Over 100 Different Resources for Marketers to Start

February 21, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment 

How do new marketers learn SEO and Pay Per Click? How do professionals stay current with search marketing tactics considering the sheer volume of social media distraction? Below are the top categories selected by readers. However, we’ve taken it a step further and listed over 100 different resources for marketers to start, maintain or advance their level of SEO, PPC and any other type of search based marketing. Enjoy!

Search Engine Marketing Blogs

SEO/SEM Blog Aggregators:

Testing Tactics on Your Own Web Sites

Search Engine Marketing Forums

Paid Subscription SEM Communities

Search Engine Marketing Webinars

Search Marketing White Papers, Research, Special Reports

SEO & SEM Email Newsletters

Online Groups for Search Marketers (Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning)

The Big SEM Conferences

SEM Consultant/Agency Advice

  • TopRank Online Marketing – That’s right, we put our own agency :) – The reality is, your current SEO/SEM agency or consultant should offer some kind of ongoing education and/or training on top of ongoing consulting services. If not, call us!

Print Magazines

Offline Networking Groups or Meetups

Books on SEM

Niche or Regional SEO/SEM Conferences and Workshops

Search Marketing Industry Web Sites

SEM Workshops, Training & Certifications

Search Marketers on Twitter

SEO & PPC Focused Podcasts

What did we miss? Please share in the comments.

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Internet Business Models

July 5, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Unlike traditional models of running a business in the bricks-and-mortar world, techniques to generating revenue online continue to evolve and be defined.

These website business models are as follows: the Ad Units Revenue model, the Subscription Revenue model, the Commission model, the Data Distribution Revenue model, eCommerce, and Build to Sell.   Below are descriptions of each model with some examples and advantages.

The Ad Unit Revenue Model
Displaying ads on a website is one of the most popular approaches to generating revenue. The Ad Unit Revenue model works best when the volume of traffic is high or very targeted. With this model the assumption is that visitors to a website will be attracted by the related advertisements. Both contextual and/or image based banner ads are displayed on top, beside, under, and in between articles, services, search results, or other published materials. Many of the earliest websites employed this method and it continues to be popular today.

The Subscription Revenue Model
This model generates revenue through subscriptions to a website’s premium content such as articles, videos, audio, software, tools, and applications or service. The offering is information or service that cannot otherwise be easily acquired.  This model works off of economies of scale. Once a break-even point of memberships is reached, every additional subscription is strictly profit. An example of  a “pay as you go” version of this approach would be Slashdot.com. The Subscription Revenue Model is sometimes combined  with the Ad Units model.  However, if the subscription is a paid one, ads are less likely to be presented.  National newspapers or magazines in print often use this model to establish their online presence.

The Commission Model
This website business model is based on generating revenue by taking a percentage of a sale. eBay, PayPal, and Priceline.com are best examples of the Commission Model, where the item being sold is not owned by the website administrator but available via  referral. This approach relies on the advantage of offering a hassle-free way of selling personal items and products through a website that promotes and brings in the right prospects. As a pay-per-performance approach the affiliate pays commission only after a sale is made. Arbitrage is another form of this model that has to do with buying of traffic in bulk and reselling it and/or making profit using other business models. Here’s a scenario of this approach in practice.  You bid on  pay-per-click keywords for a word that directs the visitor to a landing page with multiple advertisements. Instead of paying on your own for each click, in this manner you share the expense and still have fewer competitors to fight for attention. With enough clients, the re-seller of the bulk purchase can make profit on each keyword.

The Data Distribution Revenue Model
This approach is exemplified by  websites that sell  their network contacts or data about its consumers and their habits.  The Data Distribution revenue model is about providing valuable material for target marketing initiatives. Online business directories, like the Yellow Pages, and newsletter distributors like the Apple store that sells audio files, and Amazon’s Kindle are perfect examples of this approach.

eCommerce
This most recognizes model is employed by websites that sell products and services online, and are referred to as ecommerce websites.  Selling products online is a lot less expensive then selling in a traditional retail store.  Advantages of eCommerce include less overhead, more efficiency, and the ability to track visitors’ experiences. This approach is a natural progression for a typical retail store that wants to expand its market reach into the online world.  Amazon is the most renowned example of this business model. Online stores will continue to grow in popularity as people become more comfortable buying through the web and as more different products and services become available.

Build to Sell
If a business model’s success is measured by a track record of sales, this model could be the most valuable to a purchaser. The Build to Sell approach refers to a website’s approach that builds a strong online presence with the goal of selling it to another company that can capitalize on its online value. The website’s value is established either with its domain, value in its website application, content, number of members, or  high position in the search engine results, and/or all of the above.  Mostly used during the 2000 Internet boom, this model still has a lot of potential.

It’s difficult to say if one approach is more effective than another in generating greater return. As with traditional business models the success equally dependents on the value of the proposition being offered. It’s important to keep in mind that none of the methods are exclusively independent. Variations of the basic website business models can create levels of effectiveness that are as unique as each business – with the objective of healthy revenue growth, of course.

