Questions to Ask When Buying a Business

One way to start a business is by buying an existing one. Your local baker may be thinking of retirement and want to sell his business; or you've heard about a business being sold that you think presents a very good opportunity.

However, before you get your checkbook and buy that business, it is important to determine if that business is worth buying. Like buying cars, you don't want to put your hard-earned money into a lemon. Here are some questions you need to ask:

• What is the legal structure of the business (is it a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation)?
• Are you dealing with the right person? If the business is a 1-person business, and you are dealing with that person, then you're on the right path. If you are dealing with multiple owners or corporation, is the person you are dealing with authorized to sell the business and deal with you? You don't want a situation where you have spent time and resources evaluating the deal when the real owners do not want to sell.
• What are the reasons for selling? The owner/s may or may not be honest with you so you may need to do your own investigation. If the reasons for selling have more to do with the owner wanting a change of pace because they are tired, old or just want a totally different lifestyle, then you have little to be concerned about. But if the reasons have anything to do with diminishing demand for the business, significant threats to the business (e.g. Wal-mart is moving to the neighborhood), or the business is starting to fail, then you need to be aware of all these pitfalls. Get expert advice from accountants and lawyers, and research the business inside and out.
• How is the business doing? Check the books of the business to learn whether it is profitable or not. If you need help, seek the expert opinion of a financial manager or accountant to help you interpret the numbers. Note though that the owner/s may not grant you access to the tax and financial information of the business unless they have reason to believe that you are serious with the purchase.
• If this is a brick and mortar business, how is the location? Location is everything -- you don't want a beauty salon to be located in an industrial area with hardly any foot traffic. Assess the location of the business, and whether you think the location is optimal. Check the lease as you don't want the surprise of being evicted from the property the moment you takeover the business. If it is a web business, check the domain name and when it is up for renewal.
• Are the assets up to par? The last thing you want is to buy a business whose equipment are falling apart and in dire need to upgrade. Ascertain that the business follows all the requirements of the city/county particularly in terms of building codes.
• How are the employees? If the business has employees, it is important to tread carefully in this regard. Are they expecting the sale of the business? How are the employees in terms of productivity? More importantly, how do they view the sale? It is important to ensure that you get the employees' cooperation early on.
• How is the competition? What is the market share of the business? Who are its competitors and how are they doing? And how is the business doing relative to its competitors? Are the competitors thriving while this business is struggling?
• Who are the suppliers and what is the business' relationship with the suppliers? Are the suppliers reliable? Are their prices competitive or are there any better vendors for the business? You also want to make sure that the current suppliers will actually do business with you.
• What else will you inherit with the business? Are there contracts you need to honor? Returns you need to be aware of? Or problems that you should know?

If you are planning to buy a business, be prepared to negotiate. And get as much professional help as you can from accountants, lawyers and other experts. For more information, read the article Steps in Buying and Negotiating a Business Purchase

Effectiveness of Search Engines on Ecommerce

MarketLive released a report on how online retailers can maximize search engine effectiveness in terms of bringing traffic, conversion, customer loyalty, engagement and other critical variables. Called the MarketLive Performance Index, the report provides very interesting data on the effectiveness of search engine results.

Here are some of the data from the report:

• Search marketing drives 28% of visitor traffic on retailer sites, on average, and as much as 36% for some retailers.
• Search engine marketing significantly contributes to a retailer’s sales, with traffic coming fom Google generating nearly 14% of an e-retailer’s revenue, through Yahoo, 3.25%, and through MSN, 1.87%.
• Among the top 3 search engines, MSN provides a greater percent of return (9.48%) and loyal customers (5.11%). Relative to percent of overall traffic, Google brings in 7.85% return customers and 3.69% loyal customers; while Yahoo provides 8.58% return customers and 4.46% loyal customers. The study recommends considering MSN in search marketing as keywords competition is less strenous. I suspect though that a return customer (defined in the study as having made 2-3 purchases) and loyal customers (4+ purchases) would not use the search engines but directly go to the merchant's website.
• Comparing natural and paid search, natural search results bring in more traffic and revenues to an ecommerce site. Paid search, however, delivers higher conversion rates with 16% more visitors who clicked on paid search converting to buyers. The study found conversion rate from paid search to be 2.93% compared to natural search's 2.52%

