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Business Advice Needed Please

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  • DoronF
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Hi All,

    Regarding LinkedIn I am getting a tons of emails and phone calls from different agents which I really don't need. I need calls from direct clients and it does NOT happen as frequent as one should hope from LinkedIn. Agents basically took over LinkedIn. When running a Google search people can find your LinkedIn page if you entered good key words there. So it is not all negative. Most of my new clients are coming from my web site.

    Regards,

    Doron
    The Farber Consulting Group, Inc.

    Web site: http://www.dFarber.com
    MS SQL Blog: http://www.dfarber.com/computer-consulting-blog.aspx
    Convert Ms Access to Web
    MS SQL Remote DBA
    Alpha Five Development
    No Interest Loans Application
    Last edited by DoronF; 03-05-2014, 01:47 AM.

    Leave a comment:


  • DaveM
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    No, it is not meant that you should cheat. Unless you are a racer LOL, It is to get the name and site out there. Doing that will help your ratings.

    Here is something written by a techie that made a transition to sales the hard way. It had overtures to a possible competitor of alpha so the names were removed for good reason. I did think the meat of it deserved a place in this post.

    Many technology companies are born from passion, and therefore some have a largely technical approach, which continues to characterize them even once the entrepreneur ends up working mostly on strategic and sales issues.

    Companies with this perspective are very good at assessing and responding technically to the needs of their customers, but they have more trouble when they need to develop new business opportunities, and they often tend to undervalue marketing, doing it only casually and without much conviction.

    I say this even looking back on my own experience, given that in truth I myself am a “technical” guy who became a “salesman”, but today it’s increasingly clear to me how important marketing truly is. In fact, it’s crucial when you’re aiming to expand your business.

    Readying a budget is not enough; you also need to view marketing like a project in itself, with all the various stages of analysis, execution, monitoring of results, and continuous improvement.

    Personally, I started by looking at what other companies were doing, as well as gathering information by reading articles on marketing. I’d like to point out one of them to you that I found interesting, because in addition to summarizing certain aspects that should always be kept in mind, it also shakes up the classic concept of the marketing funnel, focusing not only on people who aren’t customers yet but also those who already are!

    I don’t think there is any better way to demonstrate your value than to showcase the success of your clients!

    And what do you think about marketing? What are you doing to expand your market and set yourself apart from the rest?

    If you’re not doing anything, remember what Ford said: “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” Do you know anyone who’s been able to do that?
    Last edited by DaveM; 03-03-2014, 01:26 AM.

    Leave a comment:


  • forskare
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Ahhhh, so it's higher ratings at any cost. Ethics doesn't matter!! NOT!!!!

    Leave a comment:


  • DaveM
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    As stated, linked in is a good thing as is facebook, be sure and get on twitter.

    Just as important: get the buttons for a bunch of them. When a person clicks one of those buttons they are telling their friends they like your site. That is real important because who would be the friends of an artist? more artists, a mechanic? more mechanics and so on and so on.
    It is also nice to have a button to the pages you setup elsewhere like on facebook.
    You start getting higher alexis ratings when these things are done.

    Leave a comment:


  • Steve Wood
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    I agree about LinkedIn. They ruined it for me when the started this factitious "endorsement" campaign. Some are legitimate, but some are obviously either fake, or made by individuals who definitely don't know me. The Alpha Group is one of the few that has good content; most Groups are full of nonsense discussions among the mass of purely advertisement oriented "discussions". Even so, I have used LinkedIn as an extended address book to make contact with people whom I have a good reason to contact. I also avoid having customers as LinkedIn contacts.

    Leave a comment:


  • forskare
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Originally posted by DoronF View Post
    Do you have LinkedIn account?
    Beware of LinkedIn. They use deceptive practices. I have often received email from them saying that " " has recommended you for " ". One of those folks has a presence with Alpha Software as well as some on the Alpha forums. I have also received email from others saying I recommended them for this or that. I assured them that was not the case, that LinkedIn may have 'mined' my address book. I've also received email from LinkedIn saying " " wants me to join up with them on some deal connected with LinkedIn. Such was not the case.

