Entrepreneurship | BizSieve.com

Virtual Offices – Providing Support For Home Businesses

Many people that work from home find it difficult to manage all aspects of their business by themselves. Unfortunately many business owners simply do not have the capital to be able employ or accommodate an administration team to provide them with support. Virtual offices offer affordable support solutions for people that run home based businesses. Work can be outsourced to virtual assistants who have the skills and knowledge to handle both administration and customer service tasks.

Virtual office services

Virtual offices usually offer a telephone answering service, where a business’s calls will be directed to a virtual receptionist, rather than to the business owner. This enables business owners to get on with other more productive tasks. Using a virtual receptionist will also make your business look bigger and more professional.

They will answer your calls using your personalised business greeting and learn information about your business so they can answer your customers’ queries. If you are not available to speak to a customer, the virtual receptionist will take a message which will be sent to you via email or text message.

Giving out a home address to clients can often look a little unprofessional, giving them the wrong impression about your business. Combat this issue by using a virtual office’s mail forwarding service. You will be able to use the virtual office’s address as your own, which looks far more professional to customers, especially if the office is based in a prestigious area. The mail forwarding service will also help to increase efficiency, as you will no longer feel like you have to wait around at home to sign for important letters and packages.

Virtual offices also carry out other general administration work for businesses such as invoicing, scheduling and faxing. Some companies even offer extensive services such as social media and project management.

Benefits of using a virtual office

Virtual offices provide an affordable solution for home business owners that require additional support. Rather than having to hire an employee who would require a wage and other benefits like sick and holiday pay, you can pay a monthly fee to receive the services of a virtual office. Not only is this more cost efficient for small businesses, but it is also less of a commitment. Virtual offices usually offer small contracts or provide services on a month to month basis, preventing you from having to tie yourself into long contracts.

Working with a virtual office will also help to increase productivity. You will have much more time to spend on sourcing products, marketing your business and planning expansion as you will not be sat at home taking your customers’ phone calls all day.

How to choose a virtual office

When it comes to choosing a virtual office it is important to find one that will take the time to get to know you and your business. It is important that the virtual receptionists and assistants are able to represent your business in a way that you are happy with, as they will be the people speaking directly to your customers. Do a little online research and you are sure to find a company that is capable of representing your company to a high standard.

Outsourcing work to a virtual office will mean you have more time to work on the parts of your business that you enjoy! — License: Creative Commons image source

Conclusion

Virtual offices enable home businesses owners to grow and develop their company with a supportive team behind them at just a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house admin team. Everyone needs a little extra support sometimes and this is something that virtual offices are there to provide. Not only will a virtual office benefit a home based business in terms of support, but it can also make them look more professional, creating the right impression on customers.

About the Author: Written by Megan Hunt who likes having home business support

Your Business Website: Will Clients Like What They Find?

The purpose of a business website is to promote a company in some fashion. Whether a company is selling products or providing services, the site needs to incorporate all of the technical aspects that make it both web-visitor and search-engine friendly. The ability to do this is no small feat. That’s why serious businesses utilize professional web builder and SEO services to ensure that they can receive the best possible results.

Everyone has heard, time and again, that the customer is always right. The way that this is applied to web design is that when people arrive at the site, they need to feel welcomed. If not, just like in a brick and mortar store, they will leave. Added to the challenge is that web visitors are impatient – they simply are not going to stick around if there is nothing worth looking at on the site. Because there is so little time to engage them, every second counts when visitors arrive at a website.

What are Customers Expecting?

First, what are they not expecting? There is nothing more annoying to a web visitor than a poorly designed website. An ugly or outdated site is not fun and it wastes time. Therefore, your website simply must be designed properly – and that is best done by an expert web builder. Secondly, the site must be user friendly. The layout should be clean and simple, with links that make sense and work properly.

Who’s Looking Anyway?

There are generally three types of people who could arrive at a website for any given reason:

1) Random strangers – People who know nothing about the business have landed on the page due to a related search. Theoretically, they could still be converted to customers or refer the site to others they believe would find it useful. Therefore, the site should contain something of value to the average person, if possible, such as current and relevant articles that solve a problem.

2) Friends of Yours – They like your cause or business. These are people who probably know your URL and may visit on a regular basis. To keep these people engaged, there should always be fresh content to lure them in. One great way to accomplish this is by encouraging people to visit the site through a newsletter or membership.

3) Fans – These are more avid web visitors who regularly come to the site for — you guessed it – the same thing that friends come there for and more. These are often consumers who make regular purchases, so it is very important to ensure that they stay loyal.

Do You Have Fresh Content?

