So you say to yourself why would you need the services of a trained web designer, if you can get it done on your own.

Sooner or later, it gets to the point where you need your business website to reflect your commitment to your business.

Do not think that the well informed potential client would have a positive impression when they view your website as “homemade”.

Here are some of the assumptions that they will form:

• You are new in business: Being new in business should not be perceived as negative but truth be told, people would be reluctant to want to buy from a person that is just starting out. You should not blatantly promote that a potential client would be your first client. You should promote your expertise and previous experience.
• Your business isn’t making any money: If people see a “Free website by Blah Blah” on the footer of your website, they would think “Can’t afford a paid-for website”.
• You don’t have clients and/or customers: People want to deal with businesses that have a proven track record.
• You are not committed to the business: This means that you can pack up shop tomorrow and not finish their project or provide after sale care.

Did you know that these conclusions would be drawn in less than a minute? All of these assumptions would take them to your competitors, period.

These are some of the reasons to hire a professional web designer:

• Many are business owners themselves
• They understand what gives a positive or negative impression
• They provide more than just web design
• Many are trained not only in web design but web development, search engine optimization, internet marketing and more; and have in depth knowledge and experience in these areas
• Many don’t charge an arm and a leg, they have affordable services packages to meet the needs and budget of a potential client

A very important thing that I continue to see in successful business owners and I’m privileged to continue to connect with many; is that they delegate to experts in fields that they don’t have the a background or in depth experience in.

Remember, First Impress Counts! and Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing Well!

1. Always have the email come from the same person at your end. It helps to create a sense of rapport and stability.
2. Never use a subject or title line that is misleading; always make it descriptive of what is in the body of the email.
3. On the other hand, keep it snappy. Instead of “Your November Newsletter”, use the title of one of the more important articles in your newsletter.
4. Make it clear that it is okay to forward the email to others, if the subscriber likes. This form of viral marketing can grow your subscriber list over time.
5. Always include links to your product pages in the body of the email.
6. Also include an easy opt-out link at the bottom of the communication.
7. Be sure to solicit responses and comments. People love to share their thoughts.
8. Formatting is especially important in plain text messages. Keep the attention going by using bulleted lists instead of lengthy paragraphs.
9. Stay away from using all capital letters or italicizing words, as they can be harder to view on a computer screen.
10. Watch the use of color in your emails, especially with text; lighter colors tend to be hard to read, especially on a white background.
11. Use fonts that are similar to those used in most email clients; it will make it easier to arrange the text to best advantage, especially for plain text emails.
12. Include some incentive to visit your website, such as promoting a new product or noting a new blog entry.
13. Don’t forget to include a special offer or a discount from time to time.
14. Always thank the subscribers for their time and support.
15. Before you send the emails to clients, send them to an email address of your own, with one in HTML and another in plain text. That way, you know exactly what the subscriber will see.
16. Don’t be afraid to try something different now and then. Vary texts, layouts, and other elements to see what subscribers respond to best.
17. Keep the text of the email focused; rambling will lose your audience, just as wandering text on your website will drive visitors away.
18. Use a reliable program to blast mail to your subscriber list; most allow you to review a report of successful deliveries once the job is complete.
19. Review the reports regularly, and compare them to spikes in your web site traffic, and the responses you get about specifics of the emails.
20. Used software to tabulate and categorize the responses. It will make it much easier to process them and turn them into usable data.
21. Assess the percentage of response you get. The industry standard is between five and fifteen percent. If you are getting less than that, it is time to rethink your approach.
22. If a response serves as the inspiration for an article in the next newsletter, ask the subscriber if it is okay to mention them by first name and initial. This is enough to maintain anonymity, while still recognizing their contribution.
23. Ask subscribers to submit some of their own copy once or twice a year. You may be surprised with the quality of what you receive. Reward the best one with a free ebook or other product.
24. Send out special holiday emails along with your regular weekly communications.
25. Listen to the feedback from your subscribers. It will help you refine the mailings as you go along.

