I want to ask you a very simple question: “Why do you have a website?”

While you’re thinking about a possible answer, consider these questions as well:

Why do you have a telephone number?

Why do you have a mailing address?

Why do you create brochures, flyers and newsletters?

See the trend?

The answer is simple: I have a website so people can learn more about my services and my company.

If no one could find your place of business, or even your telephone number, you will probably not be in business long.

The same is true with your website. It’s just sitting there. No one is finding it. No one is sending you inquiries, or sales requests, or signing up for your monthly newsletter.

Now, you may be getting some traffic from those who “know” your web address or have your business card handy, but since you can’t hand out your business cards to everyone, how are other customers going to find you?

Simple.

They are going to use a search engine, type in a word or two, click a button and find your website.

This is where search engine optimization (also referred to as SEO) comes in.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of combining many ingredients in order to get your site ranked higher in search engines, mainly in Google, MSN and Yahoo.

A few of these ingredients include:

Using quality keywords. You want to find and utilize keywords in your website that best describe your company’s business, service and products. You will want to also use those keywords in your page titles, page descriptions, meta tag keywords, alt tags, etc.

Write fresh content. Search engine spiders love words. Keep your site’s content up-to-date and fresh. Visitors to your website will appreciate it and they will come back more often.

Develop a link building program. Find other websites willing to place a link on their site pointing to your site. Not only will this build some new traffic, but it will help improve your site popularity.

Also test and tweak your website as “true” search engine optimization is a never-ending process.

Once your site reaches a Top 10 ranking, you must work as equally hard to maintain high positions in search engines.

Did you ever hear of company blindness? It means that you do not see what goes wrong or what could be done better. This happens due to several reasons. Many times people get blind because they work somewhere for a long time and do most of their tasks the same way as they already did for many years. It can also happen that you just don¡¯t have that certain expertise. And you know what they say, what you don¡¯t know you cannot influence, however incorrect it is what you are or aren¡¯t doing.

Especially when you have your own business, and this can be a Home Business, it is important to be surrounded by other people. These people should have preferably other talents than you have. However, you started your Home Business on your own and you might not want to have other people involved. Or maybe you just don¡¯t know anybody who would be able to help you or would be interested in it. But we are not talking about a full time employee or partner. You just need someone you can talk to,  who knows your business and listens to you and gives you an opinion.

A much used phrase is, it is lonely at the top. This is not only valid for the top executives of large corporations, but also for the Home Business owner who works alone. Successful people usually have their own coach and are surrounded by experts. How else do you think a top executive was able in the first place to get that demanding position?

So the message of this article is clear. Get your team of experts and/or coach. Where to find them? If you do not have anybody among your circle of friends who would fit go to a forum with like-minded people. Stick long enough at a forum and you will find so many people who can answer all your questions. In the end you will get to know some people better than others and some are just as you interested to talk about their business. As mentioned, what you don¡¯t know you cannot influence. You will need to find somebody who you can level with on a more personal base. For sure there are people out there that would love to talk about your and their business. Form a group and make an agenda to meet each other on the internet or in person. It will definitely be a learning experience for all and you might even find that a deeper contact with other people can be very refreshing.

This past week I was reading through contractor discussion boards. I just wanted to see what’s got the market riled up. Do you ever do that?

Well, anyway it reminded me of an important issue that rarely gets addressed: the difficulty of successfully implementing an off-the-shelf solution.

Here’s the core problem, solutions that work well in one company often fail to work in another. Here’s why: most solutions are not robust. They only work well in specific circumstances.

Think of your business as a big jigsaw puzzle. You don’t need all the pieces in place to reveal the picture, but you do need the right ones in place. Your friend’s company probably isn’t missing the same pieces you are. So when he slides in the last piece he needed – Eureka!

His business comes into focus and he’s convinced he has everything figured out. So he gets on his soapbox and says “If you’ll just do it my way, you too will enjoy great success.” It is SO tempting to believe you can just grab his solution, follow his lead, and receive the exact same incredibly results.

So you try it and nothing improves. It might have even gotten worse. How can that be?

Simple. Your business and his business are radically different. He has different skills than you do. He has a different mix of employees than you do. His clients have different expectations than yours do.

He’s probably even in a different trade than you are. Yes, you’re both in construction but that’s about where the similarity ends.

