Digg it UP - Business

The Importance of Client Contracts
Whether you are just starting out in a business or a seasoned "professional" you should have a contract when doing business - if not for your own safety, but for the safety of your clients. Not a day goes by that I don't hear horror stories about misunderstandings on projects that could have easily been prevented with a simple contract. Simply, they state the work you are providing and the cost involved. They should also indicate what is not included, such as incidental material costs and excessive copy changes, etc. Always put into writing your intent and email it to the client. His or her email response, along with the "deposit" is an contract of the agreement. For added security, have them sign a copy of the contract and mail or fax it to you. My policy is that I do not begin any work until the down payment has been paid and the contract is signed and delivered. This not only protects my business, but also shows me that the customer is serious about his or her intents. When you have developed a good, solid relationship with your client, then monthly billings are the norm. But until then, 50 % down is not unheard of. After all, you are taking a risk doing work - and more often than not, monies owed are not paid based upon the client "not liking the design." Remember, you are hired to do a job - and it is up to the potent

e rest of their hair, where in the newspaper would they look. Ask at least 10 people. And whatever the majority is, that is where you should place the ad (no matter how much it costs). If not, you are just wasting your money. Remember to always think like your customer.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING

Once I started getting customers, because I always did a little extra for the customers, I received really good word-of-mouth advertising and referrals. Referrals are gold! When you can call or stop by and see someone about computer problems that you already know that are having (from their friend or relative) and you can drop a name of someone they know who sent you, you are as good as IN THE DOOR! If your service was good for their friend, it will be good for them. And when you have the name of their friend, it is like you are their friend as well.

One way to get referrals from your customers is before you are completely done with the job you are doing for them, and they can see a definite improvement, give them a piece of paper and a pencil and ask them to write down 3 friends or relatives of theirs who could benefit just like they did. Most of the time they will be happy to give you the names, if you have made them happy. If you do this at every job, your business will snowball! This is the best way to build a business: by doing a good job and having a good reputation, with a network of people who sent you to the next customers, stamped with their seal of approval.

Corporate Identity - A Rough Guide
A rough guide to corporate identityThe tabloids report the millions spent by large corporate companies on their logos as a scandal... Those small swathes of colour adorning British Airways’ tail fin, ICI’s letterhead or Sainsbury’s checkout seem to come at a huge price.So do these companies have too much money and not enough common sense? Are they victims of designer indulgence, or are they getting a good deal?This isn’t rocket science, but it is often misunderstood, as the tabloids flagrantly show. Let’s start at the beginning. Every company has a corporate image. Every company from Joe’s One-Man Taxi Co. to IBM. It may be good, it might be bad. Put simply, corporate identity is the way in which an organisation is perceived.Corporate identity describes the individual characteristics by which a company is recognised. It is the organisation’s sense of ‘self’ - the corporate individuality or personality. Visual identity (that’s the logo) is a pretty big part of it.So how deep into corporate identity do you want to go? Let’s really confuse matters.The public, customers, employees, the city, all have a vastly different image of the same company. The image is an accumulation of a company’s past and present identity. Each and every encounter we have with it (by phone, in person or through the media) alters our impression. First impressions (what psychologists call the “primacy effect”) are vital to how we see the company in the

Following are techniques that I tried, how they failed or succeeded, what works and what doesn’t and why. I show many different ways of advertising your new PC Repair Business, and what to avoid. I also show several unique types of advertising that get good results, which you may have never heard of before, but they work! There is a lot here to read, but you won’t regret learning everything that I have to show you. Don’t make the same mistake I did, with trial and error. Let me show you what works. Enjoy!

NEWSPAPER ADS

I knew quite a bit about graphic design (being a graphic designer for many years), so I would put an appetizing ad, no, in fact, a COUPON, in the local newspaper. People are always looking for a discount. And EVERYONE has computer problems. So I should just get swamped with business just off this one ad. NOPE! I got one phone call from my ad. I had placed the ad in the local newspaper (our city’s main newspaper) which went to 33,000 homes, and I had it come out on the biggest readership day: Sunday. The ad I placed was a professionally-designed Computer Tune-up ad that I had done, giving them a discount from the regular price of $69, to $49. They were saving $20! It was an incredible deal! But I only had one response. Why? What did I do wrong?

