Should I stay or should I go?

Within a few seconds of visiting your home page customers expect to be guided to find the information they seek. Your home page should be able to tell the customer in a sentence or two what the main purpose of the web site is for (eg: providing information, selling services, online retail) and guide the visitor to find what they are looking for quickly. You have 5 seconds to provide this information before they decide weather or not this website will be able to fulfil their needs.

Ease of Navigation

If a customer has decided to stay on your website after visiting the home page, they expect to find their way around your page easily. Navigation style should be easily identifiable and organized. It should be consistent throughout the entire site. Customers should be able to get to any page in your website by visiting at most 2-3 pages before reaching their destination.

Find and Purchase / Order a Product or Service

Customers visiting your website may be expecting to be able to purchase or order what you offer. The way that you offer your products on your website should be the same throughout the entire site. Additionally, some have expectations on how the order can be processed after they submit it to you.

• Can they check the status (processing, shipping) of the order afterwards?
• Do they get proactive notifications of the order through every step?
• Can they order online, but pick it up at your store?
• Can they return goods purchased online at your store?

Consistent Look and Feel

A customer browsing your web site expects to get comfortable and familiar with what they are looking at. The titles should always appear in the same area, as should the navigation and content of the page. Distractions such as pop-ups and excessive advertisements can reduce the level of comfort of the visitor and cause them to leave.

A Clear Purpose or Message

Customers expect a single, clear message from each page on your web site. Simple mistakes involving spelling, grammar and a tone inconsistent with the rest of the site are mistakes every website should try to avoid.

You may want to seek out the services of a local copywriter whose job is to write the textual content of your web site. They should write text that persuades the visitor with your message and also manipulates the wording to place your site higher in search engine rankings.

What do you Expect?

What do you expect when visiting another website? What attracts you to buy and what makes you leave? Leave your comments below!

Software

1. Quickbooks Easystart: Using QuickBooks EasyStart is as its name suggests; easy. It takes just a few minutes to get started and soon you will be creating invoices, tracking payments and managing expenses. There is a free edition if you have less than 20 customers, making it affordable for consultants just starting off.
2. Microsoft Office 2007: A popular office productivity suite among businesses. You can write letters, generate financial spreadsheets and create presentations.
3. Contact Management: In business you will have many contacts and organization will be key. Microsoft Office’s Outlook has contact management that integrates well with Quickbook Easystart. If you are going to be in a fairly heavy sales type role you might want to look into tools with additional features.

Office Equipment

1. All In One Printer: As much as we prefer not to print things, it is still necessary for presentations and providing written documents that need to be shared. There are a variety of good products made by Hewlett-Packard and Brother. Features often include: scanner/photocopier, fax, network connection and automatic document feeder (ADF) for photocopying multi-page documents.
2. Shredder: Documents no longer needed often contain sensitive information and should not be viewed again. A cross cutting shredder is perfect for protecting the privacy of your business and your clients.

Mobility

1. Mobile phone: Every business owner should at least have a mobile phone, but as a business tool I recommend a smart phone. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry is the most popular smart phone in business, though I prefer the Apple iPhone myself. Many smart phones offer the ability to synchronize to Outlook.
2. Laptop: Many professionals work away from the office as much as or more than being in the office. A laptop gives you the freedom to work out of the office and the portability you need when making a presentation to an audience of any size.

Marketing

1. Business Cards: One of the most important tools for word of mouth advertising, business cards allow your clients to recommend you to their friends.
2. Web site: Provides your clients and potential clients with 24/7 access to the information they need about you and your business. Include reference to previous work done, contact information and be sure to tell them how you can help them.
3. Social Media: There are many social media sites out there, but many business people find LinkedIn very important in making contacts. Other social media sites include Facebook and Twitter. YouTube is another popular site where you could demonstrate some of your knowledge for free. You can upload short 1-3 minute videos of yourself providing advice in your area of expertise.

This weekend I noticed that QuickBooks 2010 is now available (in Canada) and I went through the process of upgrading my 2009 copy to 2010. If you are currently using QuickBooks (any version) or if you are not using any business financial software, here are a few reasons that you should consider getting QuickBooks 2010.

• Company Home Page- It’s easy to find the tasks you need the most from the QuickBooks Home Page. This page is arranged the same way that money flows within your company, and there are even arrows that illustrate the flow. Starting at the left, you can create Estimates for your clients. From there you can create invoices, record payments received, create sales receipts and record deposits. If you keep track of inventory you can create purchase orders (that transfer information from estimates), record the inventory received, and enter the bills for the inventory received. There are other sections such as company management tasks (accounts, items & services) and banking (writing cheques, reconciling accounts, entering credit card charges).
• Company Snapshot – The Company Snapshot helps you save time and manage cash flow so you can make better business decisions. In a single screen it shows information like: income and expense trend, which customers owe you money, what bills need to be paid, and select account balances.
• Quickly Find Anything – With the customer centre QuickBooks collects all transaction types (Estimates, Invoices, Sales Receipts, Payments, etc) and displays them in one area. You can use the new search functionality to quickly find the invoice you did for “that one customer in St. Adolphe” and when it was paid.
• Sales Tax Made Easy – You can setup different types of items in QuickBooks for the services and products you offer. Some services and products have different tax settings and QuickBooks has the ability to handle any tax combination your product/service may have. QuickBooks will also help you prepare accurate returns by calculating the tax as you work, and it will show you reports that look just like your sales tax returns – with all the right amounts already filled in. New with 2010, you can click a single button and the tax return is sent with eFile!
• Multicurrency Functionality – The multi currency feature lets you transact seamlessly in any number of currencies from around the world – without worrying about looking up exchange rates or getting your calculator out to convert currencies.
• Compatability with Windows 7 – Microsoft has been working hard on the replacement to Windows Vista, and Windows 7 will be pre-installed on all new computers starting in late October. Previous versions of QuickBooks aren’t compatible, and Intuit does not offer support for Windows 7 with prior versions. QuickBooks 2010 is being supported and after my installation I found it works quite well.

