Making Money Without Being Perfect

Writen by Shawn Casey

Making Money Online Without Being Perfect (or Spending A Fortune!)

I've always been fascinated that you can make money in business without being perfect. Like horseshoes, just being close can make you a big winner.

I wish they had taught me this in a business class. I would have succeeded sooner. I've learned this from long experience.

I understand now that taking action makes me money. Trying to be perfect just makes me frustrated!

I think new people are often intimidated as they start a business, especially an Internet business. They're trying to learn everything and struggling to understand mountains of information. In the face of all that, it's easy to be overwhelmed and never really get started.

After all, if you can't understand everything and do a perfect job, you probably  shouldn't get started at all, right? (Sure... just give up on the idea of your own home based business and financial freedom and independence!)

Wrong! Very, very wrong.

The old saying, as I'm sure you've heard, goes like this: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." The implication is that you should not attempt anything unless you can do it perfectly.

I am adamantly opposed to this idea. First, because I know there's a ton of things I do that are less than perfect, but are important to me anyway.

Some I do for pleasure - like playing golf. I'm nowhere close to perfect, but I enjoy the game.

Others I do for business - many of these pursuits don't work perfectly or, sometimes, even well. But, most of them make me money in spite of the imperfections.

My second objection is that the idea of never attempting anything unless we'll achieve perfection simply boils down to never attempting much of anything at all. Truly, achieving perfection in any one pursuit is the achievement of a lifetime.

One of the many reasons I love doing business on the Internet is the huge margin for error that exists. I can make a lot of mistakes and still profit. Your overhead (fixed costs) to be in business online is a $100 or less per month including your web hosting, merchant fees, etc.

To break even, we just have to make back that $100. Of course, all the money above the $100 mark is profit that goes in our pockets.

When we advertise our business, we won't always get it right the first or second time. But, even a bad ad will bring in some money. If you spend $100 to run an ad, you'll rarely lose the entire $100 unless you have a horrible ad being run to a completely incorrect list. A marginal ad will usually make you a profit.

A good ad will bring you huge profits. A great ad will bring you riches.

We all have to work to refine the good ads, but we get to make money even when we are testing and refining.

To make money, we don't need to be perfect. We just need to be taking consistent action to build our businesses.

Yours in success,

Shawn M. Casey

Internet Millionaire Shawn Casey's "Mining Gold On the Internet" is one of the best selling Internet books with over 85,000 copies sold. In "Mining Gold", Shawn reveals the same step-by-step strategies he uses to create millions in Internet sales => http://www.ipcgold.com/ad/100/CD3839  Benefit from Shawn's 7 years of Internet experience and learn from someone who has actually made millions online.

How To Double Your Business In 2006 Part Ii

Writen by RJ Baxter

In part one of this article, we talked about the importance of database management in the success of your business. If you haven't already started your database, it is absolutely critical that you go back to part one of this article and get started on your database before moving on to part II. This essential business strategy is the foundation for your goal of doubling your business in 2006.

Now that you have your database underway, it's time for me to reveal five more strategies that I used to double my business in 2004 and more than double my business in 2005. Let's get started.

Multiple sources of business

Part one of this article ended with one of the most difficult questions that every business faces: Where will you get the prospects to start building your database?

Depending on your business, it should not be a difficult task to brainstorm 10 different ways in which you could come into contact with potential prospects. No matter what your business is, here are a few sources for prospects to get the gears in your brain going: Friends and relatives, hobbies, church, internet or website promotion, writing articles for the newspaper or local newsletters, aligning with business partners who could refer their clients to you, door to door, purchasing lists, direct mail, leads groups, volunteering, and referrals from past clients.

Some of these methods may not be your cup of tea, but there should at least be a few that seem like something you can get your arms around.

One of the critical mistakes a failing business makes is to rely on only one source of business for generating prospects. I made this mistake early in my career by focusing completely on the internet. The problem was that if the internet didn't produce a good crop of prospects one month, I would go through the inevitable up and down roller-coaster ride that many business people experience.

The secret to an ever-growing and consistent business is to choose four or five sources of business that can consistently, month in and month out, funnel quality prospects in your direction.

Why four or five you ask? The reason is that if you diversify into several sources, if one is not productive one month, the others will still provide you with quality, fresh prospects. Instead of the up and down roller-coaster, you will instead be on a steady upward sales trend that will continue to grow over time.

So now that you are producing quality prospects, what do you do with them? That goes into the next strategy:

Consistent follow up

I operate under the philosophy of "never give up on a prospect." I have systems in place to consistently and continuously follow up with prospects, clients, and business partners literally forever. Most of these systems are on auto-pilot and actually take very little of my personal attention on a day-to-day basis.

If you start operating with this follow-up philosophy in mind, and you are continuously cramming your sales funnel full of quality prospects, eventually they will start coming out the other end at a faster and faster rate. Here is an example of a simple follow up system that you could use for your prospects:

Once per month: informational email (article, ezine) Every two months: email hello (conversational, "How are you doing and can I help you?") Phone call every 3 months Snail mail newsletter every 3 months (alternate with phone call)

Using this approach, you are hitting the prospect 26 times per year with different forms of media on a consistent basis. It is important that you use email, regular mail, phone, and any other method you can think of to stay in touch as not all people respond to the same types of contact. It is not a miracle that when it comes time to buy, they will think of you first.

And what makes this all possible? Your bullet-proof database system, of course.

Hard work

There is no substitute for this basic strategy. Work hard and you will see results. If you find it difficult to work a long day, try getting to work just a half hour earlier every day, and leaving a half hour later. That will add 5 hours to your week which you can use to generate more business.

Ask for Referrals

Most of your clients, if you are doing an outstanding job, would gladly refer a friend, family member, or co-worker to you, but many times they do not even think of it unless you mention it. Don't be shy after you have done a good job for a client, to directly ask them for a referral, you deserve it.

Be specific and ask for a referral from a specific group within your client's circle of influence. For example, ask them if they have a co-worker who could use your services, or ask for a referral of a friend from their church if you know they are active in church. This helps your client focus in on a manageable segment of their circle of influence so they can more easily think of a particular person who could use your service.

Be Ethical

This last business building strategy seems obvious, but it has to be mentioned. You absolutely must do business in an ethical, honest manner, with the best interests of your client in mind at all times.

Run your business with a long term philosophy of repeat clients and word-of-mouth advertising in mind. If you are ethical, people sense it and will gravitate to you and trust you. With a loyal base of clients, you will eventually build a solid business that will withstand the test of time and provide you with a long term, rewarding career.

Triple Your Business in 2006?

It is my sincere desire that these strategies will help you achieve the kind of success I have had the past two years. My personal goal is to no less than triple my business in 2006, and after two years of seeing these systems develop, this goal seems very attainable. If you would like one-on-one coaching on more specific strategies I have used, please consider me a resource and feel free to contact me. Good luck in 2006!

RJ Baxter has been a mortgage consultant for four years. RJ utilizes his teaching background by educating consumers and advocating ethical business practices in the mortgage industry. RJ has received several awards for excellence and loan volume and has consistently ranked in the top ten among over 400 loan consultants at PrimeLending. For more articles like this, or to read more about RJ or PrimeLending, please visit http://www.rjbaxter.com/signup.asp

Determine Your Popularity On The Web

Writen by Craig Neidel

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" I'm going to bet that it's not you, um I mean, not your website. With all of the new websites popping up all over the place how do you know where you rank? How popular is your site compared to the next one?

In most cases it's safe to say that we all want our website to be popular. Maybe it means our business will be more profitable or maybe it's just good for the ego. Now there is a website that ranks the popularity of your website. The website is http://www.alexa.com.

Alexa.com is a blast to use and is one of those websites that is hard to leave. For starters, Alexa.com lists the most popular websites starting from the #1 position. It also lists the "Movers And Shakers", which are websites that are rapidly gaining or loosing popularity on the web. Alexa.com is a great tool for discovering new websites to visit because you can see where everybody else is going. It's fun, informative, and can be a good tool for comparing your website to the competition.

So how does Alexa.com work? In 1997 Alexa.com created a tool bar that tracked which websites people visited on the web. The tool bar was incorporated into early versions of NetScape and Internet Explorer. Today there are over 10 million Internet users who browse the Internet while using some form of the Alexa.com tool bar. These users are constantly generating statistics about their browsing habits. Alexa.com uses the data to create reports that outline the popularity of websites on the Internet.

So the next time you want to see how popular your website is, visit Alexa.com. Simply type in your website's address (www.yoursite.com) into the "search the web" box and press go. It will send you to a page full of statistics showing you how popular your website is right now. Just remember that being popular isn't the only important thing in life. There are good looks, money, and Monday Night Football too.

