Friday, May 22, 2009

Website Design Try before you buy

Dedicated Business Designs is bringing a new approach to webdesign. As many of you know and may have experienced the many template programs that are available today at extremely low rates. Unfortunately many small business owners dont have the time to build these sites even after they have paid for them as well as the fact that some of these tools just cant give the polished look and feel of a professional website.  

This is where we come in we are offering the small business owner a 3-5 page website at $199 here is the best part try before you buy. Here's how it works , simply call us or email us and we will immediately begin work on your project no money down, no credit card, no games, no gimmicks. After your site is complete we will send you the link to it, you view it, you like it you buy it. No obligation to buy if you dont like it dont pay for it no harm no foul. Small business owners give it try this time you just might get the site you expected with out being taking to the cleaners and without having to pay upfront.

Dedicated Business Designs 
877-400-9321




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Thursday, May 14, 2009

The ultimate small business or startup CRM


Zoho for SOHO
By
Gerry Blackwell
July 30, 2007

We're writing this introduction to the Zoho suite of online, browser-based office productivity tools using, appropriately enough, Zoho Writer, the word processor module. Hey, it works; and quite well, actually. Zoho Writer even boasts some nifty features you don't find in more advanced word processors.

If you detect a note of surprise here, it's because ZW is offered free of charge by creator AdventNet Inc., a California-based custom software house that does its development work in India. Not only is the application free, you also get unlimited free document storage on the Zoho servers, at least for now while the product remains in beta. After that, AdventNet says it will provide only 1GB of storage per customer.

Zoho Writer
Zoho Writer gives you plenty of word processing features. It may not be Word, but then again, it won't cost you a penny. (Click for larger image).

The suite includes 12 modules, most "100 percent free," a few not. Among the other 100-percent free modules: spreadsheet, presentation creator, organizer and database manager. Whether they will always be free is not clear. One wonders how the company expects to make money from Zoho.

It does charge for some modules. The project management tool is free for one project, with prices for additional projects starting at $5. And Zoho CRM, a basic customer relationship management program, is free for up to three people, $12 per month per additional person.

Read More



Zoho has much improved since this writing if you need setup or configuration service contact us 877-400-9321 or click here

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10 Free Must-Have Windows Networking Apps By Joseph Moran


10 Free Must-Have Windows Networking Apps
By Joseph Moran
May 8, 2009

As the famous proverb says, the best things in life are free. These 10 utilities may not change your life, but they’re all helpful with a particular aspect of networking and none of them will cost you a dime. (Unless otherwise noted, the utilities listed here are Windows-only.)

1. CrossLoop

When you want to get help with a computer problem from a friend— or help a friend with a problem—you can use the Windows Remote Assistance feature, but it doesn’t always work reliably through routers and firewalls.

CrossLoop, on the other hand, makes providing or receiving remote support a cinch. This remote desktop utility lets you view or control someone’s system (with their permission, of course) allows file transfers, and does it all over an encrypted link. CrossLoop installs quickly, works through firewalls with little to no configuration, and lets you connect to others using randomly generated 12-digit access codes.

2. Gladinet

There are plenty of places on the Web where you can store many gigabytes worth of files. Accessing such “cloud-based” storage usually involves logging onto a service via a browser and/or using a custom UI in order to transfer files, but Gladinet Starter Edition gives you a more convenient alternative.

Gladinet Starter Edition lets you access various online storage services as “virtual directories”, so you can get to your files right from My Computer on the Windows desktop. (The utility currently supports Amazon S3, ADrive, Google Docs and Picasa, and Windows Live SkyDrive).








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Small biz owners think about CRM before Quickbooks


When your company communicates with your customers the process can involve many different people within both organizations using a variety of different methods. The main tool that is used is an order that is communicated by your customer to your sales department. However this is only one of many communications that should be managed. To ensure that your company can provide the best customer service experience possible the use of customer relationship management (CRM) software should be considered.


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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Small Business Owners: Think you need a server for your office? Think again most techs say yes I assure you they are lying!


