Category Archives: Business Tech

Sales Coach, Business Coach, Executive Coach; Which should I Choose?

Blogging, Business Tech, Small Business Marketing

Small business coachLooking for a business coach is a process that no entrepreneur or manager should take lightly. Choosing the right coach can mean a significant difference in the company’s bottom line as well as the business owner’s satisfaction with his or her company. Selecting the wrong coach can lead to wasting money on advice that isn’t particularly helpful. Sales coaches, business coaches, and executive coaches all are people who can assist business owners, but each has pros and cons that should be considered carefully.

Looking for a business coach is a process that no entrepreneur or manager should take lightly. Choosing the right coach can mean a significant difference in the company’s bottom line as well as the business owner’s satisfaction with his or her company. Selecting the wrong coach can lead to wasting money on advice that isn’t particularly helpful. Sales coaches, business coaches, and executive coaches all are people who can assist business owners, but each has pros and cons that should be considered carefully.

Sales Coaches

A sales coach’s job is to help people learn to sell. Often business owners believe very much in their company’s mission and product or service but are unable to determine the best way to convince others to make the purchase. A good sales coach is someone with a background in sales and marketing and the ability to teach others how to work on their pitch and how to deal with clients. The downside of working with a sales coach is they are focused solely on how to make a sale and cannot provide information about other aspects of business. Someone who is not entirely sales-focused may not be a good fit for a sales coach.

Business Coaches

A business coach can aid business owners in making their business ideas work. An entrepreneur who is having trouble putting together a solid business plan or executing ideas can use a business coach to flesh out those issues. The primary benefit of a business coach is as a sounding board. Business coaches can help to put an idea into motion. The downside of using a business coach is that many of these coaches dictate the way that a person starts his or her business. If a business coach is not intimately familiar with the industry in which an entrepreneur’s idea is situated, he or she may give advice that is not beneficial to that person. A medical supply company has significantly different needs from a software company, for example, and the wrong business coach could lead to poor advice for the business owner.

Executive Coaches

The executive coach is in many ways the “advanced” level coach for business owners. Once a company is up and running, the needs of the company change. The business owner, whose true interest likely lies with the company’s initial mission, has to switch gears to working on staffing, networking, and maintaining the company’s assets. An executive coach is able to work with business owners to help them transition their thinking to these issues and understand how best to organize the company in order to   succeed. Executive coaches work only for people who want to adopt a specific management style. People who are still evolving their companies would not do well with an executive coach because the goal is to learn to manage a business, not to build it.

Conclusion

Before committing to a specific type of coaching for business owners, be sure to consider exactly what your needs are and then how each type of coach can provide help for you as you grow your business.

Peter Marino, is a business consultant  for SocialMediaMarketing.co, a full service creative coaching and social media training company based in NYC.

Businesses Turning To Minimalist Web Design

Business Tech, HTML5, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Design

minimalist websitesOver time, websites have used a wide variety of methods to capture and keep attention. A few years ago, flashing banners and sound effects were common. But now many Internet destinations, including such sites the New York Times, are choosing a “less is more” approach and realizing that many of today’s viewers would prefer clean layouts as opposed to bombarding the senses with movement and noise.

A Responsive Attitude

Since ideals, design, attitudes, and design analytics often change, web design specialists keep their finger on the pulse and strive to know what’s on the horizon before clients even ask for it. Despite some fluctuations for what’s in demand at a given time, some things remain the same.

The New York Times website design will follow suit with what other similar news outlets like The New Republic and USA Today have already done. It’s thought that the streamlined approach will drive advertising dollars because website visitors will have fewer things to distract them.

In many cases advertising dollars keep websites afloat so even as some preferences change there’s a near constant effort to keep advertisers satisfied. But advertisers are only satisfied is their marketing expenditures return the desired results. Whether it be building their specific brand in the marketplace, establishing themselves as an industry expert, or simply driving sales revenues, web design plus function has to be successful in the minds, and budgets, of the advertising community.

Successful web design firms consistently look for ways to stay abreast of website changes. Often, it’s easy to do that by watching to see how some of the most highly trafficked national websites are making alterations and responding in appropriate ways that suit local clients.

A Different Approach to SEO

Both businesses and enterprising individuals looking for online success commonly focus on ways to drive traffic to their websites and encourage visitors to interact with content in meaningful ways that align with their business objectives. However, optimization strategies have shifted over the years, too. Some of the most popular search engines, like Google, change algorithms several times a year and what worked in past years isn’t always similarly beneficial now.

A skilled SEO company will be well aware how over-populating a webpage with certain keywords can quickly cause it to drop in rankings or even disappear from results pages. In this regard, search engine optimization is leaning towards minimalist techniques as well.

Recent algorithm updates have favored websites that use keywords sparingly and instead focus on valuable content that makes sense for particular search strings. Now a website that only uses a few specific keywords could rank much higher than one where the emphasis is on keyword usage over quality.

Some companies that provide SEO services can also create a beautiful and user-friendly website for your needs as well as help you appeal to mobile audiences too. Keep up with recent developments and help viewers enjoy a simpler experience by remembering that it’s not always necessary to go over the top to get the top rankings results.

Our guest blogger, Sandrine Cachette, has worked in the web design industry for the last 8 years. She enjoys reviewing web design portfolios. She writes industry articles for MDesign Media on regular basis.