Here are five simple ways that your website could be losing you business:

1. Slow Page Loads: People get really frustrated when pages take long to load. If you have this problem then check the size of your images and ensure that their sizes are optimized to load quicker while still maintaining the integrity of these images. Find ways to optimize your pages as well, also contact your web hosting company about this issue if everything you’ve tried hasn’t resolved the issue.
2. Dead/Broken Links: No one likes to click on a link and it goes to a “not found” page. Use a good broken links checker regularly to ensure that all your links are valid. A great tool to use for checking links is the W3C links checker.
3. Inactive Contact Forms: Imagine someone who is really interested in your products and/or services and then they’d taken the time to complete your contact form, click on the send button and NOTHING HAPPENS! Many people would immediately move on to the next person.
4. Poor Navigation: It’s important to give visitors to your website many ways to navigate through your web pages. It comes highly recommended from the usability point, to have more than one way to click through pages.
5. Visible Contact: Not every potential client wants to use your contact form. So create other options for they to contact you via. Some people like to send emails and some like to speak to a person. Adding an email address link and telephone number can make a difference.

Taking into consideration the mentioned above points can makes a huge difference in whether you gain more business or not.

I purchased 2 ShareO licenses for both myself and my VA and we used it for two months to manage my emails and have had many issues. Our emails weren’t syncing, attachments were getting corrupt, etc. I got fed up with these issues and have migrated to Google mail. I have a Virtual Assistant business and  99.98% of my communication is done via email, I needed something that would WORK!

In the first month, my assistant wasn’t getting new emails, we were also getting multiple folders issues where we could end up with 3 0r 4 of the same folder. In the end I realized as my inbox continued to get fuller, that we weren’t seeing the same things. Basically we were not seamlessly synced!

I just asked for a refund and didn’t get one. They would rather hang on to my $69.90 than do the right thing! So now there is the question of standing behind your policies and customer satisfaction. But who am I to say anything?, I don’t also run a business.

NOTE: When I spoke with Don, I said that I had had tech support for 2 months. I was trying to say that I had had support from their tech department. We dealt with tech support in a 2-3 weeks period.

I had a livechat with ShareO sales support team member, Marlow. Below is our full conversation:

Chat InformationPlease wait for a site operator to respond.

Chat InformationYou are now chatting with ‘Marlow‘

Chat InformationYour Issue ID for this chat is LTK146042066807X

Marlow: Hello.  How may I assist you?

agnes: hi, I purchased 2 shareo licenses for both myself and my assistant and we’ve had issues with email management and I now just starting using gmail for email management purposes. I made my purchase in Feb and my assistant’s in march. I would appreciate a refund as we weren’t able to work with shareo for outlook.
Marlow: Have you contacted our tech support via LiveChat?

Marlow: According to our money-back policy we only give a refund if our technicians are not able to make our software work on your computer during 14-day money back performance guarantee period.

agnes: yes, your tech support guy helped on several occassions, with my assistant and finally with myself. he accessed my computer, did some such and also my assistant’s but we still weren’t synced and I still ended up doing my emails.

Marlow: Ok. Our technicians can solve your issue.

Marlow: I will transfer you to them.

Chat InformationPlease wait while I transfer the chat to ‘Don‘.

Chat InformationYou are now chatting with ‘Don‘

Chat InformationYour Issue ID for this chat is LTK146042066807X

Don: Hello.

agnes: Hi Don, I don’t want any more technical help. I’ve imported all my emails, calendar, contact to gmail. I just want to get a refund. Another technical guy has tried to help but we still have issues.

agnes: Marlow was too quick to transfer me…

Don: Please note that refund is not possible if you refuse our tech support. Sorry, it is our sales policy. You can check our money back policy at: http://www.4team.biz/TRIAL_moneyback_policy.asp

agnes: I’ve had technical help for 2 months. Many online chats and remote access on both my assistant’s and my computers. I patiently did all this. Its taking time away from my work. I do all my work via email.

agnes: I’m sure there are records of all our communications

Don: Ok, in that case I will transfer you back to Marlow if that’s OK with you and you can proceed with your refund request.

Don: Yes, there are.

agnes: thanks

Don: One moment please.

Chat InformationPlease wait while I transfer the chat to ‘Marlow‘.

Chat InformationYou are now chatting with ‘Marlow‘

Chat InformationYour Issue ID for this chat is LTK146042066807X

Marlow: Hello, again.

agnes: Marlow, you were too quick to transfer me.

