              |
   |
We hope you find this arcthve useful. A subscription to The Small Business Advisor Newsletter is free. Subscribe now - it's easy! The Small Business Advisor Newsletter for June, 2000 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Notes, tips, etc ++++++++++++++++++++++++ HIRE YOUR SPOUSE. There are numerous tax reasons to hire your spouse. Read about them at http://www.isquare.com/tax1.htm SUGGESTED SOFTWARE. Here are three software packages that you should consider for your "tool box." Norton Antivirus 2000. The best antivirus utility. This is a MUST! http://www.symantec.com GoBack 2.1. This allows you to return your system to any point in time. For example, you install some new software and suddenly other applications don't work. Uninstalling the new software does not fix the problem. Use GoBack to return to the time before you installed the software. No support for NT or Win2000 with this version. http://www.goback.com Ghost 2000. Use this to clone your harddrive. Very handy. http://www.symantec.com ACCOUNTING ONLINE. Check out www.netledger.com - a very neat website that provides a complete online accounting solution. It's free for personal and small business use but with limited features and advertising. If you don't want the advertising, need multi-user capability, inventory and purchase order capability and other advanced features you pay only $4.95/month. One useful feature is the capability to import your existing Quickbooks or Quicken data. MARKETING IDEA. The Home Shopping Network just might be interested in your product. Request a Vendor Information packet by contacting them at 2501-118th Avenue N., St. Petersburg, FL 33716. Telephone, (813) 572 8585. INTERNET STATS. Those of you who have been receiving these newsletters for a while know how much I enjoy Internet statistics. They continue to amaze me - here are the latest. 1. Over 44 million households will be online by the end of 2000 (up from about 13 Million in 1995). [International Data Corp] 2. About 55 million Americans log onto the Internet every day. [Pew Internet & American Life Project] 3. Internet traffic is doubling every 100 days! [various sources] It should be pretty obvious that the Internet is an important small business tool. The Internet Marketing Center, http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/7115 Marketing tips, strategies, and secrets for internet marketing, online advertising and website promotion - good stuff. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ A question we are asked frequently is, "I want to start a (insert specific business here) business - where do I start and/or find information." AFTER you have schooled yourself in the basics of starting a (any) business such as by reading articles available on The Small Business Advisor (http://www.isquare.com) or on many other small business related websites including the SBA at http://www.sba.gov, here are some hints on finding information that relates to the specific business you are interested in: 1. Visit similar businesses that are nearby - talk to the owners. You might be surprised at how much information you can find with this technique. Small business owners love to talk about their business - even if they view you as a possible competitor. 2. Visit a local large bookstore such as a Borders or Barnes & Noble and browse the small business shelves. You will find many books devoted to specific businesses. Here are a couple we like: 101 Best Home-Based
Businesses for Women by Priscilla Y. Huff Both are available at bookstores or Amazon (http://www.amazon.com) 3. Visit your local library and ask at the reference desk for a copy of their periodical reference. This thick volume will contain listings of periodicals covering specific business areas. Contact the appropriate periodicals and get a sample issue. 4. While at the library also review their association's reference. Here you will find hundreds of associations devoted to every imaginable topic. One or more might be useful to you. Industry specific associations generally have a variety of information available that will be useful to you. There are Associations for everything, for example; American Alligator
Farmers Association .... There are thousands ....! 5. Do an online search for your specific business - the Internet is a fantastic source of information and data. 6. For wholesale product information for many businesses check out The Thomas Register. The library will have this reference (about 20 volumes!) and it is online at http://www.thomasregister.com. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ (Excellent information to assist in choosing a web hosting company ..ed) A paddleboat is great for fun on a day off! But would you consider taking it to the open sea? A cruise ship on the other hand is ideally suited for pampering its guests with every facility imaginable for the vacation of your dreams! Applying this analogy to web hosting can help you make a wise decision if you are currently 1) new to internet business and looking for that first web host, or 2) up and running but thinking the time has come to upgrade to a higher level. Web hosts fall generally into 3 categories. They are: 1) Free Services 2) Budget Hosts (under $20-25 per month) 3) Full Service ($25+ per month) Let's take a look at each category. 1. Free Services If you want to run a home page for personal interest for family and friends, great! If you want to ease into the Internet cautiously, great. Tripod.com offer a good free service with reasonable support. Or check out: http://zap.to/1freewebpage/ for a good listing of what's available. In short, if you merely want to paddle around, have a little fun, gain some experience, these services are fine. For serious business however you really need your own domain name, not someone else's. Tripod takes the edge off by allowing your name to come first in the URL, e.g. http://yourname.tripod.com Having said that, you can't get away from the fact that your credibility as a business takes a hit when clients see this kind of domain name. 2. Budget Hosts You get what you pay for, generally. Many may knock the value of budget hosts. If you are running a serious business, then probably this kind of package would not give enough stability or features. Consider the following first-hand nightmare experience: "One popular low-cost host left my entire site dead for over a week while I scrambled frantically to save my business. Heck, I couldn't even reach anyone or get them to return my plea for help. When the dust settled, they had lost the backups of my entire site and I was left to fend for myself." - Ken (Internet Marketing Challenge) On the other hand, you may find my experience helpful in your decision-making. I am running a resource site at present containing information pages and some doorway pages. I don't sell from my site. I don't need a secure ordering page. For my purpose in running this particular domain, a budget host is fine. However, I ran a check on it some months back using the free service at http://hostwatcher.com. I was shocked to see how many times the server was down, or there was a very long load time for my pages. I wrote and complained. The reply came back that ownership of the host had changed and a better service was promised. Recently I checked again and found the company now has a 99% up time - a vast improvement. I was on the verge of changing my host but I now find the service is very good for what I need. Read a more in depth report on this here on my website: http://www.vitalstop.com/cheapwebhosting.htm 3. Full Service If your business is taking off and you need 24 hour full support with all the "bells and whistles" then this is the way to go. If your Internet business is your main stay then you need a "cruise ship" company who are going to give you professional top of the line facilities and service. The choice out there is vast! How can you decide? Research carefully! You can use this excellent resource at http://www.hostcompare.com/ that allows searching for any criteria you set. See if there are good shopping cart facilities so you can easily set up your online store. Managing your post office and auto responders should also be easy through a friendly interface with good web hosts. Look for 24 hour technical support and immediate response to customer needs. Some even have a troubleshooting crack force which can give a response usually within an hour or two. This is the kind of service you can expect from a top line professional web host. If your site is really beginning to make money, can you afford any less? Choosing a web host or changing a web host is one of those decisions that will have a massive impact on your business. Use the 3-category test above and decide where you are going! Then decide whether to jump into a paddleboat or book yourself a ticket on a cruise ship for a happy trouble free experience. Bon Voyage! Return to top of page - Back to Home Page - Back to Archive Index |