The study offers so much more data and information that can help you plan your search marketing strategies. Download the study from MarketLive

The Secret of Sending Press Releases

ChiefMarketer.com has a very interesting article that summarizes the essential elements of an effective press release. I've read a lot of articles on how to make your press release stand out and get noticed, but this article does a good job in outlining the strategies to ensure better pickup of your press releases:

• Set an objective - who do you want to read your release?
• Make your story relevant and real - how is your business revolutionizing the industry and what sets you apart from your competitors?
• Sell your company - what makes your organization unique?
• Drop names - they can give added credibility to your release
• Punch up the headline - the headline is what sells
• Provide hard numbers - stats grab attention
• Cater to reporters - give them all the information they need and make it easy for them to write about your business
• Remember the basics

You can read the article at ChiefMarketer.com

How to Find Investors for Your Business

I was reading the CONDÉ NAST PORTFOLIO magazine and one story caught my attention.

It was an article about an up-and-coming British cellist named Jamie Walton who wanted to get his hands on a $1.7 million, 300-year-old Guarneri cello. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford the cello with his $50,000 a year salary. So what he did was to find investors willing to give him money, and then pooled their money together to raise the funds to buy the cello. He could either buy off the investors later, or if he chooses not to, the investors could agree to sell the cello in the open market.

The article lists the investors who gave Walton the capital he needs. I find the list very instructive in terms of who you need to approach first if you are looking for an investor for your own business. Walton's investors include:

• A fellow student of his cello teacher
• An anonymous investor who heard about his story in a magazine -- showcasing the power of media in bringing you to the attention of would-be investors
• A person he met at a concert
• A person he had lunch at a music festival
• A fan
• Introduced by a father in law
• A colleague
• His students
• Professional investors

The main lesson for me of the article is that sometimes you don't have to go far to find investors. If you have a good product or service, people around you may be willing to fund your venture. In fact, some of these folks close to you will not primarily consider the prospects of your business; rather, they are giving you money because they believe in YOU.

One smart approach he used was to enlist the help of an investment banker as it gave gravitas to his offering. By having a plan in place on how the investors can get their money back, he showed these investors that he is serious and that he wants to give them assurance that they will have a way to recoup their investment.

Then there's the power of networking. Walton found investors from among those he had lunch with, met at a concert, and upon introduction of friends. You just never know how the people you meet at networking events and meetings can help you!

Note also the power of media. He's got a great backstory, and he used that to his advantage. Media wrote about him, which allowed him to reach possible investors who are interested to support him. In fact, this is a fairly common way of getting into the radar screen of investors who may not give you the time of day if you approach them directly. Being written about by the media tells these investors that there's something special and different about you and your product; hence they are willing to get in the game with you.

You can read the article at the Portfolio.com

How to Make the Jump from Employee To Business Owner

I've posted a new article at PowerHomeBiz.com on how to make the transition from being an employee to a business owner successful and pain-free.

If you've been an employee all your life, the move to becoming an entrepreneur can be very daunting, even scary. You will lose the steady paycheck. You will make your own decisions and steer your own business. And unlike being an employee where you can be physically present but mentally absent (and still get paid for just showing up to work), as an entrepreneur you will have to work. If you don't work, you may not earn anything!

I've listed some tips on how to make the transition easier and listed the concerns and issues you need to deal with before making the jump. Read the article How to Make the Jump from Employee To Business Owner: Checklist for Starting a Business

The Perils of Shared Web Hosting

For a new website, shared hosting is the most logical way to start. It is inexpensive, provides just enough (or even more) bandwidth, disk space and other requirements.