Marlow: Yes, we have records of these communications. However our tech support department states that all issues were solved.

agnes: I have communicated with your tech support on many occassions. I work virtually, so I need my email management to work perfectly.

Marlow: We can not issue a refund if you refuse our support.

Marlow: This is our refund policy.

agnes: I’ve already had your support. Chats and remote access on our computers.

Marlow: Yes and all issues were solved.

agnes: I reloaded new versions and such as well.

Marlow: Now you have encountered other issues. Please let our tech support to solve them.

agnes: its the same issues, not new.

Marlow: They can make ShareO work on your computers.

Marlow: If they will not be able to solve your issues, we will issue a refund.

agnes: I’ve used shareo for 2 months and now gone to google mail. it takes time trying to continue to do this. my whole work is dopendent on email.

agnes: It’s feels like you are strong arming me.

Marlow: Refund is possible only if you visit our technical support and they are unable to fix the issues you have encountered.

agnes: I’ve already done that many times. when should I say no more.

Marlow: Refund is not possible in such case.

Marlow: Do you have any more questions for me?

agnes: Your tech support has tried many things…nothing has worked. Now I’m using google mail.

agnes: why are refunds not possible??? I’ve being very patient and dealt with tech support. Now you tell me that I can’t get a refund when I can’t use your product.

Marlow: Our technicians can make our product work, but you refuse our support.

Marlow: In such case refund is not possible.

Marlow: You can check our refund policy at: http://www.4team.biz/TRIAL_moneyback_policy.asp

agnes: I didin’t refuse your support, I’ve already used your support and now migrated to google mail.

Marlow: You are now refusing our support.

agnes: You are trying to strong arm me.

Marlow: You should have contacted our support before you moved to google mail.

agnes: I have already started using google mail.

agnes: I no longer had the luxury of time to continue with my daily email issues.

agnes: I’m waiting.

Marlow: Each time you have contacted our tech support, your issues were solved.

Marlow: We can solve issues this time as well.

agnes: No one contacted me to ask if the problems were resolved.

Marlow: You should have contacted, if they were not solved.

agnes: All i need now is my refund for both licenses.

Marlow: Have you checked our refund policy?

Marlow: It is written in bold: We will only refund your money if our technicians are not able to make our software work on your computer during 14-day money back performance guarantee period. There is no refund after that.

Marlow: Do you have any more questions for me?

agnes: I will be posting this conversation on my blog as a review of your product and customer service. Thanks. Agnes Ikotun

Marlow: I do regret for inconveniences. My pleasure to help. Goodbye.

agnes: Enough said!

Chat InformationChat session has been terminated by the site operator.

I hope this review helps other people deciding to use ShareO.

Note to Corporation 4 Team (ShareO):  I also welcome your comments.

Small business owners wear many hats and occupy many different roles within their businesses, so the need to be organized is top priority to prevent very important tasks from not being carried out effectively and efficiently.

Do you want your business to grow, do you want to stay motivated and also allow your creative juice to flow?

Do you want to have a balanced personal and business life?

Then get organized!

SCORE Offers Five Ways to Organize Your Business for Success

Washington, DC—An improving economy offers new opportunities for America’s entrepreneurs to start and grow their own businesses. Small business owners are busy, and it takes organization to create more time to focus on what’s most important to the business. SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” offers five ways to better organize your daily business—to improve overall effectiveness.
By organizing your workspace, you save time otherwise wasted looking through piles or searching for a missing document on your computer. First, establish a plan. Prioritize your list and set a deadline to complete it.

Invest Time Wisely
Spend time on what you do best, whether it’s serving clients, generating sales or setting long-term strategies. Allocate 60 to 70 percent of your time to tasks that have the most impact on your business. Create a daily plan and follow it. When contacting people, leave detailed voice and email messages that state exactly what you need, so the person will be prepared with the information when they respond to you.

Annually Update Financial & Tax Files
Purge last year’s files from your office area and place them in storage. This will make room for this year’s important documents and receipts that may require more immediate access. Files that you do not use anymore, but may need in the future, are best stored in file boxes. Keep your tax returns and supporting records for six years. File boxes can be stored on shelves, in a closet or at an off-site storage center. Organize your files by color-coding, alphabetically, or by type of file.

