Have you ever thought of putting your business on the Internet, but simply not known where to start or you’re not sure whether the Internet is really meant for your business?
Most of the time we see the big Internet businesses like Google, Amazon and Yahoo or the big corporations like Microsoft, Airlines companies and banks being successful on the Net. On the other hand you find someone with a brilliant idea who slaps a website together and makes a huge success with very little effort simply because they had the right idea and acted on that idea. Of course, there are also those who recognizes a good idea, jumps on the bandwagon and shares in that success.
Bu what if your company does not fall into any of those categories? What if you have a traditional business where you manufacture a product or offer a service to your local community?
Does your business still belong on the Internet?
Most definitely!! Other than a place to share information, the Internet is intended to be a marketplace where we can find things that add value to our lives. If your local community finds value in your service or product, then the rest of the world should also. And even if your product or service cannot be made available to the rest of the world, which is hard to believe, the Internet could be used simply to make your product more attractive to your local community.
Can your business still be successful on the Internet?
Again, the answer is most definitely!! It simply depends on how you choose to use the Internet.
Let me give you two examples of local, South African businesses that successfully use the Internet to advance their business.
The first is Sizanani.com, an Internet logistics company that is tremendously successful in South Africa. They do not rely on their website to bring in new customers and yet the website is the core of their business. To my knowledge, Sizanani is the largest logistics trading zone in the Southern hemisphere. They have more than 200 customers and more than 400 transporters (who are actually also customers of Sizanani) doing huge amounts of business on the Sizanani.com website every day. Yet, when you look at their homepage, you would not believe that there are hundreds or probably thousands of transactions processed on that site every day.
In my opinion, the secret of Sizanani’s success is not in their brilliant Internet marketing skills, but rather lies in a concept often forgotten on the Internet - Human Interaction. Every customer, including the transporters, has physically met a representative of Sizanani. When a customer needs help with the Sizanani system, they do not send an email to some faceless email address or fill in a meaningless form on the website. Instead, they pick up the phone and talk directly to someone they know at the company. In other words, this is a real-life, old fashioned company doing traditional business as we knew it before the Internet. The only difference is that they are using the Internet as a viable and convenient medium for delivering their service to their customers.
The second example is Qushum.co.za. This is a fairly new website and is not nearly in the same category as Sizanani. However, it is again an example of a business successfully using the Internet to deliver their service to their customers.
Qushum is a consulting company that helps their customers to obtain ISO 9000 accreditation and maintain that status. By placing their service on the Internet, they are not offering some incredible solution to their customers which has never been possible before, but the Internet is simply making the service more accessible to their customers and therefore making the customer’s day-to-day life more convenient. Also, by putting their business on the Internet, they have taken a lot of mundane tasks out of their own hands, which allows them to spend their time more effectively on growing their business.
These are only two examples of traditional business being conducted successfully over the Internet. I am sure there are millions of other such examples, but I simply wanted to show you that the Internet can be used as an effective medium for traditional business. In both cases they are not putting their faith in specialized Internet marketing techniques or employing search engine optimization specialists or any of those concepts that generally scare old-fashioned business owners away from the Internet. They are simply using the Internet in a fashion that adds value to their businesses. Isn’t that the whole idea?
So how do you get started?
There are millions of articles on “Getting your business on the Internet” and I won’t repeat that here.
If you approach a web design company and ask them to “put your business on the Internet”, they will most probably sell you a complete restructure of your business with online payment and product catalogues and whatever else goes with an online business. Not because they are necessarily trying to make a quick dollar out of you, but simply because this is what most people think they want from the Internet.
My advice to you is this: Before you approach anybody about designing a website for you, decide what it is you want. How can the Internet add value to my existing customers? Think of the two examples above and try to use that approach in your own business. If you can find a solution to that question, then, by default, you will have a solution that will add value to new customers as well and your business will sell itself on the Internet.
About The Author
Dirk Wessels is a web designer and owner of Getquotes-IT.com
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Due to advancement of Internet a new option, Internet fax, is available for you. An online service that provides facility to send or receive faxes without fax machine is known as Internet fax. Basic requirements of internet fax are PC with an Internet connection and an email account. It is also known as online fax, email to fax and e faxing. You’ve to just signing up with an Internet service provider that performs decoding/encoding of fax. You can easily send and receive multiple faxes simultaneously without using fax hardware.