Your jigsaw puzzle and his jigsaw puzzle have nothing in common other than each contains dozens of oddly shaped pieces with a wide variety of colors. When completed, your puzzle looks different than his puzzle.

This is why solutions successfully applied by the owner of one company frequently fail when transferred to another company. The second company has a different set of business practices, a different breed of employee, and a different class of customer.

My years of developing and implementing solutions inside real construction companies who are staffed with real people has taught me that no matter how brilliantly simple the solution, it MUST be tweaked for each company.

Two classic examples come to mind: sales commissions and employee bonuses.

I strongly believe in paying salesmen commission on gross profit. My recommended commission system is the simplest of all business solutions I know, yet even it MUST be customized to each company. Two questions must be addressed in each deployment.

1. What is the proper commission rate?

2. What should be considered a direct job cost?

The two answers are interrelated and change for each company based on its business model, competitor aggression, and target market. So even with a solution as simple as sale compensation, customization is required in order to achieve the desired selling behavior.

Employee bonuses are trickier yet and are what stimulated this article.

Right now, the discussion boards are filled with questions and recommendations regarding employee bonuses. Every possible approach is being thrown out and then being heavily defended and panned. There is minimal agreement and certainly no consensus among the owners participating in these discussions.

It seems like everyone’s had a bad experience paying bonuses. The typical conclusion is throw the baby out with the bath water “Just don’t give bonuses.”

The reason people keep trying to come up effective bonus plans is pretty obvious. Bonuses are great at getting workers to do something desired (work hard, be productive, show up, work safe, etc.).

To anyone who truly understands employee motives and behavior, sound bonus systems are not that hard to create. All you have to do is abide by certain fundamental truths about people AND fine tune the plan for your exact situation.

Trust me. No consultant has MAGIC solutions. We all use the same tricks and techniques. The secret to our clients’ success is our clients’ skills and drive. You apply the solutions. You make them go on a daily basis. You – not us. All we do is keep you on the right path.

I’m begging you to never apply a solution to your company without adjusting it to accommodate your world. If you have been looking for off-the-shelf, put-in-place solutions you have been wasting your time. They don’t exist.

Personal development coaching is becoming quite popular in America and the resto f the world. In fact, it is a wildly popular option for people throughout Europe. The whole process is one that has been used for thousands of years. However, it is just now coming to the forefront of successful business practices. Many different types of people are using professional life coaches and business coaches to become more successful. Whether you’ve heard of personal development coaching or not, you may be curious about how one could help you in your life.

Business Use Of Personal Development Coaching

Some of the largest businesses in the world are now using personal development coaching throughout their companies. They mostly target their team leaders. They take their management teams to seminars, workshops, and even bring coaches into their workplaces to help them with this task.

Personal development coaching can help create stronger leaders, more productive team members, and an overall better company environment. When a company is full of great leaders, the greatness follows through to everyone else in the company. This in turn makes the company more successful overall.

Entrepreneurs often use personal development coaches as well. Perhaps they have a business idea but are not confident enough to realize it. Or maybe they have no idea how to go about making their idea a reality. Business coaches can help them to create success and have the skills to attain and manage it.

Some Areas Development Coaches Target:

1) Team management
2) Team motivation
3) Time management
4) Overall Productivity
5) Leadership

If the idea of bringing in a personal development coach doesn’t make sense to you, you may want to consider the idea of the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction states that the energy you put out, you will in turn attract, whether you want to or not. So, if you can train your leaders to put off positive and productive energy to their teams, there is no way your company could get anything less than great things and productivity. This is in accordance to the Law of Attraction that has been used since the ancient Greek and Egyptian times.

Therefore, as a business owner you can choose to involve your entire company in the process of personal development coaching or you can choose to undergo it yourself. However, the more people in your business that you inspire to take it seriously, the better your entire business will be. Many major companies make it a required event for their management teams and reap the rewards from doing so. They see higher profits, better team interaction, better communication, new and fresh ideas being suggested, and an overall better atmosphere to work within.

You’ve probably already noticed that many of the products we use today are manufactured in China. China is one of the best places to source your wholesale products from, mainly because of its low costs in labor and manufacturing. When you do business directly with China, these low costs carry over to become extra savings and profits for you.