Unfortunately, I was forced to use a horrible, red border. It is HUGE! In order to get the deal I was getting for this ad, my ad had to be put in with a couple of other ads (not related to the computer business) and have an ice cream-looking coupon border around it.

The ad had all of the elements of a good coupon. It has a GREAT deal! You are saving $20 off the regular price (this is the next best thing to FREE – a dollar value of savings). They have to act now (call to action) because it is for a limited time and expires in two weeks. People are graphic in nature and the picture of the computer and the words, “Computer Help!” in the screen will identify with people having computer problems. The headline is bold and heavy, it stands out from the rest – so that you don’t have a paragraph of information that people won’t read, and it speaks directly to people having a slow computer (everyone has a slow computer). Then it goes on to explain the headline in more detail with a subhead. Plus, there is a GUARANTEE of a speed increase. You CAN’T go wrong with an ad like this, can you? Well, I did. I don’t believe that the ad is evil and doesn’t work. I believe that I had the ad where people don’t look.

Whenever you get ready to do any type of advertisement, you should test-market it, first. Whether it is an ad, a website (or page), direct marketing (such as mailers, mailed brochures or ads), etc., you should test it on different types of people to see how they will respond, and record their responses. In the case of the ad, I should have passed this ad out to several people and got their responses of the ad. I should have then placed this ad on a page with several other similar ads and got responses from different people looking at the entire page of ads, had them put down the page, and asked them to tell me what stood out. Could they remember any good deals? This would tell me if my ad would stand out in a newspaper, among other similar ads.

In my particular instance of only getting one response from my “great” ad, it was literally buried in with other ads that looked similar to mine. In fact, my ad was not even on a page with other services, but “hidden” on a series of pages that had nothing at all to do with what I was offering, or computers, or even a story about a computer… nothing! People who would be looking for my type of service were not going to look where my ad was, and that is the lesson: PUT YOUR AD WHERE YOUR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS WILL LOOK, NOT WHERE YOU GET A GOOD DEAL ON ADVERTISING ! and DO TEST MARKETING.

After my ad came out, I gave my wife the newspaper and asked her to find my ad (test marketing after the advertising came out… too little, too late). It took her TWO TIMES of going through the newspaper, page-by-page (and this is a small city newspaper) to find my ad (and she knew what to look for and what the ad looked like). So how are potential customers going to find my ad if they don’t even know that they need to look for it??? They won’t!

Think of it like this… if you want to sell motorcycle parts, put your ad in a motorcycle magazine. You have to think like the customer. A customer wants motorcycle parts, so where should they go? They start looking at places that sell motorcycles and accessories, groups that are associated with motorcycles, magazines that cater to the motorcycle crowd, message boards and websites that are all about motorcycles. You may or may not go to the newspaper and look through every page and see if someone is selling motorcycle parts. In fact, it is probably safe to say that a person looking for motorcycle parts won’t leaf through pages of articles in a newspaper, looking for motorcycle parts. They may look through the only place in the newspaper that they think might list places that sell motorcycle parts, and that would be the business section of the newspaper and/or the classifieds. So, if you were in the business of selling motorcycle parts, you would want to have an ad right where your potential customer expects to find an ad for motorcycle parts. Place the ad in those sections ONLY. Do not place it where I did (in the middle of a bunch of articles) because I got a good deal.

So, in case your eyes just rolled back in your head, here is the gist of what I just said… when placing an ad for PC Repair in your local newspaper, either place it in the Business Listing for Services in your area, or place it in the proper classified sections, where people will look for your type of service. Do a test: ask a few people you know where they would look in your local newspaper if they needed PC Repair Help. Let’s say that their computer was running extremely slow and they needed help before they pulled out the rest of their hair, where in the newspaper would they look. Ask at least 10 people. And whatever the majority is, that is where you should place the ad (no matter how much it costs). If not, you are just wasting your money. Remember to always think like your customer.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING