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Your Startup on a Shoestring

May 22, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

How much money do you really need to start your business? Probably not what you expect, and certainly less than before the Internet

You think you have it tough scraping together enough funding for your startup? Well, let me tell you about the old days, when funding a startup cost real money.

O.K., we didn’t have to wear second-hand clothes and skip meals. But when I became involved in helping a team of entrepreneurs launch a health-newsletter business in the mid 1980s, the expected expenses were daunting, especially for a enterprise that likely wouldn’t be specially attractive to venture capitalists.

The then-newly introduced Apple (AAPL) Macintosh computers, ideal for publishing, were $2,500 apiece, and we needed four. A laser printer (black and white was the only option available) was $5,000. There were photocopy and fax machines, which would be another few thousand dollars. A phone system was thousands more. Rent for a small office in Mansfield, Mass., would be $1,500 a month, or $18,000 annually.

The Tip-of-the-Expenses Iceberg

And then there were the marketing expenses, the main one being a direct mail campaign to obtain subscribers. We figured the cost for renting lists of potential subscribers, putting together a mailing package consisting of a pitch letter and glossy brochure, and postage at about $1 per package. Figuring a 1% response rate, it would cost us about $100,000 to send out enough pieces to reach our initial goal of 1,000 subscribers. Monthly expenses for printing and mailing the newsletter could be expected to be another $4,000, or about $50,000 annually.

So we were looking at something approaching $200,000—in the neighborhood of $400,000 in today’s dollars—and we hadn’t even begun accounting for salaries. Moreover, this was merely a test of the concept—even assuming we hit our 1% response rate, we wouldn’t know for sure if the venture was viable until a year later, when we saw what the renewal rate was. In any event, we’d have to invest possibly another $100,000 or more to go after additional subscribers.

Today, a similar consumer publishing venture could dispense with nearly all these expenses. The computers, copier, and fax, together with a color laser printer, could be had for $5,000 or less, total. No need for rent, since the team could work virtually for the first year. Forget, as well, about the phone system, since the team would communicate by e-mail and cell phone. There’d be no snail-mail direct-marketing approach, or printing expenses, since everything would be on the Internet.

Use Your Savings for Marketing

Now, this isn’t to say today’s publishing venture wouldn’t have any startup expenses. But contrary to what startup consultants may advise, the expenses for tangible things—equipment, offices, and brochures—are much lower today than they were 20 years ago or can be avoided altogether.

And even more significant, today’s startups can use the money they save on traditional fixed costs to deal with their key challenges: building and managing a web presence and marketing their products or services, online or offline.

The cost of handling these challenges can vary widely. Many startups reduce the expenses associated with building and maintaining their Web site by subcontracting out key tasks to low-wage countries such as India or the Philippines and by using free open-source software.

Money-Saving Techniques

On the marketing side, it’s possible to run up huge charges generating clicks via Google ads. One entrepreneur I know tells the story of how he neglected to cap his expenses and wound up with $4,500 of ad costs in a 36-hour period from click-throughs on his Google ads—costs that failed to generate any revenues.

Smart entrepreneurs shave such marketing costs by collecting e-mail addresses of prospects and using search engine optimization techniques to increase the rankings of their Web sites via links and traffic.

Here is how these techniques translate into an overall startup approach designed to take advantage of today’s low-startup-cost climate:

• Reduce fixed expenses by going virtual for as long as possible. To the extent the founding team members can work from home and use e-mail and cell phones to communicate, fixed expenses like office space and furniture can be minimized. At some point—usually when the team finds it must bring other people aboard to accommodate growth—an office will likely become necessary.

• Avoid hiring people—engage contractors. Even when it’s necessary to bring in additional help, using contractors can be cheaper than employees. Individual projects and per-hour expenses may be higher than employees, but using contractors enables startups to retain spending flexibility.

• Keep online development costs in check. Setting up a sophisticated Web site usually is more involved and takes more time than expected. It’s essential for startup companies to monitor progress and expenses closely, especially if offshore developers are involved. Divide such projects into segments and set a project cost for each segment, if at all possible.

• Put as much of your money into marketing as possible. Professional investors always like to see a company’s major investment going into sales, public relations, and promotion. Using Internet tools such as search engine advertising, entrepreneurs can quickly and easily test different messages and measure return on investment—say, by monitoring click through  against sales.

The main goal of any startup is to test assumptions and obtain feedback. It’s increasingly possible to carry out that goal at a lower cost than ever. The old days don’t look very romantic in today’s climate.

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Venture Capital Firms Exposed

May 22, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

One expert estimates that VC firms fund only one of every hundred proposals they get. And certain industries have a statistical advantage

The possibility of landing a venture capital deal entices many aspiring entrepreneurs, but the reality is harsh. Although VCs invest significant amounts of money, the number of companies that get funded is tiny. In 2007 there were 3,813 deals that totaled $29.4 billion, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Assn. MoneyTree Report, which measures VC activity in the U.S. Data are scarce on what proportion of companies that seek venture funding actually get it. But anecdotally, National Venture Capital Assn. spokeswoman Emily Mendell estimates that of every 100 business plans a venture firm receives, 10 get a serious look, and one gets funded.

