Your Questions About Business Online Services
Linda asks…
Is there some sort of service that provides a temporary address?
Is there some sort of service that provides a temporary address or P.O. Box that I can forward to my house? I do lots of business online, an I don’t always feel comfortable giving people my house address.
I do not want to get a PO box as they are WAY to expensive
Jere answers:
There is a po box. They dont redirect it though. There are also places like Mailboxes etc. That provide mailboxes for temporary use. The post office has tightened up the regulations on private boxes though due to the number of frauds occuring.
Robert asks…
Who would I ask if I wanted to obtain a downloadable directory listing (spreadsheet) of businesses in a city?
I would prefer Excel, XML or SQL, but basically a digital format, not a PDF or hard copy of business names and mailing addresses. If there are online services that have a Web API, then that would be acceptable as well. It doesn’t necessarily have to be free.
Jere answers:
The Chamber of Commerce should have this, not sure if they would sell it or not though.
Paul asks…
Where can I find affordable and good quality logo designing services online?
I’m starting a small business online and am shopping around for affordable yet good quality logo designs on the Internet as I am on a very strict budget. Does anyone have any suggestions on some respectable sites I can check out? Thanks in advance.
Jere answers:
I’ve tried LogoDesignCreation.com before countless of times after a business associate sang high praises on the quality designs offered by this site. I was skeptical at first as it was priced really low compared to other designing sites which I have chanced upon. I decided to give it a shot seeing that it was featured in renowned publications such as WIRED and Wall Street Journal. It was money well spent as what I had envisioned my logo to be was miles better than what I initially thought it would be. The response time was timely and prompt too so you are not wasting much time on waiting. I highly recommend it. You should give it a try.
Here’s the link if you’re interested: http://www.logodesigncreation.com
David asks…
Whats the best way to promote my contracting business locally online besides craiglist?
I own and operate a home remodeling business i mainly use craiglist in order to get work. I wanted to know is there an even better way to promote my business online besides craiglist im trying to build my clientèle. Im a small business right now so i dont own a website im trying to save as much money as i possibly can.
Jere answers:
This is real simple.
In your business you need to focus on two things.
1. Sales
2. Marketing
These two create cashflow.
At this point you don’t need to do anything else that isn’t centered around those two things.
Next, you’ll need to establish yourself as an authority and an expert.
Remember you are competing against other contractors who are actually using other marketing tools that you are not.
So you have to create a category where you are the only choice and where you are considered the expert.
Why?
Because when there are too many choices for a market where everyone is providing the same type of product or service, then in the mind of your market you will be positioned as a commodity.
People choose commodities based off of price.
You have to get your company out of this category in the mind of your clients.
The way you do that is to make sure you compete in a category of one. This way you can also increase your prices this way as well.
Here is how you can do that and earn some nice money for your efforts.
Write this down.
Educate to Dominate.
In order for you to control a market then you need to educate them in a way that your competition isn’t doing.
Create educational material to give to your market.
Combine some of those materials and go to lulu.com and self publish yourself a book.
Why?
Because if you want to be considered the expert, you have to use the tools that your market uses to judge whether or not you are an expert.
And currently the media says that if you’ve written a book then you’re an expert.
What this does is that for your market, when it comes to choosing you or someone else, which one is more likely to be chosen.
The guy who wrote the book on contracting or someone who’s saying hey look at me I have a facebook page.
Start talking to people.
Offer to teach a class at the local community college.
List your business in merchantcircle.com
List your business in manta.com
These sites also offer lead generation services that you can take advantage of as well.
Ask people who you buy your supplies from to give you referrals.
Take pictures of your work. Create a pin board on pinterest
The point with these ideas is that you need to be where your customers are potentially at.
Make it your duty to talk to someone new either every day or at least once a week.
Talk to your current customers, ask them for testimonials and make sure you put that up everywhere your clients are likely to be. When you send emails, include those testimonials.
Right now you only want to focus on cashflow.
I teach my clients that the way you create cashflow is through sales and marketing.
Only focus on those two things.
Once you solve cashflow issues then move on to creating new products or services.
From there you can focus on creating a legacy,
But you only do one area at a time.
Mandy asks…
What is the best customer tracking/sales software application for a small business?
I run a small tutoring business and need a way to track leads, capture customer information and run analytics on my data. We also need to be able to track things like how many hours the student has used, the amount spent, total bill and what lead channel was used so we need to be able to customize fields and tables. I would prefer to have an online service (SoS) host this opposed to having to install but this is not a requirement. Also we are looking for something that can be easily implemented and supported.
Does anyone have any recommendations on a good solution? If you are speaking from experience it would be great if you can tell me how you used the application, the ease of use and the cost. We are a small shop (3 employees) so we are looking for something affordable but with great tools.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Jere answers:
ACT is a good program. I was an insurance salesman for about 5 years and I had to track several of the things that you listed. It has fully customizable fields where if you don’t have a field that you want you can input it. You can also download that information to excel for graphs and easy input.
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