About The Author Craig Neidel has worked for NetSource Communications Inc. for 6 years and has experience in web development, e-commerce solutions and web marketing. NetSource Communications creates custom e-commerce solutions and web applications. http://www.ntsource.com.

Internet Disregarded By Most Small Businesses

Writen by Henry Vowels

The small business majority is standing on the sidelines as internet growth rushes by. Most small business owners have not engaged a business web hosting company to provide them an online presence, even though the internet has reached a record growth rate.

The internet has expanded more in 2005, than any year in history. A Netcraft survey reported in October 2005, that more web sites were added to the internet in 2005 than ever before, even more than the original big boom of the year 2000. The survey was conducted Jan. through Sept. 2005. The growth out reached the entire year of 2000 by 1.5 million sites.1

The internet is growing faster than ever before yet it was estimated in early 2005 sixty to sixty-five percent of small businesses did not have a web site.2 In other words nearly two businesses in three provide no manifestation of the business on the web. There is no avenue for an interested party online to access information directly from nearly two thirds of the businesses in the United States!

Why would a major portion of small businesses not be a part of such a visible phenomenon as the internet? The question has many answers, but for purposes here the one following will be addressed. Many business owners have not fully realized how influential the internet could and will be on their particular business.

This series of articles is addressed to the people in charge of those businesses.

Supply the Need or Lose!

Business in its simplest form is still "find a need and fill it". Give the customers what they want. The undeniable fact is the internet is changing what customers want and need from companies they do business with. Several aspects will be considered concerning this subject, but here is a personal example that encapsulates the main point.

Ten months ago I started banking online. This was a totally new experience though after my initial apprehension I began to be at ease with the service. Now I am used to it. It has simplified the bill paying process and saves me time. I wouldn't be a customer of a bank that doesn't offer this service. I have been a banking customer for over thirty-five years and in only ten months I have drastically altered my criteria for banking service.

A second factor is that now I also want the businesses I pay monthly to be accessible through online banking, so I don't have to write them a check. My demands as a customer have changed just over these last months to the point that I would switch to a new company if the original one doesn't meet my current needs. The internet has directly affected the expectations I have as a customer.

Businesses must be willing to change and meet such customer requirements or suffer attrition. Just as time marches on and waits for no man, so does the internet and waits for no business. The internet is changing the way we live, and more to the point, it is changing the way business is conducted.

These realities are nothing new. Many business owners will find them redundant. Still almost two of three businesses do not have a company website. As was mentioned above the premise here is that these business owners have not personalized the effects the internet is having on their individual situation. These issues haven't hit home yet.

The purpose of this article and others to come is to shed light on how the internet has, is, and will affect small business. The hope is to connect those who do not have a web presence with information revealing business benefits the internet can provide. Conversely there will be advantages derived from exploring the affects of not engaging the internet.

Business owners are urged to keep an open mind and seriously consider the future role the internet will play in our economy and more specifically the role it is playing and will play in their business. The articles to follow will highlight areas where the internet can be beneficial. Weigh the gravity of this phenomenon. Serious introspection is suggested. The stakes are too high to be ignored.

1
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/10/04/october_2005_web_server_survey.html

2
http://www.access-ecom.info/article.cfm?id=27&xid=MN

Author: Henry Vowels Management Coordinator E-Insites.com http://e-insites.com Henry Vowels has a B.S. in Business and has been a small business owner for over 25 years and more recently became involved in the web hosting industry.

Hipaa Compliance In A Technical World

Writen by Brandi Cummings

The way people do business today relies more and more on internet connections and "virtual" phone lines. This presents a problem for those in the medical industry and those required by the Department of Health and Human Services to follow the guidelines of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Those companies that deal with Personal Health Information (PHI) want to make sure that they are able to keep up with technology, and all the convenience and efficiency that it has to offer, yet at the same time ensure that the technology does not put their clients' confidential information at risk. One such technology that those in the medical industry are finding numerous benefits to is virtual fax.

The benefits of virtual fax can be summed up in one word: efficiency. With a virtual fax there is no longer any need to go back and forth from the fax machine for sending or receiving faxes. All faxes can come into an email address or internet control panel and faxes can be sent right from the desktop as well. Since the faxes are digital, it is possible to clean up any paper trail and keep a digital file of all important correspondence. Another added benefit is the ability to rid the office of the bulky fax machine with all of the maintenance and upkeep that goes along with it. While it is easy to see how any office can benefit from the use of virtual fax, it may not be as obvious as to how they can do so and still stay HIPAA compliant.

There are four categories of security requirements under HIPAA and it is the consumer's responsibility, according to the HIPAA regulations, to examine the technology employed by a virtual fax provider and determine how to use it in a compliant manner. Here are some things to look for in a virtual fax provider that help medical providers maintain compliance.

1. Administrative Procedures
   A virtual fax provider should have documented, formal practices to protect data and limit access to files. Most virtual fax providers will have policies that allow access to fax messages for the purpose of maintenance, customer service, repair, and backup, or in response to legal inquiries or warrants that legally force the disclosure of the messages or documents from courts or government agencies.
   
2. Physical Safeguards
   A virtual fax provider should be able to protect data from fire, other natural and environmental hazards and intrusion. A provider should have measures in place that include an industry standard fire safety system, off-site backups, and industry standard security systems to protect Personal Health Information from physical vulnerabilities.
   
3. Technical Security Services
   A virtual fax provider should have measures in place to protect information and control individual access to information. There are usually 3 ways to access documents in a virtual fax system and each one should have their own independent security measures.
   
   
• Access to a virtual fax system by phone should be restricted with PIN access.
  
• Email delivery of virtual fax messages should be sent using encryption technology. An added security feature is the ability to have the email delivery of fax documents configured for a ZIP format with password/encryption.
  
• Virtual fax access over the internet should also be PIN protected as well as be secured by industry standard protocols and encryption algorithms. An added security feature would be that the internet portal's identity be verified by an SSL certificate.
  
  
4. Technical Security Mechanisms
   A virtual fax provider should be able to guard against unauthorized access or loss of data over the communications network. Data storage systems should implement industry standard fault tolerant measures to prevent data loss due to storage media failure. Databases and storage systems should be protected by battery backup technology to protect against potential data loss due to power failures. In addition, servers should use a measure comparable to FreeBSD UNIX to prevent unauthorized access and data security compromise.

For a medical provider in a technical world it can be difficult to keep up with all the current technology and still be sure to follow all the guidelines they are subject to. While ultimately it is the consumer's responsibility to determine whether or not a virtual fax provider allows them to maintain HIPAA compliance, many providers already have security measures in place that can help them stay within the guidelines they are subject to.

Brandi Cummings, an expert in the field of virtual telecommunications, recommends checking out Fax800.com (www.fax800.com), a leading provider of internet fax technology for small businesses.

The Wonder Down Under Unusual Exports

Writen by Cheryl Lockhart

My husband and I attended the Edmonton Home Renovation Show in January (we just bought a new home) and spent some time at a booth with low volume flush toilets. We try to do our part for the environment and were considering a model that has two flush options.

I was reading the company literature and noticed that these toilets, "The Wonder from Down Under" were manufactured in Australia. I checked with the salesman and yes indeed, they are imported into Canada all the way from Brisbane. The model with a plastic tank is less expensive, and more popular, but they also have a traditional ceramic model, in addition to a variety of bathroom sinks.

Just imagine - these heavy, bulky toilets are manufactured in Australia, shipped across the Pacific Ocean and over the Rocky Mountains, then sold directly to a target market almost halfway around the world!

Re-thinking your product

A lot of companies assume that their product is too heavy, too bulky or too large to be appropriate for export. Well, I challenge you to re-think that notion. There are novel ways of packing that can cut down on bulk (think IKEA furniture) and customers are willing to absorb the extra cost of shipping for a product that they value. That is how we felt about this bulky, heavy toilet. Of course, there is always the option of licensing your technology or establishing a joint-venture, but that's material for another article.

Carving a niche

I've been working in Bali a lot lately and am always astounded by the number of huge, heavy stone carvings (Buddhas are very popular) that tourists purchase and then send home. A large shipping and cargo industry has evolved on the island, in large part catering to the tourists and wholesalers that visit the island purchasing local handicrafts. I've often thought it would be cheaper to pay the artisan's plane ticket to come to your home and custom carve local stone!

In Egypt, I've eaten Baskin Robbins ice cream, shipped all the way from British Columbia, where it was manufactured. Imagine the logistics involved in keeping Mint Chocolate Chip (my favourite) frozen while trucking it from the warehouse to the retail shop in Cairo on a 35C day. There aren't a lot of refrigerated trucks in Egypt! Though this is a difficult item to ship to a hot part of the world, Canadian manufacturers were able to export $100,000 worth of ice cream to Egypt in 2002.

