What is a branded email address?

A branded email address uses your company’s registered domain in the email address:  @yourcompanyname.com

A non-branded email address is any email address that ends in:

@yahoo.com
@live.com
@msn.com
@gmail.com
@hotmail.com
@aol.com
@mac.com

Why is a branded email address important for my business?

• Establish sense of professionalism: Your business contacts are likely to take you and your business more seriously if you are using a branded email address (@yourcompanyname.com) as opposed to a non-branded email address (@yahoo.com).
• Low cost:  The only required cost is the domain registration, which is roughly $10/year.
• Free advertising:  If you use a non-branded email address, you are essentially advertising that service for free (april@yahoo.com or april@gmail.com).  With a branded email address, you’ll be advertising your own business and reaping the benefits.
• Overall marketing presence: Your email address is another extension of your business and should support other branded marketing materials, such as business cards, website, etc.

Why Free Google Apps?

Free Google Apps is one great option for businesses to use in order to get branded email addresses.

We recommend using Free Google Apps if:

• You have 10 employees or fewer, including yourself (otherwise, you’ll need to upgrade to Business Google Apps, which is $50/user/year);
• Your business frequently collaborates online and/or shares files;
• You want to access your email and other applications anywhere, anytime.

Read How To: Set up Business Email Accounts to see other options that might suit you better.

4 Easy Steps

1.  Register Your Domain Name

The first step is to choose and register the domain name you want to use for your email addresses (e.g. @yourcompanyname.com).  Our preferred registrar of choice is GoDaddy.com.

Ready to register your domain name? Click Here >>

Do you need help with this step? Read How To: Register Your Domain Name.

2.  Create a Free Google Apps Account

The second step is to create a free Google Apps account.  Visit the Google Apps page, and click the “Get Started” button.  The form will prompt you enter the domain name you registered in the step above, set a username and password for your first user, as well as enter some additional contact information.

Click Here to Create a Free Google Apps Account >>

3.  Verify Domain Ownership

After you have created your free Google Apps account, Google will redirect you to your dashboard to continue the setup.  Choose “Express” setup. 

Google will ask you to verify ownership of the domain name you registered in Step 1.  There are several verification methods, but we recommend adding a DNS record to your domain’s configuration because it is the easiest method and your domain likely will not change.

Click the “Alternate Methods” tab and select the option “Add a DNS record to your domain’s configuration.”  Generate instructions for GoDaddy.com and follow the onscreen instructions.  If you have configured everything properly, Google will show you a message on the next screen that confirms domain ownership.

4.  Update MX Records

The last step is to update the MX records on your domain name. MX Records tell your domain registrar how to route your email (in this case, you’re routing to Gmail).

You can use this tool to automatically create the necessary Google Apps MX records for GoDaddy: https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/google/gmail_login.asp

Once the MX records have been generated, tell Google that they have been changed. Go to your Google Apps Dashboard, and click “Set Up Your Apps” > Gmail > Set Up Gmail.

You will now be able to start receiving/sending emails from your branded email address.

Optional Step: Create Additional Users

If you have several employees or email addresses you want to set up, then you will need to create additional users.  To create additional users, go to your Google Apps dashboard and click “Organization and Users” in the blue menu at the top of the screen.  Click “Create New User” and fill out the details of the new email address you want to set-up.

Remember, the Free Google Apps comes with 10 email addresses.  If you need more, you can upgrade to Business Google Apps, which is $50/user/year.

Tips for Setting Up Business Email Addresses

• Use a consistent structure for your emails, such as firstname.lastname@companyname.com.  That way, if someone from outside your office has to guess a co-worker’s email address, they will be more likely to get it correct.
• Set up a Google Group if you want to make a mailing list that emails everyone at your office (e.g. office@yourcompanyname.com or team@yourcompanyname.com).
• Inform people of your new email address. Send out an announcement email, update your marketing materials (including business cards) and be sure to spread the word!

If you have any questions or want to share how a branded email address has helped your business, please leave a comment or message me: @CW_AprilA

The following alternatives offer similar functionality to the applications included with Microsoft Office. Each alternative is recommended for a specific purpose or office setup. Although there are many types of freeware and cloud apps on the Web, we’ve detailed the most popular options and explained who should use them.

Apple iWork (desktop software)

Apple iWork is a desktop application suite that works only with Mac OS. The most recent version of the software is Apple iWork 09, which includes Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheets), and Keynote (presentations).

Recommendation:

We recommend Apple iWork for business owners who want to use a Mac computer for business and save significantly on the cost of basic software. If your primary business computers are Macs, or if you’ve got an existing Mac that you’d like to use for business purposes, then you should consider using Apple iWork as an alternative to Microsoft Office.

Cost:

iWork is significantly cheaper than Microsoft Office. You can get Apple iWork 09 for about $80 from Amazon.com or Apple.com, while Microsoft Office Home and Business for Mac OSX goes for about $215 on Amazon.  Unlike Microsoft, which gives you the option to purchase either the entire Office suite or standalone applications like Word or Excel, Apple only offers iWork as a bundled applications suite.

Compatibility:

Unlike Microsoft Office, iWork does not let you open files created in the current software version with an older version, which will limit your ability to share documents with users of the older versions. However, you can open files created in older versions with the current software without any issues. Pages 09 can open Microsoft Word files, and Numbers 09 can open Microsoft Excel files, but you might lose formatting.

Functionality:

Apple Pages 09 offers feature-rich word processing, along with intuitive graphics features. Pages now offers even more variety with 40 new templates, including stationery sets and a variety of newsletter designs. However, the software may lack some functionality when compared to Microsoft Word’s formatting and layout options.

Apple Numbers (the spreadsheet tool) is designed for simple calculations and includes templates for common spreadsheet functions, such as a check register and savings calculator. Numbers is not recommended as a replacement for Microsoft Excel, as Numbers is not good with Pivot Tables, which are integral for many types of spreadsheet functions.

How often is a paid upgrade required?

A new version of iWork comes out every year or two. You are not required to buy the new version, but it is recommended if you want the latest features.

Open Office (freeware)

OpenOffice.org, commonly known as Open Office, is a free, open-source application suite whose main applications are Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (graphics), and Base (databases). Open Office provides a single interface for the whole application suite, unlike Microsoft Office, which requires you to open each application separately.

Recommendation:

If you’re not ready to completely ditch Microsoft, you might consider purchasing Microsoft Office for some computers and downloading Open Office on other computers to cut down on costs. We recommend OpenOffice for any of the following user types/office setups:

• A business with a small, technically comfortable staff that might be inclined to use open-source tools. If your staff prefers open-source software for philosophical reasons, and can handle a continuously updated interface and less formal customer support, Open Office is a completely viable alternative to Microsoft Office.
• A business with older or shared computers that don’t need complex functionality. If you are using older computers or shared computers (for interns or receptionists, for example) and need only basic functionality, then Open Office might work for you.
• Business owners who want to save significantly on the costs of basic software. The great thing about Open Office is that it’s completely free, and the included applications are comparable to those provided with Microsoft Office.

Cost:

It’s free to download the latest version of OpenOffice at OpenOffice.org.

Compatibility:

Open Office is great for sharing intra-office documents, but you may encounter difficulties when sharing files with people outside your office who are using Microsoft Office. Open Office Writer (their word processor) can open files saved in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, but formatting might be lost. Writer gives you the option to save files as Word docs, in addition to Open Office format. Open Office Calc can open most spreadsheets saved in Microsoft Excel format and gives you the option to save your spreadsheets in Excel file format (XLS) or in the international standard OpenDocument Format (ODF). Open Office’s native file format generally creates much smaller files than similar files created in Microsoft Office.

Functionality:

Open Office Writer offers nearly as much functionality as Microsoft Word, but users who are already familiar with Word may be bothered by the unfamiliar Writer interface. Similarly, Open Office Calc does not offer Microsoft Excel 2010/2011′s tabbed toolbars and users familiar with recent versions of Excel may encounter difficulties.

Both Calc and Excel offer conditional formatting (the ability to automatically format cells based on the the data within them), but Excel offers a lot more flexibility and control. Calc fully supports the conditional formatting of Excel 97-2003 but does not support the updates included with Excel 2007, nor data bars. Also, Calc lacks Smart Art, a useful feature that allows you to easily create diagrams in a many common formats (like pyramids, cyclical diagrams, org charts, and more).

Calc offers Data Pilot, which is a feature similar to Excel’s Pivot Tables (a function widely used by power users), but Calc doesn’t have an equivalent for Pivot Charts, which somewhat limits your ability to view and analyze data.

Google Apps for Business (online/”cloud”)

Google Apps for Business is an applications suite that is hosted online and includes Business Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs (word processing and spreadsheets), Google Sites (project management) and more, depending on your service plan. Google Docs lets you create and view online documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms. You also get online storage for any type of file.

Recommendation:

Because Google Docs isn’t as sophisticated as Microsoft Office or Apple iWork, we don’t recommend that you completely replace your desktop office suite with Google Docs. Instead, we recommend using it in tandem with desktop software.  We recommend Google Apps for any of the following user types/office setups.

• A business whose employees frequently collaborate online and/or share files. The main benefit of using Google Docs is that multiple people can edit one document at the same time, which makes file-sharing and collaboration a breeze. Also, your document is automatically saved any time a change is made, so you don’t have to worry about losing information.
• Business owners who want to utilize office applications and access documents from any computer. The great thing about Google Apps is that it’s all online, and documents are stored in “the cloud.” This means that all you have to do is log into your Gmail account on any computer with an Internet connection to access all your files.
• Business owners who want to set up unified office email addresses (e.g. name@choosewhat.com). If you want to set up unified email addresses for all of your employees and/or business partners, check out Google Apps for Business.

Cost:

• Google Apps Free Version:  Limited to 10 user accounts
• Google Apps for Business Flexible Plan: $5 / user account / month
• Google Apps for Business Annual Plan: $50 / user account / year

Online Storage:

Each Google Apps for Business account can store up to 1 GB worth of files. If you want to increase this limit you can pay for an account upgrade:

• 20 GB ($5 / year)
• 80 GB ($20 / year)
• 200 GB ($50 / year)
• 400 GB ($100 / year)
• 1 TB ($256 / year)

Compatibility:

Google Docs is growing in popularity because it is easily accessible online from any computer, and there are virtually no compatibility issues.  The downside is that it depends on a fast and reliable Internet connection. However, you can work offline by downloading your Google documents. Word documents can be downloaded as Microsoft Word, PDF, OTF, Text or HTML files. Spreadsheets can be downloaded as Microsoft Excel, Open Office, CSV, PDF, Text or HTML files. Of course, this means that you will need existing software, like Microsoft Office or Open Office, to read and edit these files.

Functionality:

The Documents and Spreadsheets tools in Google Docs are very basic when compared to their more sophisticated counterparts from Microsoft Office, and those familiar with MS Office will likely find Google Docs lacking in formatting options and functionality.  Like Apple Numbers, Google Docs Spreadsheets is not nearly as powerful as Microsoft Excel and should not be considered as a replacement when performing functions used mainly by engineering or accounting types.

When ordering your business cards, you’ve got a lot of options, including paper options, fonts, colors and graphics. Make sure you know the basics of business card printing and design by checking out this handy infographic.

Created by BusinessCards.com

For most entrepreneurs, when you first start out and need an address for your business, chances are it’s either just you and couple other people working out of a residence. Therefore, the temptation to use your home address or rent a nearby P.O. Box at the United States Postal Service sounds easy and is the path of least resistance.

You should resist this urge. Residential and P.O. Box addresses are not good options. Here’s why:

Residential Business Addresses

Many small businesses and startups, especially if they are sole proprietorships, use the owner’s home as their business address. Certainly there are advantages to the residential address option. For one, it’s free since you already live there. You will also save money on gasoline and other consumables without the need to travel to the post office or some other location to pick up mail. However, the downside is significant. Some of the problems include:

• Your home address will be publicized on marketing materials and online.
• Your residential address must be properly zoned for your business.
• Someone must be at home most of the time during business hours to sign for packages.
• If you move, you will have to change all of your basic business collateral.
• Since you will both work and live at home, you might feel quite isolated.

P.O. Box (United States Postal Service)

Renting a P.O. Box from the United States Postal Service is another popular option, but it’s definitely the one that will give you the most headaches. While it might sound appealing in terms of being able to separate your personal and private mail, as well as the easy 24-hour access, a P.O. Box is probably the worst option for a business. Some reasons:

• A great many of the most basic business transactions, such as registering your business with your Secretary of State, simply will not accept a P.O. Box as an official business address. Obtaining certain types of licenses (real estate, for instance) also require a regular mailing address.

• Unlike UPS or other private mailbox services, the USPS will not sign for packages from its competitors, significantly limiting the type of mail your business can receive.

When you are ready to set up your business mailing address, be sure to read our guide on how to do it.

Google+ Is Directly Tied to Google Search Results

This is huge. Google gets about 1 billion unique monthly visitors and controls 80% of the online search market. The company is naturally incorporating “+1″ activity (the Google+ equivalent of a “Like” on Facebook) into its algorithm and favoring those results. Businesses with a Google+ profile page that have a lot of followers (or users in their “Circles” in Google+ parlance) and +1 activity (either on status posts or from the +1 widget on a website) will be more likely to receive favorable placement in search results.

Dynamic Sharing Capabilities

When users follow your business on Google+ you categorize them into buckets, or Circles. Circles can be organized in all sorts of configurations: team members, customers, affiliates, etc. This allows you greater control of your social messaging. If you want a message to go out only to team members, you can do so. Want to offer a promotion to a specific set of customers? Create a Circle for them and post a status only that group will see. Being able to blast specific updates to specific people has powerful marketing potential.

Familiar Tools, New Business Possibilities

Some of the Google+ tools that are either still in their infancy or geared towards the personal aspect of the service have potential to be powerful business tools. One is Hangouts, a video chat feature that allows for video chats of up to 10 live Google+ members. Taken in the context of the business world, a Hangout has the potential to allow you to conduct free conference calls with remote team members or clients, and to conduct focus groups with a personal touch.

A relatively new tool that Google+ launched, Ripples, provides fascinating insight into the reach of status updates. Ripples essentially takes the sharing activity of your posts and provides you with a visual representation of how it has been distributed throughout the network. It’s a great new way to monitor your analytics and traffic without having to look at the same old boring line and bar graphs. Check out this link to get a demonstration of how Ripples works.

Fully Cover Your Social Media Bases

Most businesses have already firmly established a presence on Facebook and Twitter (and if you haven’t, you need to), so the temptation to ignore Google+ as just another piece of social network clutter is strong. Honestly, up until the recent release of business pages, ignoring it was easy. Now, though, the service is starting to make noise and will continue to do so as it upgrades its service and provides new offerings.

Social media (if done right) has provided an unparalleled marketing reach to the small business without much money to spend on promotional activities. Potential customers all have their preferred social media networks, and you need to get in front of them wherever you can. Like it or not, Google+ is now a force in social media marketing and needs to be reckoned with.

For more information, see our detailed piece on How To: Use Social Media to Promote Your Business.

With all the fanboys, power users, and geeks out there telling you which OS is best, it can be difficult to make a decision on what computer will best suit your business needs.

What exactly is an “OS,” and what does it have to do with the computer you’re trying to purchase?  The answer lies in that magical space between the physical world and the software world.

Mac vs. PC – Those are the OSes, right?

First, I want to explain that OS stands for “Operating System.” An OS is a piece of software that manages the resources in your computer. I generally find it helpful to think of the OS as the middleman between the physical world and the software world.

Let’s take a look at the differences between a Mac and a PC. In the physical world, the two aren’t very different anymore. They use the same kind of processors, the same kind of hard drives, and the same kind of memory. The big difference in the two is that Macs are vertically integrated. This means that Mac is very particular about the hardware that they use, and they write their OS to take full advantage of the hardware’s abilities. Conversely, PCs have highly interchangeable and customizable parts. The additional flexibility means that there is a natural loss in the stability and optimization of the hardware.

The bottom line is: Macs are very stable, but your options are limited and generally expensive. PCs are highly customizable and cheaper to build, but can be less stable and have a shorter shelf life.

History Lesson

Back in the day (like 5 years ago), Macs and PCs used to be very different. Macs used an entirely different processor architecture called RISC, or Reduced Instruction Set Computer.  PCs (“Personal Computers”) used CISC or Complex Instruction Set Computer. This is where the “Mac vs. PC” distinction really shined. RISC computers can go through many more instructions than a CISC processor can in the same amount of time, which was really great for big number-crunching applications. This made Macs a favorite for graphic designers and people who make movies because these applications require a lot of math.

CISC processors, however, continued to evolve and actually became faster. Eventually Mac decided to switch over to the CISC processors and leave RISC behind. In the end, Macs became PCs. However, Mac took with it the “Macs are better for designers” reputation and rebranded the term “PC” to mean “Not a Mac” through their famous “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials.

Windows, OSX, and Linux

Let’s take a look at the popular OS choices for a computer and explore the real-world benefits and disadvantages of each.

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is the most widely used Operating System in the world. Most software is available for Windows, and there are many programs that run only in Windows. This reason alone makes Windows a solid choice for business applications. Because of the vast selection of software available to Windows, a Windows-powered computer can be very flexible for your business needs. The problem with Windows is that the OS is expensive.  This cost is usually offset when you purchase your computer because it will come with Windows installed, but be aware that you can’t take the Windows disc from one computer and just install it on another. Operating system upgrades are also expensive because you’ll either need to buy a new computer or shell out the hundreds of dollars for an upgrade disc.

Mac OSX

Mac OSX is very quickly growing in popularity, but it is not yet as widely used as Windows. In my experience, Mac OSX crashes less often and is much more stable, prettier, and easier to use than Windows. The problem with Macs is the availability of software. Again, this industry is growing rapidly, and developers are generating Mac software more and more often. However, you’ll probably find that when you need software to fulfill a need in your business, you’ll have 10 options with Windows and only two or three options for a Mac. One of my favorite things about using a Mac is that when it’s time to upgrade my Operating System, it doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars. I can keep my Mac up to date with the latest and greatest for about $30.

Linux

If you have a hardcore techie in your life, you’ll probably hear about Linux. Linux has been around for a couple of decades now, but has always been something that only serious computer lovers used. Linux is a totally free Operating System that is open to any and all developers to work on. The great thing about Linux is that it’s free. You also have a lot of options, probably too many. Linux is just the start; there’s also Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, Mint, and countless other Operating Systems that are based on Linux. Most of the software for Linux is also free, and that’s very cool. Here’s the problem though: free software is usually not as pretty or refined as software that you pay for.

Great – so what are the best options for my business?

In my opinion, the best option is to run Windows on a PC. This is the most common setup and will offer you the flexibility you will need when starting your business. Finding hardware options, software options, and support when you need it will be much easier with a Windows machine.

Using OSX on a Mac is what I use for my personal computing. Let’s face it, Macs are pretty and the cool thing to have these days. The secret weapon for Mac is not the prettiness; it’s the durability and maintainability of both the hardware and the software.