Make Sense of Online File Folders
Organize the files on your work computer and shared drive to match the structure of your business for easy access by you and your staff. Name your online folders with headings such as marketing, sales and customer service. You may want file folders specifically for real estate, leases, and equipment. Make information easy to find by clearly naming files, saving files to appropriate folders and creating shortcuts on your desktop.

Manage Incoming Mail & Email Contacts
Set aside a specific time of day to sort your inbox. Throw away junk mail, forward mail to the appropriate people when necessary, open and separate the rest of the mail, and file it when appropriate. And, set periodic times to read and respond to email. Concentrate your time on leading the business and serving customers. Establish a routine for these routine tasks, so they don’t waste your valuable time.

Clear Your Desk
An uncluttered desk sends a message to you and your team that you are focused on the most important business at hand. Throw away items you don’t use, and keep only the supplies you regularly use on your desk. Use letter trays and file sorters to avoid piles. Clear out your desk drawers and designate a purpose for each one. To learn more about these and other tips for business success, visit the Learning Center and Business Toolbox on the award-winning SCORE Small Business Web Site at www.score.org.

Also see SCORE’s 60-Second Guide to Organizing Your Business

How do we go about managing our time effectively and what is time management all about?

Time management involves working efficiently and achieving more whilst spending less time at tasks. Working smarter and not harder to increase productivity should be ones goal.

Below are my keys to effective time management:

1. Focus on results

Very little would be achieved when ones effort is placed on the tasks or activities that are least important. People find themselves in situations where they are so busy but are not getting positive outcomes or results.

2. Set goals (daily, weekly, monthly and yearly)

You cannot be effective without having a vision, setting goals let you know what you want and where you are going in life and also where to concentrate your effort. Even if you do get distracted, revisiting your goals will get you right back on track.

3. Stop procrastinating

Everyone procrastinates but if you find yourself in a position where your relationships, career and business suffer because you are putting important things off and they build up to where one begins to feel overwhelmed. Hope is not lost, you can start over today! Decide to have a positive attitude about the tasks that you fear the most as they are mostly the things that support our development and success both personal and professional.

4. Have a to-do list

A very sensible activity in dieting is to keep a food journal. You never know how much you are eating until you write down everything that passes through your mouth. Having a to-do list is your road map to personal time management. Being realistic is an important factor in effectively managing your to-do list. Are the tasks overly ambitious or is every task thrown into the list? You have to decide what and when a task is included in a to-do list.

5. Have action plans

A concise definition found in Best for Business:

“Action Plans are detailed lists which not only lay out the main things to do in order to carry out a specific task, but also explain in detail how to carry out each individual action. Use them to plan your tasks and inform the process.”

Having action plans for short and long-term projects supports the achievement of goals.

6. Delegate

How does a business owner know what and when to delegate? The “what” can seem fairly challenging except for when the cost of delegating a task is significantly lower compared to performing other tasks that are central to business growth. The “when” could be tasks that continue to be overlooked but are critical to achieving ones goals.

Effective time management is about identifying and focusing on the tasks and activities that will give you the most satisfying return. We don’t have to be overworked and stressed out.

Using the 80/20 rule

The Pareto Principle reminds us to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things that we do during our day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of our results. Identify and focus on those things.

AI Virtual Solutions is a company providing Virtual Assistant (VA) services to work-at-home professionals throughout North America and the world.

Making use of today’s technology, Virtual Assistants are providing innovative solutions to small businesses, home-based businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide. Virtual Assistance as a fairly new profession has seen a spectacular growth over the past few years. Virtual Assistants are the answer to businesses worldwide that are looking for administrative support but do not want or need in-house support.

AI Virtual Solutions offers a wide variety of professional and affordable administrative and design services. And by utilizing a Virtual Assistant, companies are able to focus on growing their businesses.

All work assignments are received via email and primary requests cover areas such as email management, contact management, bookkeeping, teleclass/webinar coordination, database management, PowerPoint presentations, brochures, e-zine/newsletters, business cards, postcards, logo, website design, real estate support and more.

Agnes Ikotun, owner/operator of AI Virtual Solutions, lives in Newington, Connecticut and specializes in providing support to coaches, speakers, authors and Realtors who live virtually anywhere. The distance, however, is never a problem since the growth of technology has paved the way for superior communication.