If you’re already selling products online or elsewhere, then you’re one step ahead of the game. The China Manufacturers Directory will put you in contact with the manufacturers you need to expand your product line. You’ll be able to use our directory to cut-out middlemen and wholesalers who charge high wholesale prices on products you spend the time to sell.

The China Manufacturers directory will give you all the pertient details you need to make direct contact any of the manufacturers on our list. Just a couple of the industry our extensive database covers: Consumer electronics (cellphones, PDAs, computers..), Handbags and Fashion Accessories, Automotive Parts, Home Decor, Sports goods, and more. There’s no limit to the products that China manufactures, you can really find anything you’re looking for in China.

For example, in the electronics and computers category, we supply you with the details of more than 55,000 companies that will be able to meet your needs. All companies in China are more than willing to start profitable business relationships with anyone who’s willing to buy their products. When it comes to shipping, most companies will be more than happy to help you out with that as well. You don’t need any special certification or credentials, either. As long as you can pay for it, the products are all yours!

So what are you waiting for? Doing business with China is a smart and profitable opportunity, don’t let it pass you by!

If you want to earn money online, as well as providing a useful service for any visitors to your site, becoming an Amazon associate is one of the better methods. As one of the largest online retailers anywhere in the world, Amazon offers pretty much anything that you could want to buy, from books to laptops, and much more.

Chances are, that no matter what subject your website or blog is about, you are not able to provide every single possible piece of information on the subject yourself. Chances are further, that if you are passionate about giving your users the best service possible, you have thought about providing them with links to further reading, or an outlet where they can buy books or products relevant to your page.

If you become an Amazon associate, you can leverage the content of your website to send traffic to Amazon’s website, and get paid a nice commission every time one of your users makes a purchase from Amazon. You can choose from a number of formats for the links on your page to make them fit in with the rest of the design, and whether you provide a link through to a page within Amazon where users can buy a particular book to complement the information you are providing.

The great thing about the Amazon associate program is that at the same time as you are helping your users to get easier access to the information that they want, through a link directly through to its source, you are also being paid for your time and effort in creating the content in the first place. You can either choose to receive your payment in cash directly into your bank account, or alternatively, in the form of vouchers that you can spend on Amazon itself.

Although there are plenty of other similar affiliate programs available online, there are none which allow you to provide relevant links on such a wide range of subjects or to such a wide range of different products as the Amazon associate program does, and this, thanks to the ease with it can be implemented on your pages makes it the perfect choice for any user who wants to gain an important source of revenue from their online efforts.

And lately you do not even have to maintain your own website in order to make money from Amazon. A new multi-search engine called Radiux (http://www.radiux.com) allows users to plug in their Amazon Associate code and make money on purchases that are initiated by that search engine.

So, you see: there is no excuse not to become an Amazon Associate and start making money online know.

It’s 8:00 in the morning and you gently roll out of bed after an excellent night’s sleep in your new bed with your new $2,000.00 mattresses and fine Egyptian cotton bedding, grab a tasty cup of hot coffee already waiting for you, and leisurely stroll out onto your new deck.

[When you decided awhile back to work from home, it was a good decision.]

As you come awake at your own pace, thoroughly enjoying the sounds of birds chirping and the view of thousands of acres of national park all around you like a parent’s secure embrace, you hear that familiar ‘ding’ on your new laptop just inside, sitting right beside your new Lazy Boy chair.

[This is just one reason you encourage the people you care about to consider a work from home lifestyle, too.]

You ignore the email.  It’s early, you’re enjoying the beauty of a new day, and frankly, today you’re feeling thankful to be alive and living life fully.

Then your fax machine answers a call.  You ignore it, too.  Check it later.

[When you work from home, YOU make all the rules.]

A little after 9:00am, when you’ve had a couple of cups of your custom ground coffee, relaxed and gathered your thoughts, and stroked the pets, enjoying their unconditional love, you leisurely stroll inside and put on your favorite, most comfortable clothes and your very favorite CD.

As you relax comfortably in your new Lazy Boy, you pop open your email program and find that you have 4 new emails from some property sellers you contacted yesterday.  Three have emailed you the figures you asked for and one will be doing it soon.  A quick glance over the numbers tells you that two of the three look pretty good and one might be a stinker.  No big deal.  You forward them to corporate and go get another cup of coffee.