Linux on a PC is a fantastic option for servers and is actually the standard choice for servers. However, I can’t recommend Linux as a good choice for workstations. I want to, and one day I will be very happy to write an article on why Linux is the right choice for business workstations, but that day is not today.

Sole Proprietorship:

As the name suggests, a sole proprietorship is a type of business entity that is owned and run by one individual and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business. Many small businesses start off this way when a person decides to, “be his own boss.” Sole proprietorships are often run out of one’s home: a furniture maker, a freelance writer or graphic designer, and an operator of a small home-based day care center are all examples of this type of business.

The risk and reward are equal. The owner receives all profits (subject to taxation) but also has unlimited liability for all losses, debts, and legal action. This means that the owner has no less liability than if they were acting as an individual instead of as a business.

Although it is cheaper and easier to do business as a sole proprietor, if you want to eventually raise capital the structure can work against you. A sole proprietorship is difficult to formalize and the investor has less peace of mind concerning the use and security of his or her investment.

General Partnerships:

A general partnership, or simply a partnership, refers to an association of persons who work together as an unincorporated company. Partnerships are created by agreement, proof of existence, or estoppel (an equitable legal remedy in which a court will “estop” parties from claiming a partnership does not exist based on the previous actions or words of the people involved). It also offers pass-through taxation just like an LLC, meaning that money made by the partnership is deemed the personal income of the partners, not the business, and is only taxed once.

Other characteristics of partnerships include formation by two or more persons, all of whom are personally liable for any legal actions and debts the entire company may face. Each partner is personally liable – jointly and severally – for all business debts, taxes, or any torts. (Jointly liable means partners are equally responsible, while severally means partners are only liable for their proportionate responsibility in the business or the action causing a dispute.)

For example, if a partnership defaults on a payment to a creditor, the partners’ personal assets are subject to attachment and liquidation to pay the creditor. By default, profits are shared equally amongst the partners. However, a partnership agreement will usually detail the manner in which profits and losses are to be shared. Each general partner is also deemed the agent of the partnership. Therefore, if that partner is apparently carrying on partnership business in the eyes of a third party, all general partners can be held liable for his dealings.

Limited Partnerships:

A limited partnership is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership, except that one general partner (GP) has more liability and authority than the other limited partners (LPs). Like shareholders in a corporation, an LP’s liability to the business is limited only to how much he or she invested. An LP also has no management authority. The GPs pay the LPs a return on their investment (similar to a dividend), the nature and extent of which is usually defined in the partnership agreement. GPs thus carry full personal liability, and in cases of financial misfortune, the GP becomes “the generous partner.” Profits in a limited partnership are also pass-through for taxation.

Limited Liability Partnerships:

An LLP works primarily like other partnerships except each partner is not liable for the conduct or misdeeds of the other parties. Each state has specific rules around the creation of an LLP. Taxation is also pass-through.

Typically, partnerships in all their various forms consist of businesses such as law firms, medical practices, and other similar groups of skilled professionals working together.

Corporations:

There are four characteristics of a business corporation: legal personality (or legal entity), limited liability, transferable shares, and centralized management under a board structure. A corporation is a formal business association with a publicly registered charter, recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own privileges and liabilities distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations.

Corporations exist as a product of corporate law, and their rules balance the interests of the management operating the corporation with its creditors, shareholders, and employees. An important (but not universal) feature of a corporation is limited liability. If a corporation fails, shareholders normally only stand to lose their investment, and employees will lose their jobs, but neither will be further liable for debts that remain owing to the corporation’s creditors. There are, of course, exceptions to this but it is rare. Virtually any type of business, provided it is legal, can take on corporate status.

When you are ready to take action on incorporating your business, visit Legal Zoom to easily get the ball rolling.

What is “Break Up with Your Bank” all about?

On September 29, Bank of America (the second largest bank in the country) announced that they would begin charging consumers a monthly fee for use of debit cards.  This hit a nerve with consumers, and even though Bank of America has since backed down, hundreds of thousands of people have left big banks for credit unions and other smaller institutions.  This movement has been affectionately referred to as “Break up with Your Bank.”

How does this affect small businesses and startups?

As a practical matter, the $5 per month fee is pretty insignificant.  However, the fact that your bank is willing to risk adversely affecting its relationship with you for $5 per month speaks volumes.  In our section about how to Open a Business Bank Account, we recommend that you develop a relationship with a smaller bank.  In order for someone to care about you, they have to know who you are.  I’ve had an account with Compass Bank for over ten years and they have no idea who I am.  However, every time I walk into ChooseWhat.com’s regional bank, Plains Capital Bank, I’m greeted by name.

What are the advantages of switching to a smaller bank?

I’m going to repeat my above statement because it’s really important:  In order for someone to care about you, they have to know who you are.  Here are a few examples of how our banking relationship has benefited our business and me personally.

Phone Calls, Not Overdraft Fees

If our account is overdrawn, our banker calls us to let us know so that we can put more money in the account. A big national bank will just send you a fine.

Flexibility

I bought my house in 2010, two years after my business partner, Leo Welder, and I started our business. To qualify for a mortgage you have to submit two years of tax returns, and at the time I hadn’t filed my 2009 return yet. My 2008 return was fine, but my 2007 return showed earnings of only $19,000; so I didn’t qualify. However, my banker knew my financial situation, and Plains Capital Bank gave me a short term loan so that I could close on my house with the understanding that I would refinance with a traditional mortgage as soon as I filed my 2009 tax return. Try getting service like that from Bank of America.

Protection

We previously had a landlord that was having some financial trouble. One time he took our rent check to the bank lobby to cash it. The bank thought this was strange, so our banker called and asked me if they should cash the check before they gave our landlord the money.

Convenience

If I need something from our bank, I have several people I can call who know me by name. I don’t have to enter my account number on a touchtone keypad, I just call our banker on his cell phone and tell him what I need.

Quality Customer Service

You might be saying, “It sounds too good to be true.  ChooseWhat.com must be a major account to receive the level of service they’ve experienced.” That is simply not true. Today, we are doing pretty well. However, when we opened our account, Zilker Ventures, the parent company of ChooseWhat.com, consisted of me, my partner Leo and a few part-time interns. Our bank has always treated us the same way we’re treated now. We have a good relationship with our bank because they have been with us from the very beginning. They understand things about our business that you can’t see on a financial statement. Developing this type of relationship can be very valuable for your business.

What are the disadvantages of switching to a smaller bank?

Inconveniences

The main reason not to change to a smaller bank would be to avoid the logistical complications with changing banks.  You’ll have to get new checks, new check card numbers, update your payroll, etc.  Things rarely go exactly according to plan when making major changes like this.

Credit

Another reason might be that your credit isn’t as good as it was when you opened your account at your current bank.  If this is true, you might not be able to open a new account somewhere else.

If you do plan to switch banks, make sure to open the new account first.  Keep the old account open for a few months even after you’ve switched all your activity to the new account just in case you missed something in the switch.

My business partner Gaines and I decided to create a company to provide resources to other entrepreneurs in September of 2007. At that point, like any business idea in its infancy, we still had a lot of details to work out.  The first thing we needed was a name because we knew that right away we were going to have to start acquiring things for the business (like a mailing address, a phone number, a fax number, an LLC, an EIN, and so on).

I remember the exact circumstances of naming the business.  We brainstormed ideas over the phone while I was driving my car and Gaines was at his computer in his home office. After a few minutes, we homed in on the word “Ventures” and decided to work it into the name because at that point we weren’t exactly sure which direction the business would take. The process basically became a crapshoot as we stuck words in front of “Ventures” and put them into GoDaddy to see if the domain was available.  Eventually, we paired it with “Zilker” (the name of a very popular park in Austin near Gaines’ house) and found that ZilkerVentures.com was available.  In addition to the domain availability, we thought the name sounded cool and was easy to say. After about 10 minutes we registered the domain, and Zilker Ventures was born.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we used the name Zilker Venutes to set up the business by doing what is now listed as steps 2 through 17 on the ChooseWhat Startup Guide.  Of course, back then ChooseWhat.com didn’t exist, so we probably missed a few steps and did some others in a less than optimal way (which is the exact problem we help others solve with ChooseWhat.com).  We launched our first website, FaxCompare.com, to test our idea of comparing business services. The need for this type of information was apparent almost immediately, and we even had a bit of financial success.

Gaines and I used that experience to lay out our plan for the future of our business. We hired a trademark specialist to help us find a good name for our long term vision. This process took several weeks of pretty focused efforts, but we eventually settled upon the name ChooseWhat.com, because it:

• was two simple, commonly known words;
• utilized the word “choose,” which is part of our goal – to help people choose the services they need to set up their business;
• the domain was available; and
• our trademark specialist did not see any apparent conflicts with other registered trademarks.

The specialist prepared a formal research report on the viability and availability of the trademark, and we eventually formed a new LLC for ChooseWhat.com.  But, as you can see, we conducted a considerable amount of business under the name Zilker Ventures long before we ever conceived of the name ChooseWhat.com. Today, we still utilize both names.  (If you’d like to know more about how we use the separate entities today, the explanation is more relevant to forming LLC’s and corporate structure; if you post your interest in our Form an LLC forum, I’ll elaborate.)

The lesson here is simple – if the creative inspiration for a great business name seems to be eluding you, just pick a name that has an available domain and revisit the issue later.  Don’t let the fear of picking the wrong name for your business stand in the way of getting started.

Fax number porting is the process of transferring your existing fax number to a new provider. Typically, you can’t port your fax number out unless you ported it in.

You will want to port your fax number if either of the following is true:

• You have an existing fax number that’s printed on your marketing materials (e.g. letterhead, business cards).
• You want to take your fax number with you if you decide to switch to a different provider.

Online Fax Porting Number Costs

Porting number costs vary significantly among online fax services. There is typically a fee to port your fax number into an online fax service as well as a fee to port your fax number out of an online fax service. Included below is a list of services and their porting number costs.

Offer Free Number Porting:

*You can typically only port out a number if you’ve ported it in.

• RingCentral
• Nextiva
• eXtremeFax
• FaxPipe
• InterFax
• SFax

Offer Number Porting for a Charge:

*You can typically only port out a number if you’ve ported it in.

• FaxSer – $15 to port in (only in NY, NJ, and CT)
• FaxAge – $20 to port in and free to port out
• MyFax – $20 to port in and doesn’t allow you to port your number out
• MetroFax – $24.95 to port in and free to port out
• Fax87 – $25 to port in and free to port out
• SRFax – $25 if they have service in the area
• eFax – free to port in and $40 to port out
  
• UnityFax – $15 to port in for local numbers, $50 to port in for toll free numbers, an additional $1/month if you port a number in
• PopFax – must buy their “portability pack” that costs $168 and includes two years of receive service
• MaxEmail – must call to see if your number qualifies

Do Not Offer Number Porting:

• RapidFax
• TrustFax
• SmartFax
• Fax.com
• Send2Fax
• ClickFax
• AirComUSA
• GreenFax
• GotFax
• FaxAway
• FaxItNice
• OneSuite
• SaveOnFaxes

Our Recommendation

I recommend using our online fax comparison chart and picking the two or three services you’re most interested in. Then, use our information for porting number costs to see which service best fits your needs and go sign up.

Compare the top online fax services here.

Steps to Port Your Number to an Online Fax Service

1. Verify with your current provider that your number is able to be ported.
2. Sign up for service with the online fax service you want. Go through the process just like you would if you weren’t porting a number in.
3. Contact the online fax service you signed up for and notify them you want to port your number in. The online fax service will provide you with a transfer request form.
4. Fill out and submit the transfer request form to the online fax service. The transfer process takes about two weeks. Don’t cancel your service with your current provider during this time as it can cancel the transfer request.
5. When the transfer request has gone through, the online fax service will switch the fax number on your account with the number you transferred in.

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Salesforce is a business cloud computing customer relationship management (CRM) provider that currently has 82,400 customers and over 2,100,000 subscribers. In response to this sizeable market, many email marketing services have created tools that let people integrate email marketing with their existing Salesforce CRM accounts.

If you use Salesforce to manage your customer relationships, or you’re thinking about getting it, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble by signing up for an email marketing service that fully integrates with Salesforce, or at least lets you import your Salesforce contacts easily.

To help Salesforce users make a quick and informed buying decision on an email marketing tool that will work for their needs, we’ve compiled a list of the top services with details below.

Fully Integrated with Salesforce

Many email marketing services like to tout the fact that they’ll integrate with Salesforce. However, this can be misleading. Some services only let you import contacts from Salesforce, while others offer full integration. Full integration means that your email marketing service is built into your Salesforce interface, allowing you to conveniently create email campaigns and manage email contacts from within your Salesforce account. You can also easily sync or transfer contacts between your email marketing service and Salesforce.

The following email marketing apps (from appexchage.salesforce.com) let you integrate your email marketing service with Salesforce.

iContact for Salesforce

App details:

• 2010 Customer Choice Award Winner
• Email campaign reports can be analyzed down to each individual recipient
• No per-user fee—When you buy iContact for Salesforce you get a monthly site-license so all your users can use the application with no additional fees
• “Targeted send” feature—Salesforce users can learn who opened or clicked on your message and send targeted messages based on these and other behaviors
• Add Like and Tweet buttons to your messages
• 99% deliverability guarantee

*For more information about iContact, read our full iContact Review.

VerticalResponse for Group Edition

App details:

• Use your existing opted-in Leads & Contacts in Salesforce to create mailing lists of any size, or upload your own lists from any CSV file
• Use any of their 500+ pre-designed templates, create a design with their simple HTML editor, or upload your own HTML
• Add Like and Tweet buttons to your messages

*For more information about Vertical Response, read our full Vertical Response Review.

Jango Mail for Salesforce

App details:

• Real-time reporting of opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, forwards, and activity through your web site
• Rendering tool—See exactly what your email looks like in Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and other email clients before sending
• Email campaign reports can be analyzed down to each individual recipient

*For more information about Jango Mail, read our full Jango Mail Review.

Constant Contact for Salesforce v1.0

App details:

• Import contacts from Salesforce into Constant Contact (not automatic)
• Sync opt-out lists between Salesforce and Constant Contact
• Email campaign reports can be analyzed down to each individual recipient

*For more information about Constant Contact, read our full Constant Contact Review.

MailChimp Connector for Salesforce CRM

App details:

• Import contacts from Salesforce into MailChimp (not automatic)
• Sync opt-out lists between Salesforce and MailChimp
• Automatically create Salesforce leads when you get new subscribers

*For more information about MailChimp, read our full MailChimp Review.

Import from Salesforce

The following email marketing services do not fully integrate with Salesforce, but they do let you easily import contacts from Salesforce into your email marketing account and create contact lists for your email campaigns.

GetResponse

Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools
• High quality campaign reports
• High quality customer service
• High quality contact management system
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)
• Can create A/B test campaigns (to test subject line, from name, time sent)
• 1 GB of image hosting

*Read instructions on how to import from Salesforce to GetResponse.

*For more information about Get Response, read our full GetResponse Review.

Benchmark Email

Pros:

• Excellent email creation tools
• High quality customer service
• High quality campaign reports
• Can import contacts from email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• A real person manually reviews your email campaign before it’s sent

*Read instructions on how to import from Salesforce to Benchmark Email.

*For more information about Benchmark Email, read our full Benchmark Email Review.

Emma

Pros:

• High quality customer service (scored 5 out of 5 stars)
• Unlimited image hosting (Market Standard is 5-10 MB)
• Can export a clean contact list that automatically removes bounced and unsubscribed email addresses
• Flexible email templates

*Read instructions on how to import from Salesforce to Emma.

*For more information about Emma, read our full Emma Review.

The Easy Way

Some email marketing services integrate seamlessly with Facebook, offering a link on their signup form page, which makes adding a form to Facebook automatic and painless for the end-user.

The following email marketing services offer a 1-click integration tool for adding your newsletter signup form to Facebook:

• Constant Contact
• iContact
• MailChimp
• GetResponse

The Not-So-Easy Way

Some email marketing services do not have a 1-click integration for adding their signup form to Facebook, and these services require users to manually generate the code themselves and add it to Facebook.

The following email marketing services do not offer a 1-click integration tool for adding your newsletter signup form to Facebook:

• Benchmark Email
• GraphicMail
• VerticalResponse
• Campaign Monitor

We used Benchmark Email to complete this process, but you can use any email marketing service of your choice (provided they supply you with the code for the signup form).

>> COMPARE EMAIL MARKETING PROVIDERS WHO OFFER SIGNUP FORMS

#1: Generate Code with an Email Marketing Service

• Log into Benchmark Email
• Click “Lists” > “Signup Forms”
• Find the subscription form you want to use or Create a New Signup Form
• TIP: Create a separate signup form and list for your Facebook account, so you can track those sign-ups separately and see how that network performs compared to your websites.
• Click “Get Code” and Copy the Code

#2: Install iFrame Tabs on Facebook Page

• Log into your Facebook account
• Navigate to your Company’s Page
• On the right side, there is a list of links.  Click “Use Facebook as [Company Name]“  NOTE: You must be an admin of the page
• Use the Search Bar at the top, and do a search for “Static iFrame Tabs”
• Click the button to install
• Navigate back to your company’s page
• On the right side, there is a list of links.  Click “Use Facebook as [Your Name]“  NOTE: You must be an admin of the page
• Authorize new app

#3: Paste Code

• Click the new tab titled “Welcome” (underneath profile picture)
  
• Click “Settings” and paste the code in the Page Source box (make sure the HTML radio button is clicked
  
  

#4: Final Touches

To Change the Content:

• Click New tab
• Click the “Settings” link
  
• Change text and other settings here

To Change the Tab Name:

• Click “Edit Info” (at top, next to name and location)
  
• Click Apps
• Find “Static iFrame Tab” and click “Edit Settings”
• Type the new name of the your tab and click “Save” and “Okay”

To Change the Default View of your Page to the Newsletter Signup Form (for people who haven’t liked you yet):

• Click “Edit Info” (at top, next to name and location)
  
• Click “Manage Permissions”
• Find “Default Landing Tab” field and choose the tab you just created
• Click “Save Changes”

**This process used Static iFrames instead of FBML.  FBML is being deprecated, according to Facebook.  On Jan 1, 2012 FBML will no longer be supported and on June 12, 2012 FBML apps will no longer work.

Quick Response codes, or QR codes, are two-dimensional codes consisting of black and white square modules. These codes can be scanned and read by smartphones to transfer information. They act as a bridge between the real world and the digital world by giving you instant access to information on your smartphone straight from a flyer, magazine ad, or store window, among other places. QR codes can link from anything to a YouTube video promoting a product to a company’s Facebook page.

The key difference between QR codes and standard barcodes is that QR codes can hold significantly more. While most standard barcodes can only hold around 20 to 30 numerical digits, QR codes can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information. QR codes work by opening a QR code reader on your smartphone, which works with the phone’s camera to scan the code.  Your phone is then prompted to perform some kind of action, such as directing to a mobile website, giving you directions to a certain location through Google Maps, or activating a phone function such as email or SMS.

