October 13th, 2009 by Bruce

If you’re developing an online business, your website should retain a lot of your attention as you design what is effectively your window to the world. If you don’t actually have a physical address for your place of business, or any kind of “concrete and glass” operation, the overall appearance of your website will tell your potential customers or clients just about everything they need to know about your company.

In an idea situation, you should place your whole website on your very own private server, or at the very least a VPS (virtual private server), so you don’t have to deal with operating hours, tight limits, restrictions or other regulations. If you don’t know anything at all about coding, go for one of the easy to use platforms, which will provide you with the ability to work on your website directly, without this taking up too much of your valuable time. If you know that any alterations to your site represent a formidable challenge, you’re much less likely to keep up with its development. Affordable online business providers like iCapitalise can quickly supply you with an extremely user-friendly option, using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) system.

You have to find out how the World Wide Web actually works, and what it really takes to to truly make your website visible to the masses. You will want your website to appear within search results when your prospects search for something that you could provide. This is fairly complicated and quite time consuming, as the search engines utilise an array of guidelines to determine what’s relevant and what’s not. The process of “search engine optimisation” helps you to specify certain appropriate elements of code as well as the overall structure of your site. There are quite a few experts in the widely renowned arena of website development, and to stay ahead of the game, you may want to look into hiring an expert virtual assistant to help you stay on the winning team. At the very minimum, you need to have an understanding of the basics, including what your favoured “keywords” are and how the content on your page should be written.

Think back to how you used to write essays when you were in college, where you would structure and lay out your content to retain a natural progression of ideas, then apply this same system to your website development. You’ll have a variety of different pages, with an array of separate topics covering products or services, each of which could easily result in additional pages of associated content. Inside the home page you need to have a crystal clear description of your business, with prominent links providing a logical path of progression for visitors to move through as they look over your business information.

Visitors rarely take the time to read all the information on your page, and this is where the term “surfing” originated. A large percentage of people tend to look for “frequently asked questions” and other areas where they can quickly scan through to get a good idea of what you’re providing. Therefore, always remember to set up a FAQ database and link to it very prominently.

A blog is a very important part of an online strategy initiative, and you would do well to include one within your website. Social media is becoming very important as we go on, and your blog represents an opportunity for you to update daily news and information for prospects and interested parties. You should make sure that you keep current with blog posting and establish a close bond between yourself and any visitors. If you’re clever about the type of content you include, you could end up creating your own social “buzz.”

Even though you may only have an online presence, visitors will be looking for reassurance before they do business with you, and because of this, you should include your contact details in a visible position for when this trust is established. Take a photograph or two of the owner and key staff, as this helps to add a human touch to your site. The customer service contact number is essential and a physical address is highly recommended.

Once your website is up-and-running, make sure that it’s maintained on a very regular basis. You should learn as much as you can about search engine optimisation, and get to know software packages that allow you to analyse your visitors. The analytics program accessed via the Google website is a great and free tool, enabling you to set up goals and events that can help you to see whether certain promotions are working for you.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a state-of-the-art Executive Virtual Assistant Service which assists businesses and individuals with every aspect of their enterprising requirements. Do you want to explore these inspiring online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!

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October 7th, 2009 by Bruce

The proliferation of social media sites around the Internet can be little short of mind-numbing from an online business perspective. As entrepreneurs, we are told that we should be involved in these sites and that to ignore their existence could have negative consequences for our businesses down the road. The crux of the matter is that we barely have enough time to designate to our other obligations as it is, let alone the incredible volume of time which would be required to become active members in these social media networks.

For entrepreneurs who are always on the go and looking for some inside information, we can highly recommend these five “must see” social media sites:

1. LinkedIn.

This is definitely one of the most valuable professional networking sites around. Their current slogan is “relationship matters”, and this site certainly has what it takes to really last, being one of the original social media enterprises. Whether you’re looking for a job, trying to link up with peers or building your company, there are a host of resources available. If you’ve got the time, it’s certainly best to interact on a daily basis, and to check out the group feature of LinkedIn as well. You must specify your keywords appropriately and establish your brand position so that you are exposed to and aware of the right kind of potential partners, business opportunities or service providers.

If you can invest the time, and you’re able to really interact, you’ll get a lot more out of your membership, and you’ll be able to establish yourself as an expert in your field – for instance, by providing detailed responses to questions in LinkedIn Answers. The more you interact with others, the more your marketing message may be perceived as desirable and trusted, in qualitative terms.