The most unusual item I've seen exported lately?

A disposable pee funnel, manufactured in Northern Europe, which allows women to urinate while standing. I am not kidding. I won't get into the details of how it works, but essentially it is just a piece of waxed cardboard that a woman can carry in her purse. While it is not bulky or heavy, it's another one of those items that most people would never imagine could find an export market. Well, it did - on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton.

Copyright© 2005.

Cheryl Lockhart of International Strategies Ltd. assists small- to medium-sized Canadian and foreign enterprises navigate the complexities of global business development. Services include international project identification and management, market research and analysis and foreign partner development. To learn more about exporting and gain access to more FREE e-zines, visit her web site http://www.intl-strategies.com

I Dont Need A Websitedo I

Writen by Janice D. Byer

Once upon a time, in a small home office, a busy entrepreneur wondered why he wasn't quite as busy as he would like to be. "I market my business as much as possible", said the entrepreneur, who has implemented many marketing procedures while running his business.

Our entrepreneur, we'll call him Bob, runs a computer repair business. His services allow him to provide his clients with his expert advise, either in their offices, by email, or on the phone. Because of this, Bob has a large potential market, both locally and internationally.

Bob has a great brochure, filled with all his features and benefits; he attends as many networking events as he can; he advertises in the local newspapers; and he has a huge ad in the yellow pages. But, Bob doesn't have a website. Why?

"I don't need a website, do I?" asks Bob. "I do everything else possible to market my business and I also get many customers by referrals. Why would I need a website?"

Glad you asked Bob! Let's see if we can't outline some of the benefits of having a website… both locally and internationally…

Your website is a live brochure that is available for anyone to see from anywhere, no matter if they are 5 miles away or 5000 miles away.

For potential local clients, they may first find your company in the yellow pages but, if they are looking for more information about you and the services you offer, the Internet is one of the first places they will look to do their research.

Many potential long distance clients may be in different time zones or would rather not make a long distance call. Because of these factors, the Internet is where they would go for more information. Having a website enables your information to be available anytime and, by including your email address on your site, they have a cheaper and more convenient of contacting you.

Your website allows you to create and show much more of your information than a print ad or brochure. The more information you provide, the more likely a potential client will be to buy from you as they can see everything they need to know. You can even include a little something extra, such as tips and resources, to help your clients see your dedication to providing topnotch customer service.

Your website also allows you to be more creative in how your present your information than with something that is in print. You can add bells and whistles (but not too many) that show that can be creative in your efforts.

Many people use the Internet to find out more information about products or services that they are in need of. Your website is a means of offering information to those who may be researching online before buying. If you don't have a website, how are they going to even get a chance to see what you have to offer?

In the same respect, if a potential client has heard about you but can't find your business card, they may turn to the Internet to try and locate your contact information or to learn more about you.

Your website opens the door to a larger market of prospective clients. Even if your service is normally only preformed locally, there is always the potential to expand. And, you are more likely to increase your local client base if your website is available for them to research your service.

Even if you cater to only a specific clientele, your website can be a place for them to visit or where they can point others to who they are referring to you.

Your website is the one piece of marketing material that is easy to change without a huge cost. So, if you have a special event coming up or you want to include more information on a certain service, you simply have your web designer make the change. And, almost instantly, your information is fresh and visible, without the costs of re-printing new marketing material.

We could go on and on about the benefits of having a website. In short, having a website is the 'way to go' these days and, if your company does not have a website, are you losing customers? Are they finding your competition when using the Internet but not you? Are they wondering why you do not have a website when all of your competition does?

Your website is your company's 24 hour advertising medium. Why wouldn't you consider having one? Bob?

About The Author Janice Byer is a certified Master Virtual Assistant and owner of Docu-Type Administrative & Web Design Services (http://www.docutype.net). See this and other articles on her website. jbyer@docutype.net

Online Business Broker Stress Free Help Selling Your Business

Writen by Jeff Smith

You've spent several months, perhaps years, putting everything you have into building a thriving, high-demand online business and now you have decided to sell your baby.

Thousands of businesses change hands everyday, oddly enough the channels you can use to get maximum price and exposure for your online business are extremely limited.

You have a few options:

1. Ebay. It's perhaps the biggest venue for listing and finding new businesses forsale, but you have to be concerned over the quality of sites listed on eBay. For every quality site listed there are at least 100 crappy, low-priced, cookie-cutter sites that can put the wrong impression in the minds of your prospects.

2. Classified pay-per-listing sites. The leading online business listing site is http://www.buysellwebsites.com run by experienced professional Nelson Bates. This is a super service for sites under $50,000 with proven results and proven demand. A great technique for lower-priced sites, but perhaps not the right option for the site you want to get maximum exposure and price for.

3. Experienced and Focused Business Broker. You've invested heavily in your online business. A professional can help you through the sometimes complex tasks of placing a price on your business, getting it in front of the "right" buyers, helping to separate the tire kickers from serious buyers and take your deal to an optimal close.

Online business brokers can...

1. Get more money for your site

2. Get your site exposed to buyers with money

3. Reduce your stress by only putting you in touch with serious buyers

4. Handling the paperwork and forms associated with securely selling your high-value online business

5. Handling the uncomfortable "selling" role for you - you just decide which deal to accept

6. Let you move on to other things, confident that your online business is being represented by the best

7. Help you through an emotional process - they will be your rock through the entire process

8. Give you the benefit of experience closing many deals, something most sellers do not have

9. Open up new markets and opportunities you may not have even thought of yet

10. Help you wade through legal, tax and regulatory issues that can be quite intimidating.

What To Look For In An Online Business Broker

Finding a great business broker can make a massive difference to the success of selling your online business, getting the value you deserve.

Here are 4 characteristics to watch out for:

1. Experience with selling businesses. This one tops the list. Skillful business brokers have spent years mastering the art of negotiation and undersatnding the market. If you are selling an online business, then it is even more important that you find a specialized online business broker, someone who understands getting maximum price for internet-based businesses.

2. Proven Reputation. You want someone who has a rock-solid reputation with years of experience helping sell businesses. The ideal online business broker will have sold hundreds of online businesses already and can point out some specific examples.

3. Great Communicator. Selling your business can be a lengthy and detailed process, in order to get the most out of your online business broker, they need to be a great communicator - it's absolutely necessary.

4. Must Ensure Your Confidentiality. You can't afford to have your customers, partners and competitors know that you are about to sell your business. Look for a broker that guarantees confidentiality using appropriate protection forms every step of the way.

5. Specialize. Focus on a business broker that understands your type of business. Just as you wouldn't go to foot specialist about your stomach problem, you want to make sure you find a broker that specializes in online business.

Finally, you can take the stress out of selling your online business by using an experienced, professional online business broker. Don't leave the sale of your business to chance, consider consulting your very own online business broker today.

About The Author Jeff Smith Thinking About Selling Your Online Business? Take the Stress Out of Reaching 1000's of Online Buyers. Find Out What You May NOT Know About Selling Your Business Right Here: http://www.webrokerwebsites.com

Credit Cards For Small Business

Writen by Jeremy Zongker

When you decide to start a small business, you find out pretty quickly that it takes more than skills and dedication in your respective area of work. Besides being good at what you want to do, you also need to known your accounting and financing issues, no matter how annoying and boring these may be. And the credit card problem for small businesses needs careful handling, just like that of a regular, personal credit card.

Choosing the right type of credit card is vital for the success of a small business. Even if you don't have access to a corporate credit card, a small business card can be a major tool on the path to success. When you apply for a small business credit card, lenders will analyze your request from a variety of points of views. While their evaluation of the risk may vary according to various local factors, they will all take into account the "five Cs": capital, capacity to make the payments, collateral, conditions and character.

Capital, meaning your personal investment in the business, outlines not only the size of the business, but also how much risk you are willing to take. Balance risks carefully - too much means you will be rated reckless, too little, and the lenders may think you are not serious about this. The capacity to repay the loan is, of course, critical for the lender and will be carefully analyzed. The collateral or the guarantees will show that you have a backup plan for returning the loan, in case things go wrong. The conditions represent the general situation in your geographical area and your respective line of business - mostly things that you cannot control (but you can make them look better in carefully planned business plan). Last but not least, character is the impression you make on the lenders - how trustworthy and business-oriented you appear to them.

If you take all these into account, your application is more likely to be successful right from the start. Of course, you also need to consider, carefully, which type of business card suits your needs.