Windows server $2500 or My book World edition server $400 you decide
Recently we had a small home office 5 computers, husband and wife team with 2 employees and a graphic designer. The Problem: they were looking for a centralized storage system were all files could be stored and shared but the owners did not want financial data to be accessible to the entire office. Our client needed to keep cost down but productivity high,this is pretty common for us since many small business owners start out on  boot strap funding. Prior to calling us our competitors came in with the traditional windows client server setup at a cost of $5000 to $9000 for this simple office setup.

Our solution: First thing was to go out and get computers that were running Windows XP (we would have preferred to use Ubuntu but our client denied the OS) Quick Note: on software Windows Vista sucks my apologies Microsoft, but it is not a good OS no matter how much they spend trying to convince me. Our solution was to install the Ethernet western digital my book as their file server with its simple security features we were able to make folders accessible with password protection. This enabled the client  to have a central storage system and keep the financial data secure from all but the owners (it also has remote access). We recently went back in to add more storage for the client so we just connected another WD World Book to the existing one and presto another 1 tb of storage available.

Clients Final cost is as follows:
5 New Computer @ 400 each from dell $2500
1 TB World Book -$350
Installation-$500
Total Cost $3350


As of this writing our client is also using SaaS as well to keep software cost down and support the 2 employees since those employees  now work from home, but we will save that for another writing.

End Note: Technology has transformed the way we work and the entire office structure, unfortunately many computer technicians are not accepting this change due to lower profit margins. If you are a small business owner, you may want to use a computer consultant rather than a technician since most consultants are unbiased because they are getting paid from their knowledge versus the products you purchase. 

For more information on how this could work for you and your organization contact us at 877-400-9321 or visit our website at www.dbdexposure.com 

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Saturday, May 9, 2009

Marketing must come first !!








The true mission of all business
Most companies have a marketing division, a product
development division, and a customer service division. Most
companies think of these as three separate and distinct
functions.

Very often the product development people never talk to the
marketing people and the marketing people never talk to the
product development people. Meanwhile, the customer service
people have almost non stature in the company and are
thought of mainly as clerks.

There are also administrative people who do things like
accounting and make sure the elevators work and that
everyone has a computer and a desk.

The administrative people often have little idea of what
the company even does, much less any sense of the marketing
strategy.

What catastrophic mistakes these are.
Marketing should never be a “division” or a
“Department” within a company. Instead, the entire company
Should be about Marketing.

Everyone in the company should be involved in
Marketing. A receptionist is not a low-wage worker; he or
She is one of your vital marketers.

Your receptionist and those who answer the phones are the
voice of your company to your customers and clients. Your
accounting people are not bean counters, but should be
integrally involved in making your marketing more efficient
and productive. Everyone in every company should understand
that their paychecks come from one and only one source:
customers.

Without customers, without sales, there are no paychecks.
Everyone in every company should be thinking all the time
about how to create happy experiences for customers.
Everyone in the company should be first and foremost a
marketer.

The chairman of the company should think of almost nothing
else but marketing. The product development people should
think of marketing first when they develop their products.
What good is it to develop a great product or provide a
great service that no one wants?

All products must be developed with the market for the
product at the forefront. “Do our prospects and customers
want this thing we’re making?” is the question the product
development people must always ask.

Meanwhile, the finance people, the accountants, and the
lawyers should not ask, “How can we make our lives easier?”
Instead they should ask, “How can we make it easier for
people to do business with us? Do we really need to require
our customers to fill out all these forms when they buy? Do
we really need to require our customers to sign long
agreements that no one reads? Do we really need these awful
disclaimers in tiny print on our order forms?”

The janitor is not a janitor. A janitor is a key marketing
person whose job is to make sure the place looks neat and
clean—like a company people will want to do business with.
No matter what business you are in, your company should be
a marketing company first—because marketing by definition
means “creating happy customers and clients.”


Thursday, May 7, 2009

True definition of marketing.




Let's first understand the true definition of marketing.

Marketing is not sales. Sales are an element of marketing.
But if your marketing is done right, you should never need
to make another sales call. You'll just be taking in orders
and shipping product. Or you'll just be accepting the jobs
you want to do. No more scrambling for work.

