This past week I had decided to have them printed by a professional printer. I provided them with my original design and asked if they could improve upon it. After a couple days they sent me a preview of what they had done and it looked great. I sent off their design to Al from Stare Design and he made some minor modifications and collectively we ended up with the new business card design below. The new design has both a front and back to it.

Just one day after finalizing the design I’ve received the new business cards and they look significantly better than the ones I was passing out earlier. I have passed out a couple to my clients already and they immediately noticed the big jump in quality and professional look.

Business cards leave a lasting impression with anyone that holds on to them. A well designed business card can help create a lasting professional identity with potential clients. It really is worth having a professional handle creating your business card!

You should be informed before you run to your local electronics or computer store. Here are a few questions that you can think about.

• What is the primary use for this computer?
• Is mobility important?
• What is your budget?
• How long do you expect this computer to perform well?

You will also need to be prepared for a salesman who is very enthusiastic that might try to sell you either outdated technology or the most expensive computer out there. Here is some guidance on what you should look for, whether you are looking to buy a desktop or a laptop computer.

Computer Case

Black cases or enclosures age very well. Try to stay away from the lighter colors as they show age and dirt easily. Stay away from flashing lights as they can become a distraction in the office and these lights are prone to burn out early.

Computer Speed

You will want a computer that performs well when you bring it home and for the amount of time that you own it. You should have a computer with at least a dual core processor, however quad core processors will be preferred. Look for either Intel i5 and i7 or AMD Phenom II processors.

Memory (RAM)

4GB of RAM is a perfect amount of RAM for the basic – intermediate computer user. If you plan on doing graphic or video editing, get as much RAM as you can afford.

Storage (Hard Drive)

The hard drives that come with todays computers have way more space than most users will ever consume. Rather than looking at the space, look for the speed of the hard drive. Hard drives are usually the bottleneck of your computer and having a hard drive with a higher RPM value is important. For those who are looking to spend a bit more, try to get a Solid State Drive (SSD).

Wireless

If you are looking to buy a laptop or you want a desktop and it’s not feasible to get a network cable to your computer, you will want to request your computer has a Wireless N network card. Wireless N is the latest in wireless networking technology and is the fastest and most reliable.

Standard items

Unless specially requested, every computer should come with a DVD burner, keyboard, mouse, LCD flat screen monitor and all cords you need to connect the computer. It may also come with recovery disks to restore the computer in the event of a disaster. Some computers have the “recovery disk” built in, eliminating the need for you to keep track of discs.

Warranty

Computers usually come with at least 1 year of warranty and it is during that time that most issues surface. After that first year period, most of the problems are software related and not usually covered by a warranty.

Choosing the right computer can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re looking for. If you don’t have a general understanding about the parts of a computer, check out this web page explaining computer parts. After all, the more you know the more likely you are to get exactly what you need.

The other day I was helping a company with a computer that wasn’t running quite right. It was an older computer and I suggested they upgrade to something newer. They told me that they didn’t see the value in upgrading since the one they have had for a few years now continues to serve its purpose even though it has started to slow down.

I’ve spent some time observing traditional “sales tactics” of people who sell computers. They often briefly mention that the computer will be faster and proceed to talk about the latest features, warranty, increased reliability and security. When talking to a business owner, I feel they should highlight and focus in on the productivity gains that the user of the computer will experience and how it can improve the company’s bottom line.

If you have an older computer and find that you spend a total of a half hour a day waiting for the computer to process tasks, charge an hourly rate of $50 per hour to your clients and work just 5 days a week, the time you have been waiting has cost you a potential $5000 in lost productivity. A newer computer that even just cuts down the waiting time in half will save you $2500 a year, which more than covers the cost of a single computer.

In addition to the productivity gain, a faster computer can reduce your frustration level which changes your state of mind and can reduce your stress level.

Now this doesn’t mean you should just replace every piece of technology in your company expecting fantastic results. You will still need to take a little bit of time to analyze how much time people are wasting waiting for their computer and figure out if the upgrade can be justified.

Laptops have both pros and cons compared to their larger counterpart.

Pros:

• Portability – The most obvious, you can easily take a laptop with you on your travels to continue your work.
• Price – Laptops have definately come down in price lately. For basic use, a laptop can often be less expensive that a full desktop package.