Many small businesses rely on cash flow to pay for suppliers or contractors, because they need to purchase materials and services before their own clients pay up. You need to calculate the difference between the date when you purchase the materials and the date when the clients pay you back. If this is shorter than 30 days, go for a card that doesn't charge you interest for the respective period. If it is two, three months or longer, go for a low interest card.

Also, you should think of how often you will have to travel for business-related purposes, and how a special type of credit card can help you with this, or how you will handle unprepared emergency situations that hustle small businesses constantly.

Some of the offers for credit cards for small business include Blue for Business Card - no annual fee, 0% intro APR for the first 9 months, credit line of up to $50,000 or Blue Cash for Business Credit Card - up to 5% cash rebate, no annual fee, 0% APR for up to 15 months. Advanta Platinum with Rewards, featuring cash back bonus, offers 0% intro APR for balance transfers, up to 50,000 credit line and various types of rewards for the things you buy most often (gas, office supplies and so on), bonus miles or cash back.

The CitiBusiness card has 0% APR for purchases for the first 6 months, no annual fee, a generous credit line and additional cards for the employees, with a credit limit set by you. The Platinum Business Credit Card from American Express has no annual fee and 0% APR for the first nine months on purchases and balance transfers.

Other options include Business Green Rewards Cash - no fees for the first year and no pre-set spending limit, and the Business Cash Rebate from OPEN: the Small Business Network, with up to 5% cash rebate, no annual fee, 0% APR for the first six months, no limit for cash back and no minimum spending requirements.

This article has been provided courtesy of Creditor Web. Creditor Web offers great credit card articles available for reprint and other tools to help you search and compare credit card offers.

Finding And Securing A Sponsor For Your Meeting Or Event

Writen by Yvon Douran

A good amount of time and effort will be required to secure appropriate sponsorship for your meeting or corporate event. This being the case, it is important to start your planning process early. Beginning this process as much as 18 months in advance of a planned meeting date is not unrealistic. You may want to consider aligning potential sponsorships with your corporate vision, values, strategy, brand promise and reputation.

Where to look for sponsorship - Your strongest prospects are going to be the people you do business with. When you are ready to make contact do so by going through the person who manages your vendor account. Once they have put you in touch with the person within their organization to approach, focus first on building a relationship. Become a friend before asking for funding. Have a plan in place for getting to know your prospective sponsor. In this plan you should clearly state what you have to offer, how the sponsorship will be implemented and what is in it for the sponsor.

There are three key areas to focus on when evaluating your sponsorship. The first area is being in agreement on all aspects of the sponsorship. The second area is implementing the sponsorship and the third and final area is measuring satisfaction and performance.

Reaching Agreement

Get to know your potential sponsor. Develop an understanding of your prospective sponsor's business goals and primary audience – what they are looking for. All partners involved should be clear about objectives, roles and expectations. A contract should be drawn up allowing ample time to deliver on all promises. Focus your efforts on desired outcomes and event audience needs and benefits.

Implementation

Develop an audience-centric sponsorship policy with your sponsor's input. Develop an action plan for fulfilling all obligations. Follow a clearly defined risk management policy. Encourage your sponsor to work closely with your event organizing committee. Offer visibility in advertisements, printed material and press releases. Incorporate your sponsor's logo into promotional material to their satisfaction Look for ways to leverage your sponsor's name and association with your organization. Provide your sponsor with regular updates. Spend quality time with your sponsor.

Measurement

Measure what matters most to your sponsor and their key stakeholders. Ask your sponsor if they were pleased with the value they received. Thank your sponsor both personally and publicly (at the event) for their contribution. Produce a summary report, measuring and evaluating results against plan. Share feedback from attendees, employees and customers. Recognize important individual and team contributions.

When managed well a fully integrated corporate sponsorship can be beneficial to all parties involved.

Yvon Douran is President of Keynote Resource. Your bureau partner in the speaking business, representing world class keynote business speakers, trainers and consultants at http://www.keynoteresource.com

Pos Scanners

Writen by Steve Valentino

Looking for a way of speeding up the check out process in your supermarket? Point of sale, or POS, scanners will help you a long way. Having barcode or label scanners will take the product and price information and send it directly to the computer and take the money from the customer. These scanners are not just useful in a supermarket or a restaurant, but are also very popular in libraries and companies where they are used to read employee or book information.

An important type of barcode scanner is one that uses CCD technology. This technology was widely used in many retail outlets and involves scanning by pressing the scanner on the barcode to feed information into the computer. But its inability to read from round surfaces has resulted in the development of laser-operated scanners, which pick up barcodes from the surface of products even from a distance. With the advent of omni-directional laser scanners, more and more dealers are opting for those barcode readers that send out laser beams in different directions and pick up the barcodes on the products in a matter of seconds.

A large array of barcode readers is available in the market; there are also different connections like USB, Bluetooth, cordless, and keyboard wedge readers. Handheld scanners and wireless scanners have increased efficiency levels at point of sale to a large extent, and customers no longer have to queue up for many minutes while the cashier checks out their items one by one and comes up with the bill in a long and laborious process. The latest barcode scanners are even extremely cost-effective in that they don't need any software; they simply need to be plugged in to read barcodes and labels.

Metrologic, Datalogic, and Symbol are some of the major manufacturers for barcode scanners wireless barcode readers. Each of these companies has more than a dozen varieties of scanners that are tailored to the needs of supermarkets, industries, retail outlets, restaurants, and libraries for small-scale and large-scale businesses.

POS provides detailed information on POS, POS Software, POS Systems, Restaurant POS and more. POS is affiliated with Metal Store Fixtures.

The Master Plan For Your Resell Rights Part 1

Writen by Gerald Hardie

When putting together a strategy for your Resell Rights business plan, ask yourself the following questions and answer them well so you can have a better chance of making your plan succeed!

1.What hungry niche market should I cater to?

Be sure to target an existing niche with a huge demand that people are willing to pay for. If you are targeting kids, for instance, the chances of kids under 18 having their own credit cards are practically zero, and not every kid can convince his or her parents to use their credit cards, too, right? So think about who your target market is upfront.

Take residual income into consideration as well when choosing your niche. What membership site or service that people are willing to subscribe to monthly?

2.How to write and architect your Information Product?

Good writing is a skill I trust you already have as an information product author. If not there are hundreds of ghostwriter you can find to write for you. However, you must be able to strategically place your advertisements and recommendations in the form of your own link or affiliate IDs in some places of your Ebook or Report – not too little and not too many, either. 3.How to architect your Resell Rights terms and conditions?

This is one of the most crucial success factors in your Resell Rights plan. A poorly elaborated and less-restricted terms and conditions can be responsible for foiling your plans to residual riches. Also, the other half of the success factor is what you really do when a reseller breaks the rule and you have found out.

4.How much to price your product?

Depending on the quality and amount of information you dispense in your information product, you must price your product reasonably as this is another critical success factor.

Tip: Amount figures with the "7" at the end is normally attractive in the Internet Marketplace thus makes the digital product in the "hot spot". Examples: $27, $37, $47, $67, $97, $167, $197, $247, etc. But real figure comes from testing prices as you may find your conversion rate still is good at a higher price. Make sure you tell your resellers who have brought resell rights from you know what the optimal price is.

5.What kind of Profit Centers do you want to build into your product?

It would not make any sense selling your Information Product with Resell Rights if your product does not have any affiliate IDs which are at least 2-tier. However, you can choose to sell your Info product together with its Resell Rights or separately, which would obviously cost your reseller more if he is to acquire the Resell Rights to your product.

Tip: Sell your Information Product together with its Resell Rights, whether it is Basic or Master Resell Rights. You want to make your product easily available for your resellers to resell thus encouraging viral marketing without any effort on your part. Quite simply, your efforts are one-off and they get paid residually if done right.

Gerald Hardie is a Marketing Consultant. He has many websites including http://www.nichereseller.com Get your Free Blueprint you can use to start making money with resell rights! It is a laid out step by step plan that will work if you take action and put it to work. Simple low cost, no cost way to profit from resell rights.

Nondisclosure Agreements

Writen by Kenny Love

Ever heard of non-disclosure agreements? Perhaps, you have heard them referred to as confidentiality agreements, or a similar term. In either case, how familiar are you with them?

Are you aware that if you are in a specific business, a non-disclosure agreement can spell the difference between the proverbial life and death of your business, particularly, if your business has employees, contractors or interns?

So, what are non-disclosure agreements?

Non-disclosure agreements are defined as contracts that restrict the disclosure of confidential information or proprietary knowledge under specific circumstances. In other words, a prospective employee or partner agrees to not reveal certain internal trade secrets in exchange for compensation or other benefits received.