The one thing that all three of these types of web visitors have in common is that they want great, fresh content to be inspired for repeat visits. One added bonus about fresh content is that it also makes the website more search engine friendly. So it’s a win-win for everyone! Customers get something of value, the site stays at the top of the search engines and you have far more potential to:
-Keep customers engaged
-Engage new prospects
-Attract new customers
-Make more sales

Because websites are on the Internet and available for most everyone to see, it is important for serious business owners to ensure that their sites present the most accurate and relevant picture of their offerings possible. When a site is is visually appealing and constructed well by a professional SEO company, such as www.eversparkinteractive.com, it is more likely to attract, and keep, all kinds of visitors.

Since there is only one chance to make a first impression – a site really must make those clicks count! Professional web design is the only way that businesses can ensure that their sites will include both technical and marketing best practice techniques. This is absolutely critical in order to consistently gain and keep a loyal following and attract target markets.

As a writer in the arts and business fields, Ann Bailey sees the beneficial effects of good web design daily. The professional web and SEO builders at www.eversparkinteractive.com put every client’s web design on the cutting edge of internet business presence.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingdaisy/5843303770/

Quick Tips For Reducing The Cost Of Doing Business

No business can afford to pass up on any form of cost saving tips in this tough economy. There are always ways that you can cut back on your business’ expenses without sacrificing quality, but you need to look for them. If you are not actively searching for lower prices, how do you know that you are not paying too much?

coins — License: Creative Commons href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/meshal/40297406/sizes/z/in/photostream/” rel=”nofollow”>image source

Here are a few quick tips for reducing the cost of doing business:

Audit business expenses

Every company needs to analysis and justify each business expense a few times each year. Make it a part of your quarterly strategy or at least annually and always start by re-quoting your supplies. If you don’t find a better deal out there, you can always negotiate lower prices or better terms with your existing suppliers.

Increase staff productivity

In today’s modern world, the first step to improving productivity is searching for technological advancements. Manual entry is a thing of the past and there are now automated systems for nearly anything you need to accomplish in a typical business day. There are automated marketing systems, invoice generators, and automatic order processing, including payment. The less time your staff is spending on entering paperwork means more time they can be spending on innovation and growth.

Cut staff if needed

You may also discuss some positions are not as necessary as you think. For example, if you only need to process less than fifty invoices per week (which is typical for a small business), then you probably don’t need to hire a full-time bookkeeper. You could enter the transactions yourself in less than an hour and save a considerable amount on labor expenses.

Use video-conferencing instead of meeting in person

To save the expense of commuting between locations, try using video-conferencing whenever possible. If you also use file sharing program like Google Drive, you can both even work on the same document without having to email it back and forth.

Use less expensive forms of marketing

Social media marketing is being used by more big business as a way to connect on a more person level with potential consumers. It is relatively inexpensive, especially when you compare it to all other mediums for global advertising. Create an engaging website, an interactive blog, a fun Facebook page, and an intriguing Twitter feed.

Reduce your paper costs

You can save time and money by switching to paper saving online solutions. Use email, online calendars, and online billing software to reduce the amount of paper you use. If you email invoices directly to your customers, you will save on both paper and stamps!

Take action and start saving money today by auditing your business expenses, increase productivity, take advantage of video-conferencing, use inexpensive marketing methods, and reduce your paper cost. These little things can add up to an incredible savings for your company.

About the Author: The article is posted by Gerwyn Wallto. You can find other related articles here.

Expanding Your Business Online

The invention and eventual widespread use of the Internet has forced businesses to recognize the necessity of having a little corner of their own on the World Wide Web. Keeping these websites active requires a website hosting service, and there are many types to choose from. More and more individuals, however, are realizing that dedicated servers are the way to go. Different servers will benefit separate companies, but after fully understanding hosting services and specific dedicated servers, many business owners opt for the dedicated server route.

Expand-Online — Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seoplanter/7460436606/

Important Aspects of a Website

There are several factors that can make or break a website hosting service. Some of the most important considerations when choosing a type of hosting service are uptime, security, speed and reliability. Free hosting companies are cheap, but all of the aforementioned important factors are seriously lacking in these free options. Shared servers are better than free servers, but since the server in question is being used by multiple companies, the speed and reliability can often be compromised.

Some business owners also opt to host their own servers, but this leaves them susceptible to huge drawbacks if their server crashes. The sad fact of the matter is that a business owner will have to be a full-on computer and networking expert to run their own server. Luckily, dedicated servers avoid many of the issues related to self-hosting and the gamut of other server types.

Benefits of Dedicated Servers

As already mentioned, dedicated servers solve many of the issues that other server types leave wide open. Dedicated servers, for instance, have only one website on them. This means that lax security on another website that shares the same server will never affect the website on a dedicated server.