No more wondering how the bills for next month will be paid.
Marketing is not really selling at all. Marketing is the
process of putting bait in the water to attract leads, and
then putting your leads into a sifting and sorting system
that will allow you to identify your most likely customers.

You then keep putting yourself and your product in front of
your most qualified leads until they want to buy. You give
your leads great information in the form of newsletters and
emails that will keep them interested-not heavy-handed
sales pitches, but valuable free information that they look
forward to receiving. This, in summary, is how you
transform yourself from being an annoying pest into a
welcome guest in your prospect's home.

That's marketing, not sales.
Yes, sales are the end result of all your marketing.
Certainly you can't make a penny until a sale is made. The
sale is everything in business. The sale is the one and
only goal of all Business. But you are no longer a salesman.
You are amarketer. And there's a world of difference.
Good marketers are rich.

Salesmen are almost all
Poor and struggling, like Willie Loman in Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman. Not happy story. You don't want to be
Willie Loman. You want to be Bill Gates, Ross Perot, or
Donald Trump. These men are marketers. These men don't make
sales calls. And neither should you.

Even if you are in a sales position-say, selling cars or
selling houses-never think of yourself as a salesman.
The great salesmen are really marketers. They aren't
pounding the pavement and making cold calls.
Marketing is working smart.

Selling is working stupid. Be a marketer, not a salesman.
Study marketing. Live and breathe marketing. And your life
will be so much more pleasant and lucrative. Marketing is
your strategy. Marketing is your road map. Marketing is
your system. Marketing is all that goes into laying the
groundwork and establishing the preconditions that end in a
sale.

And if the marketing is done right, you don't really need a
sales force. What you need are customer service people and
order takers. What you need is a mechanism, a system, to
handle all the business that pours in, seemingly magically,
seemingly on its own, almost out of thin air.

Except it's not magic, on its own, or out of thin air. The
customers and clients that will line up at your door and
swamp your business are the result of careful planning and
execution of your overall marketing strategy.





Tuesday, May 5, 2009

North American Union



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Can your small business get both affordable professional-class IT service and peace of mind?

Can your small business get both affordable professional-class IT service and peace of mind? The secret lies in having a technology services provider handle your technical solutions.
To stay competitive, small businesses must make the most of current technology. But it’s expensive, time consuming, and inefficient to maintain a full-time IT department like larger companies. A true Professional Technology Services Provider offers on-demand talent, depth of experience, deep resources and huge economies of scale. Here are the top 10 benefits you’ll see.

Benefit #1: Stay Focused On Core Business Functions
People are happiest doing what they do best. And they get frustrated by tasks that distract them from it. Researching solutions, implementing new technology and fixing IT-related problems are extremely inefficient for non-IT professionals. Free up internal staff for revenue-generating functions and the business of business.

Benefit #2: Tap Economies Of Scale And Purchasing Power
Due to a single focus on IT, technology services providers achieve greater efficiencies and economies of scale. They consolidate purchasing power and have access to deep and broad knowledge bases. Using developed best practices, tasks are completed more efficiently than small businesses can do on their own. The means real cost savings– both in time and money.

Benefit #3: Reduce Cost and Control Operating Expenses
The business value of technology services providers results in very hard dollar savings. In almost all cases, small businesses will spend 25% to 50% less than the cost of even one mid-level IT professional. Then take recruiting, training, vacation, sick days, turnover and other management issues out of the equation to see even more savings. Costs are budgeted, predictable and controlled.

Benefit #4: Access Highly Specialized Talent
Small businesses cannot cost effectively achieve the scale and flexibility to properly support their technology environments. Even a very experienced and dedicated IT employee has limits to skills and avenues for help. Professional technology services providers offer access to teams of IT specialists that deliver the cross-sectional IT knowledge needed to provide both on-going and critical support for small business networks.

Benefit #5: Get Services On-Demand
Many small businesses face the challenges of growth and the burden of scaling back. Both cases present a genuine HR problem when relying on in-house IT resources. Small businesses need the agility of just-in-time resources for emergencies and the flexibility to adjust technology support levels. With a professional technology services provider, sudden changes won’t affect the livelihood or morale of employees.

