A web site is a crucial ingredient of your marketing strategy because it can widen your target market to include anyone who has access to a computer and the internet. Almost 60% of Canadians had access to the internet at home in 2003, and around 8 million had regular access to the internet from somewhere, either at home, at work or at school.

And thats just in Canada. Ecommerce sales from Canada were 7.2 billion, and we only captured 4% of the global ecommerce market! So, how can you reach some of those internet surfers, and how can you capture some of that 7.2 billion spent in ecommerce?

First, you build it
The first step is designing your website. If your company already has business cards and letterhead, its best to design your website around them. A matching corporate identity and website helps with branding.

I like uncomplicated websites, with a simple layout and easy navigation. A nice, simple layout, with good graphics, balanced look and good color combinations is my #1 goal when designing a small business web site. Remember to use graphics sparingly and to optimize them for your website because internet surfers are impatient. If your page loads too slowly, theyll leave.

Navigation should be easy to find and to use, and it should be consistent from page to page. Ive left more than one site frustrated because I couldnt easily find their navigation.

Small business web sites arent static. They evolve. You need to start somewhere, and starting with an introductory web site is probably easiest. All you really need to start is five pages. You can always add pages later. The important thing is to just do ittake the plunge and get it out there.

Your five pages could include an index, or home page, about us, services, contact and a sitemap. The index page is your landing page. Typically its design is a little more detailed than the others, but it doesnt have to be that way.

I like to use CSS (cascading style sheets) for designing because its simply easier to build a web site and to edit its layout with CSS rather than just HTML (hypertext markup language) alone. A change on a CSS sheet changes all the pages on your site at once.

Content is king
Once your site is designed, youll want to start thinking about content. Design is very important, but it does little good to have a beautiful site without high-quality content.

Your small business home page introduces you and your companywho you are and what you do. The about us page is usually used to give more detail than the home page about who you are, and your services page gives more detail about what you do. You might wonder why youd waste a page on a sitemap since you only have 5 pages, but sitemaps help search engines find all the pages in your site.

As far as content goes, more is better, up to a point. Your pages should be content rich and informative, but they also need to be relevant to your small business. If your visitor cant figure out what your web site is about in just a few seconds, they may leave.

The internet was at first strictly informational, and thats how it remains today. Several times people have tried experiments using copywriting similar to direct mail sales letters, but theyve all failed. It seems as if people surf the internet more for information than anything else. Knowing this will help you write pages people will want to read.

Attracting visitors
You could follow your instinct and just start writing, but wait. Theres research you must do first, or your web site simply wont be high enough in searches to be found. Search engine optimization is far too big a subject to cover in this short article, but among other things, search engines find your pages based on keywords.

So, pretend for a moment that youre on the other side of the desk. If you were a customer of your own business, what words or phrases would you use to search for your product or service? Ask friends and neighbors how theyd search for your product or services.

When youve come up with a few, check them out on a keyword suggestions tool. You can also use that tool to suggest similar words and phrases. Then find out how many results there would be if you searched for that term. What you want to do next is narrow down your choices to the words or phrases that are searched for the most, but have the fewest results.

Remember that people generally dont look beyond the first three pages for any search term, so if youre not in the top three pages, your business is not likely to be found at all. If there are millions of results for your phrase, you might simply need to make it more specific.

For example, lets say you have a small business consulting company that specializes in communication for small business. Using communication as a search term is nearly pointless because there are almost 2 billion results for that word. But, there are only 974 results for small business communication.

Much better, but how often is that searched for? According to WordTracker, its searched for 10 times a day. Not bad, but I think we can do better. How about small business consulting? Thats searched for 261 times a day, and there are 373,000 results. That could be the best primary phrase for a small business communication consulting company.

What you want to do, is write your content around those words and phrases. You dont want or need very manythree or four are plenty.

Getting them to come back again and again
Getting visitors to come back to your site again and again is relatively simple. Keep your content fresh and lively, make sure its informative, and add to it often.

I hope you decide your small business needs a web site. Its the best way I know how to reach a wider target audience with a relatively small investment.

The “spark” for many entrepreneurs is seeing an opportunity that doesnt yet exist. Ted Turner, for example, launched CNN because he perceived that people wanted more television news than they were being offered. It took a lot of patience on Turners part to realize the vision, but he had read the market in a way that few “experts” did at the time.