Does your company have a shot at being that one? First ask yourself whether your business can deliver the expected returns. “It’s incredibly rare for a company to hit the sales targets that venture capitalists have,” says Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western University and author of The Illusions of Entrepreneurship (BusinessWeek.com, 1/23/08). He suggests that most VCs want businesses to hit $100 million in sales within six years (a goal only 200 companies each year reach), though Mendell says the expectations vary from firm to firm.

VCs Go for Fast Growth

Venture firms focus their investments on the handful of industries where explosive growth is possible. Biotech and medical devices made up 23% of 2007’s venture deals, according to the MoneyTree Report. An additional 24% went to software companies. Retailing and distribution, consumer and business products and services combined accounted for 289 deals, or 8% of the total. Location counts, too. California is home to 41% of the companies VCs funded last year. An additional 13% were in New England. If you’re not in a medical or tech sector and you’re not located in a hotspot like Silicon Valley or Boston’s Route 128 corridor, your chances of getting VC funding are virtually nil, Shane says.

But say you still think venture capital is right for you. You’ve shepherded your business beyond the startup stage. You’re in a high-growth sector and located in a tech hotspot. You think you’ve got a shot at being one of those few thousand companies that will get funded this year. What else can you do to improve your odds?

Researchers say networking with VCs and people who know them (BusinessWeek,com, 11/28/07) is important. Without a referral from a mutual acquaintance, your chance of getting venture funding drops dramatically, according to David Kirsch, director of the Business Plan Archive at the University of Maryland. “It’s almost impossible to get funding for a business plan that comes in over the transom,” he says. Kirsch and UMD professor Brent Goldfarb analyzed hundreds of dot-com era business plans submitted to an unnamed East Coast venture firm. They found that companies were far more likely to get funded if their plans were referred to VCs than if they were sent cold. Their conclusion: “At the margins, an entrepreneur should focus less on perfecting the plan and more on expanding the network,” Kirsch says.

Big Ideas Count

Other research suggests you should spend more time developing your idea than assembling your team. Despite some VCs’ assertions that they’ll fund “an A team with a B idea over a B team with an A idea,” a new study suggests that your team matters less than they say. A pair of doctoral students at the University of Louisville found that entrepreneurs need to meet a minimum level of trust for VCs to consider funding them. But beyond that threshold, companies were funded based on their idea’s potential, rather than the founders’ credentials.

&quoIf I had a choice to allocate my efforts, I would have an O.K. team, but I would not spend too much time on putting up a star team,” says Pankaj Patel, who wrote the study with Rodney D’Souza.

Entrepreneurs can also improve their chances of landing venture capital by getting angel investors on board. “The expectation is if you can’t interest an angel investor in your company, that’s probably a signal that it’s not a great investment,” Kirsch says. Angel funding is particularly important because venture firms are often wary of very young companies; just 11% of last year’s VC deals went to startup or seed-stage outfits.

Living Without Venture Capital

While it’s clear that venture capital is out of reach for the vast majority, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In their research, Kirsch and Goldfarb also found that 48% of the companies they sampled—mostly dot-coms founded between 1994 and 2000—survived the bursting of the tech bubble in 2004. The number, Kirsch says, is consistent with survival rates in other emerging industries. Getting venture funding did not improve a company’s chance of success. “What that tells us is that those firms didn’t need venture capital. What they needed was 10 grand for some servers and a few customers,” Kirsch says.

The conclusion should hearten entrepreneurs. Abandoning the chase for venture capital frees business owners to concentrate on bootstrapping or raising smaller amounts from informal investors or lenders. The average startup is financed with $25,000, and that usually comes from the entrepreneur’s savings or from a personally guaranteed bank loan, according to Shane. While that’s less seductive than big checks from venture investors, it’s easier to find.

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10 Ways to Grow Your Home Business

May 1, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Home based business owners who fail to plan often fall victim to their own success. Either they burn out trying to juggle everything themselves or they spend so much time and money hiring people to help them that their profits go down the drain.Fortunately, there are some ways to take your home based business to new heights without sacrificing your business’s profitability or losing your peace of mind. Follow these 10 steps to grow your home based business into the personal and professional success it was meant to be:

1. Focus on a single product or service, and then market it, sell it, promote it, do everything you can to increase sales of that one product or service. While it’s tempting to swing for the fences and try to be all things to all people, it’s often less risky and more profitable to pick a product or two that you can execute really well and just try to get on base.

2. Expand your product line to offer complementary products or services. Once you’ve hit on a product or service that customers really like, don’t miss the opportunity to bring out related items to diversify your product line. Not only does that give your customers a wider selection, but it also makes your products more appealing to retailers who typically like to stock a line of products as opposed to a single item.

3. Find ways to increase sales to your existing customers. It’s a lot cheaper than finding new ones. Even if you can’t expand your product line, you can boost revenues by selling more of your existing product or service to the clients you already have. One easy way to do this is through volume discounts. Especially if your products cost little to produce, offering your customers the chance to buy, say, two T-shirts for the price of one lets you ring up additional sales without sacrificing much profit. Another common practice is to reward loyal customers by giving them a punch card that entitles them to a free product or service for every 10 items they buy. This technique is common at hair salons, car washes and arts-and-crafts stores, but home based businesses can use it, too.

