owns.

It’s likely you’ll need to pay for the setup of a merchant account and it will incur fees, usually on a per-transaction basis.

If you have already setup a merchant account then you will need to make sure your eCommerce application can support the particular payment gateway your bank has given you access to, otherwise you won’t get your money.

e.g. Lloyds TSB uses the Cardnet merchant payment gateway. Royal Bank of Scotland uses the WorldPay merchant payment gateway.

If you were a Royal Bank of Scotland business customer with a merchant account, you would need to make sure your eCommerce application supported the WorldPay gateway.

You don’t need to use the particular merchant account that your business bank offers to trade on-line, but you do need a payment gateway of some sort to handle payments.

That leads us nicely onto payment gateways.

Payment Gateways

We’ve touched on this in the previous section. Essentially, a merchant bank account will give you a payment gateway to use, but you’re limited to just the one that your business bank is affiliated with.

A payment gateway is a service offered by a company.

It handles the payment part of the eCommerce application when a customer proceeds to the checkout to purchase an item.

The payment gateway collects the customers details and payment information securely and contacts your business bank account to complete the money transaction.

This is great for security too as your customers banking details aren’t kept on your eCommerce website, so that’s one less thing to worry about securing.

There are many different payment gateway services with different features and options. As a supplied service they all charge a fee for their use. The fees can include a setup charge and a % commission of the total price of a transaction.

Some payment gateways allow you to pay a monthly or annual fee if your number of transactions are high. This can work out more cost effective for you if your single transactions are high volume but low individual cost.

You’ve probably heard of some of the more well known gateway service providers and not known what they. You’ve also likely used them without even realising they are there. Some of the popular payment gateways are:

PayPal, Google Checkout, SagePay, WorldPay and ChronoPay.

It’s great that you have a choice and the services are very competitively priced so take some time to check out which is best for your business model. If you need some help, we’d be happy to meet up and walk you through the options.

Some payment gateways offer two types of general services; hosted and inclusive.

Hosted Payment Gateways

These options usually don’t require a set-up or monthly fee, however, transaction costs can be higher than an inclusive service.

The PayPal Website Payments Standard service is a good example of this.

Essentially, it limits your customers to having a PayPal account (they must register with the PayPal site) and when it comes to check-out, the customers are transferred from your eCommerce website to the PayPal website for the information gathering and payment transaction, then upon completion redirected back to your eCommerce website.

The downside of this method is really from a branding point of view. You have very limited control of how the payment gateway service, PayPal in this case, looks and operates before it redirects back to your website.

Some customers can be put off by redirecting to another site as confidence in security can be questioned (although PayPal in this instance has a very good reputation).

You’re also limiting the payment method to just those customers who are willing to use the payment gateway’s choice of payment. In this case, the customer must have a registered PayPal account.

A similar process happens if you use the Google Checkout payment gateway.

So what’s the other option?

Inclusive Payment Gateways

Inclusive payment gateways will allow your customers to go through the whole checkout process without (the appearance of) leaving your branded eCommerce website.

I added in “the appearance of” because in some cases your customers will actually leave your website and use the payment gateway service, however, the way it is implemented and embedded makes it looks as if it’s all part of your website and business brand.

So what’s the catch?

There’s usually a setup fee, a minimum subscription period (say 12 months), a monthly fee and of course a whole heap of conditions that apply.

Some particular conditions to look out for are thresholds on the number of transactions per month, or total monthly funds transferred. Payment gateway services can charge extra or insist you upgrade your service if these thresholds are exceeded in a similar way that mobile phone companies will charge you extra if you use up all your inclusive talk or SMS time.

The best benefit of using an inclusive payment gateway is that the whole customer experience from browsing to payment is hosted on your own website. This gives the customer a greater sense of confidence that their data will be kept safe and makes your whole business look and feel more professional.

A good example of this type of service is the PayPal Web Payments Pro.

Securing The Data

If you’re using a payment gateway then the good news is it’s unlikely you’ll be storing sensitive customer payment details on your eCommerce website.

Those types of data will be kept securely in your payment gateway account.

Of course you will be collecting a whole lot of other important and confidential customer information such as name, email, perhaps address, likes, dislikes, a username and password for your site.

All this information needs to be kept secure and your eCommerce application will help with that. The Administration Dashboard will have lots of sections that control who and what can see parts of the collected data.

But that’s not the only security you’ll have to think about. Do you know what happens when you fill out a form on a website and click on submit?