In realizing the promise of CNN, Turner demonstrated another facet of the entrepreneurial spirit, persistence. There are a lot of bright ideas that never reach fruition; taking a “raw” idea and converting it into a successful business model is very hard work.

And that work never stops. No matter how innovative your idea, the competition is always just behind you. With anything less than constant creative effort on your part, they may not stay behind you.

Are you still with me? Here is where I reveal why everyone isnt an entrepreneur:

No opportunity is a sure thing, even though the path to riches has been described as, simply “…you make some stuff, sell it for more than it cost you… that’s all there is except for a few million details.” The devil is in those details, and if one is not prepared to accept the possibility of failure, one should not attempt a business start-up.

It is not indicative of a negative perspective to say that an analysis of the possible reasons for failure enhances our chances of success. Can you separate failure of an idea from personal failure? As scary as it is to consider, many of the great entrepreneurial success stories started with a failure or two.

Some types of failure can indicate that we may not be entrepreneurial material. Foremost is reaching one’s level of incompetence; if I am a great programmer, will I be a great software company president? Attitudinal problems can also be fatal, such as excessive focus on financial rewards, without the willingness to put in the work and attention required. Addressing these possibilities requires an objectivity about ourselves that not everyone can manage.

Other types of failure can be recovered from if you “learned your lesson.” A common explanation for these is that “it seemed like a good idea at the time.” Or, we may have sought too big a “kill;” we could have looked past the flaws in a business concept because it was a business we wanted to be in. The venture could have been the victim of a muddled business concept, a weak business plan, or (more often) the absence of a plan.

When small businesses fail, the reason is generally one, or a combination, of the following:

* inadequate financing often due to overly optimistic sales projections;

* management shortcomings,

— such as inadequate financial controls, lax customer credit, inexperience, and neglect, and;

* misreading the market,

— indicated by failure to reach the “critical mass” required in sales volume and profitability,

— usually due to competitive disadvantages or market weakness.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Why My Business Failed,” Ken Elias cautions that “even if the concept is right, it won’t fly if the strategy is wrong.” Still, on being asked whether he would start another business today, he answers: “Absolutely. The experience is fabulous, exciting and the possibility of success is always there.”

The Fine Art of Juggling Business and Motherhood for Mom Entrepreneurs

Like every entrepreneurial mom, two of the top priorities in my life are my family and my business.

My Story. I have always been a driven person. I knew what I needed to do to earn my next promotion. I took every class and seminar that I could find to help me get ahead. When I was in my early 20s, all my colleagues were men in their 40s. If I had kept going, I would certainly have reached upper level management.

My desire and drive for status in the corporate world came to a screeching halt on a day in late 1993–the day I became Jackies Mom. That day, as all Moms understand, my priorities dramatically shifted. Life was no longer all about me. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. Suddenly work and school were unimportant. I began looking for opportunities to work from home or for good part-time jobs.

It is not easy to juggle business and motherhood. I do not claim to be an expert. After Jackie was born, I spent several years in the corporate world not realizing there were other opportunities for me. While I worked full-time, my constant concern was that I was missing everything while my child was in daycare for 11 hours a day. Because I know children are only little for a short time, a cloud of overwhelming sadness was constantly hanging over me. In my efforts to overcome this concern, I was fortunate along the way to find several excellent part-time jobs, and I even job-shared for a year. I have actually only worked full-time for half of my daughters 12 years. Yet it still never occurred to me that I could leave the security of a corporate job to have my own business.

Thankfully, the entrepreneurial bug bit me in late 2002. I now have my own business, and I love every minute of it. I am much happier and I am able to set my schedule around my childrens important activities and, on occasion work with them beside me. I recently sat at breakfast with Jackie and asked her when she has been happiest with my work schedule. She too was happiest when I was able to take her to school and pick her up myself and attend all her important activities.

My husband, Terry is about to begin working in my business full-time, too. While we are looking forward to being together more and working together to help build our business, this will be a major life change for us. Our son Cole (age three) is currently in daycare for three part-time days each week. Last week we discussed some of the adjustments we will need to make with Terry being home more. We made the commitment to juggle taking care of Cole and working in the business the remaining two days a week for the next two years until he starts kindergarten. We know it is best for Cole, that this time is a special time to be with him, and he is worth it.