4. Hire someone to help you out-an employee, a freelancer, an intern, an independent contractor, even your kids. Not only does this free up cash flow by adjusting your expenses to the level of work you bring in, but it also enables you to cultivate a large network of talented people you probably couldn’t afford to hire full time.

5. Create a Web site to advertise your company or sell products online. Thanks to the Internet, it’s no longer necessary to open a store to reach retail customers. For marketers of specialty products like rare books, collectibles and gourmet foods, a Web-based boutique lets you reach millions of shoppers around the world without paying for rent, utilities or garbage collection.

And while creating Web sites once required a big investment and the skills of an experienced Web designer or programmer, do-it-yourself Web sites are now available for less than $30 a month with no technical knowledge required. Typically, the companies that help you register your domain name (Web address) will provide online templates you can use to build your site, host your Web pages on their server and provide you with multiple e-mail addresses as well. E-commerce capabilities can often be had for an additional charge. You can also set up low-cost Web sites through Web hosting companies and search engines.

6. Join forces with another business to promote your company. Partnering with a company in a related industry is one of the cheapest and easiest forms of marketing that you can employ. If you make spa products, for example, you may be able to convince a local health club to carry them in its store by offering a discount to its members. Likewise, you can send a free, one-day health club pass to anybody who buys your lotions and scrubs.

7. Target other markets. If you sell to teens, start marketing to college students. If you sell to working moms, maybe your product will work for stay-at-home moms with a few modifications. Another strategy is to take a retail-oriented product or service and sell it wholesale. For example, a home based catering business that specializes in cakes, pies and other tasty desserts can contact local bakeries to sell its goods on a wholesale basis. While the price you get from the bakeries will be lower (because the bakeries need to mark it up to their customers to make a profit), you’ll sell more products and generate consistent cash flow that you can bank on.

8. Find new and different ways to market your business through e-mail newsletters or by doing guest-speaking gigs or by teaching a class. Marketing your home based business doesn’t need to involve spending big money on newspaper ads, Yellow Pages listings, or TV or radio spots. Grassroots marketing techniques cost far less and are often much more effective. Most chambers of commerce and community groups are more than happy to provide a forum to a local business owner who’s willing to share his expertise at no charge. Sending out a weekly newsletter is also a great way to get your name out in front of new and potential clients. Thanks to the Internet, you can send out your newsletter via e-mail using online templates and automated delivery systems.

9. Expand to another location. That could mean renting “virtual” office space in a business center or by sharing office space with another growing business. Brad Taylor, a CPA in Springfield, New Jersey, spends most of his time at home preparing tax returns, developing tax-planning strategies and revising his clients’ QuickBooks files. But when he needs to come to New York City for a meeting, he sometimes rents space at a Manhattan business center operated by HQ Global, a national provider of temporary office space.

For a monthly fee or a la cart, business centers like these offer everything from conference rooms and receptionist services to remote-access voicemail, high-speed Internet connectivity and tech support, offering home based business owners as much or as little outside office services as they need. Taylor pays just $10 an hour to use the space and is able to bill the cost to his client. “While I still want to run my business from home, this has allowed me to pursue new opportunities and network with other professionals,” Taylor says.

10. Think about turning your business into a franchise or business opportunity. While most homebased businesses remain small, yours may have the potential to hit the big time through franchising, licensing or wholesale distribution. The key question to ask yourself is if your business can be converted into a business format that somebody else could operate (a franchise) or if you have a standardized product or service that someone could resell multiple times (a business opportunity). While you may think that expanding your business requires raising capital, hiring employees, buying equipment and leasing office or warehouse space, it’s often more profitable-and less risky-to license your product to a big corporation with manufacturing capabilities and an existing sales force to do the work for you.

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10 Best Work at Home Business Startups

May 1, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

The internet has become a world of almost unlimited opportunity for those who are looking for ways to make an extra income. With all the problems that have arisen from the economic downturn and increased costs of living, more and more people are opting to “work at home” so that they can supplement the income from their day-jobs. Work-at-home jobs also allow people to make money in such a way that it does not mean that they have to compromise with the time that they spend with their families. This is because most internet based home businesses allow great “flexibility” when it comes to time. In fact; many people today actually prefer full-time work-at-home options to a “nine-five” job.

Listed below are the top-ten most common work-at-home jobs today (In no particular order of course);

Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is probably the most popular of the work-at-home options available today. Freelance writing is also the most “flexible” of the work-at-home options available today. To be a freelance writer all the skills/knowledge you really need is the ability to write well and a good command of the English language. Start up costs for most freelance-writing jobs are practically none – all you need is a fairly good computer and a reliable internet connection.