However, it is not without perils. If your site has been enjoying tremendous growth or you expect your site to take off quickly, you need to ask your web host a number of important questions:

• How many web sites are hosted in the same server where your site is hosted?
• How old is the server and what are its capabilities (if you're unlucky, your site may be hosted in an old, slower server which in turn can affect the performance of your website)?
• If you are running databases (such as Mysql), how many databases are being hosted in the server where your database resides?
• If the load of the server seems to be too much -- e.g. your database often cannot connect to the server -- what is the likelihood that your website or database can be moved to a better and less prone to hiccups server?
• If you stay with the web host for several years, what is the likelihood of moving your website to newer and faster server?
• And for you -- how many complaints can you handle before saying "enough is enough" and start finding a new web host?

If you are running a web business, the choice of the web host is very critical. If your website is down, your business goes kaput as well. Or your website may load very, very slow -- with visitors hitting the back button because they simply don't have the patience or time to wait for your site to load up.

It is important that you research thoroughly your web host -- and carefully monitor their performance. A webhost whose performance was excellent a couple of years ago may deteriorate next year. Occasionally check web hosting review sites to read about complaints by other people against your web host so you will know what to watch out for.

Your web host can make - or break - your online business. Learn to ask the right questions and watch for telltale signs of decreased performance to ensure that you get your money's worth.

How Shipping Options Can Improve Online Sales

According to a USPS study "Increase Sales with Online Buyers" one of the effective ways that can boost your online sales is by offering customers shipping choices. About 60% of consumers and 72% of business owners want to choose their delivery company when making an online purchase.

The 2-page paper, however, did not elaborate on what it means by "shipping choices." Reading it, my first thought was whether choices mean offering customers with a choice to select USPS, UPS, Fedex or some other shipping companies. I've never seen such an offering -- same price point but different shipping companies. Most online businesses including the giants such as Amazon.com offer shipping choices in terms of bundling, and shipping times, with the fastest option being the most expensive. I know I've received packages from Amazon using their Free Super Saver shipping option from UPS, USPS and Fedex -- without me knowing (or choosing) which carrier they will use.

The study also found that 43% of online shoppers abandon their purchase at checkout, and the main reason cited is the high shipping costs. Even me, I abandon the shopping cart when I get a sticker shock in terms of shipping.

The study has some important findings -- just skip through the self serving "USPS is the best" section.

How to Become a Celebrity Assistant

There are personal assistants, and then there are celebrity personal assistants. Have you ever wondered what it is like to work for the likes of Reese Witherspoon, John Travolta or, ugh, Britney Spears?

How to become an assistant of celebrities is a common question asked in the Entertainment section of Yahoo Answers. I guess a lot of people are enticed with the prospect of hobnobbing with famous people. Me, I'd love to see them in person but definitely not as an assistant, especially given the 24/7-always-on-call-job as an assistant.

But if this is something that you'd like to get into, there are three ways for finding employment as a celebrity assistant:

• Know someone who knows someone - yes, the power of referral is alive and well in Hollywood
• Become a member and search the job board of theAssociation of Celebrity Assistants http://www.celebrityassistants.org/
• Use employment agencies in the LA area.

Finding Legitimate Mystery Shopping Jobs

Many folks are interested in the idea of shopping-while-making money through mystery shopping jobs. Unfortunately, many find themselves scammed after paying websites that supposedly offer mystery shopping assignments but turn out to be rip offs.

While there are indeed a lot of scams in terms of mystery shopping jobs, mystery shopping is a legitimate market research tool used by big companies to evaluate the quality of their services. Hence, mystery shopping is real and many people are earning money from it.

If you are interested in learning about honest-to-goodness paying assignments in mystery shopping, I suggest you go to the National Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) http://www.mysteryshop.org/ , an organization of mystery shopping companies. This is the organization that you can TRUST in this field

Check out their listing of shopping assignments by country and by state from member companies. Companies are accepted as members of the association only if they have been in existence for two years and they can submit proof of business existence. Make a list of these companies and check out their requirements to be a mystery shopper.

