Actual for You - Internet and Businesses Online

Build Your Own No-Cost Mailing List
I've never used a mailing list broker. Reason? When I first started doing postcard mailings back in 1996, I could barely afford to pay my house rent. So, renting a mailing list was out of the question. One of the advantages of operating on a low budget is that you can't spend your way out of problems, you have to think your way out. In the case of my mailing list, the thinking centered around the question of Who Do I Know? A spin through my desktop Rolodex yielded a treasure trove of names. Then there were those helpful family members and friends who referred names to the list. (Most of the time, I didn't even have to ask these people for names. But it never hurts to ask!) And thumbing through the directories of organizations I belonged to was also useful. So, there you have it, four readily available sources of names: 1. Your Rolodex (or some other business card file)2. Family and friends3. People referred by your family and friends (ask them!)4. Membership directories from organizations you belong to You'll be able to build up quite a list in no time. And if you keep postcarding over the years, your list will grow some more.

oftware is for? In addition to this my personal experience showed that many are firmly aimed at the US market and are often incompatible with UK payment service providers. Not surprisingly, I had to grudgingly give up on this area of research and spent a week worrying about the future of my site.

All was not lost however. There is an alternative to becoming one of the heavy-metal t-shirt wearing brigade and emerging yourself in the joys of Perl scripting. Third party providers offer 'Remotely Hosted Shopping Cart Software' which again varies enormously in price and also in how the costs are structured. To cut a long story short I found www.mals-e.com recommended enough times to catch my eye which has an easy to use 'admin page' system. After you sign up you get issued with a small personalised line of code which you add to the HTML of all your 'buy' buttons (which can be either text hyperlinks or images of your choosing). Log in, and start customising the comprehensive list of admin settings (accepted currencies, taxes, postage etc, etc) that's about it really. It's simply priced too at ?13.60 ($24) for 3 months or ?49 ($86.40) for 12 months service. Apart from the reasonable price, the ability to also use the service for fre

Buy A Business That Already Exists - And You'll Avoid Hitting Up Mom And Dad For The Money
Here's a controversial statement that gets people either loving me or hating me when I say it: If you want to make a lot of money very quickly in business, regardless of whether or not you have a lot of experience, money or credit, then you need to know -- despite the hype and mainstream misinformation out there -- that it's way more difficult to start a business from scratch than to simply buy an existing one. Why? The main reason is the money. What happens is you go out and start a business from scratch, and you really can’t borrow any money because nobody wants to lend it to you, except maybe Mom and Dad. And even if they want to lend it to you, the chances are slim you'll be able to pay them back any time soon (if at all) because you will have no profit for a while. On the other hand, if you go out and buy an existing business, and buy it for a normal market price, you can finance just about the whole thing with a lot less trouble and red tape. Usually, if you understand how the "game" is played, you can finance it 100%. Don't misunderstand: This is NOT "no money down". But it is 100% financing. When I was teaching how to buy businesses nationally, all the real estate programs were talking about "nothing down" in real estate. Well in business, you don’t have “nothing down.” There’s a difference between 100% financing, or close to it, and “nothing down.” And, unlike start-ups -- that are not immediately making a profit -- with existing businesses, if you have enough cash flow (and you shouldn't even bother with a business if it doesn't have adequate cash flow out the gate) you can finance the whole thing using any number of different financing methods, including using investors.

Unless you're an experience-hardened entrepreneur, fear of the unknown is always going to be one of the most stressful things about starting up any new business. And with the wealth of up-to-date information readily available over the internet these days you'd be pretty daft to look anywhere else. So when I set out on the road to eCommerce fame and fortune for the first time I thought it would be plain sailing, followed by canap?s and caviar, alas not quite. However, this account of my own journey to accepting online credit card payments should allow you to avoid the many pitfalls and quickly point you in the right direction.

My initial searches proved to be quite fruitful. If you're based in the UK and want to set up your own eCommerce website the general theory behind this is (sort of) straight forward. Here's the list of the essential processes broken down, in simple terms, to explain what's happening at each stage...

Shopping Cart eCommerce Software/3rd Party Service

This handles the various 'Buy' buttons on a site, and places items into the customer's shopping cart. When at the 'checkout' area of an online store, this is also used to gather the customer's name, billing address and credit card details etc, along with any items they've placed in the cart. The card details are then securely passed on to a payment services provider (see below). This can also be used to set up and automatically send out your company receipt to the customer, upon payment approval.