In addition, dedicated hosting services ensure that all space on a server is dedicated to that one site. This means that large amounts of traffic visiting another website on the server won’t cause any downtime issues for the website. Also, shared servers have an inherent constraint on space. Dedicated servers, on the other hand, have plenty of space for the website that it’s hosting. This means that if a business owner decides to expand their website, it’s extremely simple.

Managed vs. Unmanaged Dedicated Servers

Many business owners are left with the tough decision of choosing between managed and unmanaged dedicated servers. They both have their own advantages, but for companies that are still growing, unmanaged hosting services are likely their best option. Managed dedicated servers come prepackaged with certain attributes. Security capabilities, for instance, are chosen by the company hosting a managed server. Unfortunately, these can sometimes provide too much or too little security for a website, but this problem doesn’t exist for unmanaged servers.

Unmanaged servers still have the basic infrastructure support that managed hosting services provide, but business owners with unmanaged servers can pick and choose exactly what they need and only pay for those features. They can expand these features at any time, but while waiting for this need to arise, they can definitely save money. Businesses can even choose their own easy to manage control panel and companies like www.roboshift.com sell full cPanel licenses at a cheaper price than they can get when buying direct from the manufacturer.

In addition, business owners can use the exact programs and procedures that they want on unmanaged servers. This means that they can upload their own control panels or the exact right amount of security. The options are almost limitless, and the unmanaged tag keeps the price reasonable.

Selecting the right type of server is absolutely essential for any business owner who hopes to run a successful online campaign. In fact, the lack of a great Internet presence can sometimes be detrimental enough to cause a company to fail. Luckily, dedicated servers allow individuals to get reliable service for their website, and unmanaged servers give them incredible leeway over how their website operates and how much it costs. Understanding all of these things is essential for every company, group or organization out there.

About the Author: Researcher Shelby Warden writes articles to help businesses compete in a digital world. www.RoboShift.com is an authorized cPanel partner that sells the full range of external cPanel licenses at low prices and backs them up with their friendly customer service and support. cPanel/WebHostManager is the leading web hosting control panel used by Web Hosting companies and Internet Service Providers.

Home Business for New Parents: How a Play Crib Can Help You Organize

In order to spend more time with their babies and to cut child care costs, parents are opting to do business from home instead of at the office. Working from home with a baby can be challenging, and it requires structure, organization and the right tools.

The Right Crib

An all-in-one playpen and crib, or playard, can provide the most comfortable and safe setting for your child to nap and play. With a set of built-in toys, your baby can be entertained while you work from home. Toys with noises and melodies, bright colors and plush materials can be soothing and fun. As your child begins to grow, you’ll want to make sure the crib remains a safe environment, and they’re unable to get into dangerous situations by climbing out unnoticed.

A Routine to Enjoy

It may be rough at the beginning to get into a routine as you try to balance work and a new baby. However, as the weeks go on, you’ll be able to establish a more realistic plan for how to spend the day. You’re going to have to practice flexibility, and you may be required to get more work done when your baby naps and after bedtime. If your child is on the floor, you can take the laptop down next to them while they play. It may be fun reading your work out loud to your baby. They won’t understand what you’re saying, but the inflection in your soothing voice with be helpful with their language development.

Portable Baby Carrier

Another way to keep your baby close is with a baby carrier or portable bassinet. Infants are especially comforted when they’re close to a parent during the early stages after birth. A carrier allows you the freedom to work on the computer with your child attached close to your chair.

Age Appropriate Toys

The age appropriate toys in an activity center are designed to keep your baby entertained. The average attention span of an child is figured as three to five minutes per year of the child’s age. Changing activities can be easy when you have the right tools. A bouncy chair mimics a parent’s gentle bounce and comes with a host of activities to keep your baby entertained. Baby mats and activity gyms are just as fun for your child, especially when you add plush toy animals and rattles. Baby swings and playards are also popular with stay at home parents. Make sure to position the equipment so that it not only faces you, but it is close to you and your work station. In addition to making them fun and entertaining for your child, choosing the right toy should also be important to their development and coordination.

The All Important Break

You don’t want your home business environment to be all work and chaos. The advantage to working at home is that you get to spend time with your baby, so you need to make sure you take a few breaks. Taking time out to play or read a story can promote bonding and relieve stress from a busy day.

Making money is important when you set up your business at home. However, it’s just as important to spend quality time and make special memories together too.

A work at home parent, Ann Bailey posts these reminders for new parents in a home-based business. Kids II, an innovative child equipment company, offers the Bright Starts playard activity and safety crib for all parents’ peace of mind about their infant’s health, comfort, inspiration and safety.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dharrels/3095646139/