    LinkedIn, in my opinion, is out to make a buck at anyone's expense. I, and perhaps everyone else who has joined LinkedIn have been abused by their tactics. No doubt, there may be some benefits but I've yet to see any of value.

    Leave a comment:


  • Clipper87
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Michael,

    I'm a special kind of breed

    In the SMB market (that is +/- 20-200 employees out here) you'll find that your first customer brings your 2nd customer & so on. Projects never end so with maybe 5 to 10 customers you'll make a good living as a one men show.

    Leave a comment:


  • DaveM
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Here is one of those tools that will help you and others especially to let you know a bit about where you are so you can work to where you want to be.

    http://www.domaintuno.com/

    Leave a comment:


  • mvaughn
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Wow, I am floored. You guys are the best and you compliment me. That's awesome.
    My sister site to ablejobs.us is Global Job Screening, where the Alpha 5 fun is.
    Here are some screens of the back office app and Employer's area:
    back office.gifemployers-home-page.gifsearch grid.gif

    Leave a comment:


  • DaveM
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Hi Michael,


    You built a very nice website there!

    On the business side, Doron, Steve, Frank and Steve all know a great deal about that.

    With no Budget, SEO will have to include very smart work and a lot of social submission and connection.

    Let me toss my own name in as a contact at [email protected] . We can all talk to you as you wish and I suggest to write everything down and make your own decisions to which advice on each subject to go with. There are sometimes many roads that all lead to the same place.

    Definitely a website of some type as a front and I think less than 60-70.00 at minimum per year. As one of the above stated, it becomes your store front.

    The greatest "anything" would never have been sold if no one knew it existed and where to get it. Take any opportunity to place any demo, or product wherever there is a place. IADN does have a store as do many other places that people DO visit and if they see your product, it has a better chance to get into a buyers hands.

    Linked, Facebook, Twitter, and many others will help get you launched. Site submission to all the search engines is not so great a deal, but still important since most sites are discovered before that they are evee online for over a few days by about all the robots(some not good).
    Last edited by DaveM; 02-28-2014, 09:50 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • mvaughn
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Thank you Doron for your excellent advice. I will be putting together a web site this weekend. Your idea about using a keyword for a domain name is priceless. I'm sure the best ones are taken, but I still have my college thesaurus that will help me find something clever. I'm also a Jersey native (Clifton) so its always nice to meet a kindred spirit!

    Leave a comment:


  • DoronF
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Hi Michael,

    eCommerce will get you into steep competition with the commercial CMS available already. I will use A5 for straight database application and taking advantage of the mobile capability A5 has. You need also to have your own web site to advertise your services.. Where is it? This is how you get your clients. Do you have LinkedIn account? Then when you have your web site you are not done with it. Then comes SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Get yourself a domain that can be used as key word.

    Regards,

    Doron
    The Farber Consulting Group, Inc.

    Web site: http://www.dFarber.com
    MS SQL Blog: http://www.dfarber.com/computer-consulting-blog.aspx
    Convert Ms Access to Web
    MS SQL Remote DBA
    Alpha Five Development
    No Interest Loans Application
    Last edited by DoronF; 02-28-2014, 04:57 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • mvaughn
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Thank you Frank, that was great advice and makes perfect sense. True, everyone is into eCommerce now. Thanks for reminding me of that. If you don't mind me asking, are you developing mobile and how are you getting your clients?

    Leave a comment:


  • Clipper87
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Michael,

    I would recommend you to focus on mobile, with alpha it now comes into reach of SMB's to let develop mobile applications. That is where the money is today I think. For e-commerce you'll bump into loads of competition with almost ready made solutions. Do something others aren't doing and you'll prosper.

    Good luck!

    Leave a comment:


  • mvaughn
    replied
    Re: Business Advice Needed Please

    Thank you Steve and Steve! You've both given me excellent help in the past and I certainly would not have gotten this far without you. I would be honored to be a part of IADN and will be sending those emails shortly.

    Leave a comment:

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