toddkenefsky.com

SEO proposals are just like profile info on “Plenty of Fish”, you can embellish expectations if you want but the truth will come back to bite you! So what do you do? Be honest!

From what I’ve discovered in my happenings with SEO labor, you can’t guarantee your clients that they’ll have number one rankings if they hire you… having shared that, you CAN guarantee something… just be honest in your guarantees.

Certain high competition words should undoubtedly not be competed against on a skinny spending budget, but if the moolah is there and you are equipped to really invest the time into white hat search engine optimization work, nearly anything is doable.

For that low budget clientele, there’s a answer, too. The answer is to be rational about the  website traffic you anticipate to receive for the funds you are willing to pay. Then, the SEO firm can select the proper level of competition keyword phrases and grind them inside the content properly in the appropriate way… and the race is on!

It all comes down to the sales pitch. Just keep in mind, when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) it’s best to undersell and over deliver than it is to over sell and under deliver. Promise merely the most realistic success to your client. Sometimes you’ll have to teach the client to help them understand why the budget they are providing can only yield a selected degree of results. That can be a rough education and learning for some clients to get hold of. They will be disappointed that they can’t cause their phone ring off the hook for two hundred dollars a month, but if you break down the strategy for them and take some of the mystery out of the whole SEO magic, they might make a lot better client in the long run.

So remember these most important things:

Honesty is paramount.
Be realistic with your client.

Under-sell and Over-deliver. If you stick with these rules, you’ll have satisfied clients and word of mouth business.

As an owner of an e-commerce business, you must be analyzing your website visitor data regularly. Have you ever wondered why the conversion rates are low? Out of the thousands of people visiting your website, why do only a few complete the purchase process? Why do a majority of them abandon the shopping cart midway?

The answer is simple. While browsing your e-commerce website, visitors are looking for credible information that convinces them about the benefits and value of purchasing your product or service. With the short attention spans and limited time that net-users have, they just move away if they do not find what they are looking for. Of course, you cannot provide all the information at one go, and the visitors might have specific queries for which they need answers to.

Convert them when they are interested. Visitors come to your e-commerce website when they want more information about your services, when they want to compare your services with those of your competitors, or when they want to make a purchase. Whatever be the reason, the key is that they seek INFORMATION. By proactively offering the right information in the right manner, you can see positive change in the conversion rates.

The Solution: 24×7 Virtual Customer Support

How would you like if you visit an e-commerce website, and you get all the support you need, in a friendly manner through representatives of that company? Would it not impress you if you have the option of contacting them through any channel, be it live chat, telephone, or email, and getting complete support while you make your decision of whether to make a purchase or not even in the wee hours of the night?

You can also offer the same superior level of support to your e-commerce website visitors through 24×7 Virtual Customer Support. You do not need to have a complete support team in-house, as it might prove costly and tedious. You can outsource your customer support process and get all the benefits with investment within your budget.

You can hire the services of a suitable partner that can offer all types of support from a single front, with people who understand your product or service and hold-hands with your prospects while they visit your website and make a purchase.

By offering complete ONLINE CHAT SUPPORT, PHONE SUPPORT, EMAIL SUPPORT, and assisting during the purchase process through LIVE ORDER TAKING, you can make your prospects feel comfortable while they select your company for their needs. Interacting with a responsive live person is always better than automated replies. Studies have shown that cross-sell and up-sell rates, and shopping cart amounts increase if visitors can interact with the representatives of the company while they visit their website.

With professional 24×7 customer support you can get the edge your competitors are struggling for and ensure that all genuine visitors get the attention and the service they deserve.

For businesses that can’t afford to or simply don’t want to unnecessarily spend thousands on a full-time office… we offer a physical office address, phone, fax, reception and meeting space access for a fraction of the price.  A New York Virtual Office may be just the solution for you. Find out today with our July 2009 Virtual Office Address Trial Offer for only $12.50 per month.

Within one business day you can open your New York office on Broadway in the trendy Flatiron district taking our advantage of our trial office of US$12.50 per month, for 2-months of service including a physical New York office address with reception and access to meeting facilities.  