Generally, the term requires a non-disclosure period to cover the time of employment or partnership, with the inclusion of an additional one to five years after the employee's termination, retirement, or a partnership resolution.

My opinion is that there are some levels within most businesses that should incorporate some form of non-disclosure agreement, although most businesses don't do so. This is especially true, whereby, internal creativity is the proverbial life source of the company.

Examples of businesses requiring non-disclosure agreements range from engineering firms to restaurants. And, speaking of restaurants specifically, allow me to iterate on two personal experiences.

One acquaintance of mine, who owns a small Mexican food court that is very popular for its unique taste in our area, experienced somewhat of a negative impact of not having a non-disclosure agreement.

After working for him only a few years, one of his employees informed him that she would be leaving in order to take some much needed rest and time off.

However, after only a few weeks, he learned that she had opened a similar food court on the opposite side of town. Fortunately for him, he has a solid clientele from his years of operation combined with high quality food.

However, having a non-disclosure agreement would have ensured that this new competition, slight as it may be, would not exist without some degree of legal repercussion and/or financial obligation on her behalf.

Another acquaintance recently opened a bakery and deli, with 100% of her items being homemade. Naturally, this particular food eatery carries a special sentiment with its clients since much of our food that is purchased today is manufactured, frozen, then simply re-heated.

I advised her that, since her food items are homemade, and that her cooks are required to have access to and learn her recipes, she should immediately require each employee to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

And, as a result of her doing so, fortunately, she will not suffer the same fate as my other acquaintance in competition.

Incorporating non-disclosure agreements is not so much about trust, or the lack of, as it is about protecting your business and its related assets. So, as a vested owner or partner, you should not feel any degree of guilt for their inclusion.

For more information on non-disclosure agreements, simply type the phrase, "non-disclosure agreements," into the Google.com search engine.

_____________________________________________________

Editor's Note: Kenny Love is involved in the marketing, promotion and publicity aspects of several businesses and related products. One such product is available at HN.

Timber Exploitation In Cameroon

Writen by Ashu Felix Tambong

The law n° 94-01 of January 20 1994 door system of the forests, wildlife and fishing foresaw in his item 71(1) the stop of the exportation of timber to the end of five years, the objective being to favor the economical development of Cameroon while creating value added by the local transformation of a first matter.

Carrying research through the Cameroonian ministry of the environment and forests (MINEF), a study on the industrialisation of the system drinks to the Cameroon between 1994 and 1998. This study was realized by the CERNA, the economy center industrial of the school of the Paris expressions, and was presented to the administrations, to the silent partners and to the economical operators June 11 1999.

The study, foreseen by the item 71(4) law n° 94-01 of January 20 1994, had for ambition to erect a state of the precise places of the body of the Cameroonian factories of first transformation of wood and of their evolution since five years.

Thus, an exhaustive investigation concerned the 87 inventoried factories to Cameroon, completed by discussions with the general directions of the businesses to Cameroon and, if need be, corporations mothers in Europe. The increase of the transformation capacities since 1993-94 In five years, 28 new factories were constructed for a transformation capacity of 1,15 millions of m3 and an investment of 34 billion FCFA. In addition, 9 of the 38 factories existing in 1993-94 were the object of buybacks with modernization (capacity increase of 320 000 m3) for a total amount, investment understand, of 5 billion FCFA.

Thus, in five years, the transformation capacity has more than doubled, passing of 1,20 to 2,67 millions of m3, and surpasses henceforth the one of Ivory Coast from my research carried.

The investors in the construction of new factories or the buyback of factories principally existing was done it three categories of investors:

ten exploiting forest that had not any factories in 1994;

nine exploiting forest that already transformed before 1994;

Nine foreign transformers that did not be present to the Cameroon before 1994.

But one notes also it arrived among the new investors of six Cameroonian businessmen (of which the origin trade is not the forest exploitation) : this point deserves to be underlined for the one of the objectives of the political forest one Cameroon is exactly to favor the promotion of the national contractors (SME).

The type of the built factories

The study made obvious the following characteristics:

a climbed in power of the factories in industrial frank points, that represent henceforth a third of the transformation capacity;

a movement of the factories of the forest towards the urban environment (approval to the electric network and accesses to the harbor of Douala by the paved road): one does not construct anymore factories in bush;

An increase from the timber bought on the local market, in complement of the timber originating permit belonging to the factory.

The reasons of the acceleration of the investment

The arrival of 25 new investors of which 19 directly were threatened by an eventual stop of the exportations of grumes indicates that the perspective of a stop of the exportations of grumes has certainly, among of other factors, played an important role in the acceleration of the observed investment during the period 1994-98.

That says, this perspective did not reverse the tendency to construct brief factories: simple scieries, without dryer or workshop of industrial, insufficient woodwork to promote correctly the Cameroonian grumes of good quality, the one precisely that are available after a stop of the exportations of Timber.

Ashu Felix Tambong

Voice Of The Customer And Focus Groups

Writen by Tony Jacowski

Voice of the Customer

The 'Voice of the customer' is a tool or process of gathering customer input about the proposed or existing services or products depending on the situation. If a company's success depends on knowing what the customer wants, then it should develop products and services based on customer feedback, and this should be done sooner rather than later.

Focus Groups

The focus groups may be thought of as special purpose vehicles or mechanisms to facilitate understand the voice of customer better, organize the gathered data, evaluate the evolved feedbacks and channelize them in concise fashion to the developers for deliberation and further action. In a way, focus groups can serve as live links between the customer and the development department.

Going a step further, we understand that there is a need for two focus groups with different missions. The first one focuses on exploring the collective needs of customers, develop and evaluate concepts for new product development as sensed or demanded by the voice of the customer. This group is generally called an explorative focus group. The other one is an experiential focus group, used to observe the usage of products in the market and study what the customers feel and experience about the products, learning their reasons and motivations to use the product.

How Do Focus Groups Conduct Voice Of the Customer Sessions?

The voice of customer sessions are conducted for long periods of 1 to 3 hours with typically 8 to 10 participants from the customer side. The objectives of the session are defined and clear in the minds of the participants. To begin with, it requires an experienced facilitator to organize the session from initiating to inviting everyone who is designated to participate.

The customers are identified from the group which has expressed interest and been invited. The agenda, presentation and procedures for the session are developed and honed by the facilitator as a precursor. The facilitator may decide to do a rehearsal of the session beforehand, in order to fine-tune the actual session.

The actual session may be commenced by a moderator who presents the idea, the purpose and the product description and a group of observers oversee the session. The overseers watch the session from a separate room without the knowledge of the participants and record the outcomes on video and audiotapes.

Member Participants Are Not Statistical Representatives of Customers

Owing to the small number of 'representative customers' at each session, the outcome of the session (the comments and feedback) can't be directly taken as the representation of the customers' voice as a whole. The session must be punctuated by careful selection of participants and increasing the number of sessions conducted does give validity to these sessions.

The results from these sessions can be generalized for acceptance after deliberating over against a comprehensive backdrop. The same theory applies to both explorative as well as experiential focus groups.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Earning Money On The Internet The Illusion

Writen by Gordon Ansell

Why is it that ninety-something percent of people who set out to make money online fail? I'm not sure who collects these figures anyway, but the general consensus is that the vast majority of people who try to make money online will fail. Whatever the actual figure, in my experience it is certainly quite high.

I think this is mainly due to an illusion. The illusion that we often see thrown at us is that it's easy to make money online; that if we start a business in the morning, we can then go out for a round of golf and come back at lunchtime to find that we're multi-millionaires.

The illusion sets expectations which will invariably be shattered and then people will just give up. It doesn't matter how many times one quotes the old 'if it sound too good to be true it probably is' clichés to people, they still prefer to believe the illusion.

It's a very powerful illusion that's exploited by advertisers to the maximum, but I don't blame advertisers. In fact, I think they perform a useful service: I think it's worth the price of the 'Get Rich Quick' product on offer for someone to find out that they won't be able to make easy money online. If they've had the illusion well and truly shattered and still want to continue, then they might really have what it takes to make money online.

What does irk me a bit is that quite often people will get their fingers burnt on a 'Get Rich Quick' scheme, give up when they haven't retired on the proceeds within a week and then go around bemoaning the state of online businesses and accusing everything of being a scam. The actual information or product they paid for might have been extremely useful - many are - but they didn't buy the product, they bought the illusion.

This is advertising at its best. Selling the illusion works and many do it. It's not strictly speaking a lie either as once in a while someone does come along who will go from $0/mth to $20,000/mth in a few weeks, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Most of us will have to work long and hard to earn a respectable income, just as we would in an offline business.