Denial Of Service Attacks Growing In Size And Frequency

Business Tech, Cloud Hosting, Hosting, Reputation, Security, Small Business Marketing, , , , ,

DDoS Attack

A distributed denial of service or DDoS attack can make a website or an entire network unavailable to users for hours, days or even longer. This type of attack is accomplished by groups who overwhelm a website with data or requests until it slows down or crashes completely.

Denial of service attacks have been increasing in the past few years as the hackers involved in this have perfected their skills in knocking people offline.  Attacks grew by 70 percent in the first half of 2012 and have even been used against large corporations and government agencies. The increase in DDoS has many worried that they too will become a target for these kinds of attacks.

Denial Of Service

Those who engage in denial of service attacks are very skilled at shutting down their targets using botnets.  A botnet is a network of hundreds or thousands of infected PCs that the attacker controls which can flood a website with requests.

The numerous requests end up cutting off access to the site and the user is no longer able to connect to their website. Botnets can even be hired out solely for the purpose of denial of service attacks. People can also volunteer their own PCs to be used in an attack.

Impact Of A DDoS Attack 

The impact of a DDoS attack can be catastrophic for organizations that lose access to their sites and cannot communicate or process transactions for days. Many businesses must suffer significant financial losses from losing access to their site as a result of these attacks even if they are only offline for one day.

Some attackers target bigger organizations but almost any company or website can be vulnerable to a DDoS attack. There are more than 7,ooo attacks daily but this number is still on the rise as they are growing more rapidly than ever before.

A Growing Trend 

The trend with the growing number of DDoS attacks seems to be shorter attack duration but bigger packet-per-second attack volume. The average attack bandwidth has increased by more than a hundred percent in the past few years. The increase in the number and size of the attacks has many companies alarmed about what could happen if they are targeted for an attack.

It appears that many of the attacks are motivated by political or ideological conflicts. Those involved can often implement an attack because they disagree with an organization’s policies. There are many other types of attacks, however, and it hard to say whether anyone is safe from this growing problem.

The Targets Of Service Attacks 

As more people become the targets of denial of service attacks it is a growing concern for those who stand to lose a lot of money from being forced offline. In order to prevent these types of attacks from occurring, people need to seek better security for their companies and be more aware of their vulnerabilities.

Anyone can be a target for a DDoS and it is important to be more cautious about the possibility of attack so as to prevent it from happening at all costs.

Our Guest Blogger, Leo Hart, has a passion for cloud computing from his time spent with Custom Cloud where he helps businesses setup customized virtual servers http://www.customcloudhost.com.

Using Webinars To Drum Up Business

Business Tech, Events, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Technology, Webinars, , , ,

Using Webinars To Drum Up BusinessHosting a webinar is a great way for Managed Service Providers (MSP) to generate interest in their business. Webinars are an effective marketing tool for bringing in new clients or selling and promoting additional products and services to clients. Webinars as a sales technique is simple and efficient. It offers free, helpful information to companies and provides business owners with the opportunity to ask valuable questions. How does a MSP successfully create a revenue-generating webinar?

Topics

Webinar topics a MSP can choose from are endless. Successful webinars focus on topics that are of interest to attendees. What do attendees what to hear? Focus on current technology and business issues. What is currently trending in the industry? Is there new technology or applications clients want to learn more about integrating into their business? Are business operations flowing smoothly? Discuss topics that provide valuable information for attendees.

Information

Information can include products and services offered by the MSP. Include a link to the website in the webinar. This gives attendees an opportunity visit the website to learn more about the company, products, or services highlighted in the webinar. Not only does this increase website traffic for the MSP, but it also increases potential for future sales.

Technology

A variety of webinar-hosting technology is available to meet the most diverse presentation needs. Features a MSP might consider are screen sharing, voice or IM chat capabilities, etc. The MSP hosting the webinar might need to change between speakers or record the webinar for posting online. Thorough research of software features under consideration is the best way for a MSP to determine if it will meet their presentation needs.

Practice

Practice is an important part of hosting a webinar. It will help a MSP detect any production issues such as sound or bad connections that might occur during the presentation. Clients are investing their time in attending the webinar, and so should the MSP in regards to producing quality content. A great webinar will be highly visual and engaging. Be sure to include visuals such as pictures and videos and always avoid heavy text.

Marketing

A webinar without an audience is a bit obsolete, so MSPs need to devise a solid plan to market their webinar. Send out e-mail invitations and make phone calls to potential attendees. When scheduling a webinar, choose a date far in advance. This gives attendees enough time to clear their schedule. Also take into consideration time zone differences and the time of day to avoid catching attendees at a bad time.

Follow Up

The follow-up after the webinar is a critical time for MSPs. The MSP should have a good follow-up strategy in place to reach out to attendees. Following the completion of the webinar is when attendees will request additional info or have more questions. MPS should use this time to forge closer relationships. Take the time after the presentation to send out you e-mails summarizing key points and links to products or services promoted in the webinar. Have attendees that couldn’t make it last minute? Don’t let them slip through the cracks! Send a link to the archived webinar. Also consider distributing surveys, which is extremely helpful in helping a MSP plan for their next webinar.

A successful webinar is informative, promotes products, generates leads, and strengthens existing relationships with clients. Webinars should be part of a MSPs marketing strategy. Take the time to experiment with different webinar software and invest time in the presentation. Make the effort to connect with attendees after the webinar to form stronger relationships with clients in order to build business and revenue.

Our guest blogger: Jessica May, is a resident of Vancouver who loves mountian biking in the summer and snowboarding in the winter. She frequently guest blogs about SEO, social media, outsourcing and help desks.