Cons:

• Upgrading – Laptops often prevent hardware upgrades. Some models do allow for upgrading a couple parts, but for the most part they are as they come.
• Graphics – If you are going to do graphic or video editing only the higher end laptops will be able to perform to your needs.
• Price – If you were to compare equally performing laptop and desktop, the desktop is often lower in cost.

When you are about to purchase a computer and need to decide between a laptop and desktop, the key question is whether or not you need the mobility. If the mobility is more important than the performance of your computer, a laptop will be a great choice for you!

What other questions do you ask that help sway your decisions? Leave your comment below.

One of the first documents that should be produced is a business plan. You might be looking for debt or equity financing, or maybe you just want a solid blueprint to help you build your business. Either way, a comprehensive business plan is very useful in helping you meet your goals. On the internet you can find many sample business plans and tools to help guide you to create your own.

There are potentially dozens of other documents that your business may require. One of the best approaches is to pay for samples of the more important documents that your business needs to get a good outline and some ideas. The money that you will pay for these templates is well worth it, especially if you think in terms of time saved. As an example, $10 spent on a template for an employee handbook that has over 140 topics and 100 pages of material including sections on Employment Status, Benefit Programs, Timekeeping, Payroll, Harassment, Work Conditions, Disciplinary Actions, IT Policies, and Health and Safety is just money well spent.

Search engines help you by scanning through all those pages of information and determine which pages to show you based on a search. How you type in your search can greatly affect the results that come back, and when you can have 1-10 million results for a search it is important to choose what your query is wisely. In the sections below I will describe 4 skills that you can use to search the web effectfively.

Choosing Your Search Engine

There are many search engines that are availble for you to use. Some yield better results than others as each has their own formula for determining what they think are most relevant based on your query. I use Google pretty much exclusively, however there are many other alternatives. Ask.com provides a search engine that will let you type in a full question. In my experience the results aren’t quite as good as Google provides, but having the ability to type in exactly what you are thinking is pretty nice. The other top search engines are Bing and Yahoo. Try each of them out and see which works best for you.

Keywords

In a search, most people searching today use 1 or 2 key words which is not enough to produce an effective list of results. The recommended amount is 4 to 6 carefully chosen words, preferably nouns and objects, as articles and pronouns are considered clutter by most search engines. Place the most important words first in your query and include the name of a city relevant to your search. A query that is fix stucco will not give results as helpful as stucco repair calgary. The results from both queries will include pages that have each of those words in the page somewhere.

Use of Phrases

Phrases are combinations of two or more words that must be found in the exact order shown. You would enter a phrase into a search engine with quotation marks around the phrase. Using the example above, you may choose to type “stucco repair” calgary. You can have multiple phrases in a query, such as “stucco repair” “free estimate” calgary.

Boolean Basics

“Boolean” searching (named after George Boole, the 19th-century mathematician who founded the field of symbolic logic) is a powerful technique that can narrow your search to a reasonable number of results, and increase the chance of those results being useful. Boolean searches can be a bit tricky for the first few times you try them but once learned they are tremendously effective. The three most commonly used boolean commands are AND, OR, and AND NOT.

AND (often replaced with a plus ”+” sign) means “I want only results that include both/all words”. For example, “stucco repair” AND “free estimate” AND calgary.

OR means “I want results that include either word, I don’t care which”. For example, “stucco repair” OR “concrete repair” OR “exterior repair” would provide results with pages containing any of the 3 phrases used.

AND NOT (often replaced with a minus”-” sign) means “I want results that include one word/phrase, but not if it includes the other word/phrase”. For example, “stucco repair” AND NOT painting would provide results with pages containing the phrase “stucco repair” AND does not include the word painting.

With these 4 skills, you will be able to find what you are looking for quickly and with less frustration.

Do you have other search tips to share? Leave a comment below!

When selling your products online you need a solution that can handle all of the following aspects.

• Maintaining your branding and existing designs, convince the visitor they want that product
• A simple way for visitors to select products and services wanted
• Provide shipping costs prior to the order being completed
• A simple and trusted method for visitors to provide payment
• A reliable form of order fulfillment
• Tracking your inventory and sales

There is a software solution that is fairly common on websites. They are known as shopping carts and give the visitor the familiar feeling of placing selected items into their basket. When doing your research for a shopping cart package it is important to know that you can either have your web master install a software package into your current website, or you can link your website to a third party who provides shopping cart services to you. Third party shopping cart services reduce the complexity and maintenance of having your own shopping cart, however some third party solutions limit the customization of the look and feel.