I have learned many things as a Mom Entrepreneur, and I would like to share two of them. The Importance of Being Present. Several months ago, I had a breakfast meeting with my business partner and one of our networking organization members. The member was sharing some of the things he had learned in a workshop. I will never forget when he said, You are not listening, youve never listened, and you are not listening now Then he explained how he realized he hadnt been listening to his own daughter. I immediately understood what he was saying and my heart sank. I thought of my children. Although I had always wanted to have as much time with them as possible, I had become involved in growing my business. While juggling both work and family, I had stopped listening. I had been fooling myself and I had been very wrong. I apologized to my daughter that day. I changed immediately, including even little things. For example, while ironing on stars Jackie had earned in P.E., I took the time to talk about how she had earned the stars. I understood how much I was going to miss unless I was present all the time. Working moms often struggle with the lack of time spent with their children, but when we are present, every moment we spend with our children can be special quality time.

The Value of Teamwork. One of the most important things we can do for our families is to have open communication. I am not afraid to ask for help from my family. I try my best to communicate my upcoming schedule ahead of time. When I have a particularly hectic week, we talk about what is happening, if its temporary, acknowledge the stress it puts on all of us and handle it together. As a team, we worked out a plan for the days when I leave early to attend a breakfast meeting. When I say, I have a breakfast meeting tomorrow, everyone knows what to do. For example, my husband takes care of our son and drops him off at preschool. My family understands my commitment to them is, if at all possible, I will only attend one breakfast meeting a week. I communicate with them what is happening in the business and try to involve them in it, too. We are all in this together. As the business succeeds, we all succeed.

You can help, too. I love to help others, and as I continue my personal journey towards a more balanced life, I want to collect the experiences of other entrepreneurial moms. I am also writing a book for Mom Entrepreneurs. The comments submitted for these articles could also be featured in the book. It is my goal to share your stories so that we can all help each other to master the fine art of juggling business and motherhood.

Studies have shown that successful entrepreneurs possess these characteristics:

1. Self-confidence

This is that magical power of having confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities.

2. Achievement Oriented

Results are gained by focused and sustained effort. They concentrate on achieving a specific goal, not just accomplishing a string of unrelated tasks.

3. Risk Taker

They realize that there is a chance of loss inherent in achieving their goals, yet they have the confidence necessary to take calculated risks to achieve their goals.

Entrepreneurs are people who will make decisions, take action, and think that they can control their own destinies. They are often motivated by a spirit of independence which leads them to believe that their success depends on raw effort and hard work, not luck.

So which of these three main characteristics is the most important? Believe it or not, it has to be self-confidence. Without self-confidence, nothing else is possible. If you don’t believe in your abilities, then the first challenge that arises may knock you off the path to achieving your goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind for maintaining a higher level of self-confidence.

Positive Thinking

Well, it all starts with a positive attitude, doesn’t it? Believing that something good will happen is the first step. Negative thinking simply is not allowed. You must truly believe that there are no circumstances strong enough to deter you from reaching your goals. Remember too, that positive thinking can be contagious. When positive thinking spreads, it can open doors to new ideas, customers, friends, etc.

Persistent Action

Now all of the positive thinking and believing in the world is useless if it is not applied towards a goal. You have to take action, no excuses are allowed. This action must also be persistent. Trying once and then giving up is not going to be enough. Keep at it one step at a time. If you can’t get by a certain step, then find a creative way to try again or just go around it.

At the beginning of this article we identified a few traits that are common among successful entrepreneurs. You should be able to look ahead and see yourself where you want to be. Now just maintain a strong belief in yourself and your skills, stick with it, and don’t give up. If you can do that, you’re already half way there!

Studies have shown that successful business entrepreneurs possess these characteristics:

1. Self-confidence

This is that magical power of having confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities.

2. Achievement Oriented

Results are gained by focused and sustained effort. They concentrate on achieving a specific goal, not just accomplishing a string of unrelated tasks.

3. Risk Taker

They realize that there is a chance of loss inherent in achieving their goals, yet they have the confidence necessary to take calculated risks to achieve their goals.