Payment Service Provider (also known as a 'Payment Gateway')

These people act as a middleman between the shopping cart software (see above) the customer's credit card issuer and the store owners Merchant Account (see below). Card details are checked for validity, encrypted and sent back and forth. If the transaction is approved the customer's shipping details and 'bought item' details are then decrypted and sent to the store owner for shipping to take place, and the customer will receive an automated receipt from the payment service provider.

Internet Merchant Account from an 'Acquiring Bank'

This is the service (offered by most high street banks) that actually carries out the customer's credit card processing and puts the money in your pocket. Simple in theory, but the longest and most expensive part to set up.

If you already have a 'Merchant Account' with an Acquiring Bank this will need to be changed over to an 'Internet Merchant Account' for any online transactions to take place, regardless of who the service provider is.

Okay that's all the theory out of the way. Of course you could avoid all this nonsense and save a lot of time and money by simply setting up a Paypal merchant accoun. Afterall, they now accept credit and debit cards without making your customers set up any sort of account with them. Unfortunately, Paypal still has a bit of an image problem (mainly due to it's Ebay roots). If you're selling home made mittens I'm sure this won't be a problem. But if like me, your potential customers are from other businesses, and you want to convey as professional an image as possible, it can send out the wrong sort of message. Also, in my experience, many businesses are notorious for regarding any 'new' payment methods with great suspicion, and many still find it hard to stop using chequebooks. However, I'm sure Paypal will be viewed differently in time, so to cover all eventualities, I chose to implement it on my own site in addition to the more traditional 'merchant account' method for accepting cards.

Finding a Shopping Cart

Beyond this first bit of research I was hoping to find forums full of real life accounts and experiences of the above mentioned services which would quickly point me in the direction of the best software available. On the subject of 'shopping carts' the problem seems to be one of volume. There are a lot of people recommending a lot of different products, so you end up not seeing the wood for the trees, and they range wildly in price. All the big names in this area are PC based, so if you own a mac you may need to also consider the extra cost of either buying a cheap PC for the job or, if you're pushed for space, Virtual PC emulation software.

I read a few times that ecommerce is in it's infancy, but after 2 weeks of studying these "easy" software solutions I was frankly shocked at how dismal these offerings are for normal people like me. Most of them expect you to know some sort of programming language, PHP scripting and spreadsheet inputting. Now I regard myself as being above average when it comes to most things technical, but in this particular area I was quickly left feeling like the school dunce. My personal feeling is that if I've just spent ?300 on a piece of eCommerce software why on earth do I need to know anything about any of these areas, surely that's what the shopping cart software is for? In addition to this my personal experience showed that many are firmly aimed at the US market and are often incompatible with UK payment service providers. Not surprisingly, I had to grudgingly give up on this area of research and spent a week worrying about the future of my site.

Planning for Success - Part 1
If you're a coach, student coach, business owner or someone with a desire to get into business, take careful note of the powerful tips and development strategies presented within this series and GET READY to make the leap to ultimate success.The First Step – Marketing is the Key Many coaches and small to medium business owners believe marketing is simply advertising. This is a HUGE error. Marketing is so much more than just your advertising. Advertising is simply one method, medium or process by which to communicate your product or service offer to prospective clients. Marketing however encapsulates:Strategy; mindset; planning; capital; branding; products and services; product packaging; positioning; pricing; business location; communication; market drivers; business models; innovation; distribution channels; policies and procedures; guarantees; relationship building; sales processes; goals and objectives; business philosophy; and more.Marketing encapsulates everything that influences the CHOICES of your prospects and clients. And the choices of your prospects and clients relate to:- their perception of your business, products and image; - whether they purchase or not; - whether they continue using or re-use your service; - whether they refer your service; - whether they pay; - how much they are willing to pay; - whether or not they endorse; - and much more.As you can see, there is a lot more to effective marketing than just running an ad.How effectively a company undertakes marketing is the primary determinant of its level of success. Marketing is WITHOUT DOUBT the most leveragable process in your business. It is also the most overlooked, and hence the reason for the majority of business failures.A coac

details etc, along with any items they've placed in the cart. The card details are then securely passed on to a payment services provider (see below). This can also be used to set up and automatically send out your company receipt to the customer, upon payment approval.