Benefit #6: Help Employees Innovate and Stay Productive
Communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing allows employees to innovate. These capabilities are delivered through a multitude of technologies including file servers, central databases, broadband connectivity, mobile platforms, email communications, and many others. However, true productivity and business benefit can only be realized when this complex technology is properly planned, implemented and maintained. The best practices and comprehensive experiences around planning, implementing and maintaining such systems allow technology services providers to successfully deliver these productivity improvements.

Benefit #7: Reduce Downtime
Even a few minutes of systems downtime carry enormous business costs. Maximizing uptime must be a high priority. Small businesses can longer afford issues with internet connectivity, email communications, corrupt data or systems failure-the cost of reacting to these events is just too high. Professional technology services providers offer planned, measured approaches to pro-active systems maintenance, security, backup and disaster recovery.Benefit #8: Get A Technology Edge Over Competitors
Don’t just level the playing field: take advantage of new technologies for a competitive advantage. Technology services providers keep up with the latest solutions through ongoing training and real-world experience. They know how to implement the latest hardware, software, and network applications available. Just as important: they know which technologies are not worth the investment.

Benefit #9: Attract and Retain Employees
Employees want to work in an environment where their computers are up and running. Employees want to be competitive with their rivals and they want the technology tools that really help them deliver. Potential new talent will weigh your company’s technology prowess. Utilizing a professional technology services provider allows small businesses to meet these expectations and increases the ability to attract and retain employees.

Benefit #10: Access Otherwise Unavailable Vendor Support
Access to manufacturers is crucial in effectively supporting complex technology. When available, technology manufacturers traditionally provide basic or unreliable direct end-user support. With a well-established professional technology services provider, small businesses enjoy the benefits of priority access to Microsoft, Cisco and thousands of other technology vendors.

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Save Business Expenses with Netbooks

By Zack Stern


Why Do You Need New Systems?

Can you use netbooks for business? The answer depends on your specific needs, but there's a good chance you can with current hardware. And more powerful, upcoming hardware is even more likely to work. Don't rely on netbooks beyond their light-use design. If you're replacing aging desktop PCs, netbooks will likely run at similar speeds without any perceived upgrade over the old hardware. A smaller case is nice but probably nets a result of wasted money.



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How can I implement new technology into my business?


How can I implement new technology into my business?
I own a courier service business. Currently, I don't really employ much technology. What sort of cutting-edge software might benefit my business? I would like to use technology to boost my marketing/branding efforts too.

Asked by asad khan
Posted: Thursday, April 09, 2009  |  Found in Internet/E-Commerce

More answers by Steve Adams
Answer by Steve Adams
There are a number of technologies that can help you with various aspects of the business. If you don't have one already, you should look into a good accounting package designed specifically for small businesses (rather than personal accounting software). They're fairly easy to use and will help you keep track of your cash flow and make things easier when tax time rolls around.

You'll also want some sort of customer relationship management (CRM) system. Being able to capture information about customers -- especially their preferences and quirks -- really helps with building repeat business. It can also help you see who your best customers are so you can market to them more effectively. You can either purchase software to run it yourself, or you can use a "hosted" model where you login on the Internet to use it but the supplier takes care of all the technical management.
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Sunday, May 3, 2009

How SaaS Helps Cut Small Business Costs

How SaaS Helps Cut Small Business Costs

When you have to lay off staff, software-as-a-service can often make up the difference, especially in sales and marketing

http://images.businessweek.com/story/08/370/1205_sb_software.jpg

Using SaaS Starr can run his marketing with just one employee Matthew Mahon

Every business wants a hot niche, and Starr Tincup had one. In 2003, the Fort Worth marketing and advertising startup decided to cater to software makers in the human resources industry—and quickly signed 20 customers. Then the growing pains set in. By 2005, staff had ballooned to 80 from 4, plus more than 200 contractors. But revenues were just $2.5 million, and soon Starr Tincup was $500,000 in debt.

Read the complete article click here

Question on how SaaS can help your business click here

Understanding the cloud


Here is a short video to help with the understanding of cloud computing. Small business owners can decrease operational cost significantly by using SaaS or cloud computing.
For More Information on cloud technologies and where it fits into your business model visit us at http://www.dbdexpo.com









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