Business entrepreneurs are people who will make decisions, take action, and think that they can control their own destinies. They are often motivated by a spirit of independence which leads them to believe that their success depends on raw effort and hard work, not luck.

So which of these three main characteristics is the most important? Believe it or not, it has to be self-confidence. Without self-confidence, nothing else is possible. If you don’t believe in your abilities, then the first challenge that arises may knock you off the path to achieving your goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind for maintaining a higher level of self-confidence.

Positive Thinking

Well, it all starts with a positive attitude, doesn’t it? Believing that something good will happen is the first step. Negative thinking simply is not allowed. You must truly believe that there are no circumstances strong enough to deter you from reaching your goals. Remember too, that positive thinking can be contagious. When positive thinking spreads, it can open doors to new ideas, customers, friends, etc.

Persistent Action

Now all of the positive thinking and believing in the world is useless if it is not applied towards a goal. You have to take action, no excuses are allowed. This action must also be persistent. Trying once and then giving up is not going to be enough. Keep at it one step at a time. If you can’t get by a certain step, then find a creative way to try again or just go around it.

At the beginning of this article we identified a few traits that are common among successful business entrepreneurs. You should be able to look ahead and see yourself where you want to be. Now just maintain a strong belief in yourself and your skills, stick with it, and don’t give up. If you can do that, you’re already half way there!

As a small business owner, you are a risk taker. There is excitement and challenge in such a venture, but to succeed you need good management information, an ability to be a good manager of people and the intelligence and inner strength to make the right decisions. From unnecessary risk taking, thousands of workers die each year and many suffer injury or illness from conditions at work.

How often does an owner or manager actually see work-related deaths, serious injuries or illnesses in the workplace? In some small businesses, the answer is rarely. For this reason, many owners or managers do not understand why there is controversy about the government having occupational safety and health agencies with enforceable laws. But others have learned why; unfortunately, they have experienced a loss. These ownermanagers will tell you that it is too late to do anything once a serious accident happens. They have learned that prevention is the only real way to avoid this loss and unnecessary risk taking.

Reducing losses and risks are goals that you as an owner or manager must set in assuring the safety and well being of all in the business. Small business owners and managers place a high value on the well-being of your employees. Family members and personal acquaintances may be part of the business and even hired employees will become almost like family as time goes by.
Investing in safety and health activity now will better enable you to avoid possible losses in the future.

Nobody wants accidents to happen in the workplace. A serious fire, a permanent injury, or the death of an employee or owner can cause the loss of profit or even an entire business. To prevent such losses, you dont have to turn your business upside down. You may not have to spend a lot of money, either. You do need to use good business sense and apply safety prevention policies. There are reasons why accidents happen. An accident always has a cause and a reason why. Once you know why an accident happened, it is possible to prevent future incidents.

The business needs a plan to prevent accidents. Not all dangers at the workplace depend on an accident to cause harm, of course. Worker exposure to toxic chemicals or harmful levels of noise or even radiation may cause gradual illness over a long period of time. There needs to be a plan that includes prevention of these unseen health hazard exposures. There needs to have a safety and health management system. It is not difficult to develop such a plan. Basically, the plan should address the types of accidents and health hazard exposures that could happen in the workplace. Because each workplace is different, the program should address the specific needs and requirements for the business.

There are four basic elements to all good safety and health programs. These are as follows:

1) The manager needs to lead the way, by setting policy, assigning and supporting responsibility, setting an example and involving employees.
2) The workplace needs to be continually analyzed to identify all existing and potential hazards.
3) Methods to prevent or control existing or potential hazards are put in place, maintained, and updated.
4) Managers, supervisors and employees need to be trained to understand and deal with worksite hazards.

Regardless of the size of the business, the plan should use each of these points to prevent workplace accidents and possible injuries and illnesses. Developing a workplace program following these four points is a key step in protecting you and your workers safety and health. If you already have a program, reviewing it in relation to these points should help you improve what you have.

Following this four-point approach to safety and health in your business may also improve efficiency. It may help you reduce insurance claims and other costs. The plan will certainly give you a way to express and document your good faith and commitment to protecting your workers health and safety.