During the trial period, you receive everything you would at the standard rate.  Mail handling is available as well as meeting rooms, phone service, fax service, and all the extras!  All the benefits of having a real staffed office (not a mailbox or a fake suite number) without the overhead or headaches.

VIRTUAL OFFICE TRIAL
$12.50 per month for 2-months of Virtual Office. Virtual Office address includes:
-Physical Office address on Broadway with reception and meeting facilities.
-Mail handling privileges including mail-forwarding
-Meeting room rental privileges

For more service details, visit:  http://manhattanvirtualoffice.com/virtualoffice.html

To apply for this offer, simply click here to access the online application.

<em>Offer valid for new approved clients only. Offer may not be combined with any other offer. Not valid on renewals or reinstatements. Applicants must order and have their completed applications approved prior to July 31, 2009. After the 2-months are up, you can opt to renew service. Renewal rates revert to standard rates.

If you are looking for website optimization then you might consider the Easy SEO Report Internet marketing training course. There are many benefits to this report as they will show you everything you need to know and the Easy SEO report is free.

However, although the ever-changing dynamics between search engine algorithms and SEO techniques have evolved in complexity and in many different directions, very little has been done to actually measure the effectiveness of these SEO methodologies and processes.

SEO Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

And that feeling of being hemmed in isn’t just coming from my slip of a driveway, economic reports are making us all feel like it’s hard to see an opening, let alone make it out in one piece.

In the report they could highlight areas which are having a detrimental affect on your rankings, such as a link that is pointing to what they consider to be a “bad neighbourhood”. They could suggest that you are building up your links too quickly or that they feel that you are buying links.

It is worth reading up on what you are doing, especially in a field such as SEO where changes and new findings are happening every day. How you research your field really depends on what you are used to, many are using feed readers, some receive feeds right into their inbox so that they can read up on these news at work.

So that they easily grasp your page’s most important topics. There is a special meta keywords tag, which is supposed to briefly list the topics of your webpage. And it is wise to put your most valuable keywords into it. A meta keywords tag is not obligatory, and some sites do not make it at all.

Automating this process of SEO ranking many sites at once is the quickest way to find potential SEO clients who actually need offline services. If you have tools to automate the process, great. But if not you can still do the SEO pre-qualifying steps by hand too. It will just take longer.

I will not reveal everything as some techniques take years to learn and are proprietary to our company.

So if you can, why not set up your machine so that the spell checker is set up as USA English rather than British English. Unfortunately, there are many words between these two languages that are often misspelled, and in fact, the same can be said for many other languages around the world.

Efficient customer’s conversations is one of the best tactic to be undertaken, I have seen positive numbers in the cash flow of renown big companies using Facebook or Twitter for example, wonder why Tesco, General Motors, Ford Motors, Home Depot, Whole Foods and many others are making money by doing so? Imagine every Tweet is a free in feed ad so to speak to be directed to any segment and if you lead and engage by subscription and later on SMS advertising if you want to

Many of our clients have been able to build their businesses successfully as a direct result of outsourcing. One of the most common jobs that they outsource is appointment setting. If your company does any type of outside sales (and most do) having an outsourced telemarketing department is ideal. Think about it, if you tried to hire telemarketers in house, you have to set up office space, get office furniture, get special phone lines installed, get computers, etc. You even have to either manage them yourself or hire someone else to make sure that they’re showing up on time, working their agreed upon shift, calling properly, reading the scripts properly and performing the way that you want them to. 

Yet when you outsource your appointment setting, all you do is have your sales force (or yourself) show up to prescheduled appointments and write up deals. That’s it! No trouble no hassle no headaches. All of this for an employee that costs around $5 per hour.

As a small business owner, you can also use virtual assistants to contact your existing clients and cross sell them on additional products and services (a very successful and profitable strategy). In addition, they can serve as an answering service when you’re out of the office, handle your billing / payments & collections, perform accounting and bookkeeping and more. Some mortgage companies use outsourced workers to call homeowners and sell them mortgages over the phone.