When you are filling out your product details you may choose to use some of the space allocated to product description as a way to sell the product to the customer. Depending on the type of product you are trying to sell, a simple product description may not be enough and you may need a sales letter. The sales letter is a dedicated page that persuades a customer and helps convert from just browsing into purchasing. The Lotto Black Book has a radical approach to an online sales letter, try it out!

Almost all shopping cart solutions give a visitor the ability to add and remove items from a cart, with quantities. Some even have the ability to remember a visitor from one day to the next, storing what they had in their cart from a previous visit.

Once your customer has decided upon what they plan on purchasing they will complete their order and checkout. Part of the checkout process is to collect payment. Customers are becoming more educated and are cautious when providing payment information. You need to ensure that your payment page is secure (using an SSL Certificate) and that the information collected is stored in a secure manner. There are third party solutions for accepting payment as well, they are known as Payment Gateways. Shopping cart solutions will often provide the ability of plugging into a payment gateway, essentially pre-wiring everything for you. You will need to do some research into your Shopping Cart and find out which Payment Gateways they support before making your final selection.  Choosing a payment gateway will depend on your anticipated sales volumes and the comfort level you want to provide your customer.  For companies starting off, PayPal is a fantastic starting point as it is one of the most famous ways of providing payment online.

Once you have sold your product you need to be able to fulfill the order. When selling a digial product (such as a download) a customer expects to be able to download the product immediately after the payment is received. When selling a service, a customer expects that the service will start immediately, or they will be able to choose an appointment date if the service is delivered physically (such as configuring a home entertainment system). If you are selling a physical product (such as a book or a cd) a customer expects the item to be shipped within a day or two at the most and be provided with a tracking number.  Also, depending on the anticipated sales volumes you may want to engage an order fulfillment company to handle completed orders for you. They will handle your inventory, packaging, shipping and some reporting.

The last point that your solution will need to track inventory and sales. You don’t want to sell 10,000 knick knacks in a single day if you only have 50 available to sell. Although this is a problem that many businesses would love to have (demand far greater than supply), promising on something you can’t deliver will greatly damage your online reputation. Your online store should indicate when you are sold out of a particular item and recommend the visitor check back again soon. Your solution should also track your sales, providing a wide range of reports that you can use for information gathering. Here is a list of a few reports you will want to review.

• Units sold for a date range
• Revenue for a date range
• Sales tax collected for a date range
• Current inventory for all items

If done right, having your website sell products and services for you can bring in a good amount of revenue. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, especially in order fulfillment for physical products if you have a high anticipated sales volume.

For the small business, Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are a great option for centralizing business files. A NAS device is essentially a self-contained computer connected to a network with the sole purpose of supplying storage to other computers on that same network. They generally do not have a keyboard or display and are controlled and configured over the network. NAS devices are available at your local big-box electronics store for prices as low as a couple hundred dollars.

NAS devices are great, but businesses that have more than a handful of users and need extensive use of centralized storage will require a more robust solution. File servers offer the same types of services that NAS can and more. As the needs for centralized storage increase, additional file servers can be added to increase capacity. Businesses working with a lot of multimedia or very large files fit this scenario quite well. There are many different solutions available, the most important is that you get started.

How Can Centralized Storage Help You?

There are a few benefits to having your business files all in one place and each one is a strong enough reason on its own for you to get started even if you have only 2 computers.

Increased productivity

If person working on computer A needs a file that a person working on computer B created, many will simply email a duplicate to the co-worker. Changes are made and then emailed to someone working on yet a different computer. After a while there are many copies and it’shard to know which is current. By having them in one place you can feel confident that people are always working with the correct file.

Increased reliability

Many of the problems that affect computers are storage related, and these problems often happen at the worst possible time. One or more of your computers having difficulties is not a problem when your files are centralized. You can always access your files from any other working computer giving you the ability of printing that client proposal and winning a contract.

One location to backup

In an earlier article, I talk about how important it is to backup your files. My free step by step tutorial guiding you on creating your first backup shows you how to get started with a single computer. Backing up multiple computers can become a burden. If all your computers were looking in one place for your files, you only have one place to backup.

Files accessible to every authorized user

Each centralized solution can provide the ability of limiting access to certain files to authorized users only. You might only want your senior staff make changes to the financial planning documents, and have everyone be able to view the equipment manuals.