Payment Service Provider (also known as a 'Payment Gateway')

Internet Merchant Account from an 'Acquiring Bank'

Finding a Shopping Cart

Stamp Yourself and Go By Mail
Everyday you follow the same mail-checking routine. Coming back from the mailbox, you casually flip through the envelopes, separating them on your countertop.It usually goes something like this: junk, bill, bill, magazine that you pay for, another bill, and then more junk. The junk mail goes straight to the trash, and the bills go into the “I’ll get to them later” stack. Then, you take a seat with the winner – the magazine.Did you ever think of how much money is wasted in all of the junk mail you trash? Somewhere, there is a businessman who cries at the thought that the 50? he spent on that piece of mail has been completely wasted.Well, whose fault is that? Not yours. With all the mail we receive on a daily basis, we have been trained to sift through the envelopes with a Terminator eye. We discard whatever looks like junk mail without even noticing what it is.Here is the conundrum: What if there was actually a product worth looking at in that stack of junk mail? What if the meaningful products you send to potential customers are passing as everyday junk mail?Trying to make the envelope look “official” or slapping the words “Do Not Discard” on the envelope won’t save it from the trash. The solution is to make your envelope stand out from the rest – to make it appealing to your potential customer.Start by working backwards. Take a stack of mail from your home to work tomorrow. Place it square in the middle of your oversized conference table. Sit and stare at that pile of mail for awhile. What could you do to get your envelope noticed among all the others?Think about the details of each piece of mail in the pile. What colors are they? How many have a real stamp on them? How many have address labels? How many have the address printed right on th

d over to an 'Internet Merchant Account' for any online transactions to take place, regardless of who the service provider is.

Finding a Shopping Cart

Online Registration Success: Welcome Your Registrants In
The welcome mat: a tried and true method of telling people they are at the right place. Welcoming your guests to your event is an important part of the registration process, so make sure you're doing everything you can to make them feel that way.The MessageA "welcome" message is a nice touch that tells people exactly what event they are registering for and makes them feel good. It's a wonderful opportunity to remind your prospects of the value they'll get out of attending your event. Be specific. Whether it's a conference, incentive trip, training, or golf tournament, we all need reassurance on why we are investing our time and money. It is also a good place to explain a little bit about the online registration process (especially if there's a lot to decide on or fill out)For Example: Welcome to the Conference on Happy Golden Retrievers. We are so excited that you will be joining us in Lake Tahoe this August 20th-23rd.Among the 300 happy goldens, all the cool dog tricks they'll do, and all the fun we'll have hanging out with each other, it ought to be a dog-gone good time! In the next four registration pages we will ask you some questions about you and your dog, your preferences for meals, your hotel preferences, and your preferred method of payment.Please feel free to call or email if you have any questions or problems along the way. We want to make sure you are as happy as your dog.Making your attendees feel welcome is just as important as making guests feel at home in your house. Make sure to remind your guests that what they are signing up for will be a good experience well worth their time.

ull of real life accounts and experiences of the above mentioned services which would quickly point me in the direction of the best software available. On the subject of 'shopping carts' the problem seems to be one of volume. There are a lot of people recommending a lot of different products, so you end up not seeing the wood for the trees, and they range wildly in price. All the big names in this area are PC based, so if you own a mac you may need to also consider the extra cost of either buying a cheap PC for the job or, if you're pushed for space, Virtual PC emulation software.

The Benefits of Metal Store Fixtures
Your choice of materials for store fixtures includes wood, metal, plastic and conglomerate materials such as pressed wood and fiberboard. Depending upon your budget, the weight and size of the product being displayed and the style of your retail establishment, one of these raw materials will serve your needs well. Custom metal store fixtures have become quite popular recently due to advances in methods used to improve the look of metal and a serious plunge in its price. Previously thought of as too heavy, too expensive or too limited in style, metal was frequently passed over for other materials more easily altered to suit changing style trends. It used to be that metal was used primarily for industrial-type establishments, but metal is now sought after for modern looking point-of-purchase displays, counters, garment racks and shelving systems.Modern metals are lightweight, easy to work with, attractive and Last much longer than most other materials used for store fixtures. Freestanding and mounted shelving units, called gondolas, are now made into merchandise display systems in a variety of galvanized metals. Gondolas are useful for displaying merchandise ranging from videocassettes to shoes and clothing to cosmetics. By using bonded coatings, custom metal store fixtures can imitate any appearance you’d like, even wood, at a fraction of the cost. Furthermore, they almost never require any specialized maintenance beyond simple cleaning with a damp cloth. For price, durability and style, today’s metal store fixtures can’t be beat.Some of the newer custom metal store fixtures are designed to imitate standard slatwall panels. Instead of pressed wood or fiberboard, strong, thin metal sheets are produced with holes or grooves that will support a variety of attractive accessories that enable hang