Could you imagine an advert for a product that went something like this:

"Buy our e-book now for $60 and you'll gain immediate financial freedom - in fact, you'll be completely free of finances for at least 6 months. You'll be able to spend time on the golf course (propping up your measly income as a green keeper). Your time will be your own; the entire 5 minutes you have left over at the end of the day before collapsing into bed. Imagine the smile on your spouse's face when you show her your first pay check (just imagine it!). Buy now and get this special bonus: we'll show you how to swap your car for some adverts on Google."

It doesn't quite work does it?

Of course, my fake advert above is a little harsh and I think that the important point is that making money online is the same as any making money with an offline business - it takes time, hard work and dedication to succeed. If you're going to buy anything with a 'Get Rich Quick' feel to get you started, buy it for its intrinsic value and ignore the illusion it's sold with.

If you found this article illuminating, I expand upon it in my free 15-page e-book, which will be useful to anyone considering starting an online business. You can get it at: http://gordonansell.com/r/gahome_20060815_1.php

Turnkey Internet Business Opportunity Finding The One That Works For You

Writen by Chris Monato

As you search the internet trying to find a home based business you will come across many programs that claim to be turnkey internet business opportunities. Although the term "turnkey internet business opportunity" may make the opportunity sound simple or even easy, be aware that that may not always be the case.

When looking at a turnkey internet business opportunity it's important to find out what exactly is involved and ask the right questions. The program may have a great product and everything may sound good, but in the end products don't sell themselves. There has to be some kind of focused effort behind the movement of products or services.

Try to find out if the program offers you a system to market their goods or services. In other words, you want to know what "exactly" you have to do in order to make money. Do you have to be on the phone calling leads all day in order to sell a product? Does the company encourage you to approach your friends and family? What kind of online and offline marketing tools do they offer?

These are all questions you should be asking before getting involved with any "turnkey internet business opportunity". You want to make sure that what the company does and how the company conducts their business is aligned with your own personal strengths and beliefs. For example, you wouldn't join a program that encouraged you to be on the phone selling all day if you were not a people person. Find out what you are good at and what comes naturally to you and then find an opportunity that is in alignment with those personal strengths.

There are many turnkey internet business opportunities out there to choose from take your time to do your due diligence to find the one that works for you.

© Copyright Chris Monato.

Go Beyond Hearing And Listen Listen Listen

Writen by Bette Daoust, Ph.D.

If we listened twice as much as we talked, we would be a lot further down the road to success. People sometimes think I am very quiet when they first meet me. Those that know me are aware that I am quite the opposite. When I am in a setting where I do not know anyone, I spend my time listening to conversations. I pick up good information about most people at the event. Once I feel I have enough to go on, I will put my hat in the ring and speak up. If most people did the same thing, they would learn how to participate in a conversation. Not only do you have to listen to conversations, you actually have to hear what they are saying. It is only through hearing that you will gain an understanding. I am not saying you need to understand every conversation but you do need to understand enough to make an intelligent comment to get into the circle.

Another way to get into a conversation is to reiterate what you have just heard. I use, "did I hear you say . . . . .?" The response is usually yes and then they continue to explain why they said it. This is your opportunity to follow up with your comments. You must continue to listen and hear throughout any conversation and only make a comment when you know exactly what you are talking about. I made a fatal error once when someone was arguing a point and I agreed with them. They then asked me how I knew about the subject. I was dumb-founded and could not answer as I was not really hearing what they said, I was just listening in. I felt very foolish and now I make sure I hear the words and understand them before agreeing. There is nothing like an embarrassing moment to straighten up your habits.

When you attend events and spend your time adding to conversations, you are really taking in information that will be valuable for you at another time. You will get to know the participants in the conversation and perhaps even exchange business cards. You may also find that you have common interests.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. is a speaker, author (over 170 books, articles, and publications), and consultant. She has provided marketing, sales, business development and training expertise for companies such as Peet's Coffee & Tea, Varian Medical Systems, Accenture, Avaya, Cisco Systems to name a few. Dr. Daoust has also done extensive work with small businesses in developing their marketing, training, and operational plans. You may contact Dr. Daoust at http://BizMechanix.com. You may also view her latest publications at http://BlueprintBooks.com. Dr. Daoust also writes for the National Networker http://theNationalNetworker.com.

Do You Want To Start A Photography Business

Writen by Aaron Schuelke

If you enjoy taking pictures what could be more thrilling than doing it for a living? Just think of how wonderful it could be to be a paid invite to hundreds of weddings and parties a year, to capture joyful family memories that will last a lifetime everyday, to watch children grow up, or even to just to experience others smile everyday of your career. With photography you can do just that. And what is great about the photography industry is there's more than enough work for the freelance/work-at-home photographer.

To get started you need to get the right equipment. This will require you to decide exactly how far you want to take your business. If have a room in your home that you could set up as an office you might want to look into setting up a backdrop and lighting equipment. On the other hand perhaps you don't have the space in your house. Don't let this discourage you. You can still compete in the photography realm even without an office. One of the greatest thing about having a work-at-home photography business is that you can offer most of the same services that the photography shops offer, but at a fraction of the cost. Mainly, because you will not have to worry about a lot of overhead such as employees and rent, you will only have to worry about delivering quality photos.

Fortunately, delivering quality photos now days could not be easier thanks to the invention of the digital camera. If you have a low budget you can easily get started with a personal computer, digital camera, and above average printer. Of course if your budget isn't quite so limited it would be a great idea to invest in some extra equipment like camera filters and zoom lenses.

After you have decided what equipment is essential to starting your business you need to start selling yourself. The great thing about photography is if you belong to a local club, church, etc there are always people in need of your services. Also, don't forget your family since they can be powerful with putting the word out there. More than likely you will get most of your business through referrals. In this case customer satisfaction is essential. Word will spread like wildfire if your services stink. So remember whether your taking photos for free at your nephews wedding, or your getting paid to take photos at your local school prom always put your best foot forward. In fact one of the easiest ways to start building your portfolio is to start taking free pictures of friends and family.

Last, if your business really gets rolling you might want to consider registering your business. Taking care of legalities gives your customers a sense of security. It lets them know that you mean business. Also, at this point you may want to start advertising in the phonebook, newspaper, or even listing your services on the internet. The internet can be a powerful resource because you can set up an online portfolio to display all of your handiwork.

You can do it! To start a work-at-home photography it is going to take dedication. Make a plan and stick to it! Remember, this is something you love! Treat your job like you love it and your job will love you!

Photography Information and Resources at http://www.myvirtualschool.com/Photography/.

Nevada Corporation Search

Writen by Damian Sofsian

If you are browsing for information on the Nevada Corporation Commission, you can get a whole lot of it, through their online resource. You can find out more in detail about the corporation and its working from their online resource. Once there you can search for example the commissioners who are presently holding office, phone numbers or even current openings in the corporation commission.

One can also search for the latest news releases from the commissioners. If you are new to Nevada and want to find out more about getting an electric connection, for example, all you need to do is either fill a form online or go the corporation commission filing office and fill out an application. The prospectus will give you all the information you needed about getting a connection. The same kind of procedure is applicable, in case you are looking for water or sewer connection, natural gas connection, telephone services or a variety of other consumer services. A thorough search of Nevada Corporation Commission is sure to yield the desired results.

If you are in Nevada to set up an industry or business, you can search for and get valuable information. The procedures involved could be found out before you file an application for setting up your dream venture in Nevada. If you are somebody who is looking for a viable investment proposition, then Nevada Corporation Commission can help you make the right decision. You can verify with Nevada Corporation Commission, before you buy. If you were to ask the right questions and verify information with the state securities regulators, you have reduced chances of falling victim to dubious financial professionals. Nevada Corporation Commission can guide you in making the proper decision.

People residing in Nevada have a right to appear, either to express their opposition or support for issues, which are before the commission. You can find out more about these 'commission hearings', which are likely to impact specific areas of the state. The commissioners usually encourage broad participation, enabling every one to have a say in resolving a problematic issue. You can also go through the audio of such hearings on the Commission's web property. You can go through the Nevada Corporation Commission's online resource, to find out more in detail.

Nevada Corporations provides detailed information on Forming Nevada Corporations, Nevada Corporation Advantages, Nevada Corporation Commission, Nevada Corporation Law and more. Nevada Corporations is affiliated with How to Start an LLC in Nevada.

Optimise Your Efforts With Automation

Writen by Mike Morris

Running a successful Internet business can be a very time consuming venture, it is not just simply a case of marketing your website.

Your internet business falls roughly into three areas.

• Engage in product development to gain new customers and re-service existing ones.

• Order fulfillment is essential so as not to lose existing custom and potential future custom as well.

