I have written in the past about the opportunity to have a fantastic web site by using Wordpress as your engine, then adding a theme to make it visually appropriate to your purpose.  I thought I’d mention another theme provider I have come across recently who looks to have an incredible amount of professional themes.  Take a look at http://www.woothemes.com/ .

For those who missed the original post, Wordpress is a free content management system.  It was originally for blogging but these days offers a heck of a lot more.  Surf around the net a bit, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will find many sites have something like “powered by Wordpress” in the footer.  Many more of course use Wordpress and don’t acknowledge.

The significance of this strategy for business owners is the cost.  Choose a theme you like from Woothemes, or RichWP mentioned in the previous post, and you will pay only USD$70.  So to re-cap here, Wordpress, your web site engine, is free, and the theme, the look and feel of your site, costs you $70 US.  I was at a conference last week where a supposed internet marketing specialist was spruiking, and he was asked what a business should expect to pay for a web site.  This was a Self Managed Super Fund conference (SPAA), the audience was accountants, auditors and financial planners, so we are not talking web sites with online shopping and inventory management functionality here.  He answered “between $5,000 and $20,000″.  Business owners spending that sort of money on a web site need to get some counselling.  Even if you need some help installing Wordpress and getting your site live, if you can’t find someone with some IT savvy who can get that done for under $500 there is something wrong.

Hope this is helpful.  Your comments are most welcome, and as always, please keep Guidance Financial Services in mind – we specialise in the unique advice needs of business owners and the self employed.

I don’t know about you, but our household is being bombarded with telemarketing calls at the moment trying to sell us insulation.  We are getting up to 4 calls in a single night.  As immensely annoying as these calls are, surely the fact that they continue suggests that the businesses responsible must get sufficient results to justify the time/expense.

None the less, telemarketing is not how I would choose to promote my business.  So what other prospecting options are available to Australian businesses?

A useful article can be found here http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/13401252-1.html

The data is US based but it offers some useful insights.  I found it interesting that cold calling was almost twice as successful to businesses as it was to households.  I wonder if that is because businesses make more purchasing decisions, or perhaps are more time poor.

Not surprisingly the personal referral was the most successful method of gaining new customers, but it was interesting that when it was up to the customer to contact the supplier, the results dropped off, even though a personal referral was made.

So given referals are the most successful, here is a great article by Wendy Berry – 7 Tips for Effortless Prospecting.  Her referal book is a great idea, as much as anything just to keep the issue of asking for referrals front of mind.

Have you come accross any great prospecting tips?  Please share via the comments.

And don’t forget, Guidance Financial Services specialises in the advice needs of business owners and the self employed, so if you need any help with Key Person insurance, Self Managed Super, Income Protection, Business Expense  insurance, or any other wealth creation or protection item, give us a call on 03 9870 6544 or email. Remember, appointments can be held via Skype or phone, so we can help you wherever you are in Australia.

An interesting looking Australian blog covering items of relevance to business owners is the Emroy Post.  It has a tilt towards graphic design and communication, however some entries stray outside this field.

A good looking site, and worth supporting some local content.

As a fast growing business, we are always looking to develop relationships with people who can introduce our services to suitable clients.  Find out about our affiliate program here.

A great article here by Nina Hendy of Smart Company Magazine.  Input from various Australian business owners including yours truely.

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/entrepreneurs/20100121-the-entrepreneur-s-to-do-list.html

Whether you run a business with numerous staff, are a self employed “lone wolf”, or an entrepreneur with an idea so strong it will barely let you sleep, one essential ingredient we all need is inspiration.  The business owner needs to keep his staff motivated and focused on the company’s vision, the lone wolf needs to overcome the challenge of isolation and demonstrate enthusiasm and energy to her clients and those around her, and the entrepreneur needs to be able to take failures in their stride, recalibrate, and find a new way forward.

So how do you find inspiration?  Having recently had a couple of weeks off over Christmas with the family, I have certainly returned with more energy and determination to reach our goals.  Your kids can certainly inspire you with their enjoyment of life fresh perspective on the world.