If you have a look at the top of the web browser in the address bar you’ll see the website’s URL address. Most sites will start with http://

(For those that want to know, URL stands for Uniform Resource Location and HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)

Any web page starting with http:// is transferring data to and from a web server in Plain Text.

This means, that the web page contents, code, images, text, form data are all sent in a format that’s readable to humans. OK, it may not be that readable, but in essence all the information is there in English characters (or whatever language character set your website uses).

Now for some more techie stuff.

When your web page is sent to or received from a web server, there isn’t a 1-to-1 direct connection between your website and the server. The web page data is transferred through hundreds of networks across different countries and through thousands of routing computers and other network devices before arriving at your computer.

This means that at any point during it’s travel, your web page data has the potential to be intercepted and read by whomever.

There isn’t much you can do about the interception part but there is something you can do to make it a darn lot harder for somebody to read and use your eCommerce web page data.

SSL Certificates

Now we’re talking.

Let’s skip the techie bit and quickly tell you what these are and what they do.

You buy an SSL certificate from a web hosting company (annual renewal most likely), install it into your eCommerce website and it encrypts your web page data. Hooorah!

You’ll now notice that parts of your website, likely those that require personal form data to be collected and sent, now start with https://

The addition of that little “s” letter, standing for “Secure”, means that the web page data is encrypted when sent and decoded only at the two end-points; your computer and a web server.

Anyone reading the page in between will see garbled non-readable characters.

You may also see additional signs of a secured web page such as a closed padlock icon.

We would strongly advise you buy an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate and get this installed and configured for use with your hosting account and eCommerce website.

In Summary

Creating an eCommerce website requires a fair amount of planning.

You’ll need a good web design and web development team to implement your business venture.

It will cost you more and take longer to create than a regular blog or brochure-ware website because of all the design and setup.

You’ll make money – and that’s what’s it’s all about after all…

We hope this helps you start your eCommerce website journey. Of course there’s a heap of things we just didn’t have the time to cover.

Learn more about eCommerce at our website.

Creating a Borderless World through Social Networking

Over the years, Internet is continuously evolving and inciting endless creative ideas that leverage novel online marketing strategies such as social networking sites to achieve a greater share of on line business networking.

The rise of social networking sites has created a borderless world by reaching out to people around the globe regardless of race or nationality, profession, affiliation, education, and aspirations.

The concept of “bringing the gap of technology, business and friendship…” is ConBuzz’s

(http://www.conbuzz.com) primary objective of connecting to the world, leading professionals who desire for career advancements to a higher level of endless opportunities as well as achieving job satisfaction and stability their hearts so desire.

ConBuzz, established in November 2006, holds its corporate office in Florida, U.S.A. The company prides itself with its innovative and comprehensive business and acquaintance needs. It keeps its millions of members from around the seven continents updated on daily news, current events, and business events all over the globe. Its global network assists all its members to work its way to grab unlimited possibilities of being connected to the whole world through its state of the art technology.

ConBuzz offers a variety of services covering the field of law, finance, management, marketing, IT and Internet, architecture and construction, arts, creative, media, and employment.

Its legal services team is composed of top-notch lawyers who are adept in business and corporate law, intellectual property/patents, labor and employment law, mediation and arbitration and real estate law.

Its financial group is a team whose expertise evolves around accounting, financial planning, insurance and real estate, while its management team excels toward business processes/operations, change management, organizational development, outsourcing, and strategy consulting.

If you are looking for comprehensive marketing advice, ConBuzz has a group of professionals who are experts in the field of advertising, branding, direct marketing, events and tradeshows, market research, public relations and communications, search and online marketing.

In keeping abreast with global demands and competitions has a team of IT and Internet experts who are well trained in interface design and usability, networking and security, technical support, translation and localization, web design and development, and technical writing.

ConBuzz likewise gives assistance to employment related matters like recruitment and placement,

executive search, technical recruitment, career coaching and resumes, and executive coaching.

In the field of art and media, ConBuzz employs its cutting edge technology in audio, video, multi media production, graphic design, photography, printing, writing, and editing.

ConBuzz is designed to heighten social networking for business networking to its maximum level and create virtual communities of people into global proportions with the ultimate objective of utilizing technology in reaching out to the whole world.

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?”