The MSPA North America has a job board listing available mystery shoppers position. Click here for the job board

If in doubt, double-check the company with the local Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/ , usually under the Service Intelligence category. Find out if any complaints have been lodged with the mystery shopping company, before agreeing to do work for them.

You may want to read more from our article "Mystery Shopping---Is It Real?"

Improve Your Retail Store's Performance: Understanding Retail Consumers

If you have a store whether online or in Main Street, I highly recommend that you read Accenture's study entitled "Retail and CGS Innovation Survey: US Results." The study provides data on how consumers are using the Web to make purchase, what are the factors that pushes a consumer to buy from a store, what retailers must do to retain customers, among others.

Some of the findings of the study include:

• The key criteria for deciding where to shop are: price (85%), product selection (69%), and store proximity (57%)
• The keys to providing the best in-store experience are: store organization (61%), variety (59%), cleanliness (58%), customer service (57%), and friendly staff (55%).
• Many consumers check the Internet before going to the store: 49% will call ahead or check online to see if the item is in stock before going to the store; 69% will research the product features on the Internet before going to the store for their purchase
• Majority of the customers (69%) prefer to purchase items in a store than online, except electronics where the preferred method of purchase is online

You can download the report at the Accenture website

10 Mistakes to Avoid in Paid Search Marketing

If you are advertising through pay per click in the search engines, I found a very useful guide on the how to improve the results of your search engine marketing. This paper from the Internet Advertising Bureau entitled "Turning 10 Paid Search Mistakes into Pure Profit" is a must-read for every marketer working to reach customers via search engine marketing.

What I like most about the paper is that it clearly identifies the problem, discusses why this is a mistake, and suggests ways to remedy the mistake and increase effectiveness of the campaign. Here are the top 10 mistakes to avoid:

1. Not developing 3, 4 and 5 word phrase keywords
2. Writing ad copy that doesn't qualify prospects (e.g. too broad ad copy)
3. Sending searchers to non relevant landing pages that doesn't match the search listing
4. Poorly designed and focused landing pages
5. Set it and forget it - too much reliance on bid management technology
6. Allowing affiliates to bid on trademarks
7. Bidding to the top position mentality
8. Not analyzing what competitors are doing in search
9. Not understanding the differences in the search engines
10. Not looking out for, and watching out, for click fraud

How to Negotiate Effectively

The ability to know how to negotiate -- and negotiate well -- is an important element of entrepreneurial success. You negotiate with vendors, with customers, with your bank or investor -- practically everyone you will work with in your business. Negotiating is an integral process in business as your needs and goals differ with the other party, oftentimes in direct conflict with the other, and you both want to find mutually acceptable solution to the issue at hand.

Negotiating is a complex process, and how you do it depends on your skill, attitude and style. Some are great at negotiating, and enjoys the challenge of trying to win or push their agenda. Other people need a little, or even a lot, of help in the art of negotiating. They don't relish the perceived conflict inherent in negotations, particularly bad feelings, anger, or even the prospect of losing. Some simply do not know how to negotiate.

If you want to improve your negotiating skills, I highly recommend reading the book "Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond" by Deepal Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman (Bantam Books, 336 pages).

The book is an excellent read and shows you how to successfully handle yourself in various types of negotiations -- from effective haggling strategies to eliciting information from reticient negotiators to defending yourself. The authors even put in the questions you need to ask or how you need to phrase what you need to say. There are also lots of real world examples that helps illustrate the negotiation strategies that the authors presented.

