Your Questions About Business Online Services Group

Jere answers:

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Unfortunately the first stap of overthinking your website is often missed. A domain-name is very important but if you want a good service you first need to know what technical demands you’ve got. And to know your technical demands, you have to consider your site thoroughly.

A site idea is how you want your site to be. Consider the groups you target (make a short demographic description including computer skills) for each group. Ask yourself what they want from your site. Next ask yourself what you want from your site: entertain, get them to go to a shop and buy your book or even have an online bookshop. This is very important for how your site is going to be, so take enough time to consider all this.

Once you know how you want your site to be, you start thinking about content. Shortly write the main pages down in keywords: home, about us, downloads etc.

Having an insight in your content it’s time to make up your navigation. Always think of how navigation would be the most logical to you. Ask some friends to check it. They can tell you what is unclear and could be better.

So, you’ve got your idea and content based on your goals and target groups. Here comes te designing process. No need to call a designer yet, just go to globally designing it yourself: how would you like to be your site, from a graphical view. Should the site be a graveyard with the gravestones as navigation or do you prefer a very mysterious site. It depends on your product and information. Check some sites of other companies to get an idea and discuss your own idea’s again with friends (preferebly those who share your interest) as a focus-group. A creative site stays in the mind, so be creative without losing your goals.

Afer you’ve done all this, it is time to find a designer. You’ve prepared yourself, so you can tell him what you want. Ask him/her for an opinion of your thoughts. Maybe your designer comes up with some points you didn’t think about. On base of what you want you designer can tell you what technical demands there are for your site. Most designers can also tell you where you should register or offer hosting themselves.

It’s time for the designer to design and for you to write the actual texts (or if you’re very lucky that’s up to a copywriter). Biggest hint here: people read poorly on the internet. Write down what you want to tell and make a summarized text out of this. No complicated grammar constructions; try to keep the number of words down to 7 per sentence and use as less sentences as possible (be reasonable here though). Note that this is a general pointer. An article from a magazine is something very different ofcourse.

Some other general pointers:
* Don’t go online to hasty. If you do, you’ll encounter big problems or your site needs rebuilds every 2 months.
* Nothing as irritating as an ‘under construction’ message.
* Look into the future: how do you expect your site to grow.
* Forbid your designer to use flash. It’s fancy, but not everyone has got it. Only use it if it’s /really/ needed for your site.
* Make sure your site is readable to everyone.
* Don’t forget to tell search engines where to find you
* Update your site on a regular base and make sure never to have got really outdated information on your site.

Luckily my answer to your second question is shorter: there’s no need to get your designer to update your site, you can do this yourself if you learn some basic html-codes. I would suggest you ask your designer to make a combination mysql/php-site for you, which is easy maintainable. For big changes on your site a designer is needed though.

Jere answers:

The Government has created a portal to help individuals who need benefits because of life events. Visit http://www.govbenefits.gov

Use the drop down button
DO YOU NEED BENEFITS BECAUSE OF A LIFE EVENT?
Choose the life situation best applicable to you and then see if you qualify for the available government assistance.

It is hard to find grants to start a business. Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for a for-profit business. And yes, grants mean PAPERWORK – lots and lots of it, that is why a cottage industry of grant writers was born.

Nonetheless, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture.

Even if you buy books on “how to get grants” or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently. But still the info is the same – hardly any grants for starting a for profit business.

Even SBA does NOT give out grants. From the SBA website http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html…

“The U.S. Small Business Administration does not offer grants to start or expand small businesses, although it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. (See http://www.sba.gov/financing for more information) While SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments.”

Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. Minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT – Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program

Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women’s Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women’s business center that will train women entrepreneurs

For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center’s Foundation Grants for Individuals Online. It’s a subscription based website ($9.95 per month) but their opening blurb only says that the database is ideal for “students, artists, academic researchers, libraries and financial aid offices.” Entrepreneurs are apparently not one of them, so I take it they also don’t have listings of private foundations who give grants to would-be entrepreneurs.

