Month: May 2011

Categories
Operations

The Big Picture of Shipping

The big picture of customer service is simple: businesses are supposed to make their customers happy. Businesses small and large employ numerous strategies so that their customers get the best possible experience and walk away happy. Ensuring client satisfaction boils down to the details and some things your business might be overlooking could in the long run lead to higher customer satisfaction and conversion. Shipping, for example, can be a speed bump for many small businesses that don’t properly assess the options available to them before sending products to their clients.

Developing a well-thought out plan for shipping can make things easier on both ends of doing business. The fact is that there are several high-quality delivery services available that all make concessions to facilitate small businesses. The choice between United Parcel Service (UPS), the US Postal Service (USPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) is a quandary faced by small business owners every day, and each has redeeming features that could potentially make it the best bet for your company.

The ultimate choice is for the small business to make, as each of the three is a competent and reliable delivery service. Depending on your budget and the speed of delivery service you require, each of the three offer sensible options for the small business owner. Careful consideration of the options available could in the long run lead to a more satisfied customer and less frequent headaches while dealing with shipping logistics.

FedEx has a solid reputation and a variety of services. FedEx locations also offer printing options, making FedEx a good idea for document printing and shipping. FedEx offers a myriad of services catering to small business owners’ demands for convenience and efficiency including a pickup service. Their shipping rates are competitive with UPS and USPS. Fedex can schedule package pickups from your company location and simply bill your account for the service. All the business is required to do is fill out pre-printed labels for the packages it is sending depending on the carriage method required.

USPS is the longest-established of the options available. USPS was the first of the group to introduce flat-rate shipping on a large scale, meaning that any piece of postage you send will cost the same regardless of distance to destination or package weight. Flat-rate shipping costs are consistently very similar to the cost of shipping an identical package conventionally and usually cheaper for heavier packages and the ability to instantly print labels online can be very convenient for prompt shipments. USPS ground shipping or standard mail is also the most affordable of the group, making lower-priority shipments less of a nuisance.

UPS has risen to power in the parcel delivery industry due in large part to their reliability in shipping. UPS offers a similar suite of features to small business owners with one significant bonus: regular package pickup from your place of business. UPS offers reliable ground shipping and is beginning to introduce a flat-rate shipping service of its own to compete with USPS.

Categories
Operations

Why a New Retail Business Should Have a Merchant Account

Are you planning to open a retail business? If so, a merchant account is an integral part of the planning process. A merchant account allows a business to accept many different forms of payments such as credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, and even personal checks. Having a merchant services account really makes the lives of your customers easier. These days, many people do not carry cash at all times and this can be problematic if this is the only form of payment that your business accepts. It can easily result in a lost sale.

It is important to shop around for a merchant accounts provider that fits the needs of your business. This will help reduce unnecessary fees while providing your business with the services to help it grow. One such provider is North American Bancard.

Making your products available online is also a great way to reach new customers. Since merchant services providers also process payments made online, you can easily include this feature when setting up your account. Payments made on your website can be validated instantly and the money is deposited into your account. This also provides a safe and secure transaction, which is important to gain the trust of your potential new customers.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

The REAL Cost of Big Fat Internet Marketing Lies

Over the years I’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and small business owners. And there is one thing I know to be absolutely true.

It is NOT easy to own your own business. In fact, all of you entrepreneurs reading this should stop and pat yourself on the back right now.

(I mean it. Stop and pat yourself on the back. I don’t care how successful or unsuccessful you think you are — you’re doing it. You’ve chosen a path that can be scary and frustrating and risky but it also can bring you the BIGGEST rewards and the HIGHEST highs.)

So if owning a business is tough, why would you make it all that tougher on yourself by believing the “lies” out there about Internet Marketing?

You see, there are a lot of beliefs swirling around out there about Internet Marketing that are either half-truths, sort-of-true-but-you-don’t-know-the-whole-context or just an out-and-out lie.

The problem is you may not know what is REALLY true and what you only THINK is true.

Actually that’s not the biggest problem. The BIGGEST problem is when you believe these half-truths or lies and then you blame YOURSELF when Internet Marketing doesn’t work for you.

THAT is the real cost of these lies. You blame yourself, the Universe, the economy, your products, etc. for what you PERCEIVE to be a failure. When, in actuality, it’s something else entirely. For instance:

  • Maybe you’re using the wrong Internet Marketing strategy
  • Maybe you’re using the right Internet Marketing strategy but you’re skipping some crucial steps because you don’t realize they’re crucial
  • Maybe your expectations are wrong  (maybe you’re more of a success than you realize!)
  • Or it’s something else that is EASY to fix and has nothing to do with the “story” you’ve created around your failure

I want you to take a deep breath right now and open yourself up to this new reality. It’s not YOU that’s the problem. It’s something else — something outside of yourself and something that’s easily fixable.

How does that feel?