As an example, the authors list 7 strategies as alternatives to lying (they advise never ever to lie during the negotiation process, as the cost is oftentimes not worth it):

• Incorporate reputation and relationship costs - do not negotiate in bad faith
• Prepare to answer difficult questions - people lie when they don't know how to respond so anticipate the questions that will be asked, no matter how difficult
• Try not to negotiate or respond to questions while under time pressure - answer the question only after you've had the opportunity to think more carefully about your response
• Refuse to answer certain questions - you do not need to answer all the questions the other party asks
• Offer to answer a different question - be upfront with your inability or unwillingness to answer the question, but provide a compromise by providing information to a related concern
• Change reality to make the truth more bearable
• Eliminate constaraints that tempt you to lie

The book will be available on Sept 25, and if you want to achieve outstanding success in negotiations, this is one book you shouldn't miss.

10 Online Advertising Trends that Should be Ignored

Advertising Age writer Mark Simon wrote a funny, sarcastic and brutally honest look at some of the trends in online content and advertising today. In the article entitled "Ditch the Lunatic Web Content Crazes - Beyond the Hype: The 10 Most Asinine Trends Online and Why You Should Ignore Them" he listed 10 "harebrained" trends that are most likely to fail:

1. Virtual reality such as Second Life (I wrote about Second Life previously, though for the life of me, I really can't make my avatar go past the Orientation stage - LOL)
2. Phony recommendation industry such as pay per post and astroturfing which the writer described as "phony grass-roots marketing using blogs"
3. Smart ads which works best in theory but not in practice
4. Neglect of search engine marketing (this pertains to the marketing officers of big ad agencies who focus on multimillion-dollar TV and print campaigns)
5. Audio-reliant video pre-roll spots when most viewers mute and ignore the ads while waiting for the video they want to see
6. Human powered search engines -- a concept the writer describes as "ill conceived"
7. Knee-jerk Algorithmic Media Buying referring to Google's forays into non-search media and companies buying into it
8. Dangers of behavioral targeting
9. Twitter and microblogging which the writer describes as "mindless stream of ephemera" and should not be considered a viable advertising platform
10. Intrusive mobile marketing

Read the article and judge for yourself whether the 10 trends he listed are indeed worthless and should go away.

How to Get Quality Links to Your Site

Links as we all know are very important on the Web. Search engines particularly Google look not only at the number of sites linking to you but also take into consideration the quality of links. Plus, search engines are now looking for natural linking patterns, and sites that show contrary are penalized.

Short of sending the link-to-me-or-else-email, how do you get QUALITY links to your site? Here are some techniques , while they are no means exhaustive can give you a good start in your link building strategy:

1. Build quality content -- that is first and foremost the best way you can build quality links to your website. If your content adds value and unique, people will link to your site without you even asking for it.

Look at your competition amd see what they're doing right/wrong. Analyze their site and find out what areas are they the weakest and not providing -- then come up with something that they don't have. That will create the buzz about your website -- and buzz on the web means links to your website

2. Use linkbait -- when developing content, think of content that will actually entice people to link to you. You may have compiled a list of resources, developed interactive flash games, or written a blog that is witty and funny, or created videos that are laugh-out loud. Add something exciting in your website that will compel others to link to you. Initiate the power of viral marketing for your site through linkbaits.

3. Give away an ebook, tutorial or software, with the requirement that others can use it and offer it on their site as additional resource but has to link back to your site.

4. Be a Google News provider. Whether you accept and publish press releases or provides content that Google News accepts, having your content in Google News exposes your site to blogs and websites looking for content.

5. Write articles. A growing number of article submission directories and sites now use the rel=nofollow tag so make it a stipulation that your article can only be used if live links are placed in your resource page

6. Press releases = regularly issue press releases but target those submission sites that can get you into Google News and Yahoo News, among others. Many websites are looking for news items, and press releases are an important source.

7. Make sure your site is listed in key directories, such as DMOZ. However, note that not all directories are created equal, and some particularly those specific ones have shady backlinks with their pages shown in the search engines as supplemental results.