For more information on writing careers, visit the following sites;

www.copyblogger.com

www.writingcareer.com

www.writing-world.com

www.freelancewriting.com

www.freelancewritinggigs.com

Consulting

If you’re a professional in a specific field, why not consider starting your own consulting-services practice at home? Today, experts from several professional fields have chosen to provide their own consulting services. Such professionals range from medical professionals to legal and business professionals. You’d be surprised at how much people are willing to pay for what is essentially good advice. This is a flexible career choice that can be run entirely from the comfort of your home. Start-up costs would depend on the type of consulting services that you plan to provide. Although your business can be set-up at home, you will need a full-office set-up as well as software and other such materials related to your line of work.

Internet Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when an individual undertakes the task of promoting a business for either a percentage in sales profits, or a fixed amount for each “lead” that is generated. According to a study published in Wikipedia; total sales generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was ?2.16 billion in the UK alone! Millions of businesses out there are ready to rely on affiliate programs that will help them to effectively market their products.

Today, internet-based affiliate marketing is a hugely popular option for most people who wish to work at home. Provided you do it right, this can be quite a lucrative venture. For more information on affiliate marketing and the best affiliate programs online, try visiting;

www.affiliatetips.com

Secretarial Services

If you’ve got a good command of the English language and good writing abilities, why not consider starting a secretarial services business? This small business can be started on a very low capital and can be run entirely from your home. All you really need to “start-up” an “online secretarial services” business is a computer, printer, phone, ream of paper and a set of business cards. You don’t even need a high end computer; all you need is one that will be able to carry out basic word-processing tasks. Your printer need not be fancy either; one that will simply allow you to get all your documents and business cards printed will do. This type of “online secretarial services business” is one that offers all the services that are offered by regular secretarial service businesses – except for the fact that all the services are provided online.

Customer Services

Thanks to the advancement of technology, today it’s possible for you to log in to a company’s system from the comfort of your own home. This is what makes it possible for many companies today to hire remote customer service agents.

Graphic Design

Graphic designing plays an important part in the business world – particularly in advertising. Even the representation of a company using logos, colors and text is an aspect of graphic design. The entertainment industry makes use of a graphic designer’s expertise when it comes to creative aspects such as visual storytelling, decoration and scenery. Other areas that find a use for graphic design in the entertainment industry include novels, comic books, magazines, blogs and programs and props that are used on-stage.

A graphic designer has the advantage of having a wide range of businesses or industries to choose from. These industries or businesses include, but are not limited to;

· The Advertising industry

· The Magazine publication industry

· Product packaging industry

· Web designing industry

Thanks to the internet, graphic designers today can offer their services online.

Web Design

If you’ve got knowledge of web design and computer languages such as HTML, CSS and PHP, you can consider working at home as a web designer. This can be a very lucrative venture – if you’re good enough at what at what you do. You may work for a specific company, or you may choose to freelance as a web designer.

Teaching

Today a surprisingly large number of parents are opting to get their children home schooled. This also provides qualified teachers an opportunity to work at home – thanks to the internet. It’s not only home-schooling students that you can teach however. For instance; if you’re qualified to teach English, you may also teach adults who wish to learn English as a second language. You may choose to work independently or register with a company that will get you “in touch” with clients.

Notary Signing Agent

If you’re looking for a work-at-home opportunity, do a little research online and find out if a notary signing business is right for you. Did you know that you can make a significantly good income with a notary signing business? After just a single course of training, a notary signing agent can actually earn up to $50 to $125 per transaction.

A notary public or notary signing agent is an individual who obtains and notarizes legal documents. Thus a notary signing agent has to be knowledgeable in the procedures involved in the presentation and authorization of legal documents. A notary signing agent is also known as a loan signing agent, mortgage loan closer or closing agent. To train as a notary signing agent, all you have to do is go through a notary agent training course available in your region. And if you want to be a notary signing agent you have to be prepared to invest in training yourself to be one.  For more information on notary signing agents, try visiting the following sites;

www.notarypublic.com

www.notarytrainer.com

Word Processing

Do you want a small business opportunity that will allow you to make a sizeable income without taking up too much capital, or too much of your time? If you’re a good writer and if you’ve got a good command of the English language, why not consider starting a word processing business?

A word processing business is probably the easiest one to start, what’s more; its low maintenance too! This business is also one that can be run on a very low capital. All you need to start up the business is a good computer, a printer and a reliable internet connection. Your computer and printer need not be “high end” either. A basic computer that can carry out word processing tasks and a “letter quality” printer that can churn out clearly printed documents will do just fine.

The internet and easy payment schemes such as pay-pal have considerably increased the potential for work-at-home jobs. The internet has also become an extremely indispensable entity in most households today. This means that the internet has also become an invaluable marketing tool which most business will want to make use of. This in turn means that the internet holds great potential for those who wish to make an extra income. In fact, some people actually opt to run internet-based home businesses – full time.

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Twenty Great Tools To Start A Consulting Business

March 27, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

With companies pushing their employees off the plank into the sea of financial and professional uncertainty, one of the best options to take control of one’s career is to start a consulting practice.  Starting a consulting practice is a good way to get back your self-esteem, which is usually very low after being left adrift, and a good way to generate revenue.