Jere answers:

Check out
http://www.digital-women.com

Rebecca’s site is chock full of information – including an amazing resource book filled with wholesaling resources – where you can find just about everything under the sun to buy at wholesale and then sell retail.

Also, don’t forget to check with your local business licensing department, to find out if there is a special license or other regulations you’ll need to follow – and they can give you solid advice about how to get started.

Check out your local Chamber of Commerce – not only can they be a great asset for getting started and getting the word out, but they can probably point you in the right direction of other sources.

If you have more questions, the SBA is a great resource – and you can even get answers to your questions from the website, find samples of business plans and much, much more. ( http://www.sba.gov )

Need the advice of an experienced clothing store exec? Check out SCORE – you can find an expert who was in your line of work, and they’ll answer your questions and help you for free. ( http://www.score.org )

MicroMentor is another great resource that offers free mentors to small business people. ( http://www.micromentor.com )

Check out the resources available at your local library – especially in the reference section. You’ll find trade and special industry magazines, catalogs and much, much more.

Your local Small Business Development Center, Women’s Small Business Development Center or local Economic Development Office can offer advice, information, resources, training and much more.

The U.S. Goverment Federal Trade Commission does much more than protect consumers from fraud. Check out their Website.

Join online and offline industry or networking groups in your field. They can provide valuable advice, information and share insider’s tips for your success – plus it helps not to feel like you’re alone!

Your local Job Service or Workforce Development office can provide information about demographics, plus answer all your questions about hiring employees, taxes and insurance you’ll have to pay.

Talk to an insurance agent who specializes in your type of business. They are often “in the know” and can be a fountain of great information.

Good luck!

Jere answers:

You can only send to a maximum of 100 addresses at a time and no more than 50 to the same domain IE: @yahoo.com…. This is to prevent SPAMMERS from overdoing it… This includes any CATEGORY you formulate to make it easier sending to multiple addresses. If more than one CATEGORY the total of BOTH cannot exceed the restrictions.

If you want to hide all addresses from one another put 100 in the BCC line and put NOTHING in the TO line … Recipients will see UNDISCLOSED RECIPIENT in the TO line which does not effect anything…

You will know when you have reached your limit when you receive notification from Yahoo advising you have reached your limit…When this happens you may have to wait a half hour or so before you can continue sending messages with many email addresses…Normally, after receiving this notification you can still send emails with messages containing only a few email addresses..
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I obtained this comment from the internet. You can obtain many suggestions by entering HOW TO SEND EMAILS TO MANY PEOPLE in your web browser.

Without knowing more about your specific situation, my general recommendation would be to get your 1,200 people to join a Yahoo group. They have to join, but once they’re on, then a) you won’t be accused of spamming, and b) you’ll know that they actually want to get whatever it is you’re sending.

If you absolutely cannot ask them to take action to “sign up” for your email, then you should check with your ISP for mailing solutions, or look for mailing list providers that don’t require double opt in. You do run the risk of being labeled a spammer, though, if you go this route.

Or, of course, you could send a lot of individual emails, by hand.

Though you’ll still run the risk of being called a spammer.

Jere answers:

It is hard to find grants to start a business. Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for a for-profit business (they perpetuate the myth so you will buy their books or pay for their grant application services – even if they know you won’t qualify).

Nonetheless, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture.

Even if you buy books on “how to get grants” or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently. But still the info is the same – hardly any grants for starting a for profit business.

Even SBA does NOT give out grants. From the SBA website http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html…

“The U.S. Small Business Administration does not offer grants to start or expand small businesses, although it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. (See http://www.sba.gov/financing for more information) While SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments.”

Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. Minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT – Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program

Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women’s Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women’s business center that will train women entrepreneurs

For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center’s Foundation Grants for Individuals Online. It’s a subscription based website ($9.95 per month) but their opening blurb only says that the database is ideal for “students, artists, academic researchers, libraries and financial aid offices.” Entrepreneurs are apparently not one of them, so I take it they also don’t have listings of private foundations who give grants to would-be entrepreneurs.