There are many other techniques. Avoid those strategies that seem too spammy (e.g. going through forums and blogs and mindlessly posting your link) and concentrate on "natural forms" of linking. If you are in this in the long haul, the key is to simply develop quality content -- and the links will come to you.

What Attracts Investors to Finance a Business

Investors are not attracted to every business there is. One of the common mistakes I see from new entrepreneurs is that they think their business can easily attract investors.

In fact, some types of businesses are not "sexy enough" to get these moneyed-types to pony up for the business. Unless the investor is your Aunt Matilda or your best friend -- who are basically investing in YOU and will support you whatever business you start -- it is mighty hard (if not totally impossible) to get venture capitalists or angel investors interested in a daycare business.

So what attracts these investors' interest? If you are talking of multi-million types of investments, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Investors look for businesses that can provide that extra value, if not totally revolutionize how things are done. There's a breed of investors who look for hard-to-replicate technologies, and fund those. If successful, those are the types of businesses that can give them the best return for their monies -- which of course is what the investors want.

Intellifit , a business launched by Albert Charpentier, uses body-scanning machines to help retailers sell clothing. Because of the novelty and technology behind it, the business got funding from an angel group called Robin Hood Ventures. The maverick Mark Cuban invested in Brondell, which manufactures Japanese-style toilet seats that wash and dry your derriere.

The key is to be creative in addressing a need or a problem, and you stand a greater chance of getting investors' attention. Be original.

Importance of Traffic in Earning Advertising Revenues

There's an interesting question asked on Yahoo Answers on whether there exists a tool or chart to tell how much a site will earn from advertising given its traffic levels.

There's none that I know of -- and with good reason. While traffic is one of the factors that can help a website earn from advertising, it is NOT the only factor. In some cases, traffic is not even the most important determinant of advertising income

Take for example the contextual advertising program Google Adsense. One website with 10,000 visitors a day can earn $50 a month while another with the same level of traffic may earn $5,000. There is no way to predict how much a site can earn from advertising

Another example is the exclusive social networking site that caters to the uber-rich
aSmallWorld.net. Per the NY Times , the site has only 150,000 members yet advertising clients typically spend anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 per month. I know of many websites whose traffic exceeds 150K but can't even earn $1,000 a month!

Here are the factors determining income from advertising:

• Type of advertising program -- Banner ads earning via cost per impression will definitely benefit from huge traffic, while contextual advertising depends on factors other than traffic
• Type of visitors the site attracts -- a site that attracts venture capitalists and CEOs can charge more for advertising than a site on online games that gets 1000x more traffic. Even with a much smaller audience, the first site can earn more from advertising than the second site that gets more traffic
• Suitability of the types of ads to the website -- some sites simply lend better to a particular types of advertising. A forum that attracts high traffic may benefit better from a CPM-type of advertising campaign, while it can see very poor returns from CPC type of advertising. Same with news or gaming sites where the visitors are typically not interested in the ads -- hence don't click on them.
• Responsiveness of users to ads -- Advertisers want ROI, and they will advertise again and again to sites that give them the best return on their investment. And that means spending money where they get the best returns, typically where the audience is more responsive to ads.
• Implementation of the ads -- sites running cost per click (CPC) and cost per action (CPA) ads will earn more if they optimize their website much better and if they know how to place the ads in such a way to get the best response from visitors
• Branding of the site -- a site with smaller traffic but gets frequent media mentions and enjoys a stronger brand can charge more for their advertising than a site that gets better traffic numbers.

Traffic is a factor in how much you earn from advertising -- but it is not the only factor for determining how much you will earn. Of course, with more traffic, you stand a better chance of earning more revenues especially if you have the other factors working for you as well.

The best approach is to explore which type of advertising works best with your site. It is also important that you diversify your advertising revenues by using various types of advertising formats without distracting from the real content of your site (you don't want your site to be nothing but one big advertising billboard).

Six Essentials for Networking

Networking is one of those activities that I do not really look forward to doing, but I know I have to do because of the many benefits it can bring to a business.