I can speak from experience.  One of the companies I ran was bought by another company and I had no immediate options.  I always hated interviewing and preferred to have more control over my life.

Now is a good time to start your own business because companies still need professionals with a variety of skills, but can’t afford to hire full-time people.  You don’t need many tools to start your own practice, especially with software, the Internet, hardware and online services available.  Here are the essentials:

Microsoft Office 2007: You can store your contacts, send your e-mails, make presentations, design Web sites, create newsletters, create financial spreadsheets and send Word documents.

QuickBooks or Peachtree First Accounting: You need to keep track of your income and expenses.  Both products are very good.  I prefer Peachtree because I find it more intuitive, which is ironic since the maker of QuickBooks is called Intuit.  For those not comfortable with accounting software, you can easily do the same functions by using Microsoft Excel.

Tax Planning: Here, Intuit’s Turbo Tax for Home and Business is the best product on the market.  Intuit totally nailed it with this product.  It is the easiest piece of software I have ever used and I can’t believe how they can improve it each year.  You can do your federal and state taxes using this software.  If you use QuickBooks, you can download your information directly into Turbo Tax. The software also allows you to plan for the following year’s taxes.

Marketing Material: There is a variety of inexpensive software packages such as Business Card Designs and MyBusiness Cards.  The software typically costs less than $30 and usually comes with business card, brochure and other types of templates.  You can also go online and get up to 200 free business cards with basic designs from www.freebusinesscardprinter

Business Plan: You have to develop a road map for your business.  There are a few products you should look at, such as Business Plan Pro and Bplans.com.

PDF Converter: If you are e-mailing contracts and other documents you don’t want altered, you want to purchase something like Nuance’s PDF Converter 5 Professional.

Tracking Receipts

Business Cards: There is no question: The best product on the market is NeatDesk by The Neat Company, a Philadelphia-based entrepreneurial company. This product is a digital filing system that allows you to scan receipts, business cards and documents.  The device takes up a small amount of space on your desk and connects with QuickBooks, Turbo Tax and Excel.  This is really a must-have product because of the diversity of tactics it performs.

Traditional Telephone: The best buy for the money is Vonage.  You get unlimited calls nationally and to some countries abroad for less than $30 a month.  One of the things I like about Vonage is that it forwards my calls to my e-mail, which allows me to listen to the calls on my computer and my BlackBerry.  You can try to use Skype, but I have still found it to be inconsistent and not appropriate for business use.

Mobile Phone: Everyone has a mobile phone, but as a business tool, I still prefer the BlackBerry, which allows you to collect and send e-mail.  This falls under the category of invaluable.  I once was in a remote part of Panama and a client had a problem, and I could respond by e-mail through my BlackBerry.

Laptop: I have fallen in love with my Acer Aspire One, which is a mini-laptop that weighs less than 3 lbs and has a 1 gig of Ram and 130 gigs of hard drive.

Printer/Scanner/Fax: There are a variety of good products made by Brother, Lexmark, and Hewlett-Packard.  Any of them will do the job.  As much as we prefer not to print things out, we still need to do it when we are making presentations and providing written documents that need to be shared.

Legal Software: Get an attorney to develop your initial contracts, but if you are looking to save money, use software such as MyAttorney Home and Business by Avanquest.  There are a variety of templates that you can customize for your needs.

Binding Machine: Any business store carries a binding machine, which you need for proposals and other documents with lots of pages.

E-mail Newsletter: You need to stay in contact with prospects, clients and referral sources by sending newsletters, press releases and invitations.  The two most cost-effective services are Constant Contact and IContact.

Linked-In: There practically isn’t a business person that isn’t using www.linkedin.com to make business contacts.  I get at least one request a week to join someone’s network.

Web Site: A low-cost way to develop your own Web site and host it inexpensively is through services such as 1and1.com; but if you are looking to have someone develop a site for you, put in your request for proposal using Craigslist and watch the responses pile up.

YouTube: A good way to demonstrate your knowledge for free — you take a video camera and have someone film you for one to three minutes providing advice on your expertise.

Blog: You can set up a free blog to demonstrate your expertise by going to

www.blogger.com

Bank Account: Practically every bank provides online banking.  That said, I would suggest using a small bank that will give you more personal service and whose branch managers may be able to make introductions to potential clients.

Credit Card: If you can get a credit card, I would recommend the American Express Plum Card.  Every card comes with points, but not every card can get you an easy cash advance abroad, which I found out the hard way in Italy.

This is a great time to start a consulting practice, which will make you feel better about yourself and more secure.

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Becoming a Business Consultant – Is it the Right Decision

March 23, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Very few of us spent our childhoods dreaming of becoming a business consultant. However, if you are already involved in the world of business or find yourself intrigued by the latest developments in the field, you may be on your way to a new career. Size doesn’t matter when it comes to this industry; as consultants provide a variety of services to new entrepreneurs, small business owners, and fortune 500 companies.

What does a Business Consultant do?
They offer a long list of services that range from marketing techniques to technological advances. Basically, by joining this lucrative field, you would become responsible for the future of another business. While that may seem a bit harsh, that’s the mentality needed to be successful in this game.