Many smartphones come with a QR code reader already installed. Others require you to download a QR code reader app. QR codes have become an increasingly popular way to enhance your company’s marketing campaigns. The increase in the number of smartphone users means more opportunities to take advantage of this emerging technology. Some popular QR code generators include QR Code Generator by Kerem Erkan and BeQRious. As far as QR code readers go, check out i-nigma or NeoReader.

How to Use QR Codes

There are many different ways you can use QR codes to promote your business and connect with potential customers. Here are just a few:

• Business cards- This is a great way to pass along your contact information. You can do this by linking the QR code to your vCard (an electronic business card). This way, when somebody scans the QR code on your business card, all of your contact information will be stored in their phone without them having to manually enter the information. Check out Moo for information on how to create QR Code Cards.

• Marketing materials- QR codes can be placed on flyers, posters, and brochures to advertise your different products and services, or you could promote discounts and giveaways that are exclusive to the QR codes.

• Social media- Use your QR codes to connect users with your Facebook and Twitter pages. This is a great way to get Likes and Follows.

• Phone functions- You can create QR codes that will dial a predetermined number, or generate email and text messages.

If you use QR codes to link to your website, make sure the website is mobile friendly and easy to navigate around. Otherwise, your site may not load properly or at all.

It is also a good idea to have some kind of messaging on your advertisements explaining what QR codes are and providing instructions on how to use them.

Advantages of Using QR Codes

There are many benefits to using QR codes as part of your marketing campaign, including:

• No reprinting of business cards or marketing materials necessary- When your information changes or needs updating, there is no need to reprint all of your materials. All you have to do is update the information that the QR code links to.

• Cost-effective-Not only will you save money by not having to reprint your marketing materials, but there are QR code generators that make QR codes free to create and use such as

• Convenience- QR codes make it easy for users to instantly access business and product information straight from their phone, without having to manually type anything.

• Trackable results-QR codes are a great marketing tool because it is easy to see to see where, when, and how many times they were scanned over a certain time period.

• Competitive advantage- QR codes will give your business a distinct advantage over your competitors who have not yet adopted the technology.

ScanTxt is a service that utilizes both QR codes and SMS mobile marketing. They do this by inserting messaging next to the QR code such as “text KEYWORD to 467467.” This way if a user cannot scan the QR code, they can simply text the keyword to instantly access the content. ScanTxt offers a 30-day free trial and has plans starting as low as $9.99 per month.

#1: Make Your Subscription Form Easy to Find

Put your newsletter sign-up on every page of your website.  Consider modifying the design so that the sign-up form is repeated in the header, footer or main navigation. The trick is to provide consistency for your users so that when they decide to commit, they know exactly where to find the form.

Tip: Many email marketing services make creating a sign-up form easy by providing pre-generated code that you can simply copy and paste to your website.  Compare email marketing services.

#2: Use a Simple Form

Ask for the bare minimum of information you need to personalize your newsletters.  This is usually just a name and email address.  If you need other information to further customize your campaign, make it optional.

Tip: Many email marketing services provide a sign-up form with various options for you, and you are able to customize which information you want to collect.

#3: Publish Your Archive

Create a page on your website that links to past newsletter issues. 

This allows readers to get a sneak peak of what kind of emails they will be receiving, so they know what they are signing up for.  Be sure to include a description about your newsletter, as well as a sign-up form.

Tip: Many email marketing services provide links to your past newsletters that you can use on your website to create an archive.

#4: Be Clear About Your Intentions

Include a link to your privacy statement in your newsletter signup form.  This helps alleviate users’ fears about what you are going to do with their personal information.

Tip: Link your privacy statement to your “About” page, so readers can also learn more about your company and be sure they trust you before they sign up.

#5: Utilize Social Media

Twitter and Facebook are great tools to share your newsletter campaigns.  Use hashtags (#) on Twitter so your newsletters are indexed for key terms.  You can even embed a sign-up form in your Facebook profile.  You will be surprised at how many new subscribers you will gain.

Tip: Many email marketing services have social network integration. When you send your newsletter, it automatically posts to all of your social networks. 

#6: Follow Best Practices

Do not spam your readers.  Make sure you obtain their email addresses legally and with their permission.  Such unlawful tactics affect the overall perception of your business.

Tip: Many email marketing services offer double opt-in confirmations, so that you can be sure that your list is full of readers who have manually opted in for your content.

#7: Reward Your eNewsletter Subscribers

Your newsletter subscribers are some of your most loyal readers, so give them a reason to sign-up and stay.  Give a coupon for signing up, or have ongoing, exclusive offers for your newsletter readers.  You can even offer rewards for referral sign-ups.

Tip: Many email newsletter services have templates specifically designed for promotions, such as coupon giveaways.  Compare email marketing services.

#8: Blog Frequently

Blogs build a community of readers, which is a great network to solicit newsletter sign-ups.  Make sure to include a newsletter sign-up in your blog signature, so that readers have the opportunity to get similar articles delivered to their inbox.

Tip:  If you allow comments on your blog, add a checkbox to your comment form that allows users to seamlessly opt-in for your newsletter when they post a comment.

#9: Include “Share” Buttons on Your Emails

Word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective forms of advertising.  Make sure to include “Share” and “Forward to Friend” buttons in your newsletter design.  This allows readers to share your newsletter on social media networks or send it directly to a colleague’s email address.

Tip: Most email marketing services include “Share” and “Forward to Friend” buttons as a standard on their email templates.  Compare email marketing services.

#10: Publish Useful Content

The number 1 way to get more newsletter subscribers is to publish useful, relevant content.  Solicit feedback from your readers and give them a chance to tell you what they are interested in reading about.

Tip: Many email marketing services have a “survey” feature that allow you to poll your customers.

If you have any other tips or want to share how these tips have helped you grow your newsletter list, please leave a comment or message me: @CW_AprilA

Related Resources:

• How to Get More People to Open Your Emails
• How to Stop Email Marketing From Becoming a Four-Letter Word

Well, that’s the answer a techie would give you so you’ll realize that the implementation of the idea is much more complex than the idea itself.  So let’s skip how the cloud works and focus on what it actually is.

What is the Internet?

The most important thing to understand about the cloud is that it is only made possible by the Internet.  At a high level, the Internet is a bunch of computers connected together with wires.  One example is loading a webpage: all you’re really doing is having your computer ask another computer for some information (HTML), and then your computer interprets the information and shows it to you in a human-readable way.

So if computers can talk to each other, wouldn’t it be really great if they could coordinate their resources so that a weak computer can ask a strong computer for help? Enter the cloud.

What is ‘The Cloud’?

Cloud computing is basically a way for many different computers (called a cluster) to coordinate their resources (processor and data storage) so that they can all work on the same task at the same time.

All these computers are working on the same problem, and they are nicely coordinated so that you don’t have to know or care about how many computers are working together on a specific task, such as storing your digital photos.  Also, you don’t really need to know which computers have which pictures.  All you need to know is that they’re somewhere in the cloud and you can access them when you need them.

One of the defining features of the cloud is how easily it can be expanded.  Because the cloud is made of a cluster of computers, it should be easy to add a computer if you need more resources.  It’s also pretty easy to remove a computer from the cluster, if you find that you don’t need the extra power.  This elastic property is the key to making the cloud valuable to your business.

How Can I Make ‘The Cloud’ Work for My Business?

Backing Up Your Files

Online backup services often rely on the cloud for saving your data.  Unlike a hard drive, the online backup service is able to keep costs low because it uses only the minimum amount of space needed to store your information.

Using a hard drive can be costly and inefficient. Chances are you’ll never fill up that hard drive with backups (which means you’ve paid for storage space you don’t use), and if you do fill up the hard drive, you’ll need to go out and buy another one.

As a cost-effective solution, an online backup service using the cloud will automatically adjust your available storage so that you are always optimizing your cost/usage ratio and are not overpaying for unused storage space.

Building Your Website

If you want to have a website, you will need a server to host the site.  You can use a computer as your server, but the computer you choose will need to be powerful enough to handle the Internet traffic to your website and also be cost effective (servers can get really expensive).  If your website is really popular, you might have to get more powerful computers to cope with the high traffic.

We recommend using a cloud service, like Amazon EC2 or Rackspace Cloud Hosting, as a flexible solution. Instead of going out and buying your own computer, you can rent some of the resources from the cloud.  The great thing about these services is that you are only charged for the hours that you actually have a server running. And if you do become popular, it’s very easy to make your cloud computer bigger, or add a second one.

Many website builder services already employ the cloud to host your website for you.  These services offer all the benefits of the cloud, but also provide non-technical people with the ability to easily design and manage their own website for a low monthly cost. We highly recommend website builders for business owners who are just starting up or who have a limited marketing budget.

If you are a small, local business, you are probably wondering how you can get your website displayed in the local search results of Google, Yahoo! and Bing. The answer is SEO! Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of optimizing your website so that it can be found on top search engines. There are a lot of components to an SEO strategy, and if you are completely unfamiliar with SEO we recommend reading our article SEO for Beginners as a starting point.

What Is Local SEO and Why Is It Important?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it can be found by local customers when they are searching online. For example, if you are searching for a dentist in Austin, Texas, you would probably use the search term “Austin dentist.” The results for the dentists in your area show up at the top of the search results under “Places for dentist near Austin, TX,” which you can see in the image below. These results also show up in the map to the right. How quickly you to move up to the top of the search results will largely depend on how you’ve optimized your website with relevant search terms.

Google provides you with an easy and free way to get your business listed in the results shown above, and I will take you through the process of preparing your website for Google and optimizing your website for the local search engines. First, I’ll cover some of the basics about your website content.

Your Website

First, you will need a website if you don’t already have one. Today, having a website is just as important as having a phone number. Without one, you are virtually nonexistent. Recent reports show that 86% of people use the Internet to locate local products or services, and then follow up with a phone call or in-store visit.  If you do not yet have a website, see our guide on How to Build a Website.

Your SEO Content

Content is the most important element of your website. Without good content, your chances for being found on search engines are limited, and people will not want to stay on your website if they find your content to be boring or irrelevant. Good SEO content includes the right keywords or search terms in these places: written content, title tags, page headings, meta description, meta keywords, etc. For Local SEO, you want to concentrate on “geographic keyword targeting.” This simply means that you should include your location in the search terms you’re using. For example, if you own an accounting business and live in Austin, TX, you’d want to use a term like “Austin accounting services,” instead of simply “accounting services,” in your content.

Keyword Research

To find the right keywords for your website, you’ll need to do some keyword research. Keyword research is a method of finding keywords that are related to your business and that drive traffic to your website. A good tool to use for keyword research is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This tool will help you decide which keywords are best to market your business. Always make sure the keywords you use on your website have high search volume, as shown in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Google Places for Business

Google Places for Business: This is the first place to start to get your business found in the local search results. Before setting up your account, you can go to Getlisted.org to see if your business is listed on Google, Yahoo!, and other top local search engines. If your business is already listed, you can claim it.

If you already have a Google account, then all you have to do is log in. Otherwise, you will have to create a Google account. Once your Google account is created, you can set up your Google Places account, which will create a place for your business on Google Maps, so that when someone searches for your business using a search term like “Austin dentist,” you’ll show up in the results.

After you set up your listing in Google Places, it will need to be verified. You will be sent a PIN number to verify that your business is a real business. This is typically sent through snail mail, and you’ll get a postcard at the address you entered in Google. Once you verify that you are a real business, your listing will be posted live on the web. Unfortunately, this can take a few weeks.

The video below is a great resource that I found that shows you a step-by-step process for how to research keywords and set up your Google Places account.

Setting up your Google Places account is relatively easy, but there are some details you must pay attention to when entering your information, in order to increase your chances of being found at the top of the search results.

5 Important Elements in Google Places

Below are five elements that you should focus on when creating your Google Places account.

1.    Address and Phone Number:  Make sure your address is consistent every place your business is listed online. You don’t want to have different addresses listed in different places online. Also, make sure that both your address and phone number are consistent across each page of your website. *Note: If you have more than one location, it is best for Local SEO purposes to create a separate page on your website for each location.

2.    Category:  When choosing your category, make sure you choose the category that most closely fits your type of business and the geographical keywords that you used to optimize your website content. This is important because if you choose a category that does not relate to the geographic keywords you used on your website, then your listing may not show up in the search results. To check that your keywords and category match, you can do a quick search in Google for the category name and see if it pulls up the same results as the results you get when searching with you website’s main keywords.

3.    Business Name:  When you enter your Business Name, use only your DBA (“Doing Business As”) name and don’t add any additional keywords. This is against Google Maps’ terms of use.

4.    Business Description:  This is where you’ll enter a description that includes keywords related to your product/service. For example, if you sell beauty products your description would include keywords associated with beauty salons and products. Try to use your keywords in a way that is natural, and make sure you aren’t jamming keywords into your description in a spam-like way.

5.    Content and Media:  Content and Media refers to photos and videos, which make your listing more interesting to your customers. If they are able to visualize your business and your products, your customers will be more likely to remember you and want to learn more.

Other Local SEO Strategies

For some businesses, setting up a Google Places account may be enough to get you ranked in your local search results, but for other businesses more SEO strategies may be necessary. Some other strategies that you can use to optimize your website for local search results are:

1.    Citations:  “Citations” are mentions of your business name and address on other webpages. Citations include mentions in an online yellow pages directory, local chamber of commerce website, or local business association website. There may or may not be a link back to your website from a listed citation. Citations help the search engines confirm that you are who you say you are, and that your contact information is correct. A good resource to locate places where you can get local citations is Whitespark Citation Finder.

2.    Yahoo! and Bing for Business: You will need to sign up for a Windows Live Account and follow their process for entering your business in their directory, which is similar to the process for Google Places. You’ll want to pay attention to the same SEO elements as with Google Places.

3.    Customer Reviews:  Customer reviews help build credibility and trust in your business. There are many ways to go about getting positive customer reviews for your business online so that they will show up when customers search for your business. Yelp is a good place to be reviewed, as well as any other location-specific review websites you use. For more about customer reviews, see our article, Negative Online Reviews: When to Respond and How

Video Tutorial on Local SEO Strategies

If you are feeling overwhelmed about everything you must do to get your business ranked in the local search results, don’t fret. It’s possible to do it all on your own! You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money hiring an SEO company to do this for you. There is a lot of good information on the web, as well as low-cost tools that help you through the process of optimizing your website for local search.

‘The Local SEO Formula’ is an excellent resource that I would personally recommend for those of you who want a step-by-step guide on getting your business ranked in the top local search results. The SEO team here at ChooseWhat.com, has reviewed this video and found it to be an excellent resource for guiding you through the Local SEO process.

If you have any questions related to SEO or Local SEO, follow me at @CW_LindseyM and Koby Wong at @CW_KobyW.

In 2009 Google launched Google Voice, which provides free PC-to-PC voice and video calling to users worldwide, as well as free PC-to-phone service to users located in the US. Because Google Voice’s interface is very similar to Gmail, many users are instantly comfortable with using the service. Google Voice provides a single forwarding number from Google to all of the user’s phones at no cost. Because Google Voice is so simple and low cost, many small business persons have wondered whether Google Voice could work as a business-level phone system and how it compares to a paid virtual PBX service, such as Phone.com, RingCentral, or eVoice, which connects multiple phone lines under one number. After careful analysis, we found that Google Voice cannot completely replace your small business phone solution.

Where Google Voice Excels

Google has made strides in adding PBX functionality to their free service and can be expected to continue adding additional features. While calls from your PC to other PCs and U.S.-based phones are free, calls to international numbers start at only $0.02 per minute. Their international rates may be significantly lower than those of your current service provider; so, for the user who occasionally needs to make an international call, Google Voice can be an excellent solution.

Google Voice users can take advantage of Google’s expectedly user-friendly interface when checking and storing call logs, text messages and voicemail-to-text transcriptions (which is included as a free service). The ability to check voicemails online, as opposed to sifting through a queue on your phone, has given users much more functionality and flexibility when managing their calls and messages.

Where Google Voice Falls Short for Small Business Functionality

While Google Voice is a fantastic product for organizing a person’s private communications, it does not currently offer many features that can meet the telecommunications demands of a small business. Unlike a virtual PBX service, Google Voice does not currently provide 800 numbers. Many small businesses desire the professional appeal of an 800 number and do not want to be confined to a single local area code. Also, Google Voice does not provide live customer support. Conversely, many virtual PBX providers, such as Phone.com and RingCentral, provide 24/7 phone, email and live chat support so that if you experience difficulty or disruption of service, you will be put in contact with a company representative right away.

Most importantly, Google Voice cannot support multiple users under one account. Different employees in a business must log in to the same account if they want to access call records, logs, voicemails, or texts to your particular phone number. Thus, a user is unable to set permissions for who sees which particular communications. Additionally, Google Voice cannot set up an auto-attendant feature to let a caller decide which extension they would like to be forwarded to. With a virtual PBX service, you can set up an auto-attendant, which directs a caller to the appropriate extension (e.g. Sales, Billing, Customer support, etc.) However, with Google Voice, all selected extensions will ring at once.

Porting Your Number

Whether you choose Google Voice or another solution for your small business phone needs, always look for the ability to take your number with you should you choose to change service providers. FCC law does not currently mandate that Google Voice allow you to port a number that they provide you to another service. Therefore, if you use Google Voice for your business, make sure that you obtain an original number from another provider beforehand.

Click here to learn How To Set Up a Phone Number

Some have predicted that the days of on-premise, desktop software are numbered as buzz about “The Cloud” and web-based applications gets louder throughout the business world. Intuit, a leader in small business software, has responded to this trend in a number of impressive ways.

QuickBooks Online

Intuit’s most obvious move has been creating online versions of their QuickBooks software to compete with other web-based bookkeeping apps. Although not as feature-rich and flexible as the desktop counterparts, these online versions offer a few unique features, such as a “Company Scorecard” that compares your company’s financials to other businesses in your industry, as well as a 30-day free trial. With such a large investment in the desktop software over the past thirteen years, Intuit isn’t going to ditch any of their QuickBooks products in the near future.

A La Carte QuickBooks Apps from ‘Intuit App Center’

One thing Intuit has done to fortify QuickBooks desktop software was to create the Intuit App Center, which allows businesses to expand the feature set of their bookkeeping software by adding specialized applications a la carte. The App Center currently contains 60 apps for QuickBooks Desktop software, 21 for QuickBooks Online, and more to come in the future. You can even send the App Center a wish list of ideas for apps that would make your business run more efficiently.

While researching QuickBooks, I’ve found only a few customers who were disappointed with their QuickBooks software because of the lack of specialized features. After comparing their complaints to the software in the Intuit App Center, it seems like all of the problems can be solved by at least one, if not several, of these applications. There are all sorts of QuickBooks add-ons, from advanced inventory management and job costing to postcard services for direct mailing campaigns.

Interconnectivity from ‘Intuit Anywhere’

The third, and most recent, addition to the Intuit universe is the ground-breaking Intuit Anywhere platform. In the press release, Intuit describes this new program as “a set of widgets and data services that make it easier than ever for developers to offer their customers a seamless, secure and personalized experience between QuickBooks and the apps they use to run their small businesses.” With Intuit Anywhere, application developers now have the ability to add a widget that allows users to log in with their Intuit ID, instead of creating a unique log-in for every app. This not only makes individual apps more attractive to those who already have an Intuit ID, it simplifies the way developers create apps since they can just use the Intuit Anywhere log-in widget to replace the development of an account creation system.