According to Christine Comaford-Lynch, author of the book "Rules for Renegades," networking is actually FUN. She wrote: "Networking is about creating an extended family. It’s about developing connections, caring about people, increasing the size of your “tribe.”

She gave six networking essentials:

1. Practice “Palm Up” Networking. When you network, are you giving, or grasping? Palm up networking embodies the spirit of service, of giving and wanting nothing in return. When you network “palm down” you’re grasping for personal gain. Palm up = heart-oriented interaction. Palm down = greedy grasping. Which attitude results in building relationships, providing value, and ultimately bestows benefits on both parties? You guessed it. The universe has a perfect accounting system. Give to others, it’ll all come back to you in time.

2. Do Daily Appreciation. Appreciate at least one person daily. Sometimes I do this via e-mail so I can be thorough. And often, to my delight, the recipient will tell me that they are saving the message for when they need a pick-me-up. You can also express appreciation over the phone or in person. Simply tell someone how much you appreciate who they are, what they do, whatever about them moves you. They’ll be flattered and you’ll feel great.

3. Equalize Yourself with Others. I believe we all have one unit of worth, no more, no less. No one can add to it, no one can take it away. We’re all equal. Just because someone is powerful, rich, famous doesn’t mean they are better than you. Practice equalizing yourself with others—this will enable you to more comfortably interact with others, and to reach out to people of all walks of life.

4. Rolodex Dip. This is a fun practice when you want to connect with someone but aren’t sure who. Flip through your contact database and pick a name. Then think of all the things you like about them. Now call them up to see how they are doing. They’ll be surprised and delighted.

5. Pick a “Sensei of the Day”: Each day I pick a sensei, a teacher. This is someone who has taught me a lesson or reminded me of something important in life. Your sensei can be a person, a pet, a plant, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is to acknowledge that there is much to learn and you are being offered valuable lessons constantly.

6. Do the Drive-By Schmooze. Parties, conventions, groups of all sorts are great opportunities to network, but sometimes you’ll be tired, not in the mood, or have too many events in one evening (like during holiday season!). This is when you’ll want to use the Drive-By Schmooze. Here’s how:

• Timebox your networking. Decide that in 30 minutes you’ll do a check-in to determine if you need to stay any longer.
• Set your goal. Determine the number of new connections you want to establish. Remember, your goal is meaningful connections, not simply contacts.
• Let your intuition guide you. OK, this may sound flaky, but it works! Stand near the door, in a corner, out of the way. Stop your thoughts. Internally ask to be guided to the people you need to connect with. Then start walking. You’ll be amazed at who you meet.
• Connect. You’ll always resonate with someone at an event. When you do, ask questions about them, such as: How did you get started in your field? What’s your ideal customer? We all love to talk about ourselves, and these questions will not only help you form a connection with this person, but will also tell you how to help them.
• Offer help and follow through. If you can provide help, jot down ideas on the back of their business card, commit to follow up, and then do it. If you’ve had a fruitful conversation and want to take it further, offer to meet for lunch or coffee. People say life is 90% about showing up. Nonsense! Life is 90% about following through!
  
  

Elements of Effective Customer Service on the Web

As a business owner, it is important is to keep customers happy. Give customers what they want, and your business will thrive. As such, having a plan on how to actually provide great customer service is a must.

If you are selling online, here are the elements of an effective customer service plan:

• Contact Us section that either provides a form to allow for easy contact or email address for contacting you -- and you actually respond to it
• Customer service contact telephone number (better yet, a 1-800 number) located in your homepage, or even in all your pages. If you can offer live chat capabilities, so much the better.
• List of hours when customers can contact you
• Inventory status notification - don't put that the item is available when the customer has to wait 2 months to get the item because it is out of stock
• Quick and easy checkout process
• Privacy policy
• Clear returns policy
• Fast shipment of items, possibly between 3-to-5 business days
• Notification of status of shipment of the items via email