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Re: How to start a Mini Help Desk enabling business?

phanio — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:46:11 GMT

If you plan to sell this online - you have to find ways to market your business online. This could be optimizing your website or finding out information about your potnetial customers - then developing a marketing strategy to put the right message in front of them.

Would also like to suggest what many businesses do today. Create two or more versions of your mini help desk with one being an extremely stripped down version with basic functions. Offer this basic package for free - then try to get users to upgrade to the other options with more features.

Once a customer has your free version, you can then market to them directly touting the benefits of upgrading.

Or, you might even offer the basic service for a short trial period. Then market your service or product as such. You will get a lot more response from this. Then, once these customers know about you and your business - work on getting them to upgrade or renew for your subscritpion price.

Business Money Today
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Re: Starting a temporary staffing agency

phanio — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:38:15 GMT

Do consider getting some experience - Here's why:

When starting a business most entrepreneurs have a very limited budget. If you hire someone with the experience that you don't have, you will face a huge salary expense from the very beginning - capital that could be better spent on marketing and development.

Additionally, since this person has the experience, they are essentially your business or your business is at their whims.

Lastly, information is king. If you don't understand the ins and outs then how would you, being the owner and risk taker, make decisions based on what you need or what is best for the business and not for this one employee.

Maybe volunteer was the wrong word - but there are unpaid internships. Even if an agency does not currently have a program, they may be willing to create one for you (it is essentially free labor to them) and a learning experience for you.

When starting a new business - there are many risks involved. As an entrepreneur one of your tasks is to understand and mitigate those risks. Adding $30K, $40K, $50K plus to your operating expenses right off the bat in executive salary (especially if it is for something that you can do yourself with a little experience) is not mitigating risks - it is putting a huge expense burden on your business that is, in my opinion unnecessary.

If they want you to sign a non-compete - simply say no and renegotiate - let them know up front what you are doing and that they are getting free labor. Seems like a good trade-off to me - especially in this economy. If they are that afraid of competition, then maybe that is not the company to get your experience from.

Your business will succeed or fail based on you - thus, you should arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can possible get and keep learning as you move forward.

Seasonal Business - Should we close in the down season?

krstymeggy — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:37:05 GMT

Seasonal Business - Should we close in the down season?

Postby moabsdailygrind on Sun Dec
Hi, does anyone else operate a coffee business in a small, seasonal town? Our drive-thru has been open 9 months now, and we thought we were prepared for the winter down season, but it's been awful. We have never done extremely high volume, but we were at least turning a small profit which I thought was good for our first year. Last Saturday I sold $9, which was just depressing. So, now we are trying to decide if we should close for the winter season. There is one other drive-thru in town who is better established. As soon as December 1st hit, they radically cut their hours and started closing at 1 pm (they were open until 6). I try to pay attention to what they are doing, because I know they are really clever people.

I guess what my real question is, is do you think it would upset my local business if I closed for 6 weeks? Would this be detrimental to the growth of my business? My location is good, one that is more convenient for many people than the other drive-thru. However, because we are a seasonal town, many of the businesses close in the winter, including the restaurants.

When I first started, my goal was to capture enough of the local business to make it through the down-season. However, I did not anticipate that even many of my regulars leave in the winter because the town is so dead.

We have actually already been closed down a week because our espresso machine broke (another post). But, I spent so much on holiday flavors, christmas baskets, and extra beans, I don't want it all to go to waste. My husband says to just give it to our relatives for gifts this year.

Please share your advice.

Re: Home Based Business

vnavguys — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:26:57 GMT

I have noticed that none of your posts give any value to the community....why bother?

What is the affordable All in One Ecommerce for new business

efrizor — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:54:19 GMT

What is the affordable All in One Ecommerce for new business?

I looking for ecommerce to create my website with, I just started a new business and I want to be able to sell products online such as electronic, computers, and other. Since, I don't know anything about web development, I would like to use an ecommerce for my store which i think would be easy to customize. I know some of the top ecommerce but, I am not sure with which one I should go with, so, if anyone has a suggestion or a recommendation that would be really apprecited.

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Virtual Assistants for the Busy Real Estate Professional

carson48 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:55:41 GMT

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Penny Auction Site Offering Designer Accessories

dimediva — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:50:45 GMT

Hi all:

My new business, www.dime-divas.com, has been up and running for less than a month. We have a fairly low user-base right now, so the deals are more than that - they are steals.

Please take some time to view my site. We offer 100% authentic handbags, watches, wallets, jewlery, and more for women, men and children. Unlike other sites, all of our items are in stock! And, we have a spafinder.com rewards program. If you are not familiar with penny auctions, here's a brief description: registered users buy bids for approximately $.65 each. The items offered have a set end time. Each bid placed on an item increases the final price by $.01 and ending time by 10 seconds. Tonight, a Marc Jabos bag that retailed for $1295 sold for $2.06 (or 196 bids).

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Re: Have funds to purchase FEDEX ground routes. Risks involv

mark111 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:11:42 GMT

Yes, I have purchased my first HOME DELIVERY Route ( not ground ) just 2 weeks ago and am working thru the process of understanding how this model works. Ground is a different animal all together from what I understand.

Re: Is e-learning really as effective as face-to-face training?

RB4711 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:58:11 GMT

E-learning platforms are a great way to share information with large groups of people from all parts of the world through the internet. It can provide a medium of expression that creates a learning environment. In my opinion, e-leaning should be combine with a forum, blog, website, webinars and internet video conference to be effective. As a stand alone, it is just a way to get quick how-to but not in depth information into the subject matter.