How Mobile Application Technology Is Creating Value for Brick and Mortar Retailers

Mobile application technology is a powerful lever for the growth of online business. This has specially been the case with the retail industries. Some of the most established businesses in retail have harnessed mobile applications development and web application development to create business models with high returns on investment, on-demand delivery and finally customer delight. This has given way to the preconceived notion that mobile application development has aided online retailers while pricking thorns in the feet of brick and mortar retailers. Conventional wisdom suggests that with the advent of e-commerce, footfalls in shops have been decreasing. This however is a myth. While online shopping has caught up speed, web portals do not exhibit the entire range of products and hence in a way limit the freedom of choice of consumers. Thus there exists a case for the tech savvy consumer researching a sample size of the product range displayed online and then returning to the brick and mortar store to make the purchase. In this article we take a close look at the brighter side of how mobile app development services are bolstering the businesses of brick and mortar retailers and allowing them to make the most of the retail boom.

Mobile App Development and Data Driven Retailing

A recent study report that appeared in the Harvard Business Review by Christopher Tunnard and Bhaskar Chkarvarti claims that countries across the world can be classified into four groups, namely stand out, stall out, break out and watch out. Break out countries according to their study are characterized by the following macro level features:

Have the potential to develop strong digital economies
Have a low overall score owing to lack of corporate culture
Are growing rapidly and poised to be stand out countries in the future

While these macroeconomic data may sound good, micro economic data needs to be diagnosed to make business sense of technology. The business research firm Forrester has estimated that up to $70 billion of sales will be aided by the web within the next three years. The point though is that retail industry has always been characterized by a high obsession with return on investment. At the ground level, corporate enterprises and even startups in retail are less than motivated to embrace digital initiatives like a web application or app development unless there is hard data to convince them of the conversion of visitors and leads into sales. The biggest challenge for retailers and application development service providers then is to understand the dynamics of conversion.

Niffler, a loyalty program app has till date seen 50,000 downloads. Users use the Niffler code at the point of sale and that data is captured to assess sales conversions. Most retailers belonging to the small and medium business (SMB) category do not have the technology and skilled manpower at the back-end to figure out the conversion rates implying a hesitance in embracing technology. This challenge necessitates application development companies to respond to the challenge with not just technical expertise but business consulting backed by web, mobile and social analytics. Measurement of key result areas across different platforms like web application, social application and mobile apps can enable enterprises to observe results and develop a direction to embrace digital initiatives.

A three pronged approach as suggested above shall lay an equal emphasis on each of the components to create a fully integrated digital strategy for retailers to analyze the metrics of traffic and conversion and develop applications for the concerned platform. While proxies discussed above make some approximation, innovation in combing the three aspects at cost-effective levels would cement a concrete model of digital business. Brick and mortar retailers when equipped with digital artillery can create multiple access points for the consumer to educate himself on not only product range but also on prices, promotional offerings, discounts, loyalty tokens and brand value. Moreover the data generated from web applications, mobile apps and social networks can be analyzed to better understand demand patterns and thus pave the way for an on-demand model.

Search Engine Optimization Helps in Creating a Brand Name

Success and failure of a particular business depends upon the kind of publicity done. This is true in the case of online and other businesses also. There are different methods that can be used for the promotion of any goods or services, but the key lies in identifying the one method which will be able to put your business to the top without too much of an effort. Advertising on the web is the most widely undertaken promotional methods about any product or service. The news about the existence of your business must reach out to a large number of audiences and only then will you be able to attract customers to do business with you.

The method of promotion on the web is known as SEO or search engine optimization. Search engine is not just one method, but is in fact a combination of different methods for promotion. Online business owners undertake search engine optimization so that their sites can rank high in all of the major search engines. Ranking high in all popular and major search engines is one of the surest means to attracting huge traffics to your online site. Search engine optimization, if done in the proper manner, is sure to give immense benefits to your business.

It said that only a professional knows what work he has to do and it is not at all different in the case of search engine optimization also. If you are an online business owner, you will do wonders to your business if you hand over the search engine optimization work to a professional firm. Evaluating the existing competition in the market and finding out the methods that has been used for optimization is a good way of going about doing things related to search engine optimization.

This is your business and you have worked really hard to put this up. So do not just sit back and relax once you hand over the search engine optimization work to a firm that has trained professional. You must keep a constant track of the work which is being done and see if this is bringing results for your business or not. You are best judge to know if your business is benefiting from the search engine marketing strategy or not. If the strategy is not working out for you, sit and talk to the professional and try to find out what is wrong. It may be that the strategies adopted for search engine optimization may not be suitable to your business.