[When you decided to work from home, you really could not predict just how much you would look forward to your work every single day.]

After a quick workout at the health club and a nice al fresco breakfast at your favorite spot, you come back home and make a few calls.  You get an email from corporate saying that one of your deals looks like it is going to fly, and another multi-thousand dollar payday is on its way to you.

You decide to take the rest of the day off and just go have some fun.

[This is why choosing a work from home work day is just so darn easy.  You were smart enough to become a property scout, and now you rule your own world for a change.]

Window cleaning supplies  is a business that anyone can enter with the advantage of having only a less start-up capital. Say, 200 to 300 pounds. Therefore, if you are planning to venture in this endeavor then it is advisable that you look for the best window cleaning supplies that you will use in your chosen scheme.

The basic for window cleaning supplies would be the squeegee, ladders, scraper, a washcloth, a brush, soap detergent and a bucket. If you already have these tools in the comfort of your home then it is good for you because starting-up costs will not be heavy in the pocket.

The squeegee is the most important window cleaning supplies you can have . It comes in a variety of features. The most trusted brands when it comes to buying squeegees is winodow cleaning tools. The market now offers a wide range of squeegee products. Squeegees can be made out of lightweight alloy, brass, and steel. It is available in different size depending on its use. If you are a professional window cleaner that works in the commercial market place then you should buy large sizes squeegee. On the other hand, if you specialized in residential window cleaning then it will be good if you acquire a small window cleaning supplies squeegee, just enough to help you finish your job fast. Nowadays, squeegees have replaceable rubber blades and more easy-to-grip handles.

When the windows you are cleaning are located in the second or third floor of a house or building, the ladder is the conventional answer. Ladders obviously can help you reach hard-to-reach areas and surfaces. However, ladders these days are becoming a little obsolete due to the invention of a new technology. This window cleaning supplies is a window cleaning system that can help window cleaners reach upper window at the ground with ease. This tool is called the water-fed-poles. Yet, if you are just beginning in this business it is good to have ladders first and if you have enough profits then it is advisable to acquire this one of a kind window cleaning tool form supplies

Another one of the basic window cleaning supplies is the scraper. Scrapers are use to get rid of hard-to-get stains in your windows. It is commonly 4-6 inches in length but there are also mini scrapers that are available in the market and they measure about 1.5 inch in length.

The washcloth is essential window cleaning supplies because it is use as a wiper for excess water or detergent applied in the windows. Washcloth these days have this micro fiber characteristic that make it lint-free, which means that it reduces the accumulation of dirt in the cloth and the windows.

In choosing the right detergent to use you must consider the kind of glass the windows are made of. But if you only have limited financial resources, buy only a cheaper detergent with good quality. Do not use washing-up liquids, they are for dishes. One more tool to consider is the brush. Window cleaning brushes from supplies are use to eliminate stains, dirt and grime in your windows. It is made of synthetic materials like nylon, hog hair or polypropylene.

Finally, you have to have  a bucket that you will employ in your window cleaning service. The modern buckets use is made of plastic for the convenience of users because they are usually lightweight.

Selecting the right window cleaning supplies is easy. You just have to plan what are the most important tools to buy to start-up your business. Do not worry if you clean windows in the conventional way. There are more rooms for improvement. Once income and profits starts to flow-in then it will be the time for you to buy more modern and sophisticated window cleaning supplies.

All over the world ubiquitous broadband Internet access is bringing countries closer together. It surprises many when they find out that in China the average citizen has access to much faster download speeds and at a much lower cost than the average American. Of course the Chinese have to deal with the fact that they are viewing a censored Internet, but even that is getting better everyday. In Europe a person would be hard pressed to find a place they COULDN’T connect wirelessly to the Internet, while in the US users must go to a specific coffee shop or airport to do the same thing. It appears that the United States is behind the curve in offering affordable Internet access to its citizens, and short of socialized services, so what can be done?

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced the Wireless Innovation Act of 2007 early this year to try and close the gap between the United States and other countries in the area of broadband Wireless Internet penetration within the consumer market. This very closely resembles the Wireless Innovation Act of 2006 sponsored by John Kerry (WINN) which failed to pass the previous year but has been reintroduced as well. Specifically the bill is intended to “make use of spectrum in the gaps or ‘white spaces’ between broadcast channels two and 51 when the transition from analog to digital television is complete in two years. With the capacity to transmit data over longer distances with less power, this prime spectrum, now reserved primarily for television broadcasting, could support a wide range of innovative wireless devices and services that aren’t useable in other frequencies”, says Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) who is also co-sponsoring the bill.