By adding Intuit Anywhere, it seems like Intuit is really trying to become the Facebook of small business. Just like some websites and applications that let you connect through your Facebook account, Intuit Anywhere makes this a reality for business websites and apps with the Intuit ID. Even though this platform is still in the Beta phase of testing, there are already several companies using the Intuit Anywhere technology to improve their performance including eBay, Bill.com, FreshBooks, and others.

Although it is true that the world will see a lot more web-based applications and less on-premise software in the months and years to come, there are some features like the safety and permanence of desktop software that users will not give up anytime soon. For this reason, I believe the future of business software is more of a hybrid model of the two, like what Intuit has established with the App Center and Intuit Anywhere.

You might not have heard the news. This past March, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names (ICANN) approved the formation of the .xxx domain, a new top-level domain that will be available for registration, along with .com, .net, .org, .edu and others. That’s right: “adult entertainment” is so mainstream that it warrants its own top-level domain extension.

How .xxx Affects You

What does this mean for you, a businessperson and/or website owner? It means that there’s a whole new way for people to misappropriate your brand name, infringe upon your trademark or simply divert your traffic.

The good news is that the ICM Registry is giving trademark owners a chance to proactively protect their trademarks by establishing a “Sunrise B” period (the month of September 2011), during which anyone can apply to have their brands permanently blocked from appearing as available .xxx domains.  This defensive trademark registration is estimated to cost a one-time fee of $200-$300, according to AdAge.com.

But what if your brand doesn’t carry a registered trademark? You could buy the .xxx domain related to your existing domain, which costs about $100 per year from GoDaddy, but according to TheRegister.co.uk:

In the event that a porn site and a non-porn site both apply for the same domain name, the porn site will be given priority, although they will be given a warning that a trademark owner is also interested in the domain, and may find themselves on the receiving end of a complaint.

Be prepared to defend your trademark. If you don’t have an existing trademark, you might consider applying for one as soon as possible. If you’ve just started your business, you may want to simply rethink your business name to avoid future disputes. Whatever action you take, make sure you’ve got the proof to back up your brand.

The Coming .com-pocalypse

Ominously, BrandChannel.com proclaimed today that “a new era in Internet policy begins June 20th.” On June 20th, ICANN will open the application process for 400-2,000 new top-level domain name extensions, including .sport, .law, .mtv, .nyc, .arab and many other industry-, brand- and location-focused extensions.  The .xxx domain extension is anticipated to be the most popular new extension, as approximately 60 registrars have been approved to sell over 1,000 new .xxx domain names.

These new extensions are meant to counteract phishers, scammers and cybersquatters from thwarting actual brand names and diverting Internet users from finding relevant and authentic information. Consequently, .com is expected to not have as much importance or sway as it has had previously, and .com domains that seem to be inactive will be replaced with domains that display actual content and relevant information.

I can see this change being both useful and annoying for brand managers, business owners and website developers everywhere.  Perhaps very soon .com will be going the way of floppy disks and VHS, and high schoolers will be debating whether we meant .computer or .commerce.  But only time—and cyberspace—will tell.

QuickBooks has given tons of entrepreneurs and business owners the ability to manage invoicing, account receivables, printing checks, payroll, inventory, bills, budgets and a lot more. But is QuickBooks right for you?

The Case For QuickBooks

We asked ChooseWhat.com’s accountant, Jim Greer, what he had to say about how QuickBooks stacks up against other low-priced software competitors like Peachtree. Here is his response:

As far as price, it can be worth it [to use software other than QuickBooks] because software like Peachtree is less expensive than QuickBooks, and while I’m unfamiliar with recent versions of these other programs, assume them to be comparable to QuickBooks.  But as far as the trouble, it’s probably not worth it.  QuickBooks is now the standard for small business accounting and it’s far easier to find employees familiar with QuickBooks than to find or train people to use these other programs; as well as finding online support, local support, or third party software to help you use these programs.

For example, here in Austin, Peachtree’s website lists only one certified expert who can help me with Peachtree, while QuickBooks’ website lists 104.  For third-party apps that integrate expense management into the accounting software, Peachtree’s website only lists five, while QuickBooks has nineteen.  Similarly, for third-party apps integrating inventory management, Peachtree lists nineteen, while QuickBooks has fifty-five.  And that’s because QuickBooks has the critical mass required to attract accountants and developers to work with their program, while Peachtree does not.

I myself have been helping small business clients for over eight years, and have yet to find one who didn’t use QuickBooks.  While I’m sure they exist, QuickBooks is definitely the standard, while employers pay a small premium for people who can use other software.  If you like the cheaper price and plan on doing your own bookkeeping without need for help or third party add-ons, going with Peachtree or other programs might be a good idea.  But if you think you’ll someday need to find a new bookkeeper to use your system or want to add on extra apps, QuickBooks is the way to go.

The Case Against QuickBooks

We also spoke to Adam Nyer, who started full-service real estate development and construction company, Skybeck Development, LLC, about his experience with QuickBooks.

“For the construction industry, QuickBooks is lacking,” Nyer says. Like most entrepreneurs, Nyer started out using QuickBooks. He tried to make it work until he realized that he should give up and look for software that would better accommodate his needs.

After doing research online and demoing several software programs (including MasterBuilder by Sage, ProCore and ProContractorMX), he finally settled on AccuBuild, which offers a variety of construction management software products that handle accounting, job costs, document management and project management for any construction job.  But, Nyer says that, compared to QuickBooks, which costs $319.96 per license for QuickBooks Premier Contractor, AccuBuild cost Skybeck approximately $8,000 for 5 user licenses.

Was it worth the hefty sum? “For me, AccuBuild was worth the cost because it gave us a lot of functionality, accounting and project management tools. But it was definitely hard and took time to transition from QuickBooks to a new system.”He advises others in construction, as well as anyone who finds QuickBooks doesn’t fit their needs, to start with the right system up front before it’s too late:

“If QuickBooks isn’t working for you, you should find accounting software that does instead of trying really hard to make it fit.”

Our Conclusion

Statistics show QuickBooks accounts for 94 percent of all small business accounting software sales, which, like Greer says, is probably the biggest reason to use it.  Although, if you’re in an industry that demands a more robust accounting service, there are definitely quite a few industry-specific account management tools on the market. They cost significantly more than QuickBooks, but you may find that the better option. The smartest thing a cost-conscious entrepreneur could do would be to start with a QuickBooks product with a month-to-month plan that you can cancel at any time. After using it for a pre-determined amount of time, schedule a time to sit down and evaluate whether it’s really working for you or not.

Another tip? Keep a backup of your financial records, invoices, bills, etc., so that if you ever need to migrate your information to a different system, it won’t be as painful and time-consuming as it could be. You could store it on your desktop, on a local server, or use an online backup service. Whatever method you choose, it will be infinitely better than being inactive and waiting for the inevitable time-suck coming your way.

Like the tips you’ve read here? Sign up for the ChooseWhat newsletter for more articles and posts!

Make it Easy for Users to Share

This is the No. 1 golden rule of online marketing. You have to make it easy for your users to share your efforts with others. Your email marketing campaigns should be a breeze to pass along, and you can achieve this by simply having a prominent call-to-action (or even a large button) that allows your subscriber to forward your eNewsletter to a friend with one click.

Create Newsletter Archives

A painless way to share your eNewsletter is to create an archive where visitors to your site can see previous email campaigns. Many email marketing services, such as MailChimp, will allow you to create a campaign archives within their system that you can then edit. This helps you to easily share your archive so that potential subscribers can see what your newsletters look like.  With MailChimp’s system, you can also embed these campaign archives on your own site and they’ll be updated when you add a new email campaign.

For those that are moderately tech savvy, you can create your own newsletter archive on your site that you can customize to look exactly how you want it without having to go through an email marketing service.

“Like” It On Facebook

There’s no doubt that Facebook is a huge social networking site that millions of users spend a lot of time on every single day. Don’t you want to take advantage of those numbers by sharing your latest email campaign on it? Not only can you easily share your email marketing campaign on your Facebook Wall, but you can also share it on your company’s Facebook Fan Page through several services, such as GetResponse.

Another great feature some email marketing services like Benchmark Email provide is the ability for your subscribers to “Like” your campaign without having to leave it to do so. They will simply be redirected to the web version of the email and see how many other people have “Liked” your newsletter. Having users “Like” your newsletter on Facebook is a great way for other people to see it without you having to promote it yourself. It helps you create a following of similar users.

Some email marketing providers offer the option to display your Facebook profile in your newsletter and include recent status updates, which can help to drive people to your Facebook page. This also works conversely in that you can add a newsletter signup form to your Facebook page easily with many of these services.

Share Your Newsletter through Social Networking

Most of the email marketing services we’ve reviewed offer some form of social networking integration in that you can easily input your Twitter and LinkedIn account information and have your service automatically post the link to your recent email newsletter on your different profiles once you’ve sent your campaign to your subscribers. Make sure you sign up for a service that offers this automatic feature.

MailChimp even allows you to see who else has retweeted your newsletter in your user dashboard through their service so you can see the full scope and reach of all of your campaigns.

Of course, the best way to make sure your email marketing efforts are reaching the most number of users is to have unique, relevant, and interesting content that readers find useful.

While we’re on the topic of eNewsletters, go ahead and sign up for ChooseWhat’s newsletter, where we give you great tools and tips regarding small business topics!

OpenOffice.org

Last time I checked, Microsoft Office was available for about $150.  That’s a lot of money if all you really need is a spreadsheet and a word processor – especially when there are excellent alternatives.

OpenOffice.org is a free suite of office software that offers most of the features available in MS Office.  OpenOffice comes with “Writer”, “Calc”, “Impress”,  “Draw”, and “Base”.  These programs can be compared to “Word”, “Excel”, “Powerpoint”,  “Paint”, and “Access”, respectively. I use OpenOffice personally, and I rarely have any problems using it to open, edit, or save Microsoft Word documents.

LibreOffice is a spin-off from OpenOffice.  It also offers a suite of tools that are similar to Office.  One of the major differences between OpenOffice and LibreOffice is that OpenOffice is now run by Oracle.  Oracle is a large company who recently acquired Sun, and, in doing so, also acquired the open source projects that Sun has been maintaining.  LibreOffice is run by The Document Foundation, a community-based foundation with no corporate origins.

Microsoft Office is a time-tested, feature-rich suite of applications that is pervasive and widely accepted.  However, spending $150 for each computer in your business could very well be overkill if you’re not using all of those extra features.  I suggest downloading one of the free alternatives and giving it a try.  It’s FREE, you actually have nothing to lose this time.

Jason Huie

Calls-To-Action

If you want your website to help you generate leads for your business, I would say the most important thing to do is to make it obvious to people on your website how to become a customer.  Seems fairly basic, but it’s shocking how many people forget this.  It’s the equivalent of forgetting to ask for the order in the sales process.  It’s important for your website to educate your prospect about your product and to make them feel confident in what you have to offer, but if you don’t make it clear how to buy, odds are, they won’t.

Clear “Calls-To-Action” on your website are the online way to ask for the order.  A very simple call to action would be, “Call this number to get a free consultation:  555-555-5555.”  Another, might be, “Fill out this form to get a free quote” followed by a short form asking for the prospect’s contact information.  When a person on your site takes one of these calls to action, they transform from a visitor on your website to an actual sales prospect.

Your Calls-To-Action should be prominently displayed, so they are easy to find and you should have at least one on every page of your website.  A common way to ensure this is to put one in the header of your website- you’ll regularly see a “Call Us for A Quote:  555-555-5555″ in the header of a website.  Good Calls-To-Action also make it clear that if the visitor takes this action, they’ll get something that they want: a quote, a consultation, a white paper with good information, etc.  You need to give them a reason to take this step, because you are asking them to become a prospect.

Leo Welder
ChooseWhat.com

We spoke to Birds Barbershop co-founder, Michael Portman, to talk about how Birds became a local favorite and national smash in just five years.

Honestly, I was hesitant to step into Birds Barbershop. I thought it was gimmicky.  Free Lonestars while I’m getting my hair cut? Suspiciously low prices? Hipsters? But I went in, and over a year later I’m still getting my hair cut there by the same talented woman who cut it the first time. I now fully understand why Birds has been named the Austin Chronicle‘s “Best Barbershop” every year since 2006 and one of the top 100 salons in America by Elle magazine.

When I finally spoke to Birds co-founder, Michael Portman, to talk about his success, I found his attitude about the business to be delightfully familiar. It’s palpable during every part of the Birds hair cut experience.

The most surprising thing to learn about Birds might be that they “do it all in-house and don’t outsource anything,” according to Portman, who has served as writer/advisor to Vicente Fox, editor in chief of a multi-million dollar PR agency, and communications director for Disneyland. “We’re like a little ad agency at Birds, and there are surprisingly few people doing what we do.”

What catapulted Birds from local startup to major success? Read Portman’s tips below to find out.

6 Tips for Business Success from Michael Portman:

1.    “Co- everything”: No one person knows everything. Side with people who complement your strengths.

We don’t have any “know-it-alls” here. I co-own the business with my business partner, Jayson Rapaport. We complement each other in a lot of ways. Hair is usually a drama-prone business. It doesn’t have to be. We have a great team working for us.

2.    Ideas are free. The trick is finding that great idea that is so obviously, simply, correctly the answer that there is no alternative.

We started Birds Barbershop because it needed to exist and didn’t. Birds is in the “needs” business, not the “wants” business. We cut out all the fluff. There’s a lot of largess and mystery in the hair business. We take the Jet Blue approach. Make your customers comfortable, not like they’re in a strange place they don’t understand—which is what most hair salons feel like.

3.    If it doesn’t sell itself, don’t do it.

Birds $19 shortcut comes with a free beer and a super pro cut. Verb is Birds $11 version of American Crew, which sells for $17. In the industry, getting 5% of your customers to buy hair product is standard. Why settle for that? Make everyone want to buy your product. Offer maximum quality at minimum cost.

Lonestar: We stocked it in the store because we liked it. That eventually led to a partnership with the brand and direct supply of the product.

Our niche: The person who thinks, “I don’t have time for an appointment. I don’t want extras. I don’t want sprinkles, just the brownie. I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard. I just want a decent haircut at a decent price.”

4.    Everyone tries local once, but they only return if you can deliver on the big guy’s level.

If you’re local, you have an advantage over a large chain. You’re part of your community and know what it wants. You have to be living the community experience to know and sell to your customer.

The biggest thing to remember is that “being local” is part of what makes you exceptional. It’s not everything. Once you’ve got people’s attention and trust, you’ve got to deliver. Your customer demands value, so give it to them.

5.    Authenticity counts now more than ever.

Nowadays, people don’t walk in the door unless their friend has recommended it. Be conscious about your customer, and be authentic.  My customers appreciate me climbing a pole at a rock club and putting a sticker on it more than paying for an ad in the newspaper.

6.    Force yourself to sit down and listen to people.

Coming from a creative background, I respect creativity in colleagues and employees. We have a small group that sits down to brainstorm ideas regularly. We take the best ideas, the ones that feel right, and do them. (An example is this year to celebrate Cinco de Mayo—and our five-year anniversary on May 16—we came up with “Birds Barbershots” and got a tequila vendor on board.)

Don’t do a zillion ideas just to be able to post on Twitter about it. If you’ve hit on an idea and everyone in the room has a happy face and is high-fiving each other, go with that idea!

Like the tips you’ve read here? Sign up for the ChooseWhat newsletter for more articles and posts!

When brainstorming your domain name, there are a few ideas you want to keep in mind:

Firstly, you want to brainstorm a few domain names that are keyword-rich, meaning those key phrases that someone might search in order to find your site. Write down all the words related to your niche. This will help you when optimizing your website for search engines down the road.

Secondly, you want a domain name that is easy to remember and spell. For example, a good domain name would include words that are short and easy to remember without any hyphens or numbers.

It is also a good idea to keep in mind to use a domain name that is related to your product or service. This not only makes you and your website easy to remember, but it can help with your branding.

The last suggestion for choosing a domain name is choosing a dotcom domain name. A dotcom name is the most well-known type of domain name and will help people remember your URL and boost your credibility.

Lindsey Marino
ChooseWhat.com

As most people are loss averse, they will often continue down a path of action that produces a less valuable outcome solely because they want to justify the work they have already performed.  Learning to let go, discard your previous attempts and use a new method often can allow you to deliver a better outcome more quickly.

Casey Jones
ChooseWhat.com

As co-founder and CEO of Yorktown Technologies, L.P., the first company in the world to widely market a biotech animal, Blake has been a driving force behind GloFish‘s unprecedented success, responsible for everything from raising seed money and filing patents to wading through the murky waters of FDA regulations. Conquering many of the same challenges that vex the average entrepreneur, he has emerged from his aquatic undertaking, Michael Phelps-style, to claim the equivalent of a gold medal at the 2011 Austin Under 40 Awards for his contribution in the field of Science and Technology.

Blake attributes his success largely to “a strong understanding of how to ensure that the actions which are taken each day align with the company’s long-term vision and effectively move us toward that goal.” Lack of a coherent vision, he says, is one of the biggest and consistently re-emerging challenges faced by many of the dozens of entrepreneurs he has worked with. We sat down with Blake to talk about how to achieve long-term success and avoid the distractions that can take you off the path to success.

Blake says that when talking to other entrepreneurs he often fields questions such as “Should I hire another employee?” or “Should I raise additional capital?” He answers with “Well, where do you want to be in 10 years?”  Frequently, the person he’s talking to is unable to come up with a clear answer. At the point, he advises the entrepreneur to use the following process to help crystallize a long-term vision that will not only help to answer the immediate growth-related question, but also lead to ultimate success.

Identify your hedgehog concept.

It is critical to identify your “hedgehog,” which is a concept from Good to Great:Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. The hedgehog consists of three components: what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, and what drives your economic engine. While it could take a few years for a typical large company to refine their hedgehog concept, it’s possible for smaller businesses to identify their hedgehog dramatically faster, even within a matter of days, says Blake.

Identify a long-term vision or rethink your hedgehog concept.

The confluence of the three areas of your hedgehog concept is likely the best opportunity for long-term success. What you would expect as the outcome of a relentless focus on your hedgehog over 10 or 20 years will often help you identify the ideal long-term vision for the company. If your long-term vision is not appealing, you should rethink the hedgehog.

Identify necessary milestones for each area of the business over the next 3-5 years.

Once the hedgehog and long-term vision are clear, you can fairly easily identify the necessary milestones for each area of the business over the next three to five years. Similarly, these milestones can then be broken down into annual, quarterly, monthly and even weekly goals. Create a schedule for regularly checking the progress of and updating your goals to help you visualize the path ahead.

Communicate your hedgehog concept and long-term vision to motivate stakeholders.

Communicating your hedgehog concept, long-term vision and related milestones and goals will help each stakeholder in the business better understand how day-to-day work is all part of the path to something much bigger—and how one individual can make a significant impact on achieving the company’s vision. Fueled by passion and not just money, your people will be much more motivated to contribute to the company’s success than they otherwise would be.