Sure, we all want to reap the benefits of our own successes but before you jump in feet-first, you have to realize what the business consulting industry is all about. There’s no room for an inflated ego here; success is determined business by helping owners and managers achieve their goals. Ah, it’s a selfless life.

Patience is a Virtue
Catering to someone else’s needs rarely produces overnight results, so if you’re seeking a career with instant gratification, this may not be the right fit for you. In this case, it’s true that the best things come to those who wait. It takes time to execute branding and other marketing strategies, install more advanced software applications, and identify the remaining areas in which a business may be lacking. Business consultants offer their services in a wide range of areas, from marketing, public relations, to communications and strategy, and much more.

You’ll need a bit of detective skills too as they’ll come in great benefit in as you search for undeveloped areas and weak procedures (plaid jacket and magnifying glass not necessary).

Getting Started in Consulting
Best of all, this venture requires very little elbow grease in the start-up phase. An insignificant amount of equipment is required, referrals from clients will eventually stamp out expensive marketing efforts, and your location does not have to be top-of-the-line. You can easily run a consulting business from the comfort of your own home – if you happen to be relaxing on the couch when a client calls, they don’t need to know. Likewise, if you’re weeding your garden during an otherwise professional telephone conversation, well, you guessed it… they don’t need to know. All they care about is whether or not you can deliver results – and that’s should be the top priority.

Finding Your Niche
Since this career spans such a wide range of industries, it is wise to establish an online presence, in addition to other marketing efforts. Keep your services at the fingertips of business owners and you will start building a client base in no time, give or take a few slow days here and there.

You don’t have to be genius to be a business consultant, but you do have to present yourself to others professionaly and convince them of your abilities. The proof will be in the pudding, as they say, meaning the results will speak for themselves. Produce impressive results for just a few businesses and you’ll find yourself engaged in this exciting career in no time!

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Infosys Launches Business Consulting in the United States

March 16, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

In a move that may ease concerns about so-called offshoring, India-based Infosys Technologies on Thursday said it has created a U.S.-based business consulting unit. The unit, Infosys Consulting, is concentrating its initial hiring in the United States, and plans to bring on roughly 500 people over the next three years, the technology services company said. Infosys Technologies and other India-based companies such as Wipro Technologies have emerged as significant players in the information technology services market. But their success in winning deals with U.S. companies has sparked concerns about job security.

Infosys overall has about 22,000 employees, with roughly 18,000 based in India. Kris Gopalakrishnan, chairman of Infosys Consulting, hinted that the backlash against offshore outsourcing played at least some role in the company’s decision to launch a division in the United States. “We definitely are investing in the (U.S.) market,” he said. “We’re creating some jobs.”

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25 tips for hard times

February 28, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

In the world of economics there are few proverbial jokes that offer less insight into the current state of the economy than this: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job.”

The U.S. slipped into recession in December 2007. Canada is thought to have followed suit in December 2008, but we won’t actually know for sure until May when official numbers are expected to indicate the economy to have gone through two quarters of negative growth, thus having the variables needed to declare it an official recession.

Proverbs aside, a prolonged recession where real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) falls by more than 10 per cent, is called a depression, a term introduced during the presidency of Herbert Hoover (1929-33) as a euphemism for “panic.” During that depression Canada’s economy shrank for four consecutive years starting in 1929 while the American economy cratered by 33 per cent.

Unemployment in the U.S. peaked at about 25 per cent, and in the early years after 1929, about 8,000 U.S. banks collapsed. By comparison, most current forecasts have U.S. unemployment rising to as much as 11 per cent this year, up from 6.9 per cent last fall. GDP contraction in the U.S. — which is expected to be worse than in Canada — should be in the range of no more than 2 per cent to 3 per cent in 2009-10.

Still, with even the most optimistic forecasts not predicting a return to growth until late this year early next, we have compiled 25 tips for the average reader to survive a recession (assuming we’re in one) that might help you come out in 2010 with more than just your shirt on your back.

1. Switch to a credit card with a lower interest rate. There’s no sense collecting air miles or other such points if you can’t even pay off your monthly bills. Equally, there’s not much point in paying 20 per cent interest when you don’t have to. You might try shopping around then ask your credit card provider to lower your rate, especially if you’ve received a better offer from a different provider.

2. Go retro and clip coupons. A 50 per cent coupon for a sandwich at your local McDonald’s is the next best thing to a food stamp.

3. Be sure to pick up the sales flyer at your local grocer whenever you shop. You never know what savings you might find tucked in the corner of the meats or frozen foods sections. On that note, you might want to reacquaint yourself with the age-old tradition of marinating stewing beef and turning it into filet mignon. A $3 cut of veal shoulder, if marinated for 12 hours can taste hauntingly similar to a $15 sirloin steak but at a fraction the cost.

4. Do your food shopping at discount stores. No Frills and Food Basics might be more crowded and offer less selection than your local Loblaws or Metro and you’ll have to pay a quarter for the cart and bag your own groceries, but you’ll see a payoff at the cash register. If you’re shopping for a larger family try buying in bulk from stores like Costco.

