This article is written for those who own a business and also regarding customers. Business owners often look at the advertising ads and wonder why it isn’t working. Here are some tips along with some suggestions.

Design Of Ads
We often get too wrapped up in the design of it or how large or small the ad is. Make sure that your ads have some color in them. Don’t be cheap with black and white cause of the poor impression that people often get. First of all we need to decide what audience that we would like to reach the most. The people who look at your ad need to be those who would want to buy one of your products. Think about who would want to buy your products and any companies that would be interested in your products. Figure out who would most be interested in it and advertise in that area. Look around to see if anyone else runs the same type of company as you do. Look at their ads. Put a deal on your ads that is the one of the best deals in the area. Give them reasons as to why they should come visit your company instead of the competition. What makes you different from the other similar companies.

Words On Ads
The word FREE attracts allot of visitors to a business. How many times have we stopped by a place just because they had a free gift to every visitor? More times than we can probably count or remember. Giving something away for free or even a contest or some sort of drawing does attract visitors. Visitors will get word of mouth advertising going around about your company. Deals such as one buy get one free or buy one get another one for half price deals does often attract more customers than you would normally get. A free gift doesn’t have to be expensive or really unique to give to customers. Customers will appreciate even something simple such as a free candy bar or a five dollar gift card to some place in the local area.

Products
It is important to have excellent products. You want customers to remember your company. Excellent products is one of the ways to make your company stand out from the rest of the others. You want your company to be the best that it can be. Don’t worry about prices as much as great products. Yes, prices do matter to the customer to a certain point. If your company has excellent products then the customer will be willing to pay a little extra for the wonderful products.

Customer Service
Customer Service is the most important in your business. Customers need to be payed attention to and treated friendly. Customers need to get greeted by a sales person the minute they walk through the door. Customers want someone to help them find exactly what products they are wanting to get. A sales person can help assist customers and make them feel special since they go home happy with the exact product they were looking for. They will remember how helpful your staff was.

Understanding Spam Filters to Avoid Your Emails Get Junked!

If you send email campaigns long enough, you will inevitably run into spam filter issues. On average, you can expect 10-20% of your emails to just get lost in cyberspace, mostly due to overzealous spam filters. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. If you want to avoid getting your emails junked by spam filters, you have to understand how they work.

Generally speaking, spam filters look at a long list of criteria to judge whether or not your email is junk. For example, they might look for spammy phrases like “CLICK HERE!” or “FREE! BUY NOW!”. They’ll assign points each time they see one of those phrases. Certain criteria get more points than others. Here’s a sample of criteria from Spam Assassin, one of the most popular spam filters out there:

• Talks about lots of money (.193 points)

• Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points)

• Looks like mortgage pitch (.297 points)

• Contains urgent matter (.288 points)

• Money back guarantee (2.051 points)

• Why Pay More? (1.249 points)

It’s easy to use “spammy” keywords in your email without even knowing it. Here are some common ways marketers unwittingly trigger spam filters with their campaigns:

1. Using spammy phrases, like “Click here!” or “Once in a lifetime opportunity!” too many times in your email. Sometimes, you can’t avoid phrases like “FREE SHIPPING!” but use them sparingly, and don’t do anything else risky.

2. Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!

3. USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL

4. Coloring their fonts bright red, or green

5. Coding sloppy HTML (such as by converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML)

6. Creating an HTML email that’s nothing but one big image, with no text (since spam filters can’t read images, they assume you’re a spammer that’s trying to trick ‘em)

7. Using the word “Test” in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time, when sending drafts to clients for approval)

You have a great product that you know will sell like hotcakes. You’ve created your business plan, hired salespeople, and obtained your business license. You even have great signage to post on the front windows of your store. But only one problem remains…where to buy property?

Everyone knows that the location of a business can mean the difference between extreme wealth and bankruptcy. If people can’t find your store, or if you’re located in a bad neighborhood, your chances of building a clientele decrease drastically. Where is the best place to start?

First of all, research is the most important step. If you don’t want to spend the money to hire a real estate agent, then you’re going to have to do the legwork, and one of the best places to start is on a drive around your community.

Most of the time, you will find that leasing companies have signs everywhere announcing their properties, and their advertisements will usually contain the square footage. You won’t know a price until you call, but at least you have a starting point from which to work up.

You can also check your local newspaper for classified ads. You can familiarize yourself with the leasing companies in your area and contact other businesses with which they do business. Find out which clients are happy, and which are not, and you can narrow your search from there.

When you are looking at location, you should consider the type of products you sell. One of the best places to set up your business is in a strip center, but you want to make sure that there are no competitors in the same area. Veteran business owners sometimes gamble with competing businesses, but as a newcomer to the industry, you probably want to rent a shop where there are no similar products in the vicinity.

On the other hand, if you choose a storefront that is in the same neighborhood as a competitor (not next door), you are sure to benefit from their marketing strategies. Chances are that they have done their homework on the area, and have directed their advertising at key demographics. This will automatically drive traffic to your store, especially if your prices are better.

If at all possible, choose a location on a busy road, or near entrances to neighborhoods. If your business is on an obscure side street, you won’t see much traffic, and business will suffer. Obviously, busy streets contain higher priced property, but if you can afford it, the investment will be well worth the extra cash.