Finding a Payment Service Provider

If I want to find the cheapest electricity supplier, the cheapest mobile phone contract, or buy the cheapest pair of tartan slippers for Father Day there are loads of websites that will compare these things at the touch of a button. And it's pretty simple business sense that in order to remain competitive your overheads should be kept as low as possible without quality of service suffering. With this in mind my first port of call was the Business Link's 'product and cost comparison service' at www.electronic-payments.co.uk (click on the 'Use The Tool' button) which aims to compare the services and costs of various Payment Service Providers.

Initially you're put through the annoying and totally unnecessary hassle of registering with the site. After this dodgy start you are presented with a simple form asking you to put in 3 figures, 'annual turnover' (actual or estimated), 'average online transaction value', and your 'business borrowing/overdraft rate'. All sensible stuff. From there another 4 pages of forms come up 'Transaction Bands', 'Acquiring Costs', 'Payment Method Split' and 'Compatibility' where you can enter more detailed information as you feel necessary before finally being presented with your personalised results. Overall the experience is a bit clunky in places but if you bear with it you find it's a fairly invaluable service.

The cheapest/best 'Payment Service Provider' I found at the time was www.secpay.com. They deal with 10 of the 13 available Acquiring Banks in the UK and (most importantly) their system is compatible with mals-e.com mentioned above. Charges are as follows: an initial ?50 set-up fee (?58.75 with VAT) and ?10 per month thereafter (?11.75 with VAT). Each transaction is charged at either 1.9% or 39p of the sale price (the choice is yours), and the money from the customer will generally take 2-3 days to appear in your business bank account (which is a lot quicker than some). Apparently they also offer an online 'virtual' swipe card facility for telephone orders at no extra charge, but I have yet to test this out myself.

I should also point out that there are a small number of operators such as Netbanx who don't require you to have a merchant account so set-up costs are kept to a minimum, but their individual transaction costs are higher, so for me at least, this was a false economy. I also chose not to accept American Express and Diners Club cards yet, as they need a separate merchant account to handle each of them.

Finding an Internet Merchant Account

This is no easy task, currently there's a serious lack of any specific hard facts and figures on the internet on this subject. There are also no up-to-date comparison tools or lists that I could find, this may well be because a bank's charges can often depend upon how much they're already making from you for other services. For instance, if you already have a loan from the same bank they may charge you less for each online transaction cost. Ecommerce forums were equally disappointing, I found scant accounts from individuals with any personal experience there. Even on the individual banks' websites finding costs and set-up fees is often impossible. In fact I resorted to phoning various departments of HSBC Bank over the course of a whole afternoon where none of the staff could tell me anything about their own merchant banking fees! Merchant banking it would seem is deeply stuck in the dark ages, so they're all more than keen to waste time and paper by sending you their glossy 200-page merchant account 'joining pack' in the post. On the last page in small type you will invariably find these illusively secret figures finally revealed. However, even this was a partial waste of time, as by the time the last 'pack' (of six) arrived two of the banks had already restructured their fees. I was still none the wiser.

So I took a step back, and started again from a slightly different angle. I phoned Secpay asking if they recommended any particular acquiring banks, and they helpfully suggested using either EuroConex (which is the Bank of Ireland/Alliance & Leicester) or Lloydstsbcardnet (Lloyds/TSB) if I want to keep cost to a minimum. From there I called EuroConex (based in Ireland) and had to tell them my predicted annual turnover, and average transaction amount. Based on this, they would charge me a one-off set-up fee and a percentage cost per transaction on credit cards (they had a sliding scale from 1.9% to 2.5% at the time), and 24p per transaction on debit cards. They also have to see your website in order to check that what you're selling is 'ethical'.

A month later, after further research, I

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68% of customers who stopped doing business with a company did so for one reason: they felt like that company didn’t care about them. If you show your customers that you care, your company will shine. You might even attract some of your competitors’ customers! It’s really not hard to show customers that you care, but it takes consistent commitment. Here are five ideas that will get you started building a customer-focused business.

Research shows that most consumers begin their online searching by using generic search terms, thus, it behooves marketers to build in generic terms in their search advertising if they want to improve their marketing strategy.

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