2. Entrepreneur Connect.

Most of you will be familiar with the excellent magazine Entrepreneur. This is an extension of their talent and is a fairly new social media network designed for the entrepreneur. The idea here is simply to share ideas. The magazine’s format celebrates interaction and percolation, and the network itself follows suit.

Once you’ve set up your profile and started to engage with the community, you can move on to interacting with professional groups according to your area of expertise, or even make a new group if you’d like. Establish yourself as an expert and be a provider of good content rather than self promotion. The scope of the benefits you’ll derive will come from the degree of your attentive participation.

3. Biznik.

Some entrepreneurs believe that a network that charges for membership will usually be made up of individuals who are quite a bit more serious, and much more likely to be active members too. Biznik is surprisingly serious about its position, and it has gone so far as to brand itself as the network that “actually cares about the entrepreneur.”

There are three levels of membership available here; two of which are paid, up to $24 a month for the “pro” level. Their approach – go it alone, together, and it requires you to use real data in a system which utilises a human review procedure to ensure that everyone is keeping it real. This site can be a shoulder to cry on, or a source of inspiration, but once again its benefits will come from an active involvement on your part.

4. StartupNation.

This option is rather different. It is a site created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, but it is chock full of content and advice. You’ll find innumerable articles on almost every business idea that you could envisage as well as active forums. In some respects it is also like a giant “super blog” where you can pick up so much information in one place without the feeling that you are being drawn to so many different sites during your research.

The instigators of the site, Rich and Jeff Sloan, are nationally acclaimed entrepreneurs, publishers, celebrities and award winners, and the composition of this site reflects this in its details.

5. Ecademy.

Ecademy is one of the leading social networking sites in the UK. You can create your own profile and have a certain degree of flexibility in design. This allows some individuality, the lack of which is a criticism often leveled at other networking sites. A variety of membership levels are available – up to $100 a month, although certain elements of the site are available free.

Ecademy has a more open environment than structured sites such as LinkedIn, and you will need to be proactively involved in the search for potential partners, connections or other associations. As such, the site has an active classified section and good forum potential. It seems that Ecademy is becoming more involved with Business Networking International, which could further extend the reach of the website development and the networking potential for the ongoing members.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a cutting edge Executive Virtual Assistant Service which assists organisations and enterprising individuals with every detail of their entrepreneurial aspirations. Do you want to peruse some further information on these incredible online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!

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October 2nd, 2009 by Bruce

Let’s talk about the script for the next step when you go to the location to talk to them about closing the deal. And sometimes it takes more than walking in and presenting your business card. Initially, there is a follow-up process and then other processes that come into play to actually close the deal on the location.

When you go into the location next, you want to close the deal on that location. This is where I am basically saying that I am almost getting close to closing the deal. These people have already taken my information. I have already followed up with the phone call.

They have invited me back to their company so that I can explain to them about vending services. Obviously, they are interested because there is a reason for inviting me back.

If the company already has vending machines there, you need to look at the machines to see what their situation is and if you can further assist them.

Honestly, as a vending operator, there have been times when companies have called me, and they have said, “Can you come in and help us? We have some problems.” Or, “We were looking at different pricing for our vending service, and we want better service, better pricing, etcetera. Can you come in?”

Well, I have been into big companies before. And I would look at the vending machines they have and the pricing. I would ask the person, “What is your service like?” What are they doing? And I would look at them. If I felt that I could not do better from say a price standpoint, I would just be honest and say, “You know what? It looks like you have some pretty good vending machines here.

The machines look good, the prices are set right, and if the guy is coming on a weekly basis or whatever to fill them, everything is all right.” Not many operators will try and come in here and undercut that. In short, undercutting that would be undercutting yourself.

But say you sell a can of pop for one dollar, and the other guy is selling a can of pop for one dollar. The only issue is, “Well, we just want a better price.” Well, you know you will be undercut because you are going to lose profit margin if you start down-pricing your products just to get the location.

The only time I would ever do that would be if the sales volume was really astronomical. I knew that I would still make a good profit margin based on the sales from the product from the machines. I am referring to a huge company. I don’t normally do that, and in some circumstances, I will just be honest and say, “I think you are doing fine as it is.”

Chris Robertson has been a successful vending operator for over 11 years. He teaches people across the globe How To Start A Vending Business in their own local areas. Get Chris’ Free Vending Report today and start learning how to make money in the vending machine business.