When deciding to bring your presence to the online world there are a few ways that you can do it. Start off by listing in online business directories, building one or more websites, purchasing online advertisements and engaging in social media.

Listing your business with an online business directory is easy, convenient and often free. You can think of these directories as online versions of the Yellow Pages book. Unlike the traditional printed book, changes to phone numbers or other contact information can happen immediately.  There are several online directories and many are industry specific. Searching the Internet can often result in dozens of directories that you can list your business. If you have a hard time finding directories try searching for a competitor’s name and find out where they are listed.

Any business, small or large, can have a website. Websites can be built for prices between $100 to thousands of dollars, though personally I would stay away from inexpensive sites. You want your website to portray the level of professionalism that you provide your clients. If your website looks like a rush job with little attention to detail, visiting potential clients may think the same of your work. There are many benefits to having a website, some of which include:

• Increased Market Size: Any website will broaden the market reach for your business. You can market and sell your products across the country or the world.
• Low Cost for Distributing Information: Your web site’s purpose is usually to either sell your company (or brand) or to sell a product. You can have information about your company and product/services online (catalogues, technical specs, order forms, etc). If something becomes out of date, it can be updated within minutes and everyone accessing the information from then on will have access to the latest info.
• 24/7 Availability: Customers will have immediate access to the information when they want it.
• Multiple Websites: If you offer products / services that are quite different from each other, you can group them and display them on separate sites. There are many tactics in doing this, but consulting with a web professional might be your best approach if you feel this can apply to you.

Online advertisements are a way of increasing awareness of what you offer to your clients and driving traffic to your site. Depending on your market, online advertising can be very tricky and competitive. Companies like Google and Yahoo offer advertising programs that are quite powerful. If you are about to get started in online advertising you may want the help of professionals.

Social media is increasingly popular among the general public. Many people are addicted to popular sites such as twitter and facebook. If having a presence in social media fits with your general online strategy you can setup a profile for your business. If you decide to engage in social media be sure to set a fixed amount of time per day or week that you are willing to spend keeping in touch with people. It is easy to get distracted and waste a large amount of time.

First, you need to do some planning. Think of how many computers and devices you have. Do they need to be attached to each other? Can they all be connected to the Internet without any business repercussions? Computers containing highly sensitive material might have no place being connected to the Internet.

Next you need to get connected. Small offices often have a handful of computers, and can benefit from using a residential router. You can find these routers at your local big-box electronics stores. I use the DLink DIR-615 myself and have recommended it for a few other businesses. A router will be responsible for connecting to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and for sharing that connection with everything that you connect it to. It will have a cable going from the router’s WAN (Wide Area Network) port to the modem that your ISP gave you. It will also have either a wired or a wireless connection to each of your computers and other network enabled devices. Once the connection is established these computers will have full access to the internet and limited access to each other.

With your office network coming together, you can start thinking where to place printers and other devices you might want to share. If your device is network enabled you might want to place it in an area accessible by everyone who would need it. If your device is not network enabled you can connect it to a computer that has network connectivity and set it up in such a way that the computer is responsible for sharing it with all other computers. When a computer is sharing a device, such as a printer, it needs to be turned on in order for other computers to use it. You can attach multiple printers to the same computer if the setup fits your needs.

Many printers have the ability to be attached directly to the network either by wire or wireless. Network printers are great as they don’t need an unused computer to be powered in order for you to print to it. When planning where you place your printers consider having one print area for your office as it can reduce space needed and removing the convenience of printing at every one’s desk can also reduce the amount that is printed.

Although Internet access and printers are the easiest and most commonly shared, you can definitely experience cost savings by sharing many other devices. Whenever making a large purchase find out how it can be shared among your entire office. If you have a large number of computers and devices you want to share it would probably be a good idea to consult with an IT professional to help you set everything up.

To help demonstrate why I think accounting packages are the best way, I will walk through the 4 phases startup business go through. In  the examples below we will focus on invoices, but the concepts can apply to many different forms such as estimates, purchase orders and more.

Document Templates- Most business computers come with some sort of Office Suite (Microsoft Office is the most common) which includes a document editor. Startup costs are very important to control, and very often tools already available are used to suit the current needs. Invoices are normally very structured in layout whereas document editors usually produce very fluid layouts, with unprofessional results.