Realtors use virtual assistants to help them run their offices. Their reps help them prepare documents, upload listings, answer phones, do internet marketing, send out client newsletters and more. Other businesses have outsourced reps handling some of their marketing functions. These include internet marketing. There are over 50,000 free classified ad sites on the internet other than Craigslist. Some business owners have their outsourced marketing reps posting ads on these sites each month. They also design their print and internet ads, launch their direct mail campaigns, fulfill information request orders, perform E-blasts, perform “Live Chat” for their website, perform search engine optimization, blogging, writing and posting articles online, updating their website monthly, and much more. Some accounting companies even have outsourced reps doing their clients bookkeeping (unbeknownst to their clients). Other companies have outsourced reps doing actual sales entirely over the phone and internet.

So as you can see, there are a tremendous amount of ways that you as a small business owner can benefit from outsourcing. The ways we mention above are just a few examples yet the possibilities are endless.

Do Follow blogs are those that allow the readers to write their comments on them. As against them, there are No Follow blogs that prevent the placement of comments.

While some blog sites allow the readers to offer their comments irrespective of their quality, there are others such as Wordpress that do not allow that. This is done by appending HTML attributes called ‘Do Follow” or “No Follow” to the blogs according to their policies.

How to identify the “Do Follow” blogs?

If you want to make creative, informative and useful comments on a blog, there is a simple way to identify the “Do follow” blogs.

Just hit on the View button on the browser page of the blog post and click on the ‘source’ from the drop down menu. It will open up the source code of the blog post. Then you can use the Search or Find function to see if it has rel=’external’ term near any comment. If you find one, it is a Do Follow blog. If you find the term rel=’external nofollow’ or rel=’nofollow’, it means you cannot make any comments.

Advantages of Do Follow Blogs

There are several advantages of Do Follow blogs. When you write unique, informative and useful content in a blog, it tends to inspire admiration or disagreement in the readers who are usually impelled to express their opinions by commenting upon it.

They may make some references to other relevant content either in their own blogs or in the blogs of others by providing links for further reading. This is how it should be. This is one way to widen the area of knowledge or discussion on the subject of the blog.

Another advantage lies in the optimization of the blog from the search engine’s perspective. The comments create back links for the commentators’ blogs. This kind of inter-commenting builds up an interactive community of bloggers on a particular niche or subject and a network of connecting links that are helpful for all the participants.

Unfortunately this kind of commenting has degenerated into a kind of spamming for promoting the websites for search engine optimization. The readers of the blog, instead of making any creative and useful comments, just add some inane words followed by links to their own blogs. This may be called artificial link building.

Some webmasters have developed software that can find out the blogs of your niche. All you need to do is to fill up the search bar with the niche words or phrase and you get a list of blogs in your niche.  Some software even provide comment templates which can be filled up in the comment areas to get the back links for SEO purpose.

While the “No Follow” attribute prevents needless seoing of useless content or spamming, it also prevents the publication of genuine and creative comments. Some adventurous souls have found plugins to circumvent even Wordpress HTML commands for No Follow.

What is needed, therefore, is that instead of installing No Follow attributes, the blogger community should encourage its members to desist from spamming and contributing only   informative and useful content in their comments.

At the same time, the robots of the search engines, too, have become more sensitive to link harvesting and blacklist the sites whose webmasters resort to such unhealthy practice of link building.

Many people are daunted by effective custom web design, site optimization, internet marketing, seo, etc. How can you blame them? There are so many so called “experts” out there spouting off the latest internet tripe. With just a little research, you soon discover that these experts are usually hawking some business opportunity or selling software. So, we’re going to divest the entire process of it’s mysticism and make it as plain as possible.

Here’s what you’ll need to market your business effectively on the internet. The first thing you’ll need is a great website. This is not the area where you want to play it cheap. Do not design your own website! Unless you’re a graphic designer, you’re probably not as artistic as you think that you are. Hire a good web design company. Think about it. The first contact that many prospective customers may have with your business are you marketing materials such as your web site. A well designed web site should educate, instill confidence and trust in potential customers and above all is A SALES OR CLOSING TOOL. This can not be emphasized enough. It should not merely be a pretty online brochure. It’s purpose to either directly or indirectly close business for you. Period.