How to Promote Your Online Business Offline
There are a number of great ways to promote your online business offline. Combining offline advertising with your online presence will create momentum and increase your profits. There are a number of ways to promote your business offline.Generate traffic. Produce sales. Increase profits.Those words are gold to every business with a Web site. But an overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs don't ever reach their goals of gold.This is mainly because there seems to be an unwritten code of Web advertising. It states you can only be successful on the Internet if you are using online advertising methods like search engines, banner ads and buying online ad space. True, this should be a factor in any company's marketing efforts but there's an old rule of advertising you should Consider... offline.There are three main offline-advertising mediums worth investing in to drive people to your site. Print, television and radio ads are fairly inexpensive and have the power to promote your dot com presence effectively.It’s cheaper and more effective than you think.PrintNewspaper advertisingNewspaper advertising is an easy way to get your message in front of a large audience. When placing these kind of ads you want to put them in the business opportunities or work at home section of the classifieds. If you are only going to run them one day a week focus on the Sunday edition as this normally has the highest circulation. If po

iness) and have an ice cream-looking coupon border around it.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING

The Seven Deadly Sins Of IVR
The sales pitch for interactive voice response (IVR) is very compelling - being able to offer 24-hour service to customers without human intervention. However, a large number of IVR applications fail to work well. Jonty Pearce looks at seven of the greatest sins!1. No option to speak to a person The biggest trap is that IVR entices the unwary into the lure of being able to provide service to the customer with no human intervention. IVR vendors are often guilty of selling this offering. While IVR can be of great help, providing a self-service facility to regular customers, it is not the complete panacea. IVR works best in two areas - playing options to route calls to the best agent group and self-service to a closed group of frequent callers. Automating beyond this level can often be counter productive with poor customer service and less than expected take up. Even worse, is to use an IVR to answer a sales line. I never fail to be amazed at how many companies greet a sales opportunity with a pre-recorded voice!2. Poor or No hand off to an agent A frequent trap is not allowing people to connect to an agent. Cost is often the reason given for this. For example, a well-known mobile phone company publishes a number to call if you have questions with your bill. But, it does not allow the option to transfer the call to an agent to discuss the problem. When transferring to an agent the customer details should be transferred with the call. It is ba

esponses from different people looking at the entire page of ads, had them put down the page, and asked them to tell me what stood out. Could they remember any good deals? This would tell me if my ad would stand out in a newspaper, among other similar ads.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING

Importance of Online Business Tracking
Any online marketing carries with it the risk of making mistakes – small and big. Tracking provides you with information on which parts of your business campaign has been successful and which hasn’t, along with the reasons as to why it failed. As with any Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign, typically site visitors will increase, sales shoot up and everything will seem to be going well. However, tracking your PPC campaign will provide you with better visibility and insight into your website and its inherent functionality. Then it becomes very easy for you to understand how your site visitors are using the website. No matter how good the site design, what determines future sales and strategic marketing campaigns, is consumer behavior on your site. Tracking helps provide you with these statistics.What needs to be tracked on the site is largely determined by what you want to obtain from your PPC campaign. If you are selling products online, it’s natural you want more sales out of your site. With a service-based site, you want to know how many enquiries you’re getting from site visitors. An efficient tracking system can provide you with valuable information about how to refine your campaign to maximize ROI. To ensure your business goal is achieved, you need to track your PPC campaign and your site traffic behavior.Nowadays several tracker software contain free hit counters to track one or many pages of your website, weblog or homepage. In search engines you ne

t looking at places that sell motorcycles and accessories, groups that are associated with motorcycles, magazines that cater to the motorcycle crowd, message boards and websites that are all about motorcycles. You may or may not go to the newspaper and look through every page and see if someone is selling motorcycle parts. In fact, it is probably safe to say that a person looking for motorcycle parts won’t leaf through pages of articles in a newspaper, looking for motorcycle parts. They may look through the only place in the newspaper that they think might list places that sell motorcycle parts, and that would be the business section of the newspaper and/or the classifieds. So, if you were in the business of selling motorcycle parts, you would want to have an ad right where your potential customer expects to find an ad for motorcycle parts. Place the ad in those sections ONLY. Do not place it where I did (in the middle of a bunch of articles) because I got a good deal.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING

Standing Out From The Crowd By Using Color In Your Packaging
How does a small company or individual eBay seller who wants to get big one day do it? The answer is easy - they work hard to stand out from an already crowded field to have their product, service and name recognized before the others.This can be acheived several ways:First, is to simply have a better product than your competition does.Next, is to do it better and faster than the other guy.Yet another way to separate yourself from the crowd is to deliver your merchandise in a way that stands out and is remembered by the receiver.An example of this might be who's box of widgets is more likely to be remembered first at re-order time, the one that arrives in a plain brown box with clear tape or the one that arrives in a white box sealed with red, blue, green or yellow tape? Obviously the white box will be remembered because it is different from the rest and provided the net cost to the customer is relatively close, chances are the better remembered package and company will come to mind first therefore getting the next order.When it comes to gaining repeat customers, it's not always the best price that brings people back for more. You may charge a little more, but if your overall service is superior and you get name and/or product recognition, you will get quality customers coming back as oppossed to the ones only looking for the rock bottom price and who tend to complain the most as well.If your selling over the web,