Remember each business is different and so the strategies adopted must also be different. The strategy which has proved to be a huge success for your friend’s business may not at all be suitable for you. So what you must do is hire professionals who really know their very well, not someone how just has fancy degree and is not capable of doing anything of substance. The idea is to make a wise choice from the huge number of professionals who are working in the field of search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is in fact the most innovative means to do promotion about anything.

Basics of Creating Business Names

Creating a business name is among the first steps of starting a new business. Coming up with a good name may be easy for some, but many others would struggle with the task. Whether you are starting a local, global or an online business, you need to have an attractive and inviting name. Here are some basics of creating business names.

Let us look at the four basic ways:

Personal or Family

This is relatively easy to do. This could be your full, first or your family name. You can also use initials, or if you have a partner your names together. Examples: LL Beans, McDonald’s, RM Williams, Gillette.

Descriptive

These are generic names and make it easy for the potential customers to identify what kind of business or service your company provides. Examples: International Business Machines (IBM), British Airways.

Combined Personal and Descriptive

This is a combination of personal/family with generic descriptive names. Examples: Ford Motor Company, Dell Computers, Dunlop Tires.

Created

These are simple ‘no-sense’ words or combination of words. Examples: Amazon, Google, Microsoft.

You can use any of these four basic methods to name your business. You can also combine two or more methods and generate a creative and attractive name. When creating a business name here are some important things to remember.

Do not be too local – unless you have a particular reason. If you ever want to expand, this will prove to be a big bottleneck.

Make it easy to understand, spell and pronounce. A company name should be hard to forget and easy to spell.

Avoid very generic names, such as Joe’s Saloon, Sam’s Bar, etc. They are not very memorable.

During the naming process, Google search by entering your chosen name inside double quote marks. See if there are any other businesses with the same name, particularly in the same country or local area.

Check availability of domain names – even if it matter only in distant future. Make sure that YourCompanyName.com or whatever is available, and get it registered once your have finalized your business name.

Choosing a business name is a marketing decision. So, choose simple and straightforward over complex or clever.

Hire Leading eCommerce Website Design Companies for Creating Your Online Store

eCommerce is the new movement of taking part in business online. As there are many people now shopping online, it has turned into a primary financial action in different aspects of the world. Concerning this pattern, eCommerce sites have taken the lead in the online world presently. The designing of this type of website deals with unique designing needs.

These sites are uniquely intended to encourage guests to buy products and stay longer on the site so they can spend more. It incorporates a business pertinent look and feel, mirroring the vision and reasoning of the business, a sorted out format and expert configuration, including proper navigation, conveying a clear and responsive client interface, having a market friendly content, and involving a basic checkout and uncomplicated shopping cart. You can integrate many professional gateway while developing these sites to guarantee smooth and bother free online payment.

Designing an eCommerce site is an expert assignment. The creation and designing of websites is not the work of novice designers. It requires exceptionally proficient and capable website designers to design an eCommerce website that can bring huge success.

Therefore, if you want to start a new venture or want to re-design your existing eCommerce site, then you have to hire a capable website designer. In this way, you can make sure that your project is in the safe hands of an expert.

An expert eCommerce website designer will have few effectively finished ventures to his or her credit. The designer should have enough introductions to all components of eCommerce website designing. The website designer may work freely or even as a member of a company that is particularly into designing proficient stores. The outcome that you have to expect either ways is an effective website that can draw prospective clients and convey your message across.

An eCommerce website designer is able and have the professional skills to consider his or her employment seriously. Most customers usually expect that designers will take up the complete responsibility of designing the website all the way. Their sole aim should on designing a website that conveys the imperative ROI and turns into a productive try.

The designer or eCommerce website design company should capable to guide the website from the development to the last integration of the website with the payment gateway. Additionally, the buying experience for the clients should portrayed a smooth way right from arriving on the site and picking the items to continuing to the checkout for payment. Clients should have their preferred capacity to pick a product easily.

Being an owner of a business, you should pick an eCommerce designer that can understand the tasks of designing an eCommerce store. What is important for the designer is a complete set of well-developed abilities that joins an intensive aptitude for design. Besides this, you have to hire an experience designer who is aware of the new trends so that he or she can use those trends to design the store, including the preferences and the expert principles that the target audience anticipates.

To summarize the article, with the eCommerce Website Designers in hand, you will be able to develop or get better business to acquire the rich rewards on the Internet.