 Make sure you check around on the internet and observe your competitors websites before deciding on the design of your site. A good design company will help you with this. Study the design elements and features of the most successful companies in your industry. Do searches to determine which of their sites get top rankings in the search engines. Also, look for opportunities to innovate to make your website even better than theirs. Make it clear what you want from your website to your web design company.

After your site is constructed, the next thing that you need is for your site to be optimized. Site optimization consists of selecting the right keywords and then imbedding those meta keywords and phrases in the pages and links of your site, installing site maps, doing link exchanges, installing robots and analytics, tying in blogs and article directories, posting articles, and more. This makes your website search engine friendly and helps to get you higher rankings in the search results. Make sure your design company is experienced at this. Some designers are just so eager to get the business that they’ll claim to know more than what they actually do. Do not bypass the site optimization step and just try to submit your site to the search engines. All that will happen is that no one will ever be able to find it.

The last component is actually internet marketing or promoting your site. One popular way is submitting your optimized website to the search engines. There are literally thousands to choose from. However, the majority of searches are done through: Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN. A study conducted by Berrier Associates shows that of people who spend five or more hours a week online, they average an astounding 71% of their time searching for information. Other research shows that the most common method of finding a website is through search engines. Google powers over 70% of all searches and is the trendsetter for algorithm creation. Therefore, search engine marketing is of paramount importance.

Some search engines are free and others you pay for. A good SEO company can advise on which search engines work best for you. 

By applying just these simple strategies, you will be well on your way to getting good results from your internet marketing.

The real estate market in the United States has been under constant speculation, especially after the financial bubble burst and the economic slowdown however as the world comes out of the recession mode, it is one of the most exciting markets. While real estate companies and agents are trying to get the investors attracted, the best way is to opt for real estate SEO USA services so that they cannot only get mileage with US based customers but the interested international investors as well.

There are certain tricks that can help you with your real estate SEO program and ensure that you can get a good position on the web. In this way you’ll be able to get the attention from most of the prospect which means that you’ll be able to crack a lot more deals.

To begin with you should consider doing an analysis of the keywords that you are targeting for your campaign. It is important that to build credibility on the web you start with a micro market rather than trying to go for a macro niche. For instance if you are based in New York, rather than trying to cover “real estate New York”, you can start with specific locations like “real estate Manhattan”. It is easier to gain popularity with micro and as you keep on covering the smaller localities keep on the SEO for the city or the state. In this way you’ll be able to attract more traffic.

Another important technique is using press releases for hot properties. If you have a top deal, and want real estate SEO for the same you can have a press release written and posted it on 4-5 major sites. In this way you’ll have access to a worldwide audience and PR sites are indexed fast by search engines. This would also mean that you have greater chances of making the deal work out for you.

A couple of tricks mentioned above are just beginner tips to get yourself some traffic, however for the real results in a competitive niche it is always advisable to consult the professionals for SEO USA or real estate SEO. You will surely get great returns on investments because SEO USA these days is quite affordable.

SEO And Link Building, Like Tea and Sugar

SEO and link building are the two techniques which stand at a 20:80 ratio where the ranking at the search engines are concerned. Search engine optimisation can be broadly classified into two major areas. The first being on-page optimisation and the second off-page optimisation. What you are actually doing to affect your ranking on the search engine can be determined by the on-page optimisation. These changes could include the H1 tags, title tags etc.

Link building, on the other hand, is the tougher of the two. Though SEO and link building go hand in hand, it is actually link building which builds or breaks your website. The number of inbound links on your site will reflect a higher ranking with the search engines. It is also an important part of the page rank system on the search engines. To sum it up, building links is all about creating a network of inbound, outbound and cross links.
SEO And Link Building Methods

– Look for appropriate sites to make a link request. After you have found a site, make an inbound link request.
– Always look for entertaining, useful and informative sites.
– If you are not able to find the related sites easily, then search in the directories for the different categories available.
– You could also make use of free help to find related sites.

In SEO it is very important to have an effective and capable link building capability. As in real life, famous people have more links than others; similarly a high ranked website should also have high linkage. Search email addresses by contacting the webmaster with a request link. He can be contacted either through the source code in the website or directly. You could also obtain inbound links through your blogs. Search in the comments and discussion threads for links. Though these links would be short lived, it is still worth a try.