This approach usually does not involve large costs. Developing a health and safety protection plan does not have to be expensive and generally does not require additional employees, especially in smaller businesses. Safety and health can be integrated into your other business functions with modest effort on your part and will become part of the daily routine.

The key to the success of a safety and health plan and program is to see it as a part of the business operation and to see it reflected in the day-to-day operations. Once implemented, the safety program will become second natured to the owner as well as the employees.

Whether you are starting a manufacturing company or opening up a coffee shop, SBA loans are the way to finance your small business. Small business loans are loans that are guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, which was started to assist entrepreneurs in forming successful small businesses. According to federal government research, small businesses employ fully one-half of Americas private sector workforce and over 99 percent of all employers in the U.S. are small business owners.

There are several benefits to SBA loans, including the many licensed lending partners nationwide. The SBA establishes guidelines, reasonable loan terms, and is able to offer better interest rates and options to businesses in the early stages of development.

There are some difficulties in obtaining a small business loan, however, beginning with the requirements for potential borrowers. Lenders will consider the size of your business, including number of employees, and your companys average revenue in certain industries, such as construction or wholesale.

When you call your lender to be considered for a loan, plan on answering a lot of questions about your business. Some information they might ask you for is a business profile (type of business, sales revenue, number of people you employ, and how long you have been in business), a description of the money you need and how you plan to spend it. Also be prepared to provide collateral and explain how you plan to secure the loan.

There are several different types of SBA loan options available, including:
Basic 7(a) Loan Guaranty
Certified Development Company (CDC), a 504 Loan Program
Microloan, a 7(m) Loan Program

More information about these types of loans can found through your private lender, or the Small Business Administration.

To learn more about the www.sncloans.comsmall-business-loan.html SBA Loans offered and to see if you qualify for one, visit www.sncloans.comSecurity National Capital today.

The rapid growth of the internet commerce in recent years presents established small businesses with a serious dilemma. On the one hand, they can stick with the business model that has worked for them for the last number of years. On the other hand, they can make the shift to serious eBusiness.

Choosing to stand pat is usually much easier in the short term. But in the longer term this almost certainly means they will be left behind by technology, and lose many of their most important clients to more aggressive competitors.

But shifting to eBusiness may involve committing substantial resources to developing a new game plan. That usually means refining product lines to make them easier to sell online, upgrading computer systems and websites, and training personnel at all levels to be more web savvy. It also means developing or hiring staff to handle the administration of new marketing, sales, and delivery systems, and working with outside consultants and service providers to handle the technical aspects of the new program that cannot be handled by your own people.

Is adopting an eBusiness Solution worth the effort?

Are the short term difficulties involved in making the transition to eBusiness worth the effort?

In virtually all cases, Yes.

It is like any other investment in your business. Some businesses look at the cost of upgrading production equipment or of renovating their office or retail space and decide it is simply not worth the cost. They decide the future is too uncertain to risk moving ahead, so they opt to tread water until either circumstances change, or they simply cannot continue any longer in business.

In this sense, choosing to stay abreast of technological changes is a business necessity. And these days, deciding to get involved with eBusiness is the most important technological decision many current businesses will ever make.

Advantages of eBusiness

Here are some of the more important advantages of moving to eBusiness.

You can develop a more cost-effective Communication and Marketing Strategy – The most obvious advantage of “upgrading” to eBusiness is that it gives you a vital web presence. In an upgraded “eBusiness environment” your company web site becomes the focal point of your communications and marketing strategy. And in an era when an increasingly large number of people are using the web as their first source of product and service information, “being there” 247 is extremely important.

You can reach New Markets World Wide – The internet offers exciting ways of reaching new markets that could only be dreamed of in the past. There are methods of promoting your products online that allow you to precisely target the customers you are after whether they are in your town or on the other side of the world.

You can reach Local Customers and Prospects more effectively – Until recently, companies offering a product or service to local customers could not see the benefits of having an online presence. But as more and more people become comfortable with using the internet instead of traditional advertising sources like classified ads or yellow pages, having an aggressive web presence makes better business sense even for local companies. This may also offer a springboard to developing new markets further afield.

You can cut Advertising and Marketing Costs – Online advertising is not only more efficient, but it is often less expensive than traditional advertising. After sales training expenses can also be reduced by utilizing online seminars, training videos and tutorials.