Identify which opportunities to embrace and which will distract you from your core path.

A clear hedgehog concept and long-term vision are critical not only because they help the business to identify which opportunities it should embrace, but also which activities the business should not pursue. This distinction is particularly powerful in that it can empower employees to make appropriate decisions without undue micromanagement.

When deciding whether to pursue opportunities that arise, constantly refer to your hedgehog and be wary of engaging in activities that will take them off the path to long-term success. “Think of your long-term goal as a destination,” says Blake. “If you need to get to San Diego by Sunday and a friend asks you to stop by San Francisco on Friday, can you still make it to San Diego on time?”  If your answer isn’t entirely affirmative, then you must at least make sure the detour is worth it.

Recommended Reading:

In addition to Good to Great, Blake recommends the following resources to help you conceptualize your vision and get you started on the path to long-term success:

• “Good to Great: What’s Your Hedgehog?” by Wendy Green
• Start with Why by Simon Sinek
• Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish
• Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It by Al Ries

“I had three internships in college and switched my major after each one,” he discloses.  Now, years later, Green and his business partner Jay Whitchurch have started campus2careers, a company that aims to match up current college students and recent graduates with internship and entry-level positions at small and medium-sized businesses.

Green believes that small businesses could better leverage student talent by building more effective, annual internship programs that offer many benefits, including building capacity, accessing new skills, identifying future employees and offsetting labor costs.

Read on for key advantages and tips he’s identified to help you build a better internship program.

Advantages of Hiring Interns

• Access to talent and skills that wouldn’t otherwise be available. Most of the top students get scooped up early in their senior year by big companies, so an internship sophomore or junior year gives you first dibs.
• Access to lower-cost labor. The Kaufmann Foundation suggests small business owners value their time at$100 per hour.  So even a paid intern frees up your time and gives you a huge cost advantage.
• Opportunity to mentor young people, help develop skills and give back to the next generation.
• Ability to try out different people and positions. Since hiring interns is cyclical, you can try different interns as well as create or modify positions until you find out what works best.

Tips for Hiring Interns

1.  Think of your internships as an annual program, not a one-off need.

Green says that the first step in getting the most out of your interns is to change the way you think about them, or, in his words, “to shift your paradigm,” so that you’re thinking of interns as “a recurring resource you need in your budget,” rather than as short-term laborers hired to complete a one-off task or project. Instead of hiring in terms of deliverables, “hire someone to build and maintain your website or to run your social media initiatives,” he advises, “to build a job they want and you need.”

It may be counter-intuitive to give larger responsibilities to short-term employees, but doing so actually provides more benefits to the business owner.  Defining clear responsibilities and setting goals will foster a self-sustaining hiring system, Green argues:

You know [your interns] are gonna leave eventually, so you can prepare for it. It’s actually a more predictable situation than with employees. After your first interns have defined their own roles, ask them to find their replacements by referring friends or classmates.  The first intern builds the job, the second intern improves it, the third one refines  it, and so on.  Either way, you can count on an intern all year if you plan and budget for it.

[Some people] might say it’s not worth the time it takes to train your interns and that you’re only getting a three-month value for a two-month investment. But, if you do it right and create a system where interns are finding their own replacements, educating and training them for you, you can get at least one full year of labor out of it. It’s completely scalable hiring and training!

2.  Build the experience you would’ve wanted in college.

“Would you have done the job you’re offering when you were that age?” Green asks.  Every small business owner—whether they went to college or not—ought to know what a compelling job looks and feels like.  Create a job that is interesting and gives an intern the opportunity to learn. If you offer a position that’s valuable to someone, whether due to money or increased skill level, then he or she will provide value to your business, and you’ll be reaping the benefits described above. Green concedes that sometimes interns are given the most mundane tasks out of necessity, such as data entry, but he argues that it shouldn’t be an excuse for you not to elevate their roles: “It’s OK to let [interns] do data entry, but maybe also pay for them to take a class to increase their skills.”

3.  Set expectations and define incentives clearly and up front.

Green says that, even though this point is the most obvious, it is also the least followed in his experience.  He advises business owners to be clear about in the job posting as well as during the interview. “Go ahead and ask a student during the interview what they want out of the job,” he says. “Sometimes the answer is to build up their resume or simply to make money, but more often than not students will be satisfied with compensation in the form on training or unique experiences that will give them an edge in the job market.”  Being flexible with incentives can create a mutually beneficial agreement between you and your interns.

4.  Treat the student like a full-time employee; get rid of “just an intern” mentality.

Green says that as long as you’re paying your interns (as you should be, assuming you’ve “built them into your budget” like he recommends), there is no definitive legal definition between an internship and a part-time job. Legalities are related to the hours your interns are working—which shouldn’t exceed 30 hours or else they’ll be considered full-time—not the tasks they’re being given.  He advocates treating interns no differently than if they were full-time employees, which means that every opportunity available to your employees should also be available to your interns.  “Assume that your interns will become future employees,” he says. “Keeping them will give you the best return on your investment.”

5.  Formalize the internship with forms, core hours and clear lines of accountability.

In order to get your interns to show up every day, to be accountable and act like employees, requires you to add structure to their daily work lives. Green proposes using a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will lay out the goals of the intern and expectations they have about the job. (You can find this and other internship forms on the campus2careers Business Resources page).

“The last 16-18 years of their lives, these students haven’t been asked to be personally accountable—schools and their parents keep them in check,” says Green, “but when you make them accountable and autonomous, you’re teaching them career skills, which is what internships are all about.”

If you are looking for an intern this summer, go to www.campus2careers.com to get matched with your top college candidates from all Texas schools and beyond.

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Rowse was speaking about how your site or blog should aim to build a community. Whether this is through social media, blog comments, or forums, it is important to have your users engaged with you and your site. At ChooseWhat, we invite our users to interact with us in a plethora of ways, especially through our forums, which are lovingly maintained by ChooseWhat’s User Liaison and Assistant Research Analyst Reece Freeman.

“If you have a community, users will develop a personal connection and stay on your site longer,” he explains. Read on to learn why building a community is important and what you can do to help foster one on your site.

Why are online communities important?

Basically, an online community is a group of people with mutual interests who use the Internet to communicate, collaborate, and pursue their interests over time. The tools used in a community, such as forums, blogs, message boards, etc., are actually not the community; they are the tools used to interact within the community.

So why is it important to build a community?

“If users have something to say about your website, then they are already having that conversation with friends, social media websites, or other online communities where you have no control over that dialogue,” Freeman says.

With your own online community, you’ll have better control over what people are saying and how they’re using your site. Not only do community members tend to stay on your site longer, but according to an eBay study in 2006, community users spend 54% more than non-community users, so that online community could eventually lead to a higher conversion rate.

Implement simple conversation tools

To start a community, use features like comments on blogs, forums, and other types of threads to get a dialogue initiated on your website. “One of the hardest things to do in developing a community is getting the first person to talk,” Freeman says.

During his lecture, Rowse recommended that you “be the community that you want to have.” In other words, you need to start the interaction for others to follow. He suggested that you start with your comments section by allowing others to respond. You can garner more responses if you ask for advice or tips and post polls in your blogs or forums. Rowse also advised using social media wisely; don’t just post links to your site and make sure you interact with people.

Freeman’s tip regarding forums is to create general forums so that new users can find out where to post without having any prior knowledge of your site or products. “Also make sure no one is hung out to dry with a question,” he says. “Keep the conversations going even after you’ve answered their question by asking follow-up questions.”

Turn your website users into community members

“If implemented correctly, an online community can create a dedicated user-base that has a personal attachment to your website,” Freeman says.

You can reinforce the value gained through interactions with the community members. Because of the personal attachment created by an online community, time spent on community-related has been shown to be exponentially greater than websites that don’t have these tools.

Keep the conversation focused and useful

One of the biggest issues you might run into with building a community is what Rowse referred to as “trolls,” which are mean-spirited users. Trolls, along with spammers, can create unwanted posts that deter the conversation you’re trying to have with your members.  Rowse recommends that you think about your policies and standards before you need them, and, above all else, be firm, calm, and polite with troublemakers.

Freeman agrees that you need to have policies in place when trying to create a community that all users must abide by. He suggests implementing anti-spam filters, such as CAPTCHAS and double opt-in forms, to help keep your community free of unwanted members.

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What is a Process?

A business process is simply a set of instructions or guidelines that orient you towards achieving a goal, whether it’s as broad as running a successful business or as specific as transferring a phone call. A business process can be decomposed into several sub-processes, which have their own attributes, but also contribute to achieving the goal of the super-process.

Businesspeople typically recognize three types of business processes: Management processes, Operational processes and Supporting processes (which support the operational processes). April Coburn identifies particular processes within these three main types that are especially important for small business owners to write and implement:

1. Policies (“Management”). You should create a policy manual for current and future employees that lays out the rules, expectations, roles, responsibilities and benefits of being employed by your company.
2. Repetitive and/or overly complicated tasks (“Operational”). Daily repetitive tasks include: answering the phone (including how to transfer and forward calls, etc.) or emails, sending a fax or an invoice, etc. Complicated tasks, like how to launch an email marketing campaign or how create a website, are usually broader and include several sub-processes.
3. Specialized processes (“Supporting”). These types of processes draw on specialized knowledge that you or your employees possess. You may not be able to write these processes until you actually hire employees and/or define roles within your company.

Why Do Small Businesses Need Processes?

“I can’t think of a single successful business that doesn’t write and use processes,” says April. “If you aren’t implementing processes, there’s no way that your business can grow and evolve.” According to April, business processes form the backbone of how you operate and become a valuable source of knowledge that can be passed down to future employees or even sold to future buyers.

Here are some of the main benefits for small businesses of writing processes:

• Processes keep knowledge de-centralized, so that if an employee leaves, you aren’t left with a sudden void that no one else can fill.
• Processes give business owners a way to measure employee performance. Without processes, it is difficult for you, as a business owner, to estimate how long a task or project will take to complete. Processes will help you to make repeatable tasks more effective, cutting down the time it takes to complete a task or reach a goal.
• Processes help eliminate mistakes and errors. Writing down a standardized way of doing something will give your team members a definitive reference and leave less room for guessing and errors on their part.
• Processes let you focus on the bigger picture. “You might think that something as simple as answering the phone doesn’t need to be written down and outlined, but you’d be surprised at how many little details you have to remember on a daily basis,” April warrns. Instead of memorizing how to do something, write every little detail down. As your company grows, you’ll be able to hand off processes and repeatable tasks to employees while you concentrate on building your business.

How to Identify Areas Where You Could Use a Process

Use the following questions to help you identify whether you need to write a process for any given task:

• Is there only one person in the office that knows how to do a task/tasks?
• Is this common knowledge that every employee (and/or employer) should know?
• Do you find yourself doing a task multiple times?
• Is the task overly complicated or does it have lots of little details?
• Do you need a task completed in a specific way?
• Do you plan to hand off a task to another person in the near future?

Tips for Process Writing from ChooseWhat

Here is a list of things we’ve done at ChooseWhat to encourage process writing. Feel free to find the ones that are most applicable to your business and starting implementing them today.

• Make trainees write processes for you. April says that when she first started writing processes, she would write every step and sub-step herself. However, she quickly realized that because she had a better understanding of the task or project she was writing about than anyone else, her processes frequently came off as esoteric. She advises trainers to sit with trainees and walk them through a task, as the trainee takes notes that will form the process. The person who will be using the process should contribute to the process just as much as the person imparting the knowledge.
• Create a shared repository for processes. It’s important to make processes accessible to everyone in your business. Create a repository that shows a list of your current processes. You can simply create a new file folder on your shared server or you can use an online system, such as EditGrid or GoogleDocs to keep track of processes.
• Audit your processes frequently. Processes will become outdated the minute you find a better way to do a task. It’s important to read over your current processes to make sure they are all up to date. Set aside some time to audit processes each week or each month.
• Schedule time for writing processes. If you don’t create a schedule for writing processes, they probably won’t get written. Setting aside time for your employees to evaluate what they do and how they do it will help everyone become more effective in the long run.
• Read The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. April highly recommends this book that will help you become more process-oriented. She shares an inspiring quote from the book below:

“You must analyze your business as it is today, decide what it must be like when you’ve finally got it just like you want it, and then determine the gap between where you are and where you need to be in order to make your dream a reality. That gap will tell you exactly what needs to be done to create the business of your dreams. And what you’ll discover when you look at your business through your E-Myth eyes is that the gap is always created by the absence of systems, the absence of a proprietary way of doing  business that successfully differentiates your business from everyone else’s.”
– Michael Gerber

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“Logging your time accurately helps you to determine where you’re spending your time,” Wong says. “As a company it makes your processes tighter or makes it easy to see where you would need to bring additional people on. Using the Refresh Timer enables you to log your hours efficiently and precisely.“

Why Use Refresh Timer?

Before using the Refresh Timer to help log his hours, Wong realized he was only tracking about 60 percent of his time. He realized that he wasn’t getting an accurate depiction of where he was spending most of his work hours and, therefore, wasn’t able to determine where he needed to make improvements.

“I reviewed many different desktop time tracking programs for activeCollab, which we use, and I found that the Refresh Timer was the most efficient and easy to use,” Wong explains.

Wong settled on the Refresh Timer because you can easily log your time directly to a ticket, log straight time if there is no ticket, mark tickets as complete, and set when your timer stops tracking time for those times when you accidentally leave your computer without pausing the timer. With the Refresh Timer directly on your desktop, it means you won’t have to remember to log into activeCollab or Basecamp to track your time. Plus, it doesn’t take up a lot of space on your desktop, and, better yet, it’s currently free! Before you can use the Refresh Timer, you’ll need to download Adobe AIR, which is also free.

The only drawback to using the Refresh Timer is that you cannot directly comment on a ticket from its interface. For that, you’ll have to log into activeCollab.

“Because of the Refresh Timer I’m now tracking up to 90 percent of my hours,” Wong comments. “And, I think it helps me focus more. Maybe it’s an inherent ‘race against the clock’ mentality, but I notice myself completing tasks faster.”

Evaluate Your Team’s Time

It’s one thing to just log your hours correctly, and it’s another thing to use those logged hours to get a better picture on how your employees spend their time. Once everyone is tracking their time effectively, you can easily evaluate your team’s tracked time. Wong recommends using a template to create a pie chart to get a quick, visual representation.

“As a business, you can see an overall picture of where everyone is actually spending their time, not just where you think they are. It’s a great way to see how projects are being managed and lock down processes,” he says.

To create this pie chart, Wong suggests exporting your employees’ time from activeCollab, which is not organized, creating a pivot chart to evaluate the data, and then converting into a pie chart. Luckily for you, Wong is an Excel macro guru (and an overall nice guy), and he created an awesome template for you to easily download and use.

On this document, you can see a pie chart of time logged by project, and you can also filter the chart by person.

How to use the template:

1. Open the template
2. Enable your macros
3. Copy and paste the exported time report from activeCollab into columns A through J of the “Time Report” tab
4. Click the “View a pie chart of the time logged by project” button

Now you too can have an accurate picture of your (or your employee’s time) in order to manage your projects more better.

If you have any questions regarding small business products, please visit the ChooseWhat forums!

We were lucky enough to spend some time talking to Jay, who offers his top financing tips to everyone from startups to major corporations.  Avoid these 7 pitfalls of raising capital, according to Jay:

1.    Putting the Cart Before the Horse

It’s easy to have a great idea and race towards raising capital, but without a solid business plan and some research into what investors are looking for, you’ll often fail to get the capital you need. Think of your quest for capital as a horse race: the fastest horse out of the gate doesn’t necessarily win the race. Often, the win rests on the skill of the jockey (or business owner) and the ability of the horse to outlast competitors that tire out quickly.

To beat competitors vying for seed money, you need a surefooted business plan with key investment points, market analysis, financial projections and proposals.  As your business plan is the primary motivator for investors, you’d be wise to spend as much time as possible ironing out the kinks before you ask for the cash.

Check out the SBA’s Business Plan Template.

2.    Fudging the Finances

You can have the most brilliant business idea, but if you don’t understand financials and can’t convey your understanding in detail, then you won’t get what you want out of investors.  “When reviewing a company I want a thorough financial model, industry analysis and economics on a project,” says Jay. “I’ve also reviewed business plans for entrepreneurs who don’t have realistic or accurate numbers and it is an immediate red flag.”

If you aren’t financially savvy or if you simply want a second opinion, Jay suggests finding someone to advise you on the finances. You can consult friends or family members with the right background or choose to hire a professional, but either way it’s time or money well spent.

3.    Running an Army of One

Startups typically begin with one or two bright-eyed entrepreneurs. But, before you can convince investors of potential success, you need to secure a management team that can earn the revenue that will get you off the ground and handle the cash flow responsibly.  “There’s sort of a chicken and egg problem with securing your team and raising capital,” claims Jay. “How do you get a great team without first having the capital to hire them?”

One solution, Jay advises, is to hire the right people as part-timers, contractors or consultants until you have the means to transition them into full-time employees.

Check out our blog post on Where to Find New Employees.

4.    Failing to Match Up Interests

To increase your chances of securing capital, you need to research and identify your target investors and match up interests.  “A person looking to raise early stage venture capital wouldn’t have much success in targeting investors who are risk adverse,” Jay says.  Obviously, you’re going to have vastly different experiences with friends and family members than with venture capitalists or angel investors.  Whichever route you take, make sure you thoroughly understand the needs and interests of investors before making your pitch.  Also, be wary of having too many investors who may have conflicting interests.

5.    Staying in Your Comfort Zone

Tapping friends, family and colleagues in your local area for capital is a good first step, but chances are there is a limit to how much you can raise in your area, especially if you’re in a small town.  Be willing to expand your search and travel to investors in different locations who could substantially increase your capital.

6.    Losing Momentum in the Paperwork

Having the proper subscription documents ready for investors can be very important when you meet with investors.  “Don’t lose momentum by failing to have thought out how you are going to structure your investors’ investment.” Jay warns.  “I’ve seen people spend up to six months trying to finalize valuations and send paperwork over to investors.”  During that time, investors could lose interest and fail to act.  To avoid losing investors, have somebody on your end follow through on getting the paperwork ready and signed in a timely manner.

7.    Writing-Off Your Appearance

You may not like to think so, but dressing the part can be to your benefit.  If you’re meeting fellow Internet guys, you don’t have to show up in a coat and tie, but if you’re going to a big financial institution, then you’ll probably want to dress more professionally.  Again, it’s about conveying that you understand who your investors are and what they require. But, on the flip side, you should stay true to your own company culture and viewpoint. If they aren’t cool with your jeans and T-shirt look—or your coat and tie—perhaps you might not want them engaging in a business relationship with you after all.

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What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is simply a practice which rewards “affiliates” based on each customer acquired by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. In other words, brands will pay commission to their affiliates for referred business (typically through advertisements on your website, email newsletter or social media pages).

As an alternative to Google Adsense or banner ads, affiliate ads on your website or email newsletters could be a great way to generate extra income for your business. It is relatively easy to get started with affiliate marketing, since, depending on the type of business you operate, many of the companies you wish to work with already have programs in place. Signing up for an affiliate program sometimes can be as easy as visiting a company’s website and filling out a form.