SEO and link building basic requirements would be to have quality content, with fresh and regular updates. Consider creating a blog or even invite discussions for that matter. Another method would be the syndication of content of a feed which is transmitted to different destinations. Link building would work well even with these syndication feeds.

Try and analyse your links with those of your competitors. You could compare your methods with those of your top competitors. It is a good tool to stay in the link building race. You could even end up getting traffic because if these links provide your competitor with traffic, they would also direct some of it to you. SEO and link building optimisation through competitive analysis is a very straight forward and fair technique to obtain good linkage. You are sure to get many more sites to link back to your own site.

Two basic rules of business:

1) Narrowly define your client
2) Go after them agressively

I’ve always been inspired by small business and now I’m in business to help them.

A little about me — I’ve worked for some of the most recognized organizations in the world. Some of these include CitiGroup (AVP), Freddie Mac (Trader), GE Medical Systems (Analyst), JPMorgan (Analyst), SunTrust Robertson Humphrey (Associate), Harvard University (Visiting Fellow) and Intel Corporation (Sr. Analyst).  Most of these organizations have similar practices regarding financial operations, the difference is always more apparent in the dominant business model.

What exactly is a business model?  Here are a few definitions on the Web:

The plan a company uses to generate revenue.
www.netc.org/openoptions/appendices/glossary.html The combination of factors that describe the business, including the market the business will serve, the perceived value delivered to the customer, which determines profitability per unit of sale, and the sustaining factors that allow the company to thrive over the long term.
www.milestonegrowth.com/financing/glossary.html A model of a business organization or process.
www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/Patient/HIPAA/Glossary.asp

In financial or investor terms a business model is your financial model.  It can also be narrowly defined as gross profit (revenues – cost of goods sold).  This is how I was taught to define it as an investment banking analyst.  When comparing business models bankers will likely jump straight to your financial model and your gross margin projection.  A company with a high gross margin (gross profit/revenues) has a “good” business model and the company within an industry with the highest gross margin is said to have the best.  Larger companies are perceived to have better business models as they are able to benefit from economies of scale.  Is there a way to break this perception with your clients? 

It’s easy to start thinking you are doomed as a small business, that the cards are inherently stacked against you and there’s absolutely no way of competing with your larger more well established competitors.  This is what they want you to think, but it’s only correct if you use the same business model.   Woman, veteran, minority and disabled owned organizations are especially vulnerable to “small business tilt”.  The challenge is to find your edge.  

Regardless of size, your business model MUST be compelling and define your edge.  As a contract manager at Harvard, one of the hardest parts of my job was convincing small business partners to try something new.  Some of them only had to change a few minor areas to boost market share in the community.  One small business took my advice and landed a contract with a national chain through our partnership.  If you try to compete with larger organizations using “their” business model you’re not maximizing your options.  Listen to what your customers need; they can help to define your edge. 

There are numerous types of business models. Some of these include:

i) Manufacturing (Direct Model) – A direct model which allows the manufacturer to speak directly to the consumer like a license or lease.
ii) Advertiser Model – Extension of traditional broadcast model. Search engines (portals) and classifieds (like Craigslist) that request a listing fee or user registration.

iii) Data Model – Data provided about consumer behavior. Examples include audience measurement services like Nielson or www.Alexa.com.

iv) Merchant Model – Wholesalers or retailers of goods. Examples include brick and mortar shops with a web interface or a Catalog exchange with mail order.

v) The Brokerage Model – Marketplace exchange. Investment banks are the best example of this.

vi) Affiliate/Commission Model – Similar to an advertising model, but thrives from purchases and not traffic.

vii) Forum Model – Blog or community forum. Examples are Twitter and blog sites.

viii) Subscription Model – Users are charged a periodic fee for service. Examples include Netflix and Internet services.

ix) PPV Model – Pay per view; On-demand model. Metered usage or subscriptions.