If you are concerned about the demographic, order a demographic review. Find out the median ages, incomes, household make-ups, and other information about the area in which you hope to sell. This way, you can find out if the residents of that area will be likely to shop for your products.

You will want to ensure that your store has adequate parking, and that it is in a safe neighborhood with a low crime rate. If you want people to shop at your store after dark, they can’t be worried about murderers and thieves.

Another possibility is to look for bus stops and other public transportation zones. Research the sidewalk traffic as well as the street traffic and find out if you will be accessible to both walkers and drivers. You should also inspect property for delivery accessibility, so that suppliers will have easy access to either your front or back door.

When you’ve narrowed down your list of properties, begin inspecting each one for possibly problems. Layout is important, so consider how your store will be set up once you have products and employees. Is there room for a staff room and an office? Will there be adequate counter space? Are there enough electrical outlets, and are they in the right places?

Then, have each property inspected for possible repairs. If the plumbing, electricity, or structure is damaged, then you should assess the repair costs and determine whether the rent price is consistent with damages.

And finally, determine whether or not you will be able to grow at this location. If your business takes off, and you suddenly need more space, will you have to move or are their adjoining properties that could become available? Is the location large enough to display your current product amount, or is it too big for your current needs?

Ok, ready to start your business?

Should You Start Your Own Business?
So, you’ve decided to leave the rat race behind and become your own boss. Now what? Although we all have had days where we want to take Johnny Paycheck’s advice to heart (”Take This Job & Shove It”), there are many things you will need to consider before making a final decision.

First and foremost is the choice of what field to enter. We’ve all heard the maxim that says “Do what you love”, While it is important that you like your work since you will put a lot of time and effort into a small business, it is equally important that you be realistic in what the market is calling for. You do not want to get into a situation where you have spent your entire life savings on a plan that has no chance of succeeding.

You will need to consider such factors as what problem your product or service solves and who has this problem. Do your potential clients have the money to pay for the product or service you are offering? For instance, you may have a dog who chews your furniture when left home alone, so you decide you want to start a dog daycare, which is a fairly high-priced service. It will be an uphill struggle to succeed if you are in an area where people struggle to meet their basic daily needs.

You also must make sure that others have the same problem you are trying to solve with your product or service. You may be extraordinarily good at drawing spiders and snakes, and your idea is to sell your drawings because they fill the blank spots on the walls of your house. However, you need to think about how many people are sitting around staring at their living room walls thinking, “Boy, this room would be just perfect if I only had a picture of a tarantula to hang over the fireplace.”

Another consideration is whether or not you are good at creating the product or providing the service. My personal worst job choice was when I decided to work in a factory, without considering the fact that walking on cement floors 10 hours a day caused me extreme pain in my arthritic leg joints. If you do decide on a business that requires more endurance than you have, you may want to consider doing the business part time while you keep your day job to pay the bills. This will give you an outlet to do the thing that you love, but will not require you to exert yourself beyond what you are capable of. Whether you choose part time or full time, you can expect to work extremely long hours, especially in the beginning.

Emotionally, be prepared for entrepreneurship to be one of the hardest things you have ever done. You will be juggling many balls at the same time, working long hours, dealing with angry customers, and worrying about finances, in addition to making the product or supplying the service you so love doing. It is definitely not for the faint of heart!

All you can do is work hard and persevere, trying hard to make each mistake only once. You never know, every once in awhile our kids turn out to be successful adults, and sometimes business dreams really do come true

A business plan is a very effective tool to having a successful business because it serves so many purposes and different aspects of the business. And it also gives you a constant reference source as to how well each part of the business is doing at any given time.

Not all people starting new businesses do have business plans however, and it is not always essential to produce an in depth plan for your business to succeed.

Even basic business plans will usually contain fore casted figures of profit and expenditure, as well as any possible expansion plans, your break even point and what you want to achieve with the business. It should also contain useful market research, both primary and secondary, assessing competition and market trends of your product.

The market research should take in the location of your business and from this how much demand you are likely going to have for your product. For example if you are a new business setting up on the edge of town, but there is a rival company in the town center already, then they will likely be a lot more busy than you.

Determining whether you will have a direct or indirect competitor early on is important as well. This meaning whether another business selling the same product as you is aiming at the same section of the market. For example a second hand car dealership would only be indirect competition to a limousine dealership. They share the same market but would likely only affect each other slightly, if at all.

You will need to know which of your rivals has what in terms of market share, and how you will carve out a space for your own business by taking customers from others. It is rarely the case that you can attract entirely new customers to a particular business. More likely they will be previous customers of your local rivals that are coming to you because of you having something new or some other advantage over the business they previously used.

From this you will have to include detailed financial projections for potential investors to look over. You will need to work out what a break even figure will be, as well as a cost per unit of the product or service you are offering. From here your profit per unit and what you expect your sales to be based on market research will also need to be factored in.

When applying for premises, loans, or even things like managers and employees, as well as financial stakeholders. A business plan will let them know you are serious and will also give them an idea of how successful the business is likely going to be after it begins trading (usually for the first 5 years in fact).