Types of Affiliate Models

Cost per Lead

Cost per Lead means that a company pays you each time someone clicks on an advertisement on your site and does one of the following: creates a profile, fills out a form containing their contact information, or signs up for a free trial. The payout for each lead is typically lower than the payout for each sale in the Cost per Sale model, but, since the visitor does not actually have to purchase anything, visitors will typically convert into leads at a higher rate than they would convert into sales. Not all companies offer the Cost per Lead model.

Cost per Sale

Cost per Sale is a great way to keep your marketing costs low while building a relationship with any company you are advertising. Before going in to a cost per sale relationship you should consider a few things: the amount of traffic you plan on receiving, the amount of traffic you believe you will be able to send through the advertisement, and how much the company is willing to pay you per sale. A cost per sale payout should be significantly higher than Cost per Lead or Cost per Click contracts, since the company will only write you a check when someone goes to your site, clicks on the advertisement and then buys a product. Keep in mind that this type of affiliate model depends on two questions:

1.    From the number of people clicking on this advertisement, how many people are buying the product?
2.    How many visitors to my website does it take to produce one sale from the advertisement(s)?

Cost per Click

Cost per Click simply means that each time someone clicks on your advertisement, the company you are advertising for pays you a fee. The payout per click is usually very low, and you will typically only see it practiced on sites with extremely high traffic volume or on sites that advertise products which aren’t very relevant to the content of the website (example: a car advertisement on an extremely high traffic sports website).

Where to Find Affiliate Programs

Here are some well-known affiliate networks that offer a large number of advertisers to work with:

• Commission Junction
• Linkshare
• Buy.at
• Shareasale

If you don’t find a specific company you want to work with on any of these networks, you could also try contacting the company directly to inquire about affiliate programs. Some companies will already have affiliate programs set up, while others may not.

If a company you want to work with doesn’t currently have an affiliate program, inquire about setting one up to work with you. If you’re approaching a company that is selling a product or service that goes in tandem with or compliments your own, you’ll probably have a relatively easy time trying to set up an affiliate relationship.

Should I get into affiliate marketing?

There are no hard rules when it comes to affiliate marketing. Simply do what makes the most sense for your business. You may decide that putting ads on your website that take visitors off your own page doesn’t work for you. Affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone, but if you decide to get into it you’ll find it’s a lot easier than you might expect.

*If you own a small business and want to learn how to utilize affiliate marketing to spread the word about your business, keep reading our blog for future posts in this series.

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“As a real estate professional, I am constantly looking for new ways to network,” Carvajal says. “I have been studying Facebook and social media for a while now, and I’ve even been approached by many business owners about consulting on their social media strategy.”

There’s no denying that Facebook is a site where a lot of people are spending a lot of their time. Incorporating Facebook can be a great boost to your marketing strategy. Read Carvajal’s tips below on how to take advantage of Facebook in order to expose more people to your business.

Use Facebook to Meet New People

“Think of Facebook as one big cocktail party,” Carvajal explains. “It’s your job to interact with the most people.”

When Carvajal meets people at events, he immediately friends them on Facebook. But it doesn’t just stop there. He interacts with them; he invites them out for coffee; he follows up with them. It’s not enough just to friend people on Facebook and hope they become a customer eventually. You have to work at it.

“It helps them remember what I look like, know a little bit about me, and become familiar with what I do. It’s a great way to keep in touch.”

Build Relationships—Don’t Plug Your Business

After you’ve friended someone on Facebook, it’s best not to bombard them with a ton of self promotion. Carvajal strongly advises against this strategy.

“It doesn’t work to just plug your business,” he says. “People will defriend you.”

Be Interesting

Instead of just posting about what your business is doing, Carvajal suggests that you simply be interesting.

“What has your attention?” he asks. “Engage people with what you find interesting. People connect with what captivates them.”

While Carvajal does discuss his business on his personal and professional Facebook pages, he doesn’t stop there. He posts things he finds appealing himself.

He suggests posting:

• Photos
• Quotes
• Poll questions
• Jokes
• Links to articles
• Videos
• “Stupid, random” things

What do you click on? Follow that same concept.

Be Interested

But once you’ve posted something, you have to be interested in what people are saying too. You can’t make your interaction one-sided. You are on social networking sites in order to build relationships, and you can’t do that if you’re not making the effort.

If someone comments on your posts, respond to him/her. Better yet, “Like” or comment on someone else’s posts.

“The more you interact, the more times you’ll shop in people’s newsfeeds—it puts you out there,” Carvajal says.

Plus, he adds that you can get introduced to new people by simply posting intelligent things on other users’ walls. It can help build your network by simply being interested in what others have to say.

Use Community and Fan Pages to Build Brand Recognition

Carvajal suggests having a personal and a professional Facebook page. “It’s a big mistake to not be on Facebook personally. People will know and like you and move onto your business page.”

While he says having a business page is important, he says you can also build your network by having similar community pages that inadvertently apply to your company. For instance, one of his realtors created a community page devoted to dwellers of a certain condo complex in Austin and posts deals and events to her fans. She’s able to build a relationship with her followers without directly selling anything to them.

“These pages have nothing to do (officially) with the Carvajal Group, but they have everything to do with the Carvajal Group,” he explains. “You can use these other community pages and channels to narrow down your demographic and direct them to your business.”

Armed with Carvajal’s tips, you can now master your business’ social networking presence! And while you’re out conquering Facebook, don’t forget to visit the ChooseWhat fan page!

Successful criminal defense attorney James Gill had no prior background in construction rental before he started Austin Rent Fence, LLC. What he did have was the determination to create the first locally owned and operated alternative to a national company who had been dominating the fence market in Austin, Texas. He also had business partner Matt Beahm, who had six years of prior experience in a related construction field, on which he could rely for insight into the market.

After months of extensive initial research, James and Matt co-founded Austin Rent Fence, LLC in 2008. The company’s mission? Simply to “outperform the national chains that dominate the local industry, with materials that stand up under Austin pressure and service that runs circles around the ‘big dogs.’” Nearly three years later the company is still going strong with three full-time employees and dozens of part-time employees who’ve helped contribute to the company’s success.

How can one emulate James’ pathway to success and beat the odds against small businesses trying to compete with large, national companies? Use the following strategies that James has used successfully to leverage the power of “local”:

Know Your Market

Three years ago, James knew very little about construction rental, but he knew that only one service provider existed in Austin: a large, national company that had the monopoly on the local market. Before diving headfirst into launching Austin Rent Fence, James was adamant about taking the time to properly research the market. He spent time studying the general industry, his competition’s marketing strategies (and their related failures and successes), weaknesses and possible opportunities to differentiate their brand from a well-known dominant player.

Through his research, he also discovered that he needed to build a website that would generate leads from search engines and help him achieve the following point, which is

Get On Top of Local Search

Getting on top of local search means ensuring that your company is listed at the top of the search results when someone searches for a local company in a specific industry. For instance, searching “rent fence Austin” will return a page with austinrentfence.com at the top and at least three top 10 results linking to the company’s site. If you get to the top of your local search results and your competitor is national, you can easily siphon customers, who prefer to deal with local merchants, from bigger, remote companies.

Succeeding at local search requires you to have a properly optimized website and a strategy for promoting your site online. For more help with these topics, check out our handy guides:

• SEO for Beginners
• Promote Your Website

Network with Local Connections

Networking with local connections is key to expanding your business and becoming well-established in your local market. James not only networked with friends, family and acquaintances in person and on Facebook, but he also became active in local trade organizations, such as the Austin General Contactors Society.

Through friends and family as well as local organizations, James was able to land major deals with local clients like the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival. Business partner Matt Beahm even networked inadvertently and successfully with a seatmate on a plane back to Austin, which led to Austin Rent Fence servicing another major Austin festival: Fun Fun Fun Fest. Moral: Simply engaging in a friendly conversation—”networking”—pays off.

Expand Your Referral Network by Offering Good Customer Service

Good customer service can be crucial for local businesses, as it is the most important differentiating factor between small companies and large chains. James credits the engagement of Austin Rent Fence with customers on a more personal level as a critical factor in the company’s success. From the moment Austin Rent Fence landed its first client until now, James has made following up with customers his main priority. He makes sure he receives feedback from customers and does everything possible to ensure customer satisfaction.

He has also provided discounts and other incentives for first-time customers, in an effort to expand his client base. James believes that Austin Rent Fence’s excellent service coupled with unbeatable incentives was the primary reason people spread the word about his business.

“Everyone wants great customer service, he says.  “People will tell their friends and colleagues when they experience it and refer them to you.”

Cater to Local Culture

Everything that is Austin oozes out of Austin Rent Fence. The company’s branding/promotional material puts Austin institutions and hallmarks on parade. For instance, the Austin Rent Fence logo—a hippish squirrel with obligatory dark shades, musical instrument, facial scruff and burnt orange sandals—appeals to Austin’s love of The University of Texas, outdoor culture and omnipresent music scene. Instantly recognizable and ethos-inducing, the references seem to work. James recommends using similar hallmarks of your local community to appeal to potential customers.

Utilizing the strategies above will help you to not only survive your first year in business, but also help you to become a fixture in your local market, despite all of the “big dogs” threatening to run you out.

For any other criminal defense attorneys (or doctors or office workers or born entrepreneurs) who want to start a local business, James Gill offers one last piece of advice:  “At a certain point you have to stop listening to everyone who tells you you can’t do something and just do what you believe in.”

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With only a couple of weeks left on his project management class, Middleton is brimming with new ideas from the course. “I didn’t think it would actually help that much, but the class has definitely helped develop structure, process, and foundation for everything I do.”

Research and Define Goals

There are many great reasons for taking additional courses and continuing your education. If you are earning a certificate at the end of your class, you may be more marketable to future employers or become eligible for a promotion at your current company. Plus, you will most likely look at an increase in salary down the road. In addition to the benefits of career advancement and higher salary, continuing your education also gives you more tools in order to perform your job more effectively.

Middleton suggests defining your goals before deciding on what course you want to take. Is it to enter a different field? Learn more about the field you’re already in? Improve your skill set? Learn a new tool or technology? Gain a certificate? Sit down and think about what you want to get out of your class.

Once you’ve set out your goals, go forth and research! Do you want to take a course online? Do you want to take a night class at a nearby school? You also want to research the teachers in charge of classes you’re interested in. Make sure you’re finding a class that will fit with your needs.

Ask Your Employer

Once you’ve decided which course to take, talk to your employer. If your company already has a continuing education policy in place—a lot of larger corporations do—this will be pretty easy. If they don’t, you should approach your supervisor or the human resources department.

“It’s less expensive for companies to promote from within than to recruit a new employee with the right education, so it’s in your company’s best interest for you to take the initiative to improve your skill set,” Middleton says.

Plus, a lot of companies will most likely cover some (if not all) of the cost of your class.

Recognize Time Constraints

Before you sign up for your class make sure you really recognize the time constraints you’re going to be putting on yourself.

“Realize that most one semester night classes will require at least eight hours of week of your time,” Middleton says. “This is equivalent to adding on an additional work day to your schedule every week. Do you really have that available?”

Maintain a Balance

Middleton suggests that, after you sign up for your course, you should take a step back and analyze your priorities. You will want to make sure to maintain these priorities throughout the duration of your class. “No matter the additional requirements, it is vital to your overall success that you keep your priorities in line. Make time to spend on your hobbies, interests, and friends,” Middleton says.

For instance, in addition to his work here at ChooseWhat and his project management course, Middleton is currently playing on a rugby team in Austin. He also maintains his relationships with friends and family, as well as his fitness regime.

“It’s also important to maintain a good diet and exercise routine to keep your energy levels up,” he adds.

Check out Middleton’s previous tips on healthy snacking.

Enjoy Yourself!

Middleton’s best tip for those wanting to further their education while maintaining their fulltime jobs is to simply enjoy yourself.  “Make sure that when you do go back to school that it is in an area where you have a lot of interest,” he says. “The last thing you want to do is work all day and then go to a class you don’t care about or are bored with.”

At the end of the day, going back to school is about you and your own personal development, so “don’t spend all that time without anything changing in your career.”

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According to Subhi, conducting international conference calls is vital to managing overseas operations and ensuring sustainability for international businesses.  It is important to be in constant communication with business counterparts abroad because it creates a personal relationship with overseas employees and ensures management will be updated on every process.

About the Khudairi Group

Daily conference calls to Iraq are necessary for the Khudairi Group, a business focused on rebuilding and developing Iraq, to monitor operations across three different divisions:  Government & Infrastructure, Marketing & Distribution and Oil & Gas.  Each of these main divisions, based in Houston, has daily international conference calls with the staff in Iraq that provides a level of on-the-ground transparency for the Houston headquarters.

Conference Calling Systems

It’s important to choose a conference calling system that works with your business needs.  Some businesses use a simple office phone to conduct conference calls, while other companies opt for web conferencing services, such as GoToMeeting.  The Khudairi Group started out by using Yahoo! Messenger but later converted to Skype, which is great for its chat, video and file and screen-sharing capabilities.

During conference calls, Subhi’s team simultaneously uses chat and video functions to repeat information, as the chat dialogue is helpful for non-native English speakers on the overseas team to follow along with the conversation.  Using Skype, you can also save previous chat conversations, allowing users to go back and review the dialogue from the meeting.

Skype costs as low as 2.3 cents per minute or 1.2 cents per month.  International SMS rates vary by country.  The Business version of Skype allows you to utilize

• IM
• Conference calling
• Video conferencing
• File sharing
• Screen sharing
• Call transfer
• Call forwarding
• Voicemail service
• Caller ID
• Online numbers
• SMS
• Skype Manager (Lets you centrally create and manage Skype accounts for your employees, allocate Skype Credit and assign features for employees to use.)

Key Guidelines for Your Conference Call

Here are some key guidelines to follow when having a conference call:

1.    Develop and distribute an agenda prior to meeting.

Agendas help you organize your discussion points and make your conference calls quicker and more effective.  Emailing your agenda to all conference call participants prior to the call will help participants focus on specific topics at hand.

2.    Follow a predetermined structure and stay on topic.

Structure is important when managing international conference calls. Especially when dealing with management offices in developing nations, “you [should] try to create structure where there isn’t structure,” Subhi advises.  A way to create structure is to set a schedule for conference calls and stick to it.  Subhi’s team sets pre-determined phone call times each week and holds overseas managers accountable for showing up and being prepared for the calls.

When Subhi’s team first started conference calling the team in Iraq, some of the managers in the overseas office wouldn’t show up to the conference calls or would procrastinate and offer excuses.  “[Having scheduled phone calls] was a new concept for the Iraqi management team,” Subhi admits, “but once we imposed a schedule, they were more willing to show up and be accountable.”

3.    Maintain effective communication from top to bottom and vice-versa.

“Lower level managers and employees are quick to imitate [top level] management styles,” says Subhi.  “If you set a good example for effective communication and accountability during meetings, they will follow your lead.”  The following step should also help you to maintain effective communication among overseas team members.

4.    Allow time for questions and concerns.

Setting aside time for questions and concerns allows participants to voice their opinions, if they haven’t had a chance to speak.  It also lets participants bring up any other important issues that weren’t already covered in the agenda.

5.    Send conference minutes, next steps and action items to all parties involved.

Subhi is always copied on emails containing meeting minutes, and he tries to follow up with each manager/meeting leader about the conference call if he isn’t in it.  He recommends including next steps and action items in your email as well as the minutes.

Other Considerations for Making International Calls

Working with employees abroad always requires special considerations due to time differences.  Subhi’s team schedules their conference calls with the Iraqi management office for every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because the schedule works best for the overseas team.

“In Iraq—and really all of the Middle East—most people have half days on Thursday, Friday off, and they work on Saturday and Sunday, which is somewhat counter to our work week in America.  Since we’re corporate, our overseas team pretty much has to follow the schedule that we set, but we try to be considerate about the time difference and the culture there.”

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“I wasn’t always so organized, but once I got hired by ChooseWhat I knew I had to adopt a system to manage all the information given to me,” Malden says. “The right organization is paramount to success at your job.”

So what can you do to stay more organized at work? Read Malden’s tips below.

Write It Down

First things first: you HAVE to write it down. A written (or typed) list gives you a tangible record of what you need to do rather than just an imaginary list in your head. “You might think you can remember everything that people ask you to do, but there will always be something that slips by you,” Malden says. “Make sure it’s not something important that slips by.”

Keep It All in One Place

Use only one or two systems to record tasks and events. For example, keep all of your appointments on your calendar and all of your assignments on a notepad or in your phone. That way you can worry about executing these tasks rather than having to remember what they are or where they’re located.

If you start putting some of your appointments on your phone calendar, some on your computer calendar and some on your desk calendar, chances are you might forget something eventually. So, use the fewest number of systems to keep track of tasks.

Always Have Your List with You

You can’t easily jot down tasks and assignments if you don’t have your list with you at all times. If you go into an appointment or a meeting, have your list on you. “If you say, ‘Oh, I’ll write that down when I get back to my desk,’ chances are you will forget it,” Malden says.

This is especially important if someone tells you something in the middle of a conversation because it’s easy to miss or forget details unless you write it down.

Update Your List Consistently

If you keep all of your to-do items in one place and you always have your list with you, you have to be diligent with writing everything down. “My best piece of advice is to always be consistent and maintain your to-do list every day. Make it a habit,” Malden says.

Start and End Your Day with Your List

Start every day by looking at your list from the day before. Chances are that you didn’t finish everything that you needed to yesterday, and, typically, after going home the night before you probably forgot the details of what you needed to do.

And, just as starting your day with your list is incredibly important, it’s also vital to end your day with reviewing your list. Check off things you completed! Doesn’t it feel good? Write down notes of things you need to accomplish the next day. Don’t wait ‘til the next day; get it all down before you walk out the door.

Helpful Tools

• Tadalist.com is an easy to-do list tool that you can even use to share with others.
• iPhone apps, such as ToDo or Remember the Milk

Remember that being organized is essential to performing your job well.  “Being organized is important because the one time you forget to write something down, it’s going to be a huge mistake,” Malden says.

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Clearly Define Your Purpose and Goals

Before you can improve the effectiveness of your site, you need to define its purpose.  Specifically, what are your goals for the website?  Do you want it to:

• Present information about your company?
• Generate business?
  • Through ecommerce (i.e. selling products/services on your site)?
  • Through lead forms (i.e. having users fill out a form to get more information)?
  • Through phone calls to your company?
  • Through subscriptions to your service or your monthly newsletter?

Although the questions above seem obvious, it is very important to commit them to writing.  When determining ways to make your site more effective, you will use these answers as guideposts.  When making a decision about your site, always ask yourself “Will doing this help me achieve the goals of my website.” If the answer is “no,” it’s likely a waste of time.

1) Recreate the User Experience

Remember that people are looking for answers when they get to your website.  If at any point they get confused or frustrated, they will abandon your site, rendering it ineffective.  To avoid losing customers, try to recreate the experience of a person (or persons) arriving at your website.