5. Give the office cafeteria a wide berth and get into the habit of packing your own lunch. You’ll save money and calories, even if you are just eating peanut butter sandwiches.

6. Throw away your bank card and leave your credit card at home. ATM charges can add up and it’s hard to live on a budget if you keep paying for things on credit. Or, try only using your bank card once between pay cheques. That will help you budget your money accordingly.

7. Join your local Free Lance network, where people pass on baby gear, furniture, electronics, clothing and craft supplies, among other stuff, for free.

8. Cancel your gym membership. Go for a walk or run around your neighbourhood instead. If it’s muscle you’re trying to amass then start doing push ups in your bedroom, invest in a chin-up bar and start walking up and down multiple flights of stairs. You don’t need to spend $50-$150 a month to stay active.

9. Having a baby? Ask around for hand-me-downs. Most parents are eager to get rid of the mounds of kids’ gear cluttering up their basements.

10. Got kids? Forget shopping at Baby Gap. Buy children’s clothes at discount retailers or department stores. Your two-year-old won’t know the difference, and if they do they won’t remember it for too long anyway as their brains are still evolving. Better yet, phone up everyone you know with young kids, bring them all together and swap anything from shoes to strollers to clothes and toys.

11. Find free or low-cost activities for your kids. Ontario Early Years Centres, school board parenting centres and city recreation programs are good places to start.

12. If you’re getting $100 a month from the government for child care, try your best to keep banking it in a high interest savings account for your child’s future. Saving can be hard, especially in these times, but a few dollars a month can go a long way over the course of 20 years..

13. Switch to Skype for long-distance calls. After the initial hardware investment, it’s free or practically free to call friends around the world.

14. Itemize your monthly expenses and allocate money for each by placing it in marked envelopes. If you only want to spend $50 this month on entertainment, then put $50 in an envelope marked “Entertainment” and use it to entertain yourself. Once the money’s spent, that’s it. No more fun. It’s shrewd and effective.

15. Don’t ignore inflation. Many economists predict that, with so much money being pumped into the global financial system in bailouts and stimulus packages, inflation is destined to rise. So make sure the interest on your savings keeps up with the level of inflation from here on in. If, for example, inflation hits 5% and you’re still only getting 3% in your savings account you’re going to come out the loser.

16. Instead of an expensive vacation to the Bahamas this year, why not try a “staycation” — a trip to the CN tower, the theatre or a local maple sugar bush is infinitely less expensive than a sunburn and you’ll be infinitely less depressed when you return to work the next day.

17. Make an appointment with your financial adviser to review your portfolio. It’s too late to protect yourself from recent carnage in the markets, but you can at least position yourself for the recovery – if and when it comes.

18. If you and your friends have young kids, consider setting up a babysitting co-operative with another family. You look after their kids for an evening in exchange for a night out at a later date.

19. Bring a coffee maker or kettle to work. With coffee ranging anywhere from $1 to $5 a cup (depending on size of cup, exoticness of brew and franchise from which it is purchased) some people are dropping anywhere from $20 to $200 a month just to stay caffeinated. Don’t believe it? Try this: bring your own coffee to work, make it yourself and put the money you would have spent in a jar on your desk. At the end of the month, empty the jar and see how much you saved.

20. Fast food restaurants have long been regarded as recession-proof – the benefactors to the demise of high cost dining in times of economic turmoil. It’s one thing to take the family to McDonald’s instead of Red Lobster just to save a few pennies, but there are some of us out there who should really cut the fast food bit out altogether. The constant inhalation of cheeseburgers, pizza and Chinese food isn’t just ripping through your lower intestine. It’s blowing a hole through your wallet as well.

21. Review your monthly plans for phone, wireless, Internet and television services. Often households are paying significant sums for features that aren’t even being used. That includes everything from digital TV channel packages to wireless voice and data plans. Paying $30 a month for 6 gigabytes of data for your iPhone might seem like a good deal, but not if you’re only using 50 megabytes to check your email and surf the Web occasionally. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for a better deal from your current provider if they want to keep you as a customer – particularly if you subscribe to multiple services and have done some comparison shopping. If long distance phone calls are costing you a fortune, you might want to think about signing up for one of those $5 a month zero-cent per minute long distance plans, especially if you’re currently paying 25 cents a minute on your cell phone.

22. When purchasing household items that are only used occasionally – gardening equipment, ladders, snowblowers, for example – consider sharing with a neighbour. Store the stuff in a mutually accessible shed or garage, and split the cost.

23. Start an entertainment-sharing club with like-minded friends. Meet monthly to pass around books, magazines, movies and music.

24. Try your best to keep yourself employed. Though it goes without saying, it’s the best advice anyone can give you. But with layoffs adding up and unemployment on the rise, there’s no way for everyone to come out of this with their careers still intact. Career counsellors advise that the best way to keep from getting a pink slip in times of economic turmoil is to make yourself indispensable at work. Take on extra projects, preferably high-profile ones your boss cares deeply about.

25. The same career counsellors however advise you to keep up your networks, just in case you do join the growing ranks of the unemployed.

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