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October 2nd, 2009 by Bruce

So the follow-up is that, whether or not they have vending machines, it is important to listen to what they are saying. The main focus is to listen to the person you go to see. Do not focus on, “Oh, I got my machines, I can bring them in here.

Focus on what they are saying, and then adapt yourself to help them, provide their needs, and solve their problem. And that is it. If they do not have machines already, then you go in and say, “You know, a typical place where we could place machines is in the lunch room or whatever”. But if it is a factory setting or something similar and there are a lot of truckers coming in the back, then maybe a machine can be placed in a common area at the back.

You proceed to take some measurements to make certain the machine will fit in the area, and establish that there is an electrical outlet. Measure the doorways to make sure it will go through the doors – some basic stuff. Then you basically tell them, “I have machines ready and available. I can have them delivered in as little as ten days”.

I like to always say, “I give five to ten business working days – which is two weeks, so that you can make arrangements with the mover to bring in the machine.” You talk with them a little about the pricing, or you just say to them, “I will put together a proposal, and I will write in the stuff that we talked about today. Then I will call you back, and we will see if we can get the machines going.” That is usually what the process is.

In conclusion, you go in there, and you talk to them, somewhat finalizing what they want. If they say, “We are ready to go,” then I say, “No problem. I am ready. Let’s do it. I will go and get the machines. I will call you when I have a delivery date set, so that you know when they are coming. Consider it done”. Or they might say, “Can you put together a little proposal for me about what we talked about today, so that I can give it to my boss, or such and such a person who can make a decision on this?” Consequently, if they do that, go home and email them a basic proposal.

Follow up with them again, perhaps three or four days later. And then you say, “I have the machines available. I have a couple of other companies that are interested, and I need to try and get confirmation from you whether you are going forward with these machines or not – the ones I quoted you on”.

Right? So, that is how you create urgency in the business and close the deal on the locations. And by that point, you should close the deal. Just understand that closing the deal on locations is a little bit of a process.

Sometimes it is a fast process. Other times it takes a little longer. But the pay-off can be great. Now I will tell you from personal experience, there have been accounts that I have closed really quickly and some have taken a little while longer– a few weeks. Some have taken a few months. But even for the ones that have taken a few months, the pay-off is huge.

So just be patient, and follow the system that I have outlined here for you. In conclusion, you will do just fine. So that is your vending scripts’ outline for today.

Chris Robertson has been a successful vending operator for over 11 years. He teaches people across the globe How To Start A Vending Business in their own local areas. Get Chris’ Free Vending Report today and start learning how to make money in the vending machine business.

Business, Chris, Chris Robertson, electrical outlet, ldquo, lunch room, machine, ndash, rdquo, rsquo, typical place

October 2nd, 2009 by Bruce

The goal is for you to go in and talk to a potential location to get your vending machines in there. They may start explaining all the problems they are having with this provider. They don’t come to fill the machine; they don’t do this or that. Then you reply, “Listen, no problem. I can set up some machines similar to what you have here. We can run the same kind of selections. I will even throw in a few more extras so that you have some more healthy items”.

You look at some suggestions they want and types of items too. If they say, “The vending guy never acknowledges our request,” then say, “No problem. Just let me know when you want the machine, and I will help you and put it in”. It might even be that one comment you make to them that will get you the location.

Evidently, the biggest pressing issue they are having might be that, “The guy doesn’t listen to our requests.” And if you say, “You just tell me what you want in the machine, and I will put it in,” they might say, “You are in”. I will make the call. The other guy is out. Not that I am in favor of kicking vending operators from companies or anything, but if the other person is not doing the job properly, then they should not be there.

That goes for me too. If I am running my business, and I’m slacking, if I lose a location because I am just not pulling my weight, you know what? Then I deserve it. It sucks. But you know what? That is what business is all about.

Personally, I have never lost an account like that before. The only time I have ever lost an account was when a business folded or something similar. This is very rare. The biggest thing for me is to be keeping my accounts in good order, keeping good relationships with clients, and making and maintaining my promise to the company. And if you do all those things, you will definitely win in this business.

Chris Robertson has been a successful vending operator for over 11 years. He teaches people across the globe How To Start A Vending Machine Business in their own local areas. Get Chris’ Free Vending Report today and start learning how to make money in the vending machine business.

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