Pretend you’re searching online. You can start by searching for your site’s target keywords on the top search engines to see if your site comes up for the right keywords.  When you do find your site, look to see which page comes up on that particular search (often times it’s not the home page) and ask yourself if you were the one searching, what you would do if you visited that page.  If it is not one of your stated goals, then you’ve found an opportunity for improvement.

Click links. You should not only click all of the links on your site to see if they navigate to the correct pages and information, but also click the links on your email newsletters, social media sites and other blogs or sites that link to yours.  Again, check to see that the content on your entry pages (an “entry page” is the first page that a person sees when they arrive at your site- often this is not the home page) is relevant to the links clicked.

Pay attention to your messaging on other marketing materials or advertising. Again, make sure that your ad is sending customers to the right place.  Leo asks, “Is the discount that people heard about on the radio easily visible when they get to your website, or do they have to dig for it?”

Identify calls to action. Is the path to the action that you desire from the user (e.g. filling out a lead form, calling you, buying a product) clear?  If any page of your site is lacking a clear call to action, you will lose customers.

2) Eliminate Jargon

Most business owners don’t realize how harmful jargon can be.  Most of your customers probably don’t have the background in your industry that you do and will be put off by industry-specific jargon.  If they don’t understand what you’re selling, they won’t buy. So, eliminate the jargon, and if you must use it, make sure to define it in simple terms that anyone can understand.

Hire a good copywriter to create clear, compelling copy for your site, or pick up The Yahoo Style Guide, which has useful tips on improving copy.

3) Simplify Choices

Don’t give your users too many choices on your website. When you do give them choices, make them easy ones.  The person on your site is there to get answers from you, the expert.  Give them the information they’re looking for up front, without any hassle, and they’ll be more likely to act.  It may be helpful to create user profiles using demographic information you’ve collected about your customers, so that you can tailor your site content to specific user types.

4) Use Tracking

Tracking services can help you view how people are currently using your site.  Most of these services will let you see how your visitors are arriving (e.g. through search, direct, email, etc.)  Some popular tracking services that we’ve used here at ChooseWhat are

Google Analytics:  A free tracking service that lets you view visitors, entry pages, links clicked, average time on site, etc.

Hitslink:  A paid tracking service that shows you more detailed information than Google Analytics, but is less user friendly.

ClickTale:  Lets you watch videos of visitors interacting with your site, view Mouse Move Heatmaps, see Form Analytics, etc.

5) Find a Good Hosting Service

Make sure you have a good hosting service.  If you regularly visit your own site and find the slow load time frustrating, then your customers are probably frustrated as well.  Slow page loads and issues with your site being down will cause users to abandon your site quickly.  There are many hosting services on the market, and it’s up to you to choose one.  But remember that free hosting services will never work as well as hosting you pay for.

6) Test Your Site in Different Browsers

Most Internet users use IE to view websites.  If you use Firefox or Safari, you should also regularly view your site in Internet Explorer to make sure your site looks and functions correctly on all browsers.  Conversely, if you use IE, regularly check your site on Firefox (and Safari if possible).  Roughly 30% – 40% of our visitors use Firefox, which is a significant percentage.

Check out this list of tools for testing Cross-Browser Compatibility.

Using Leo’s tips, you’ll have an effective business website in no time and be ahead of everyone else in the online game.

Cheers!

Belaire got her environmental drive from watching her parents’ business, an environmental consulting business that helps companies reconstruct land on the Texas coast after a build in order to bring the environmental surroundings up to specific standards. “Seeing how they started out making a difference with just two people and watching them grow with their team and make an even bigger difference to their surroundings is inspiring,” Belaire says.

It can be difficult to be green at the office because, as Belaire points out, “it’s harder to do because someone has to take the initiative to set up green practices.”

Learn what you can do to help your office become more environmentally-friendly:

Conduct a Waste Audit

The first thing your company should do is conduct a waste audit. This can be as simple as doing a walkthrough of your office operations and see what and how much is being thrown away. Once you have a better idea of what is being tossed out in your office, you can look for opportunities to reuse these items or even reduce waste. The Environmental Protection Agency even has a worksheet you can download to help you with this process. You will probably be able to easily see where you can implement simple environmentally-friendly practices.

Try Composting

Even though your office doesn’t have a yard, you can still participate in composting. Composting is the decomposition of organic matter to make substance this is beneficial to houseplants or enriching soil. It is an easy way to reduce the volume of garbage sent to landfills. If you’re willing to give up a little bit of space under the sink or on top of the fridge in your office’s kitchen, your company can keep its food scraps out of the landfill too.  And, if you get the proper bin, your compost collection doesn’t have to smell. Look into Bokashi bins, which is full of effective microorganisms. You can donate your compost to a farmer’s market or community garden. Learn more about office composting.

Recycle the Lazy Way

Recycling can be such a hassle sometimes if your office building doesn’t recycle. Someone has to take it upon themselves to initiate a recycling program and take the recyclables to the center. It’s hard to want to be green when it’s a hassle, right? So feel free to lazily recycle by hiring someone to come pick your recycling for you! Companies like Trusty Pickup will haul off your recycling for a small fee.

Buy Sustainable Products

There are also many options to buy products that are sustainable and made by companies using sustainable practices. The Santa Monica Office of Sustainability and the Environment is an excellent site that highlights a lot of green office products, such as printers that meet Energy Star requirements or toner cartridges that can be refilled or recycled.

Implement Easy Green Practices

Like I said before, going green doesn’t have to be difficult. There are always a ton of simple and small ways you can make your office more environmentally-friendly.

• Set your printer margins wide and print double-sided documents to reduce paper waste.
• Provide employee incentives for those who ride their bikes to work.
• Encourage public transportation or carpooling.
• Turn computers and appliances off (not in hibernation mode) when leaving the office.
• Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs.
• Use coffee mugs and Nalgene bottles instead of paper cups or plastic water bottles.
• Take your own Tupperware to restaurants instead of getting to-go boxes.
• Turn off all the lights.
• Unplug the toaster and microwave when not in use.
• Buy organic snacks in sustainable packaging.
• Hand wash dishes instead of using the dishwasher, or at least make sure the dishwasher is full and not set to Heated Dry.

“There are many different reasons to be environmentally-friendly, not just in the office but in your everyday life as well,” Belaire says. “The environment surrounds us; it’s the air we breathe, the food we eat and the ground beneath our feet.  Making more environmentally conscious decisions is an easy thing to incorporate into your daily life.  Our decisions and habits today can help future generations.”

Business Server Options

PC as a Server

If you have fewer than 20 office computers running windows, you can use a Windows 7 machine (i.e. a PC) as your server.  In this scenario, your “server PC” is acting like a shared hard drive so you can’t set different security protocols for different files.  Otherwise, it accomplishes most of what a true enterprise server would accomplish and it’s a lot less expensive and easier to maintain.  In addition, you can sign up for an online backup service like JungleDisk or Mozy to back up your server, which costs less than $10 per month.  Unfortunately, if you need more than 20 connections, this is no longer an option.

Business Server OS

Here at ChooseWhat.com, we used a PC as our server for a long time (which worked well enough), but we outgrew it. If you have 20 ore more computers that need to connect to your server, you will have to purchase a business server with a server operating system (OS), such as Windows Small Business Server 2008 that can support up to 50 employees. The main advantage of having an enterprise-level server is that you’ll be able to set multiple levels of permissions for each file on your server, which means increased security.

Virtual Private Server (or Dedicated Server)

A virtual server means that your server is hosted online and managed by a hosting company.  Gaines says that if you’ve already hired an IT team to manage your server, you may also want to pay them to provide a virtual server (which many IT firms do).  However, Gaines is hesitant to recommend this option to start-ups, as virtual servers for this purpose can cost  $500+ per month.  In this scenario, you’re also depending on a bulletproof internet connection and an extremely reliable IT service firm.  Gaines said this option just didn’t make sense for ChooseWhat.com.

Cost of Buying a Business Server OS

According to Gaines, who was responsible for purchasing our new business server here at ChooseWhat.com, business servers for small businesses start around $2,500.  We spent about $6,000 when it was all said and done.  Here was the cost breakdown:

Server Machine:   ~$3,500

OS:  Windows Server 2008 (~ $1,500)

We got ours for free because we’re a member of Microsoft BizSpark.  If you qualify (i.e. you have 10 or fewer full-time employees), BizSpark is a really great program sponsored by Microsoft that provides free software to certain types of small businesses.

CAL’s:  You are required to purchase licenses for each machine connected to the server ($85 per machine)

Setup and installation:  8 hours for the server and about 1 hour per machine ($75 – $150 per hour in Austin, Texas)

Tips for Configuring Your Server

• Servers should be configured with multiple redundancies. This means that the server has two hard drives that mirror each other, allowing for both on-site and off-site backup and ensuring that your backup is preserved in the event of a localized disaster.
• You should also configure the server to back up every night. This ensures that no more than a day’s worth of data will be lost in the event of a disaster.  To configure your server, check with your server provider for detailed instructions.  If you’re using Windows Server 2008, you can follow this guide on Backup Basics in Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Don’t host your email or calendars on your server. Most business servers allow you to host your email on your server.  However, you may want to avoid hosting your own email for a couple of reasons.  First, you want to protect your server from any viruses you may accidentally download through your email.  Second, if your server ever goes down or you have server issues, you won’t be able to access your email.  Using a cloud (online) email service like Gmail or Yahoo Mail is preferable.

What exactly is PPC? It’s an Internet advertising model used on search engines, typically the Big Three: Google, Bing, and Yahoo, through which you create an ad to show up when Internet users search for specific keywords. You will only pay the site when your ad is clicked on. Typically you make a bid with the search engine to compete for the top spot in the paid search section.

“If you do PPC for your site and bid high enough, you can get traffic to your site quickly. Plus it gives you a better understanding of what keywords drive traffic and conversions.”

Here are Wong’s pointers on how you can make PPC work the best for your company:

See the Larger Trends

We typically run reports on the keyword level to analyze the performance of our PPC accounts, but it’s also important to take a step back to look at your accounts from a higher level. Wong says it’s easy to create these reports with pivot tables in Excel, where you can see how your account is performing from both an ad group level (i.e. the group of similar keywords, such as send fax, sending fax, etc.) and a campaign level, which is the site itself.

Focus on Major Ad Groups

Like with many things in life, the 80/20 rule can also be applied to PPC. Wong says that roughly 80% of your PPC account’s revenue will come from roughly 20% of the keywords. By focusing on the performance of your major ad groups, you can have lager impacts on the performance of your account by tweaking just a few things.

Your major ad groups include:

• The keywords that generate the most clicks
• The keywords that produce the most revenue
• The keywords you spend the most money on

“Always Be Testing”

According to Wong, PPC is a game of always testing and never settling. You should test everything, from ad copy (the content that people see in your ad), to max PPC bid, to your landing page (the page they land on from your ad), and more.  But, when you find something that works, make sure to keep testing to find something that works better. By doing so, you’ll be able to stay ahead of your competitors. Wong warns that PPC is not something you can set and forget.

“Remember, a lot of times you’ll think something will work, but you have to test a lot of things and remind yourself that you don’t know exactly what a buyer will do,” Wong says.

Utilize Negative Keywords

According to Google, “negative keywords” are words that keep your ads from being shown when  a user does a search. A perfect example is the phrase “how to.”

“People who tend to search for ‘how to’ do something aren’t typically buyers, so you want to make sure your PPC is only seen by those who will lead to conversions,” Wong says.

Wong suggests adding negative keywords to your PPC accounts in order to filter them out because it gives you greater control on who sees your advertisement.

Track Conversions on Specific Keywords

Tracking conversion rates on a keyword-level basis is an absolute must in order to have a successful PPC account. Each of your keywords should have a unique tracking ID so that you can see how many people are coming to your website on each keyword and how many of those people are converting into leads. It’s not just enough to see which keywords spike your traffic if they don’t lead to sales. Knowing whether the people coming to your website are converting is the most important piece of PPC, according to Wong.

Everyone has deadlines. Everyone has been told that they need to finish tasks or projects—or to deliver a product—faster than they’d planned. It often seems impossible to meet these deadlines, but there are ways to get the job done. Knowing how to properly crash a project is a vital tool for any project manager. But, for project managers, it is also one of the most difficult things to do. “If something takes Karen six days to accomplish on her own, then Karen and Peter working together should be able to accomplish this task in three days. But, this is rarely, if ever, the case,” says Nick.

Make the Impossible Possible

“Tasks can always be done faster,” says Nick. “It’s just a matter of: How much extra will it cost? How much faster can it get done? Who will be working on it?” Answering these questions and putting plans in place to execute your objectives will help make the impossible possible.

According to Nick, there’s always a risk of decreasing the quality of your product when you crash the project, but you should have a solid plan in place to help you minimize the loss of quality. “I wouldn’t recommend crashing the project unless absolutely necessary—which is often the case for small businesses,” he admits.

Add Additional Resources

Nick says that adding resources costs money and can often cause the project to take longer. Typically, additional resources external to the project will have a bigger learning curve than those already working on the project. And teaching or training additional resources will take time away from those already working on the project. Nick recommends adding additional resources only when there is a small or no learning curve involved (e.g. doing math, plugging in information, fact-checking, etc.) in order to minimize time drains.

Reorganize Tasks

Breaking down tasks from a few big picture accomplishments to several smaller, more tangible pieces can help a project manager better organize and prioritize tasks. Work breakdowns also help to identify which steps can be accomplished at a faster rate than others with minimal cost (i.e. only a few additional resources are necessary, and there is little to no learning curve). Nick also advises PM’s and teams to identify tasks that can be done in parallel. For example, instead of doing Quality Control on all of our vendor reviews before we publish them on ChooseWhat.com, we upload reviews that have already been quality checked while other reviews are being QC’d. This makes the process faster and much more effective.

Create a Networking Diagram to Identify Your Critical Path

A networking diagram will help you determine your “critical path.” The critical path is always the longest path to completion of the project and involves all of the steps that MUST be accomplished to complete the project. Identifying your critical path is imperative to crashing the project. Only the activities aligned on the critical path can affect the overall duration of the project; so, you’ll want to focus on shortening the time it takes to complete critical path activities. However, it’s important to note that as you being cutting down time on critical path activities (such as by throwing additional resources at them), your critical path may change along with your overall strategy for crashing the project.

The following diagram (drawn by Nick) shows the critical path (green) to completion of the project (yellow). The numbers denote hours of work allotted to each activity. Totaling hours on the critical path will give you the longest (read: actual) timeframe for completing the project.

Crying Gets You Nowhere

“Getting told that a project is due sooner than expected is not the end of the world,” Nick admonishes. “Be creative, and come up with a solution because crying gets you nowhere!” Your solution is going to involve plenty of graphs and flow charts that will help you get a firm grasp on realistic goals and work schedules, as well as your own judgment on how to utilize resources.

“Crashing the project—and managing projects in general—is both an art and a science,” says Nick. The “science” part, he says, involves graphs and numbers.

The “Science” of Crashing

For instance, you have 10 workers, and each worker on this project costs the company X number of dollars per hour (we’ll say $20), and the project is due in four days (with eight hours in a day), you are going to spend $6,400 in labor costs. Just before you start working on the project, your superior tells you the project must be done in three days.

As project manager, you decide that if you’ve got 10 workers (working eight hours per day),  and you need to speed up the project by three days, you’re going to also need to increase your workforce by five people. The project manager then can report to their superior that they can in fact speed up the project to be done in three days, but it is going to cost $800 extra (15 workers x 8 hours a day x $20 an hour x 3 days). It is then up to the person who is funding the project (or your superior) to decide whether the $800 extra it would cost to finish the project one day earlier is worth it.

(15w x 8hrs x $20 x 3d) – (10w x 8hrs x $20 x 4d) = $800

The “Art” of Crashing

The “art” part involves your skill at putting all your resources in the right places.

“We wouldn’t want April (our Web Developer here at ChooseWhat) to be working on a research database when Casey (one of our researchers) can do it much more efficiently,” says Nick. “And we wouldn’t want April spending all her time teaching Drupal (our Content Management System) to Casey.”

But, he admits that a little bit of training is often necessary to enable the handing-off of tasks. (In our case, a 30-minute training session on Drupal sufficed.)

This is the end of your crash course in “project crashing.” Just remember that rushing to meet a deadline doesn’t mean you have to feel frazzled. The more you plan for the crash, the softer it’ll be.

Check Out Craigslist

Craigslist is a great resource to find new employees if you use it properly and beware of Spammers. Coburn advises that some positions seem to elicit more Spam than others, so it’s best to come up with a way to weed out the Spammers.

“A method I’ve used to throw out all the Spammers is to ask applicants to answer a specific question in their email or put a particular subject line,” Coburn says. “This not only allows me to see who is clearly a Spambot easily, but if the applicants follow instructions, they are automatically moved to the next round.”

Other tips for looking for applicants on Craigslist include:

• Post positions in several different categories, but don’t go overboard.
• Never list your phone number.
• Use an anonymous email address.
• Repost your job posting weekly so that it doesn’t get buried by new listings.
• Make your job posting clear about what you want.
• Be aware of size issues if you’re requesting work samples. (Craigslist only allows a specific number of files to be received through their system.)
• Take down the job posting once you’ve hit a specific number of applicants. (Coburn suggests 50.)

Look for Interns on University Sites

If you’re searching for interns, the absolute best resource to help you find them is your local university’s job posting site. Since we’re based in Austin, Texas, we take advantage of the University of Texas job board.

Although the school is so huge, Coburn says that she prefers not to narrow her search down to just one department or major.

“We know that they’re not that far along in their careers, so we tend to keep our options open,” she says.

Coburn also says that, since the job board is private, you can feel free to post your real email address because you won’t be getting spammed, but you should still never post your phone number.

ChooseWhat’s Strategies Officer Gaines Kilpatrick also suggests posting on local university job boards if you’re looking for an entry-level position because alumni will also be searching the board. That’s how he found Coburn!

Kilpatrick recommends making sure that your job posting sells the company as well, especially if the job you’re hiring for won’t be the most exciting one.

“If you describe a bunch of menial tasks, no one will apply, so you should advertise the benefits of working for your company and try to attract the right candidate,” he says.

Learn more about getting the most out of your interns.

Use a Headhunter for Senior Positions

While weeding through dozens of resumes might work for most positions you’re hiring for, Coburn suggests using a headhunter for senior-level employees.

“Headhunters usually charge20 to 30 percent of the yearly salary, so for a senior-level position, it’s worth it,” Kilpatrick says.

Tip:  Instead of using a general headhunter service, look for a specialized headhunter who places employees directly into positions you need to fill.

Try Freelance Sites for Contractors

If you’re looking for a contract laborer, check out freelancing sites, such as oDesk or eLance, which Coburn uses to find web development freelancers.

Coburn recommends working with contract laborers on a per project basis rather than an hourly wage. It should save you time and money in the long run.

She also says to be wary of low-cost agencies that make low bids on your postings. Typically the lower end agencies are based abroad, “so you might think that you’re getting a good deal, but communication could be tricky.”

Coburn advises to ask contractors for references and feel free to call them. They might even give you pointers on how to hire people through these sites.