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING

YELLOW PAGES ADS

A Yellow Pages ad is a good thing, but you don’t need to spend the big bucks to get the biggest, most colorful ad, with ALL of your possible services, mother’s maiden name, the history of your business, etc. on it. You need something a little more than the listing (just to stand out from the other guys a little). Your ad should list your company name, address, phone, and some services. One thing that has helped me get business over my competition is that I offer FREE Computer Pickup. People either don’t like to, or don’t know how to, unhook the web of tangled cables to their computer, for fear that they will never get them hooked back up. I offer a FREE Computer Pickup, where I come by and work on their computer right there, or I unhook it for them and take it back to my shop to work on it. And when I return, I don’t just drop it off at the front door, I go in and hook it all back up for them. This is not only a HUGE benefit of them going with me over my competition (who is standing behind a pretty glass case, waiting for business to come through the door), but also shows that I really did fix their computer and it now works and works better. It is a reassurance factor and builds credibility.

In a Yellow Pages Ad, you can get carried away by trying to do a long sales pitch, when, in fact, you can just list a few important things you do, and tell them to visit your website for the full details. This gets them to your website and there you can give them the full scoop and exactly how you can help them. Just don’t spend $100 or $500 every month to tell a story that you can do for free on a website.

Here is my Yellow Pages Ad.

I spend $50 per month on this ad:
(my logo)
•Computer Tune-Ups
•Small Business Networking
•Wireless Networking
•PC Troubleshooting & Repair
•Custom-Built Computers
•Computer Upgrades
•OnSite Support
•Microsoft-Certified Techs
•Website Design & Hosting

www.LapeerTechGroup.com
Columbiaville, MI
(810) 793-1093
FREE Computer Pickup

BROCHURES & BUSINESS CARDS

Of course, you definitely need something to leave with potential and current customers. You absolutely MUST have a brochure and business card, and NOT the peel-off or perforated card stock you get from your local office supply store, and print them off on your ink jet printer! Your brochures and business cards are sometimes the only thing that a potential customer will see that represents your company. Now, you may work out of your home, but you don’t want it to look like you do. You want to appear as if you are a HUGE computer company, capable of handling any of their computer needs. A basement business card job doesn’t say that. If you want to gain good credibility, spend a little money and get commercially-printed brochures and business cards.

You will want a good image design (designed by a professional) with raised ink on the business cards and some kind of color (no black and white business cards or brochures). If you can afford it, get matching business cards and brochures, with the brochures on a white or ivory, gloss stock (like a 70# gloss text). You don’t want it to look like you photocopied the brochures. And it is proven that by adding some color to your marketing pieces, your responses are MUCH higher, than with black and white.

And by having matching business cards and brochures (the same color stock and printing), you show your potential customers that you have it together and this isn’t some basement operation (although it might be). Appearance and perception is everything. And your marketing material represents how you appear to your customers. Don’t skip corners here; you will regret it and it will cost you more money doing it the hard way. Trust me!

If you would like to have the rest of this article, in the form of a 15-page “Marketing Techniques… What Works and What Doesn’t For a PC Repair Business”, along with accounting forms for a PC Repair Business, a PC Repair Business Website FULL of Content, Step-by-Step How-to’s and much, much more, visit http://www.LapeerTechGroup.com/businessplan.asp for all of the details.

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Schizophrenic patients suffer split personalities, characterised by withdrawal from reality and behavioural disturbances. Management needs to have very sharp and emphatic focus rather than become schizophrenic.

Are wholesale buyers and retail customers really different? Frankly, there are two answers to this question: yes and no. Yes, because they are different from the buyers and those selling to buyers' point of view and no, because the principles that apply are the same for both types of buying.

A legally compliant IT department must address several areas of concern, such as software license compliance, the appropriate use of the Internet and e-mail, data protection, privacy and more. In the article I provide a list of areas that are considered crucial when writing IT policies.

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