According to a study by Peter Wiell, et al, of the Sloan School of Management at MIT, entitled,  Do Some Business Models Perform Better than Others? A Study of the 1000 Largest US Firms, some buisness models do perform better than others.  The study goes on to say that, “…business models are a better predictor of financial performance than industry classifications and that some business models do, indeed, perform better than others. Specifically, selling the right to use assets is more profitable and more highly valued by the market than selling ownership of assets. [http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/pdf/wp226.pdf, p.2]

There are four basic labels for business models as defined by the study:  Creator, Distributor, Landlord and Broker [p.25].   The labels are fairly intuitive.   Landlord and Broker both exist because of the Creator and Distributor; they are the “derivatives” of the business modeling world.    These models reach success on good asset management.  Subsequently, both Brokers and Landlords have significantly higher operating incomes and market capitalizations than Creator or Distributor business models [p.22].   The market has effectively assigned more risk to these models, likewise the reward is proportionately higher.   As to be expected (or not) there were no significant differences among any of the four models regarding ROIC (return on invested capital) [p.24].  If a certain business model generated higher returns on investment we would all be using that model, theoretically.   I highly recommend reading this paper.  (I am trying to get my hands on the latest version) 

In reality, and in a time when more and more customers prefer freeze dried over slow cooked,  small business has the edge on big business -  you have the luxury and gift of agility.  Your organization is able to respond to changes in demand faster.   If you haven’t applied this to you business model, stop here and process it.  If you have and you’re still looking for ways to improve operations through your business model follow these steps. 

1. Review and align your business model with your mission. Everyone in the organization should be directly connected to increasing your profitability. If they are not, transfer them to a project that is. Everyone in your organization should be thinking about “how to decrease costs and increase revenues while improving quality (and staying legal)”. Your mission must include some measure of this principle.

2. Find the optimal model. There are dozens of ways to increase your revenue while reducing costs. Finding the optimal model for your consumer base is key.

a. Create a financial model and play around with the variables that influence the model the most. A good financial model will help you to focus your attention on critical success ratios. Instead of guessing which areas to focus on or making a random to do list, you will know the top three areas to work on in order to improve your margin.

b. Operational costs are more than simply control functions in today’s virtual world. In many cases a $12/month website can take the place of a fully staffed brick and mortar office space. What’s the lesson here? If you’re a small business, use the Internet as a way to disenfranchise big business. If you’re a large business, use the Internet as a way to create a segment of your organization that can react to changes in market demand faster. There’s a reason why recent academic studies in competition, strategy and organizational behavior are almost completely dominated by research on Internet models that revolutionized traditional business.

3. Stress test your model. Make sure you know what the implications of a decision are before you make any strategic changes. This is what your model is for. Most people think it’s a tool just for investors, but investors also want to see if you know how decisions will effect the flow of cash in your organization andwill appreciate your ability to do this using your financial model. A sensitivity analysis makes broad changes to accounts within the model. A scenario analysis shows the effects of different scenarios on your business. Guess which one investors really want to see?

4. Treat marketing as an asset. I believe marketing is so fundamental to your business that it must be a part of your business model.

a. Most MBAs are taught that marketing is an operating expense, but for start-ups marketing is an essential part of product revenue that might take several years to recoup. Should advertising expense be capitalized, or expensed? Well, I personally think marketing should be capitalized.

b. What exactly does capitalization mean? It means that large business items can be recorded on assets resulting in a depreciation expense rather than taking the full cost against current revenues. This means that assets are debited (usually long term or fixed assets) and liabilities are credited. As expenses are realized through depreciation, liabilities are debited and revenue is credited as an expense. Instead of reducing gross margin calculations, capitalized expenses increase assets and liabilities to balance.

c. While capitalization will cost a little more in bookkeeping fees there are also several advantages; some of these include 1) less volatility in gross profit, 2) increased equity investment, and 3) potential tax benefits.

5. Do a Little Six Sigma Dance – Determine the 10 most crucial processes in your organization and map them out from end to end. I guarantee you will find redundant processes, duplicate services, etc. In manufacturing they pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars to do this. This is also a necessary step in most corporate quality initiatives such as Six Sigma or LEAN. The former helps to reduce errors and the latterhelpsinreducing redundant or unnecessary costs (waste). When tasked with mapping out Intel’s equipment supply chain I found control issues and redundant processes. Intel is one of the most control oriented organizations I’ve ever worked for. You WILL find areas for improvement in your organization if you do this properly.