A benefit of using these freelancing sites is that they have built-in communication tools, such as chat, email, and payment options, which are useful if you’re managing several freelancers.

Network, Network, Network

When searching for a new employee, you should also reach out to people within your industry to give you suggestions or advice.

But, according to Kilpatrick, you should beware of hiring friends. “I shy away from hiring friends because there are usually strings attached!” he advises.

When you’ve found a couple of potential candidates, learn more about conducting the perfect interview!

Why You Should Care about QC

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Management and Marketing Research,

Traditionally, small organizations have been less likely to utilize strategic management models and strategic planning concepts than large organizations for many reasons: (1) Small organizations are often family-owned; (2) Small business leaders are often more focused on day-to-day operations as opposed to management models and strategic management systems; (3) Small businesses have less money to spend on training; and (4) Their competitors generally operate the way they do – without using management models and implementing improvement systems. Also, entrepreneurs who develop small businesses usually have little desire to establish routine processes and procedures.

Although not many small businesses have a strategic management model in place, ChooseWhat.com’s Adam Malden believes that even if more work needs to be done initially, small businesses owners can and should implement Quality Control standards and processes.  Why?  “It’s the last line of fact-checking and assurance of quality before a product, service or information about a company goes public.”

Here are Adam’s tips for implementing Quality Control easily and effectively in your small business:

Standardize QC with Processes

The easiest way to handle QC is to standardize everything from start to finish.  One way to create standardization is to write a thorough process that can be distributed to employees who are responsible for QC.

Create Checkpoints

Since QC is a recurring task, employees in charge of this task should check in with a project manager throughout the QC process.  The manager can help improve and correct errors in the process as it’s being implemented, in order to minimize time spent troubleshooting later on.

Maintain Flexibility

Flexibility is key for QC.  Especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs, processes and procedures will require revision and improvement.  The ability to incorporate employee feedback into your QC processes is essential.

Adam says that our QC process here at ChooseWhat for small business product and service reviews follows this particular flow (simplified):

• Review each company, service or product twice.
• Compare discrepancies between reviews and right-size information.
• Check-in with project manager on status and process.
• Information goes live on our website/gets published.
• QC published content.

What about the REALLY small companies, the one-man shops?

“You can definitely implement QC even if you’re a one-man shop,” says Adam.  “Once you’ve got your guidelines, processes and checkpoints in place, all you have to do is follow your own process for ensuring a quality product, service or publication.”

Tips:

• Write up your processes for standardization just as you would for any employees.
• Follow these processes yourself or find someone to help you QC.  You could probably even outsource this task.
• Use tools to help you achieve QC, such as firms or online tools that specialize in market research, focus groups or website usability testing.  Incorporate these into your processes when appropriate.

Models for QC and Strategic Management

For more about models for QC and Strategic Management, check out “What Management and Quality Theories Are Best for Small Businesses?” in the Journal of Management and Marketing Research.

From the abstract:

This paper proposes various management models that small business leaders can use to integrate quality initiatives into the strategic management of their organizations. In so doing, they can increase the probability of their organization’s long-term survival.

Develop a Quiz

Welder suggests crafting a quiz of questions you would ask every candidate in order to break the ice and assess his/her personality. These questions are supplemental to the usual prior employment, skill set, and future responsibilities script.

Welder’s favorite questions include brain teasers that don’t necessarily have an answer, but he says these give him some insight to the interviewee’s reasoning skills and attitude. Future interviewees of ChooseWhat, take note! Here is a taste of Welder’s interview questions:

• Why are manhole covers round?
• How many jelly beans are there in a glass jar that holds one liter?
• If you were stranded on an island with everything you needed to survive but could pick two extra things for yourself, what would you pick and why?
• What does a web hosting company do? (This question lets Welder know if the interviewee is familiar with ChooseWhat’s industry.)

Plan for the Future

Don’t just decide what your new hire will be doing tomorrow; plan their responsibilities for the future as well. Sit down and write out the activities that you see the employee doing over the next six months and then the next two years. What are the skills and personality traits you think would best serve a person in this position?

Check References

Always ask for references. Even though these people have been handpicked by the interviewee, they can still provide you with invaluable information. When contacting references, you should take note of the following:

• Did they call you back, and how quickly? If they avoid you, that’s an indication of their relationship to the candidate.
• Did they volunteer additional information? If they try to sell the candidate to you that means they actually liked him/her.
• Did the candidate only provide you with personal references? Unless you’re interviewing interns, everyone should have at least one professional reference, and, if they don’t, it’s a red flag that might indicate they don’t have a good relationship with any prior employer.

Create a Short Assignment

Between the first and second interview, you should give your candidate a short, timed assignment that’s relevant to the position. “Make sure to keep it simple, specific, and short so you can judge their talent appropriately,” Welder says.

If you’re hiring for a writing position, give candidates a timed writing assignment. If you’re looking for someone to make reports, give them a spreadsheet assignment. For a web developer, ask candidates to craft a proposal. The goal is to create an assignment that’s close to actual assignments your new hire will be completing. This assignment also helps you assess how well they follow directions and meet deadlines as well as utilize their skills.

Gauge Attitude

In addition to skills, Welder explains that an employee’s attitude is a huge deciding factor in who he hires. “Sometimes a good attitude can even outweigh strong skills,” he says. “You can teach skills. You can’t teach attitude.”

Good indicators of a great attitude for Welder include:

• The candidate has researched the company and has a good understand of what the company does. It means they are enthusiastic and interested.
• The candidate asks good questions. It means they have thought through their research and are excited by what they found.
• They are willing to do what it takes, no matter what.  However, someone with a lot of caveats could be trouble down the line.

“You have to work with this employee every day, so make sure you actually like him/her,” Welder points out.

Discuss Salary

While it can be iffy for an interviewee to discuss salaries upfront, Welder says for a boss it’s okay to talk money if you think you might extend an offer to the candidate. You want to know if you’re in the same ballpark moneywise as the candidate because if you can’t provide them with a livable wage, there’s nothing you can really do.

However, Welder strongly advises steering clear of mentioning specific numbers because you can’t retract your original number when you’re hiring someone. He suggests simply asking the candidate what his/her expected salary range is to make sure you’re both on the same page.

Tips for Interviewees

While some bosses might find it difficult to interview new hires, there’s no question that being interviewed is infinitely scarier. Welder also gives a couple of pointers for those walking into an interview.

• “There is no excuse for missing your interview!” Welder says. Never reschedule your interview the day of.
• Understand the business as best as possible. Go the extra mile to learn everything you can about the company.
• Focus on three main things during the interview:  asking questions, showing your interest, and demonstrating your skills.
• It never hurts to overdress.
• Make sure to have excellent professional references.

Interviewing potential employees doesn’t have to be stressful! Using Welder’s tips, you can take pride in knowing you’re hiring great employees who can help grow your business. One last piece of advice for bosses? “Don’t talk too much!” Welder says. “Don’t oversell the company too much, and don’t just quiz them either.”

Two full-time employees are considered a group.

Small business owners typically ask, “When is my company eligible for a group plan?” and “When should I get one?”  You are eligible for a group plan when your company consists of two people, whether it’s two business partners or one business owner and one employee.

“If it’s you and your secretary, you should go ahead and get a group medical plan,” says Gaines.

Group medical plans cost the same or less than individual plans and have much better coverage.

When Gaines and ChooseWhat.com co-creator Leo Welder became business partners, they opted to get a group plan for just the two of them because it ended up being cheaper and providing better coverage than individual health insurance.  Gaines attributes this, in part, to their demographics (i.e. young, single, healthy, male) that affect the premiums for health insurance.

Gaines recommends that start-ups consisting of a few relatively young and healthy people should sign up for a group plan as soon as possible, but he also advises you not to worry about not fitting into specific demographics.

“There are laws protecting groups and mandating coverage of things that most individual health plans aren’t likely to cover, such as pre-existing medical conditions or maternity,” he says.  “Group plans definitely give you distinct advantages.”

Employers have to contribute at least 50% of the cost for group medical.

Before you decide to provide health insurance for your employees or not, consider your industry:

• Do you have or expect to have high or low turnover?
• Do your current/future employees have a high or low skill level?  Are they easily replaceable?
• Do you want to attract and retain the top employees with health benefits? Or is it more about keeping costs low?

Answering these questions will help you get a better sense of whether providing health insurance is something your company is prepared to do.  Also, keep in mind that you’re obligated by law to contribute at least 50% of the cost for group medical. But, you can also set company-specific health insurance policies, such as whether you’ll cover spouses and dependents and up to how much you’re willing to cover.

The forms are easier for group medical plans than for individual plans.

Gaines says that individual health insurance forms are fairly complicated and tend to delve deeper into your background and medical history than group health insurance forms, lengthening the approval time and making it more difficult to get approved.

Gaines also advises business owners to use a broker (all the major health insurance providers work with them) to find the right health plan and provider for their companies.  As you get new employees, you’ll need to re-evaluate your group plan based on your employee demographics and renew or sign up for a new plan.  A broker will handle this process for you and figure out the best plan/provider for your company’s needs.  Brokers also keep up-to-date with new laws and tax credits that relate to your medical plan.

You can have different medical plans for employees and executives.

Deciding on your medical plan can involve more than just deciding whether to go with an HMO or PPO.  You can also opt to get two different plans for employees and executives at your company.

“It’s a way for you to keep costs low while also giving people options based on their needs,” says Gaines.

It’s also a good idea to provide your employees with options (e.g. dental, vision, deductable/ premium level, etc.).  For instance, Gaines and Leo had lots of informal conversations with everyone  here at ChooseWhat.com to get some ideas of what people needed and wanted before they selected a plan that would provide everyone with options.

Deciding whether to get a medical plan for your company is a big step, but, according to Gaines, it’s not one you should be afraid to take.  “This post is for small business owners just starting out who are still on the fence or are lacking enough information to make a decision,” says Gaines.  “I’m here to say go ahead and pull the trigger, because it’s worth it.”

Considering your options and keeping in mind the tips listed above will help guide you and your company towards a happier, healthier work life.

“I majored in international business, so I always wanted to work abroad somewhere and an opportunity in Costa Rica just happened to come up,” Belaire says.

While moving (and working) abroad can seem scary, Belaire has learned a lot from her own experiences. Read below for her tips on how to successfully move to another country.

What to Research Before You Go

While you can’t prepare for everything before you move, you should at least research the country you’re moving to—and visit first if you can. Belaire recommends reading as many books as you can. For her move to Costa Rica she read a book about retiring there that gave her plenty of pointers. Also, she had a friend who already lived there, which made asking someone questions incredibly easy. If you know someone who currently lives abroad, pepper him/her with as many questions as possible. You may not have all the answers before you go, but it’s best to be informed as possible.

“It’s definitely hard to think about all of this stuff before you go,” Belaire says.

During your research there are several key components of living abroad you should consider, such as:

Housing

Think about what type of housing you want to live in. Do you want the comforts of home, such as air conditioning, TV, and a washer and dryer? Or would you rather live as the locals do? Also think about where you want to live. Do you want to be near fellow countrymen or other work abroad types?

Transportation

What is the transportation like in your new country? How will you get around, especially from your home to your new job? Belaire recommends paying attention to the distances between where you will be living and the places you will need to go on a regular basis, such as the grocery store. You should also consider how much plane tickets from your home country to the country you’ll be working in will cost.

Belaire got around Costa Rica by taking the bus, renting cars, and even driving a four wheeler!

Money

It’s important to note the conversion rate from USD to the currency of the country you’re moving to.
Are ATMs available? Will your credit cards work? And, if the company you work for is based in the U.S., for example, you’ll need to still pay taxes come April 15^th.

In Costa Rica, Belaire says that you can exchange dollars at restaurants and other businesses but that they give you a worse rate than through the bank.

Communication

How will you communicate with your friends and family back in the States? Can you get a cell phone and/or the Internet?

Belaire stresses that it is important to get a reliable phone. In Costa Rica, you have to be a citizen to get a cell phone, so she befriended a local who trusted Belaire to get a phone in her name. Otherwise she wouldn’t really have access to a phone.

Visas

Learn what the Visa requirements are. How easy is it to obtain a Worker’s Visa? If you don’t get a Worker’s Visa, how often do you have to be to leave the country? Will the company you work for pay these expenses?

Belaire says that the company she worked for, Surf Divas, was based in the U.S., but they did not offer her a Visa because the process is incredibly long in South America.  Without a Visa, Belaire was required to leave the country every 90 days for at least 72 hours.

Cultural Differences

Every country is different, and so are their citizens. Be aware of how people interact in your new country. What kind of lifestyle are your new coworkers used to living?

According to Belaire, Costa Ricans are known to live on “Tico time” and are very laid back and non confrontational. As the hospitality coordinator for Surf Divas, Belaire was required to inspect the hotel rooms of guests before they arrived to make sure they were up to standard, and often she found it difficult to get hotel workers to get their jobs done correctly.

“I found out that it worked if I helped them do their job so they knew I wasn’t just being mean,” Belaire says. “Plus, being very appreciative afterwards went a long way.”

Medicine

If you’re not going to get insurance through your company, you should look for insurance specific to your country. Some insurance providers have worldwide coverage; however, they may be pricier. Belaire found insurance that was specific for Costa Rica, but she says many people go without because coverage in Latin America is harder to find than in Europe. Do your research before you go.

Just Do it!

Moving abroad is a big step, but Belaire recommends you go for it even if you’re a little scared.  You’ll learn more in your first month in your new home country than you probably would if you read dozens of books.

“Even if you don’t have all the answers, just do it!” Belaire says. “It’s more exciting that way.”

Chances are that you will have the experience of a lifetime and come away with many important lessons. Belaire says that Costa Rica taught her “how nice it is to slow down, enjoy life, and just get away from it all!”

The following add-ons are ones that Koby uses on a daily basis.  “There are lots of add-ons in the Firefox database, as well as on other third-party sites, but these are some of the simplest and easiest to use,” he says.

(The SearchStatus and SEO Doctor add-ons come from Mozilla.org, while SEO for Firefox and SEO Toolbar come from SEObook.com.)

SEO for Firefox

>Function:  Perform keyword research.

1. Download and install SEO for Firefox on your Firefox browser.
2. Enable the add-on by clicking on the SEO for Firefox icon. = off and = on.
3. Type your search query into one of the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo, or Bing).
4. A number of quick links will appear underneath the search box to help with your keyword research.  We most frequently use the AW Sandbox, Sktool, and 100 links.

SearchStatus

>Function:  Highlight no-follow links.

1. Download and install SearchStatus on your Firefox browser.
2. Highlight no-follow links by right-clicking on the SearchStatus icon () and checking the Highlight No-follow Links option.

3. This add-on highlights no-follow links in pink () allowing you to more effectively acquire links that aren’t “no-follow.”

Other uses for SearchStatus:

• Show Whois
• Show robots.txt
• Check PageRank

SEO Doctor

>Function:  Check On-Page SEO.

1. Download and install SEO Doctor on your Firefox browser.
2. Navigate to the page you want to check on-page SEO for.
3. The lower left-hand corner of your browser will show the page’s SEO score out of 100:
4. Click the score and a larger window will appear that gives you more information about your on-page SEO score.

5. You can click any of the items for a more in-depth explanation.

SEO Toolbar

>Function:  Check for proper usage of heading tags.

1. Download and install SEO Toolbar on your Firefox browser.
2. Navigate to the page you want to check heading tags for.
3. Click the SEO X-ray button of the SEO Toolbar: 
4. The tool will darken the page, box the page’s heading tags in orange, and bring up a box that lists the number of external and internal links on the page.

Other uses for SEO Toolbar: Site info, Search Engine Ranking Checker, Compare sites

Koby advocates trying these four tools first and then experimenting with other tools if you’re not satisfied.  “These add-ons work for me, but you might find something else that works for you,” he acknowledges.

For more advice from SEM Analyst Koby Wong that will help you boost your SEO efforts, check out SEO: Play the Hand You’re Dealt.

Why Provide Healthy Snacks?

While it’s not necessarily the boss’s job to provide their workers snacks, it’s fairly painless to promote a healthy lifestyle. And if you’re already providing snacks, it’s incredibly easy to switch to purchasing healthy snacks in order to keep your workers happy, healthy, and productive.

“Healthy eating promotes a high metabolism, and a high metabolism produces higher energy levels, leading to higher productivity,” Middleton explains.

According to a study earlier this year by The British Journal of Psychiatry, eating junk food can lead to depression.  Conversely, if your employees are committed to eating healthier in the office, they will probably transfer this diet to their personal lives.  And if employees are choosing a healthy lifestyle, they will probably be less likely to get sick. Also, as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, your company could possibly receive grants from the government for having wellness programs.

Additionally, while some people might balk at the expenses incurred by more nutritious foods, buying more expensive, healthy foods, instead of lower cost, unhealthy foods, might save you trips to the doctor later.

Note How You’re Snacking and Why

The average American eats four snacks a day. Although eating smaller portions more frequently is generally healthier for you, too much grazing can really add up the calories. Do you know how much you’re consuming? You may not even realize how many potato chips you eat throughout the day.  A great way to keep track is through websites such as Calorie Count or with an iPhone app.

Another thing to consider is that you may just be snacking out of habit, not because you’re actually hungry.

“You might not even realize you’re snacking that much,” Middleton says. “Sometimes you’re just bored, and you’ll end up snacking. A walk around the block is better than a walk to the kitchen.”

If you think you might be snacking merely to break up the day, try drinking more water or taking a 5-10 minute walk around the block like Middleton suggests. And if you are going to snack, check out healthier options below.

Substitute for Healthy Foods

It may be incredibly easy to grab sodas and chips, but it can also take very little thought to simply substitute for healthier options.

• If you’re craving soda: try iced tea instead. “Sodas are terrible for you!” Middleton says. Plus teas have antioxidants in them and will give you the same boost in caffeine and sweetness you crave.
• If you’re craving coffee: cut back on the sugar and cream! Middleton still suggests you cut back on high-caffeinated drinks in general, as they can ruin your sleep pattern. But, if you really do need your coffee pick-me-up, try cutting out all the sugar. And a cuppa Joe with some low-fat milk at the office is way better for you than any frappe-mocha-latte-chino would be.
• If you’re craving sweets: try yogurt, preferably Greek, with a bit of honey. Middleton also suggests picking sweeter fruits, such as cantaloupe or watermelon, which are also incredibly cheap.
• If you’re craving chips: substitute for apples and peanut butter. Not only will you get the saltiness you crave, you will also get a little protein boost.
• If you’re craving a sports drink: swap for a coconut water instead. These contain more electrolytes than a Gatorade, have less sugar, and are hydrating.
• If you’re craving a little bit fat: go ahead and have a little bit of Ranch dressing or cheese, but at least have that dressing with some carrot sticks or celery.

Middleton acknowledges that it’s impossible to eat healthily all the time. The ChooseWhat team is obsessed with a certain taco stand, and we eat there at least twice a month. But we all take the six block trek there to do so—and in the Texas heat, it’s no small task! So, if you are going to cheat, at least walk or bike there.

Happy snacking!