• Most importantly, responding to customer requests for support.

Some daily tasks will require handling personally, but; you can fully or partially automate a proportion of your daily tasks. When dealing with customer support, if the same basic questions keep being asked, you can automate a response in two different ways.

Firstly, create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page for your website and/or products. You should include a list of the most common questions, and most importantly the answers to them. Alternatively, if you prefer to send a custom message for each recipient and still save time, create a text template for each of your FAQ's. In that template put the answers so that when you receive a commonly asked question, you simply open your text file, then copy and paste your pre written answer into your email message.

An excellent way to completely automate some tasks is to use an Auto Responder. Auto responders sometimes known as maillots, automatic email and email on demand, they are designed to automatically respond to any email message sent to it with an automatic response.

A web-based auto responder system often utilises a web page form, or it may run with your pop email account on your server. You can program it to automatically send out pre-written messages when a message is received to a specified script or email address. There is no need to be manually composing e-mails all day, as these messages can be set to be sent out at different time periods. Articles you are writing in order to promote your business (such as this one) can be placed within an auto responder. Visitors can then quickly retrieve your articles on demand.

If you are selling any type of advertising space, placing your ad rates within an auto responder enables your visitors to request them at any time.

If you are promoting a business opportunity, you can provide your potential customers with further information via auto responder.

As well as standard auto responder systems, there are auto responders that send an unlimited amount of follow-up messages. These follow-up messages can be set up to be despatched automatically at predetermined intervals defined by you. You can set up your auto responder to automatically send out a new message each day for as many days as you would like.

Follow-up auto responder systems enable you to set up a free course that can be used to increase your sales. It can take as many as seven contacts with a potential customer before closing a sale. A portion of your marketing efforts can then be completely automated by offering a free auto responder course.

Auto responders are not the only way that you can automate some of your daily tasks; there are also scripts that can be used to automatically respond to form submissions. For example, say you are processing your customers' orders yourself (with a merchant account, secure server, etc.), you can use a form processing script to not only process your customers' information, but to also do all of the following:

Send out an order confirmation message

Add your customers' information to your database

Send out download instructions

Send you a copy of the order

If you are using a third-party credit card processing company, you can automate your ordering process as well. Third-party processing companies require that you provide a web address to direct your customers to once their payment has been processed. This page is typically used to provide your customers with download instructions. Prior to directing them to your download page, you can use this page to collect your customers' information simply by using a script like the one mentioned above.

In addition to using a form processing script to automate your ordering process, you can also use a web based mailing script. Instead of setting up your "download" page with the above form, place a subscription form within the page. Your customers' name and email address will be collected via this form, add the details to your database and an auto response message will be immediately sent out.

This message can thank your customer for their purchase, and provide them with download instructions.

The great thing about this technique is that you can personalize your auto response message with your customers' name. In addition, as they are automatically added to a database, you can build an opt-in list so you can send out product updates or introduce new products.

**************************************************************************************************************** Create fantastic e-books and audio e-books without any knowledge of HTML etc. The "Dead Easy E-Book" creator visit http://www.pandas-with-typewriters.com for more info plus other great software. **************************************************************************************************************** Note: You may use this article in your e-zine or on your site as long as the article and resource box remain unchanged Copyright Mike Morris 2005

Employment Law Part I

Writen by Lance Winslow

Just how serious is employment law to the small businessperson? Very serious and let me tell you a true story; a horror story, which will make you think about just how serious these issues can be. In San Antonio TX one of our wash trucks was driving down the road and a border Patrol Officer passed them. We run a company which does onsite washing; www.CarwashGuys.com. Down the road they pulled over two trucks and were handcuffing Mexican illegal aliens from those company's work trucks. Our crew drove by on their way to work. They had just left the shop and had on board two workers who worked for Labor Ready Co, for a year and a half previously and were still employed from them from time to time. We had gotten extra workers and filled our service truck with workers who were temporaries to work for us since they needed extra help with the full schedule that day.

The border patrol officer was then done with the other companies' trucks and saw we had Hispanic labor in the back and pulled over our truck after chasing it down the highway. Turns out Labor Ready had hired the illegals because they gave fake identification to them; I question the Labor Ready procedures. Labor Ready charges us $11.95 per hour for workers they pay $5.40 per hour. That is fine with us on those super busy days. So it's a deal and saves us from background checks for jobs that are not too serious like rinsing car lots. Well we found out that 4 of the five workers we had gotten from Labor Ready did not have green cards or US Identification of any type, so they cuffed them right on the highway and took them in. Good, we do not hire illegals anyway. But think about it we hired labor from a reputable nationwide company, a franchise called Labor Ready. They take care of all this stuff and charge us up the gazooo for the workers.

We know they are overcharging but for temporary extra labor for one day it is worth it. They told us there are certain questions they cannot ask them when hiring, such as are you a US Citizen or where were you born or things like that. I cannot believe we have laws in the banking industry called "Know your customer laws" yet in employment we have no "Know your employee laws". We have an unspoken don't ask the employee anything except when can you start and explain the type of work. We have laws in banking so we catch money launderers and those who are working hard to not pay taxes they owe.

So it is okay for the government to enforce those laws through private enterprise, but it is not okay for employers to ask questions to protect homeland security and save themselves from embarrassment. Of course in this case it is not a crime to hire someone who gave you false information, and we cannot collect damages from a company who followed the employment laws? So what the hell do we do here? We want to help enforce the law as well, so do all true Americans. But we have so many laws in place that keep us from helping the situation.

Incidentally the workers who were handcuffed called us at 7 am morning two-days later and are ready to work and asked what time to meet. They were picked up at 9 am hand cuffed and stamped and deported that day. They were back in one day ready to work within 2 days. Some border patrol we have, what a complete joke; protecting America, me ass? Why not implant a homing devise in these illegals and track them by satellite and find out the leaks in the system and plug them; Homeland Security or Homey Land of opportunity. You step up border patrol and catch these people and document on a board the number of deportees, yet they come the day back into the country. This is a true story you can call me for more information.

We have half a notion to go to the border patrol and give them free truck wash every morning and ask them to run the workers records and remove them from the crew. Eventually the yellow truck will be known for not hiring illegals. A few weeks of that and every one who comes to work for us from Ready Labor will know it. Is this what we have to do to plug the system? Can't the border patrol guys figure it out; then we will? If you cannot enforce our borders then open them. But do not lie to the small businesses of America that somehow we are protected at our borders. We are not. This is a sham. Didn't the Jordan Commission spend years putting together a plan only to have it never implemented? Why did we waste or breath? This is pure politics, not reality; another of Smoot's points in his book "The Business Side of Government." One of the workers asked to work for us again and he wanted to borrow the twenty dollars he spent for the bus ride from Laredo to San Antonio. Even the illegals think this is a joke. We told him he could not work for us anymore. He did not understand why, because other businesses would have I guess that is why he was dumfounded when we told him to get lost. We called the border Patrol and they said they could not pick him up unless we knew for sure he was illegal. We said well you picked him up yesterday is he suddenly legal now? Can you prove it? No, all we can prove is your system does not work and that Labor Ready is doing an injustice to its customers, stockholders and this country by not enforcing the laws of our land; the same laws, which have provided economic wealth to them over the years. Are they doing this all over the country? Yes.

The manager of Labor Ready said they did not like the laws either, but they needed to make a living and the companies need workers. So does this mean that Labor Ready who has offices all over Texas never disclosed this to their stockholders or customers? Yes it does, which is a gray area at least and a violation of disclosure law at best. The truth here is that no one cares. We make rules to appease the masses who vote for these things and tell the people we are saving them from terrorists. What about terrorists who are dark skinned and speak Spanish? What if a Middle Easterner spoke Spanish and was a terrorist and told the others he snuck over the border with he was from Argentina, they would not know either. And the business owner would hire them through a temp agency, who was making money off the business owner pointing to employment laws and said, well they had fake paperwork not my fault. Maybe it is not the border patrol's fault but shunning responsibility does not save us from the next attack.

Either we are worried about the next attack or we are not. I want someone to call me from the INS or Border Patrol to discuss this and I want a satisfactory answer or we will take this true story and document it and send it to the media one day before we send it to all the Congressmen and Senators. If we are not worried about terrorists then tell us. If we are, then fix the leaks. Why does it take 10 years to fix problems, when international terrorist groups only wait 3-5 years between acts? Good question worth answering and with all the BS and rhetoric we are seeing opposition from the Hispanic Chambers of Commerce and Hispanic Politicians. With 65% of the population of San Antonio Hispanic who do not want these laws at all, then extend the Mexican Border to include San Antonio TX as a free zone. Why not make it all of Texas and we can then defend the borders of Texas, which can be a free zone with Mexico.

