Marketing

The world of online business is vital in today’s fast-paced world. Because the internet has opened the world to the business world we can target clients from Australia to Zimbabwe. At the same time, though, search engines can make the online world huge. If your website is buried among a huge pile of results you can miss potential visitors and ultimately sales. It is vital to build your website to cater to search engine results in order to gain business through this avenue.


By utilizing search engine optimization (or SEO) you will increase the chances that you’ll find new clients searching for specific products. What IS SEO? SEO is a process that increases the amount of visitors to your website through higher on search engine results. If your website ranks higher on the list of results then you increase your chances of obtaining visitors. It all sounds very complicated, and it can be, but by taking a few simple steps you can increase traffic to your website.

Neil Mason outlines some important points to consider in his article Search Engines by the Numbers. In this article, he outlines what search engines are best for each portion of the online business world. For example, Google sends much of its traffic to education sites whereas MSN sends more traffic to business and finance sites. This is important information when considering your website design. By building a different landing page for each search engine you can change the first impression of the visitor. If the visitor is taken in by the design they are more likely to explore your site. Take a few moments to read Mr. Mason’s article because it offers tips to ensure you rank high on the search engine result lists.

One more way to ensure you receive visitors from search engines is to build the proper key words into your website META tags. These key words ensure that visitors will pick-up your site when searching. Be sure to include misspellings and topics related to your products as well. Visitors might not know about your product but if they are searching for related items they might discover your offerings. Pete Blackshaw offers some great points in his article Defensive Branding 101: The Role of Search about search engine keywords.

By doing your research and targeting online visitors through search engines you will be opening up new worlds for your business. Before the internet we were limited to customers in our area but since its inception the internet has opened a whole new world of customers for your business. Take the time to do your research and plan your website to ensure you are making the most of this audience.

Assistant

Running a small business alone can be difficult but that is what entrepreneurship is all about, right? Well, yes and no. I am sure that when your business idea was stuck inside your mind you never dreamed that you would be overloaded with so many phone calls to return, emails in your inbox not to mention the mountains of paperwork or bank statements to reconcile. How do you get it all done without help? Could you ask your spouse or a friend for help? Sure, but if they have a regular full-time job then their time is limited too. How can you accomplish the administrative duties AND continue to launch new products or services? The answer to that question is…..you can hire an assistant!

You might think that hiring an assistant is out of the question but think about this, if you had someone to delegate some of those arduous daily tasks how much time would you have for marketing, launching a new product line or spending quality time with important clients (or even family)? These are important things to consider if you want your business to grow. If you’re spending time on a mountain of administrative-like tasks then you will not have time for more important things like growing your company—which is why you are working for yourself in the first place, right?

You-see, the thought of hiring an assistant never occurred to me until I received an email from Alexandra Brown (the EZine Queen). She is the owner of a very successful business and still has time for vacations--not yearly but quarterly! How does SHE do it all and relax too? She has a virtual assistant (or VA) whom she freelances administrative tasks to while she uses her time to grow and market her business. This makes sense to me because these tasks need to be done but they can pile up so quickly stealing valuable time away from other more important things.

I visited the AssistU (http://www.assistu.com) website to learn more about this service and it seems like a reasonable thing to consider. A side note here: I think this is a wonderful opportunity for those who are gifted with administrative skills and want to work from home. If you own a business and want to explore this further their website also has a link to help you find an assistant who will fit your needs. Another website dedicated to VA’s is the International Virtual Assistants Association (http://www.ivaa.org/), a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about this growing career opportunity.

Alexandra has a step-by-step guide (www.ezinequeen.com/assistanttele.htm) to help you to select the best VA for you and your business.

Lastly, my disclaimer: I am not trying to promote these businesses, my hope is that these links will help you in your endeavors.

Organized

When working from home things can get muddled and mixed in such a way that it makes your work environment cluttered. If your work space is out of order it can lead to lost and unproductive hours spent searching for lost files or information. By taking a few steps and a little time to ensure you have a work environment that you can live with can help you keep your office in order and your work days clutter-free.

Before you begin this arduous task be sure to set-aside a place where you can work in a quiet, undisturbed environment. That can be easier said than done when you have little-ones running around but it is an important place to start. If you cannot accomplish your work without being disturbed this can lead to distractions and eventually frustration. Along with a quiet work environment be sure that your office is in a location where you will enjoy spending time. If you stick yourself in a dark corner then you will not enjoy your environment and eventually move to the dining room table. Another important point is to ensure that your family knows where you’ll be working and that this space will be your “office.”

Before you run to your nearest office supply store for all the latest organizing tools and bins, take a few days to de-clutter first. Go through those stacks of papers and rid yourself of outdated materials before trying to organizing them. Look at things that you have in your home to help you too. You can use plastic containers and Make this organization system work for you because if the system is too difficult for you to follow then you’ll end up a cluttered mess again.

Then, think ‘work zones’--place things where you will need them most and they can be easily utilized during your day. Organize in a way that makes things easy to find and use rather than places to store your things. Think of your work day and how things might flow and place things accordingly. Find places for your things where they are convenient to use and try not to make your organization system easy. When creating a filing system, ensure that is easy for you to use. If you can, go paperless when it is possible to cut down on the paper and filing!

Taking time to make your office a space that is inviting will ensure that your work is done efficiently and without wasted time. The most important thing to remember is when you begin organizing your space ensure that you use a system that you can live with otherwise you will find yourself under mountains of papers again. Another important thing to remember is to set-aside time to work and family because they are the reason you are working anyway!


Other Resources:
Organizing Your Home Office For Success : Expert Strategies That Can Work for You
Organizing from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office, and Your Life
Home Office Design : Everything You Need to Know About Planning, Organizing, and Furnishing Your Work Space
Organizing Your Home Office for Success
Everyday Cheapskate's Greatest Tips: 500 Simple Strategies For Smart Living (Debt-Proof Living (Paperback))
Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life

Internet Resources:
http://www.womensmedia.com/new/organizing-home-office.shtml
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol47/organize.htm
http://ct.monster.com/articles/organizehomeoffice/
http://www.getorganizednow.com/
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/c/ec/12.htm