6. Acknowledge working capital. First of all, what is working capital?

a. The definition of working capital is (current assets) – (current liabilities). It’s a measure of the liquid (ready) assets in the organization. For this reason, analysts refer to it as “working”. Financial theory is full of ideas on this subject. While corporate bankers might use a surplus as a “cushion of protection” against a loan, investment bankers might see it is as an inefficient use of short term leverage. Some might even see a surplus as a sign of poor financial leadership. Ultimately, it will depend on the industry.

b. Implicit in working capital considerations are your revenue recognition policies. If you’ve squeezed everything out of your turnover ratios consider developing easier ways for your customers to pay. How can you help them to facilitate credit if needed? Can you create a package deal? Payment models are particularly important for serviceorganizations.

7. Close the funding gap. You must come up with ways to raise capital if you don’t have it, and you must be sure to scrutinize every project with a fine tooth comb if you do. Large and small businesses alike have difficulty obtaining funds when they really need them. What does that tell you? Well when it comes to business survivability the ability to “create” value is at the top of the list no matter who you are. And it’s not an easy thing to do, but here are some best practices….

a. Big business has known about “structuring deals” for a long time. If we can bring loans to the microcredit sector why can’t we bring investment banking product to start-up enterprise? I’ll come back to this in a minute.

b. CEO vs CFO vs CPA (Visionary/Leader vs. Translation Specialist vs. Editor). Investors want you to be able to validate assumptions with certainty.As a CEO you’re probably great at selling your product. You’re passionate about it, but don’t care about all the details. That’s ok. You’re supposed to have this approach, but your CFO should be different (and your CPA should not be your CFO or your Admin Assistant). Your CFO or business consultant should be more concerned with providing the sell to investors. They translate your energy and enthusiasm into a presentation investors and bankers want to hear. Your CPA will edit (audit). Your ability to do this literally builds value into your product. Value iscreated by credibility and your business model will be your most relied upon tool when speaking to investors.

c. Detail the investment opportunity and come up with the best way to sell it. Give your investors a combo meal; make it easy for them to see a return. I have yet to meet someone with money to invest that turned down a well thought outinvestment opportunity.

d. Exchange houses make investing easier by providing a guarantee. The average investor assumes that trading on the NASDAQ is safe. That is, the NASDAQ is a safe betting house. If you go to Vegas and you have $50k, you want to know you’re dealing with some trustworthy bookies. The House only helps you to make good on your bet, they don’t have anything to do with your decision to bet, or what you place your money on. Does that sound safe? You must create the sanctity of the stock market and provide a return that beats 12%. That’s it! Personally I would rather do business with someone I know and can touch over someone with a ticker symbol that I’ve never met; I’m referring to private deals and your opportunity to sell yourself by being safer than an exchange bet.That’s why investors love theprivate “structured” deals I was talking about in point (a). Read up on how these deals are structured by doing research on private equity offerings. For instance, you can develop 3 different stages of funding. Request money for stage 1, define your deliverables and pay these people back. Do the same thing for Stage 2 and 3. I’m in the process of writing an article about this subject now so check the website for updates!

8. Finally, consider your buying power. According to Porter’s Five Forces of Profitability, profitability is defined as a function of 5 different forces: 1)the threat of new entrants, 2) bargaining power of suppliers, 3) threat of substitute products or services,4) rivalry among existing competitors ; and 5) the bargaining power of buyers.http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2008/01/the-five-competitive-forces-that-shape-strategy/
Call the contract manager up.

a. Ask if you can set up a meeting to discuss your product.

b. Tell them what you offer andshow them your cost model. What can you do for them?You need to know what distinguishes you from both the incumbent and the competition.

c. Ask them if they actually make the purchases or if they maintain the contracts and if it’s a mandated community?

d. Prove that you know the challenging nuances of the organization you want to sell to.

e. Also be sure to mention any relevant purchasing buzz words like sustainability, low energy, value added, CRM Analytics, minority programs, e-purchasing, community connections, etc. Anything that can make the contract manager seem brilliant for choosing your product.

f. Even if you’re just starting out, you’ll be better for this exchange. The more you do it, the easier it will become and the better you will be.