WINN ‘07 could be the ticket the country needs to increase the consumer market penetration of broadband wireless Internet, which would of course bring about new products and services both obvious and unknown. This type of legislature is designed to take fast, decisive action and correct an obvious problem. This of course means it will be delayed. So where are our ground breaking bills now?:

H.R.1597 – To require the FCC to issue a final order regarding television white spaces.
Sponsor: Rep Inslee, Jay [WA-1] (introduced 3/20/2007)

Latest Major Action: 3/21/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

S.234 – A bill to require the FCC to issue a final order regarding television white spaces.
Sponsor: Sen Kerry, John F. [MA] (introduced 1/9/2007)

Latest Major Action: 1/9/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

It is clear the decisive bill isn’t exactly tearing its way through the hallowed halls of the House and Senate. Of course bills take time to pass, and there is a lot of pork to be added to this one yet so we still have time. So why exactly is this bill important to the United States if its just going to let its citizens surf the Internet more easily? John Kerry said, “The bill would serve communities large and small, enabling the delivery of broadband that will connect business owners with their customers, students with dynamic new learning resources and first responders with victims in crisis.” With that in mind, the bill seems a bit more relevant to the county as something more than an entertainment device.

The one thing I have learned, when it comes to building wealth, is the fact that there are no short cuts to instant riches.  While there have been a few high profile incidents of extreme wealth being created almost overnight, as in the case of Google and a few other “instant” successes, even in these cases there has been huge risk and extensive capital expended in order to create the wealth.  In fact the most important factors which lead to success in business are the willingness to assume risk, willingness to expend capital, the ability to focus on an idea and bring it to fruition and some good old fashioned luck.

While I’ll be the first to recognize there are some people who just seem to stumble into a situation and are in the right place at the right time, or that some folks will win the lottery, sell a stock at just the right time, or buy and sell real estate for a quick profit, most people who have built wealth have done so over time.  Furthermore, they approach investing with a disciplined plan and the relentless pursuit of their dream.  I will focus the rest of this article on the people who build wealth through a disciplined approach.  Following this model is more likely to lead to the desired goal of financial security.

Many people wish to own their own business and be an entrepreneur, but many of us don’t have the “brainstorm idea” which leads to a blockbuster business, or one that totally changes the dynamics of a business model.  Luckily, this is not necessary in order to succeed as an entrepreneur.  While it would be nice to come up with one of these blockbuster ideas, there are plenty of other ways to become the owner of your own business.  Purchasing an existing business is one such way to join the ranks of the business world.  There are individual businesses and franchises which can be purchased outright, or financed by various means.  This is usually an expensive endeavor, and usually requires leaving your full time job in order to manage the business.  This also involves a degree of risk, but if you do your homework, and devote the time it takes to manage the leverage of the purchase price, plus the day to day operations, it can be an excellent way to build long term wealth.

If the idea of owning a business while maintaining a full time job is more your cup of tea, there are many business models which can facilitate this.  Again, there is no free ride, because nobody is going to provide you with all of the tools to run a profitable business, without some cost.  Unless you are strictly interested in doing a specific task at home for a fee, most of the business models I’ve reviewed for an at home or online business require money to be spent for hosting a site, joining affiliates and marketing.  These are reasonable expectations when you utilize an existing franchise, or affiliate program.  Developing multiple streams of income is very desireable and can be achieved by developing a home business along with your full time job.  While your goal may be to eventually quit your full time employement, or augment retirement, developing an online or home business can be a rewarding way to be an entrepreneur.

So, if getting rich quickly is your main goal, then there is a good possibility you will continue to go from one “cocktail party conversation” trend to another, such as day trading or real estate flipping.  We all know where those bubbles have led.  This is the equivalent of gambling, and while I know full well sometimes people do quite well gambling, I don’t recommend it as an investment technique.  If building real wealth is your goal, then developing streams of income and systematically investing in diversified assets will lead to ever increasing equity and financial security.  One day you’ll look at your portfolio of investments and realize you’ve built wealth faster than you thought you would.