What if THAT was the truth? Not these Big Fat Internet Marketing lies you’re most likely telling yourself right now?

Categories
Online Business

Avactis Shopping Cart

Avactis has always strived to create easy-to-use e-commerce software. Since those solutions have achieved good results in simplicity for developers, Avactis is now bringing the software up to a new level. The new release turns to non-programmer users.

Those who intend to open an online store often encounter the problem that buying a software license is not the only expense that needs to be considered. Apart from hosting services, out-of-the-box software requires designers to create a template, and programmers who can implement the project. To create a unique website design, a store owner will have to pay from $1,000 to $3,000. To change design elements, a store owner has to hire a programmer. Therefore the $200 to $400 spent for the license grows to at least 7 to 10 times the original cost.

To resolve this situation, Avactis is offering a solution that helps owners, who are not programmers, easily change default templates without having to resort to web-developers. The Avactis built-in visual CSS editor allows the changing of backgrounds and block sizes, font styles, logos, etc. The Avactis visual layout editor allows the showing and hiding of blocks and also changing their locations. These tools can help design a unique storefront from a standard Avactis template and save the store owners thousands of dollars.

One of the major advantages of Avactis, compared to other e-commerce solutions, is fast and easy integration of an online store into an existing website without any programmer’s knowledge or skills. In addition, the complexity of design does not matter. It’s equally easy to integrate Avactis into websites with simple design and into highly structured websites with complicated design and Flash intros. For this purpose we use a unique tag-based technology, which greatly facilitates the integration process.

Unlike other shopping cart software, Avactis is integrated into your website, instead of integrating your website into the online store.

Categories
Entrepreneurs

From One Entrepreneur to Another

Article Contributed by Sylvia Rosen

The poor job market and frail economy have created a type of panic throughout college campuses. College seniors who have worked very hard for the past four years are starting to realize that it might not pay off. Good grades, a high GPA and great recommendations won’t get their feet in the door –because there aren’t enough doors open.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, only 24.4 percent of 2010 graduates who applied for a job had one waiting for them after graduation. Nevertheless, these challenging times have forced college students to evolve into something more than young professionals; it has forced them to become young entrepreneurs.

Today, college seniors are taking bigger risks sooner rather than later. Such was the case for Joe Shartzer, who made the risky decision to start his own business after graduation. Looking back today, Shartzer can highlight what steps he took that lead him to where he is now, a young entrepreneur who has already worked on projects for The New York Times, Williams-Sonoma and Food & Wine Magazine.

The secret ingredient to starting out

The saying you’ve been hearing throughout your education and work experience is in fact true: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

“It’s all about connections,” says Shartzer. “When I wanted to get involved in consulting and starting my own business, I leaned heavily on people I’d met from internships and from my education.”

Shartzer explains that although it’s important to acquire good grades, it’s more important to acquire strong relationships with the professors. One of the professors Shartzer never fails to recognize as someone who inspired him is Chuck Martin, CEO of The Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center of Media Research.

“Chuck Martin gave me my first shot working with his company. That’s the biggest value I think a lot of students miss; the business potential from professors and others at your university,” Shartzer says.

The one area where Shartzer did want to rely heavily on himself was funding:

“I’d rather work hard, grow my business and keep complete control versus selling off partial ownership for an immediate increase in resources.”

Although funding your own business is the riskier option, Shartzer explains that a lot of small businesses start out bootstrapping their first company as a way to maintain focus and control.

The big challenge for young entrepreneurs

Being your own boss has its perks: you control what you want to do, when you want to do it, and who you want to do it with. The big challenge with this work ethic, however, is maintaining the focus needed to make these decisions.

“The focus always has to be on your bottom line,” says Shartzer. “I think there’s a tendency to work on a venture until it’s perfect but that’s a great way to exhaust all your startup resources and fail. The balance between day-to-day focus and strategic planning is one of the most interesting aspects of being an entrepreneur,” he explains.

This is likely to be the toughest challenge young entrepreneurs will face because they are just coming out of a college environment. In college, students are told what assignments they need to do and when they need to do it by. When you are your own boss, you are responsible for assigning yourself the work and the deadline; this requires a lot of discipline. However, if done successfully, the payoff is great.

“It’s the truest form of commission out there,” Shartzer explains. “Complete control of strategic vision and being able to take ideas in a direction that only you might see.”

The tools behind success

Shartzer considers himself reasonably successful and in a good place with his first project. The resources and tools that he said helped him and that recommends include:

If you are a college senior and thinking about starting your own business, know that it will take hard work, discipline and the right connections. The first year might not be the best year but it should definitely be the year when you take the most chances.

For more information about Joe Shartzer and his business venture, you can go to his site: http://joeshartzer.com/

About the author:
Sylvia Rosen is a web content writer with a background in newspaper journalism. She connects with business professionals to write articles on a variety of industry topics such as small business phone systems, business software and online management tools.