You can streamline the Ordering Process by taking orders online – Implementing an online ordering system allows you to eliminate manual paper work or telephone order taking. It also offers the possibility of integrating your sales order system with order fullfillment and delivery so customers can be up to speed on the progress of their orders at all times.

You can cut Communications and Telephone Costs – While the costs of voice communications using long distance telephone services have been coming down rapidly over the last few years, switching to an eBusiness model offers the possibility of totally eliminating many of these costs. Of course there is traditional email. But beyond that, there are systems like “Live Help” where customers can chat live with support or sales staff. And the most recent development is VoIP (Voice Over Internet) which promises to completely revolutionize telephone service.

Finding the right eBusiness Solution

Every business is unique, so every business will require a unique eBusiness solution. Chances are most small businesses will not have the resources inhouse to make the move. In that case they should find an eBusiness solution provider that takes a comprehensive approach to each situation. Rather than offering a pre-packaged program, they should be able to look carefully at a business and make recommendations based on its specific needs. That includes the ability to provide staff training and ongoing support long after the initial system is put in place.

Fair Isaac, the company that develops the formula to determine credit scores looks at the average statistics of consumers and factors that into your score, called a (FICO). According to Fair Isaac the average consumer will have:

One inquiry on their personal credit report in a given year
54% of credit holders carry a balance of less then 5,000 on all debts other then a mortgage
Have access to 12,190 on all credit cards combined

Now are entrepreneurs, like you, the typical consumer? I asked one of my clients (J.G.). No., said J.G.. You will see that as an entrepreneur, we have several more credit needs then the average consumer. So when the personal credit bureaus compare us to the average consumer, our credit consumption is not normal. Which is why your credit score lowered since starting your business. That’s not fair said J.G. My reply, If you don’t understand how the system works, you’re right.

Let’s look at J.G.’s situation. He has applied several times with suppliers for various credit lines over the last year. Each inquiry will likely drop his credit score approximately 5-10 points. The credit bureaus as suppose to lump three together and only drop 5-10 for the three, we’ll see if it happens. He also has a 60,000 line of credit available and carries a balance of 42,000. Both the amount of credit and balance are more then the consumer average which can hurt his score as well. This is without looking at anything else in the business or his personal life.

If J.G. had just taken the time to develop a business credit profile and start establishing basic lines of credit in the business name and then slowly build the businesses credit over time, he may never have ended up without the ability to buy the home he and his family wanted.

This is why I have written books and developed products and services with our company, Business Credit Services, to provide an education to the entrepreneur on how to become the typical consumer again and separate your personal and business life.

Should Small Businesses have a web presence?

In one word, yes! The internet is the most effective marketing tools in existance nowadays, have the capability of reaching far more people than any leaflet drop or advertisement in the local paper ever will.
Should you produce your own website?

It all depends on your skills, if you have the ability to produce a site that looks good, then go ahead, it will save you money and will work wonders as a marketing tool. However if your skills are limited or non-existant then we’d say no. Why? No, not because we want your money (although we don’t mind if you want to give it to us…), because if your site doesn’t have a professional look to it, then it is going to reflect badly on your company’s image.

Do you need to spend lots of money?

It really depends on the size of your website, if you’re looking simply get a presence on the internet, then you can easily get something for around 250 if you take the time to look, if you’re really getting into the idea of being online and effectively having your shop exist in cyberspace you’re going to be looking at more money, however even then, there are many self-build options such as Ekmpowershop.

What content do you need?

This all depends on what you want from being online, if you want to sell online, have your products online is going to be very useful! If you’re just looking to get your company online, then there are TWO elements that we believe are imperative:

Information about your company
How to contact you

Without these two no-one is going to know who or what you are, with the former being your chance to sell yourself. Remember when people look at websites, if its well designed they won’t know if they’re dealing with a multi-national company or a one person organisation, this is your chance to play alongside the big boys!!

What to do now?

So you’re convinced a website is the way to go? Excellent, this can only be of benefit to you! Now you’ve got to find a designer (there’s one right here!!!), things to keep in mind when looking is what kind of style are you looking for, find some websites that you like then find some designers and see if they can produce something along that line! If they can, you’re on the way to bringing into being what can be one of your best employees!!