Biographies can be great.  Sir Edmund Hillary’s biography View From the Summit is one I would recommend.  Certainly a life lived to the full.  Many people tell me Richard Branson’s biography is a great read.  A great web site for business biographies is Evan Carmichael’s.  This site has an enormous catalogue of articles on successful business people (with admittedly an American bias).  A 20 minute flick through this web site is sure to get you off and running again.

A site I have recently discovered is TED – Ideas worth spreading.  This is a site of filmed speeches – from Steve Jobs of Apple, to Martin Luther King Jr.  They seem to usually run for 10 to 20 minutes, so easily something you could watch will having your lunch.  The site looks a little confusing when you first view it, but give yourself 3 minutes and you will realise how clever it is.  Pick a subject area you are interested, then how you would like the options filtered – newest, most comments, most emailed, etc.  The larger the icon of the speech, the more highly ranked it is.

I have mentioned Mixergy in a past posting.  This site has interviews with mainly IT entrepreneurs.  The interviews are typically around an hour in length, so this one requires a bit more commitment, but the interviewer is able to really dig deep and there is always some nugget of an idea that you can run with.

Other business owners are another great source of inspiration.  In my role, I speak to business owners every day of the week.  Just hearing how they picked up a new contract, had their best month ever, or won a new award, inspires me to strive that bit harder.  Similarly, I catch up for lunch with a couple of groups of business owners, one group is specifically within my industry, and the other is a group of business owners from entirely different industries (a condition for entry was that your business did not compete with any of the existing participants).  Again, hearing about other peoples successes, and the innovative techniques they’ve used to achieve those results, never fails to refill my energy reserves.

Don’t under estimate the importance of inspiration.  You need it, and to really succeed, you need to be giving it to others.

A good article here on strategies to build trust on-line.  This is a real challenge for on-line businesses.  In the real world, consumers can see, touch and feel the merchandise.  Even if they are dealing with a pure service business, they still interact with a person, and so reach a decision on whether to make the purchase with some confidence.  In the online world, most of these triggers are removed, which is why things like “Testimonial” pages become so important.

Let me know your thoughts if you’ve had experience building a successful ecommerce site – how did you build trust?

By Jamie Cheng

The Hive is an organisation built by some Melbourne based entrepreneurs that host great events featuring entrepreneurs making headlines – notable events have featured Tony Wheeler (Lonely Planet), Alborz Fallah (CarAdvice.com.au) and Luke Slattery (Movember).

The events provide some great advice, motivation and opportunities for networking. The Hive events occur in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. For further information visit their website http://www.thehive.org.au/

jamie.k.cheng@gmail.com

By Jamie Cheng

Will you utilise your personality in your website?

There are many benefits from creating a website that allows your personality to shine through. One of my favourite examples of this is by the founder of Haul, Australian entrepreneur Scott Kilmartin. Haul is a company that creates many cool products out of recycled material with a humble origin and a powerful personality. The website is cluttered with Kilmartin’s personality and in my opinion gets the company great press and loyal customers.

How? Well, the Kilmartin story is simply memorable and easily told to friends, family and makes for a great piece for the media. While things like a little hidden joke about sending Chopper Read after people that have any plans to use their copyright materials is very charming. By creating a company synonymous with the founder’s personality, there is an authentic simple way to allow people to relate and appreciate the company as more than a faceless profit-seeking organisation.

By gaining support from customers there is also a very strong possibility that they will assist not only with some handy word of mouth marketing for your company but also ways to improve the business. Not to mention that they will be much more loyal and comfortable purchasing from a company where they see the founders, the reason the company exists and the mission of the company. For further information on the subject you might be interested in Rohit Bhargava’s blog or his book Personality Not Included.

jamie.k.cheng@gmail.com

Employers are required to meet minimum Superannuation Guarantee obligations under Australian law.  Failure to do so can result it quite severe penalties.

The ATO have published a very useful and concise (for a government department, these things are all relative), article on your obligations including links to applicable forms.

Visit:

http://www.ato.gov.au/super/content.asp?doc=/content/19818.htm&page=3#P36_3559