Initial costs of using a document template are very low, however when the business decides to upgrade the way invoices are done all the information will need to be re-captured. Also, calculations done on a document template are done manually and very susceptible to human error.

Spreadsheet Template – Months later, as the business gets more familiar with the Office suite and the spreadsheet program, they begin to realize that spreadsheets are powerful and can do many of the calculations that weren’t automatic in the document editor. The invoices produced begin to have the structured layout, however the invoices are stored in multiple excel files and after a while organization of these excel files become a problem.

Like document templates, spreadsheets are initally low in cost. Setting up a really good template can take a few hours of someone who is very experienced with spreadsheets. Invoices saved as spreadsheets are difficult to browse through or to find previous information. Organization of the invoices are key, and there are many different ways of trying to organize them.

Basic Accounting Package – Using an entry level accounting package is the first step businesses take towards having a solid invoicing solution. These accounting packages all come with a default template that has the most common pieces of information found on invoices. These templates are usually colorless and very plain.

Using basic accounting packages for recording invoices allows for easy searching, and browsing previous invoices by date or by customer. Although invoices and other form templates have not yet been customized, the data will always be there. Many accountants can work with the files that these accounting packages produce, reducing the workload required for balancing your books.

The only disadvantage that I see to using the templates out of the box is that they are very generic and don’t have the branding that your business should have.

If a video tutorial showing you how to setup one of the recommended accounting packages interests you, please request information from us.

Customizing Accounting Package Templates – Accounting packages usually have templates for the estimates, invoices and other client correspondence produced. As businesses become aware of the importance of branding and consistently presenting a single image for all printed and online material, the templates are changed to incorporate the colors and logo of the business.

Changing the template for invoices and other forms usually take effect for previous items that have already been created, so that when they are reprinted they have the updated look.

If a video tutorial showing you how to customize the various templates for your accounting package interests you, please request information from us.

Update: July 27, 2009
It took a couple days for the response to come back from our Companies Office on Broadway, but it arrived in the mail today. The business is now Incorporated! Now the tasks of setting up bank accounts and various tax tasks can begin.

**Legal pre-cursor** Prior to taking any legal advice from this web site or any other web site, always seek the help of legal counsel.

In browsing the internet, I was able to fill out the entire Article of Incorporation on my own. Since I am the only shareholder and the only director of the company, the paperwork is fairly simple. Should I decide to change the number of shareholders or directors, new paperwork will be required. At that point in time I think it will be extremely wise to have a lawyer touch up everything that I have done in the past week, protecting both the company and any person(s) entering into the corporation.

Whether you are starting a new business or have been established for a while, everyone knows the importance of having a computer. However the trick isn’t just to have computers, the trick is to have reliable computers with the right software to help you get the job done right the first time.

Today you might think you will only need a computer to write a couple documents and email some clients ,but as technology advances at the rapid rate that is has been you will quickly find yourself using your computer more and more. Businesses around the world use computers as part of their daily operations. For some the computer is just a tool for writing documents, others use it to manage every aspect of their operations.

Whether you are starting a new business or have been established for a while, everyone knows the importance of having a computer. However the trick isn’t just to have computers, the trick is to have reliable computers with the right software to help you get the job done right the first time.

Today you might think you will only need a computer to write a couple documents and email some clients, but as technology advances at the rapid rate that is has been you will quickly find yourself using your computer more and more.

Choosing a Computer

If you are looking to upgrade the computers at your office, consider purchasing and setting up all the computers at once. By having all computers the same, it will make it easier on your staff help easier to help each other out as they will be very familiar with the setup and can focus on the task at hand.

To start you can visit your local computer store, asking for advice in store. You want to focus on business models as they are usually made of higher quality parts (and because of that a bit more expensive, but worth it). Explain to whoever is helping you what your business currently does with a computer, and let them know that it’s importance in your company will continually grow. Get a list of 2 or 3 models that interest you in-store, but DO NOT BUY YET.

When you get back to the office, do some quick research. Go to your favorite search engine and search for reviews of each of the models you had selected earlier. Read these reviews and let them help you make your decision, then go back to the store and make your purchase.

Setting up Your Computer

Now that you have your computer(s), they need to have the useless factory software removed and have your needed programs installed. I would recommend finding a computer technician or someone very familiar with software installations to help you with this task. Removing the factory software can make a big difference in the performance of your computer.

If you want to try this yourself, here are the top 3 items you can remove to increase the performance.

• Games
• Any trial software (as you would be installing purchased full versions)
• Adobe PDF Reader (which will be replaced with a smaller light weight PDF Reader)

Once you have a clean slate to work with, now is the time to install the programs that you want. Below is a basic list of software that almost any business computer should not go without.

• Antivirus (recommended Norton Antivirus)
• Microsoft Office Basic (includes Word for document editing, Excel for spreadsheets and Outlook for email and organization)
• Foxit PDF Reader (free light weight alternative to Adobe PDF Reader, found here)

Visit us soon for tips on having multiple computers work seamlessly in your office.