If you are just going to give it lip service and not fix the leaks of illegals then open the borders and forget it. This is pathetic. We know how to enforce the borders and we give out fines to businesses who do not comply, yet allow free entry by anyone who can walk. I am surprised we have not made ADA mandated border crossings for those in wheel chairs or are asthmatically challenged. Put in 1 foot per 1 inch inclines over the Rio Grande for those in wheel chairs and then nice sidewalks all the way to Washington D.C. so they can have a baby and run for Congress or become a radical speech writer and proponent of mass demonstrations and riots. You think I am kidding don't you. I am serious all this is so fake and such a ridiculous waste of breath and tax payers money.

End of Employment Law, Part I

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Never Explain Amp Never Apologize

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

There is a piece of wisdom that every besieged politician knows.

When you start to explain or to apologize the sharks smell blood and their attacks become more ferocious.

If you can brave the situation, the danger may pass, and you will have escaped, relatively unscathed, suggest proponents of the dummy-up school of diplomacy.

Every lawyer worth his salt will warn clients about the dangers of making statements, especially disclosures and admissions, that are against their interests. Say the wrong thing, thinking you're helping your cause, and you'll almost always pay for this impulse.

Salespeople are warned to KISS: to keep it simple, stupid. Famous for over talking and putting their feet in their mouths, sellers are wise to make their conversations as pithy as possible.

Negotiators try to keep their real positions and limitations close to the vest. An imprudent disclosure will surely be exploited by the hungry person on the other side of the table.

Perhaps the only place in which over-talking is esteemed is in the arena of interpersonal relationship building. There is a positive correlation, according to communication scientists, between how much we disclose about ourselves and the development of trust and friendship.

But in business and other serious situations, less is more.

Enough said?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone®, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable," published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Impossible At First Glance The Project Appeared Impossible

Writen by John Savageau

At first glance the project appeared impossible. Here we were, in the middle of the desert, 500 miles from the nearest real city – and we needed to install a campus telecom network covering an area of about 150 square kilometers. Objective was to make campus communications function at the same level as a city-based industrial campus. Memories of military leadership exercises came to mind, where with a limited number of tools you faced an expectation that with a bit of tenacity and creativity under the right conditions your team could make sea shells do HF radio.

We go back to basic telecom engineering. Your task is to take a budget, existing or emerging technology, a relatively clear set of objectives – and then design a flexible solution that completely meets and exceeds everybody's expectations. Of course this must be ahead of schedule and under budget. Simple, right?

So in the middle of the desert we incorporate new technologies, such as wireless bridging to connect major campus locations, VoIP to take advantage of lower startup and operating costs for both internal and external communications, a VSAT link to the home office, and then gateways for network connectivity and voice transit/termination. Using a numbering plan provided by the upstream VoIP provider, and voila! You are now an extension of the office PBX located 3000 miles away in the comfort of your company home office.

Only fixed lines in the scenario are LAN connections within campus buildings, and that is only really useful for connecting file servers to the LAN/WLAN, or VoIP phones to the LAN. This is for those old folks who still mentally find themselves attached to a desktop handset – not those of us using a wireless PDA with a softphone, or WiFi handset.

Surprise – in 2002 we built a model very similar to this for a mining company in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Details on demand.

Shift to Seoul South Korea. Walking along the street you see a lot of phone booths. Funny thing is there are no wires connecting to the phone booths, and you see a little antenna sticking up from the top of the booth. Explanation is wireless DSL. Cool.

Shift to New Orleans, Morris Point (Minnesota), or Long Beach. New developments going in, old developments being demolished as part of post storm reconstruction. All needing high performance communications infrastructure – whether for basic entertainment or for network communications. Let's look at the existing telecom tool bag for assets. Verizon Broadband Wireless, SBC broadband, DirecTV – or an enterprising start up company using a Gobi Desert style wireless campus hub. All could deliver a service equal to or better than services formerly riding on top of the copper infrastructure – or for areas which are simply "Greenfield" sites with no existing cable plant or telephone infrastructure. Surprise, all are available in our reconstruction zone.

You might say "well, you know wireless and cable have little capacity – it is not suitable for the high traffic links needed to run a business or entertainment. Hmm… Looking at marketing materials for companies such as Gigabeam (www.gigabeam.com) it appears we can now sling up to about 10Gbps through the air – that is a pretty healthy bridge. You can sling 10Gbps up to a mile, 1Gbps a couple miles, and other capacities down to 512 Mbps up to about 30 miles line of sight. Probably enough to meet the needs of Morris Point, Minnesota. Probably enough to meet the neighborhood needs of Long Beach, California as well.

OK, the capacity argument is history. Wireless can actually provide much higher "line" capacity than existing copper cable plant, and it is a heck of a lot less expensive. Next argument…

Hmm… starting to run short on arguments for replacing existing models of "land line" communications with wireless? Don't feel lonely. About the only model of outside cable plant being installed is fiber intended for use by telephone companies to increase line capacity to homes in an effort to compete with cable television companies. Verizon's FIOS will carry not only >50Mbps Internet access to the home, it will also handle entertainment channels quite nicely. Far cry from plain old telephone service (POTS). So Verizon's intent is not to deliver high performance POTS, it is to deliver telephone, CATV, and high speed Internet. Also cool.

As a competitive entertainment and telecommunications project, we look forward to more creative and useful ideas coming from all telecom companies. I personally do not care if my entertainment comes from Comcast, DirecTV, SBC, Verizon, or Time Warner – I simply want the most advanced entertainment and communications available. I do not care if it is over fiber, copper, or through the air. I just want 450 TV channels, Internet that provides whatever content I want with no delay, and an effective way to communicate with any telephone or presence device to any point in the world.

However I live in a very technically advanced part of the United States, have not suffered a catastrophic natural disaster, and am not at the mercy of a single telecom provider.

Back to the gulf coast and Morris Point. You need to deliver high performance communications to every addressable home and business in the area. You need to do it fast. You need to do it under a reasonable budget. Do you buy telephone switches, copper, and dig up the streets for either conduits and manholes, or plant telephone poles every 100ft? Or do you take advantage of high performance wireless technologies that are only restricted by the end user having electricity and the potential for a line of sight to a wireless transmitter?

Let's not waste time on E911 issues – those are solved. Near 0% of homes in the US are without at least one mobile phone, with GPS, that is available at a moments notice if there is an emergency. Regardless if the mobile phone is using packet or CDMA, the GPS device still pinpoints you within about 1 meter. Also, and in particular with wireless, batteries are an inherent part of the end user device – or a UPS can easily be installed if E911 services are really essential to those in the country side. A backhoe, car accident (whacking a pole), or any one of a thousand other variables can work to bring down a POTS line as easily as a wireless connection.

Let's not waste time on "business toll quality" issues. Those are solved. Sometime check your long distance or international call setup time on Skype versus a toll call. Let's not waste time on any issues other than delivering telecom and entertainment services to end users – wherever they may be.

Recovery time from a natural or man made disaster is now based on restoring an antenna, splicing a cable feeding an antenna, and aligning the antennas. Your WiFi Internet connection feeding a laptop or WiFi phone does not need cable or line-of-sight alignment, so once the antenna is restored you are online. This is calculated in days, rather than months. Remember the stories following Katrina of young people driving vans down to the gulf, setting up a portable generator, linking a wireless bridge to a "friendly" ISP, and then providing email and VoIP access to neighborhoods cut off from the world? If a 19 year old high school grad with a portable generator can get global communications installed within hours after a natural disaster, then shouldn't we at least consider this model for disaster response, if not a permanent solution?

The big guys do not like this discussion. It is hard to give up a monopoly. It is hard to accept the possibility that in 5 years a telephone number will only be a reference of convenience as the world turns to presence indicators. It is hard to accept the automobile took the place of horses and carriage, or the airplane took the place of trains and cruise ships for long distance travel. But it happened, and we are all better for the change.

As a society we need to prepare ourselves for the upcoming quantum shift in technology-enabled communications and entertainment. As a business we need to keep a close eye on the first movers and be prepared to move ahead, either through R&D or M&A.

For Morris Point and the Gulf Coast? Sure, feel free to string fiber on the long distance side of the network (assuming your fiber is not already in place – that might be an astonishing revelation). Let's forget this final mile copper infrastructure nonsense. Let's aggressively exploit existing and emerging wireless technologies and meet the needs of community and business. Really.

John Savageau is a managing director at CRG-West, responsible for managing operations and architecture for several of the largest telecommunications interconnect facilities in the US, including One Wilshire in Los Angeles.