Internet fax enables you to send or receive faxes in a short while. You don’t have to wait for a long time. It can be send from wherever you are to anywhere you want. Without facing the problem of paper jams, faxes can be sent instantly. Due to its transparency factor, your business partners can regularly send faxes to a fax number. You can even use a local or toll free number as virtual fax number. You can easily manage your time with Internet fax.
Subscribers have to pay small monthly fee to use an Internet fax service. Whenever a fax is sent to your virtual number, the service provider accepts it and turns it to a file that can be easily forwarded to your accessible email address. Internet fax services are costly due to extensive collection of programs. You should always choose the best suited to your requirements. You can also start e faxing with a free trial.
You’ve to pursue following steps to get started with Internet fax:
Create an email account (if you don’t have any)
Create an account on any one of Internet fax services. (For that purpose you just have to go to website of the service provider and log in. Use their free trial offer)
Download or install Internet fax software on your system.
After opening new email message, start writing contents of fax in the body section of mail. You can also attach text files with the content.
Fill all the requirements of e-fax like destination number, recipient’s name and then choose ’send and receive’ option to send the fax.
After doing all these process the fax will reach the recipient instantly.
Internet faxing is an inexpensive and convenient way to send fax to someone. You can get fax at any time because your fax number is active 24 hours a day. Subscribers don’t have to be familiar with faxing software or fax machines but email knowledge is required. Several service providers offer toll-free fax numbers for United States and Canada. Subscribers don’t have to pay phone charges for internet fax but they have to pay small Internet charges.
Monthly charges for Internet faxing service are from $0 to $19.95 that totally depends on the package, which you choose. Fax to IP is another type of Internet faxing. Subscribers may send or receive faxes in PDF format, Microsoft documents format, CAD drawing format and graphical formats etc.
The Author owns a website on Internet Faxing. The website provides information about cheap internet fax and internet fax software. Get all information about internet faxing at his site Internet Fax Software.
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If you`ve been online for more than a week, you`ve probably already seen them. Ads that promise great wealth, in little or no time, for little or no work on your behalf. They then go on to tell you how simple and easy it is to work from home, being your own boss and setting your own hours.
Sounds great, doesn`t it? But is it actually true? Ok, so you get to decide your work hours, but let me tell you, there`s a LOT of hours involved here, and a LOT of hard work, and even then, you may not succeed in making enough money to quit your day job (IF any at all…)
There are tons of business opportunities out there to get involved with. Here`s a list of some of them, with their “TRUE” colours. I`m NOT saying every individual opportunity IS a scam, but a lot of them are, and you need to do your homework before you embark on the journey as an “internet marketer”.
MLM, Pyramid Schemes etc:
Promise: You make money from sales, be it services or products. You recruit other sales people, and earn from their sales.
Fact: Most of the time, you`ll find that the people you`re trying to sell to are other distributors, and you`re all trying to sell to each other, which ultimately means no sales.
Holidays and Travels:
Promise: You get dirt-cheap or even free tickets, with tons of extras.
Fact: You could end up with no trip, or with a trip of a much lesser quality of services and accommodation than promised. Sometimes there are hidden charges and costs that you don`t find out about until you`ve paid.
Credit Cards:
Promise: Give us your credit card number, we need it to verify that you are over 18, then we can give you X, Y, and Z for free.
Fact: There are a lot of these that will run up charges on your credit cards
Health Care:
Promise: Our products can cure serious, or even fatal, health problems.
Fact: A lot of people will believe this one, without checking it out thoroughly. This can result in people not getting the neccessary treatment they really need for their illness.
Investments:
Promise: Make a huge return on your investments with us, and make it FAST!
Fact: A big profit always carries a big risk, which mostly means you stand to lose your investment.
Chain Letters:
Promise: Pass this on and you`ll earn a truckload of money.
Fact: Chain letters inolving money and/or valuables are illegal! Even the ones that tell you they`re legal and endorsed by the government. By starting, or passing these on, you are, in effect, breaking the law.
While a lot of programs truly ARE legitimate, there`s thousands more that aren`t. There are certain questions you need to ask the promoteur of any program/opportunity/offer before you make your decisions.
1. What is the FULL outlay expected of me for membership fees, equipment and supplies?
2. What will I get for my money?
3. What exactly do I have to do (step by step)?
4. Will I be paid a regular wage, or will my pay be based on commission?
5. Who will be paying me?
Take your time. People promoting scams will likely use high-pressure sales tactics to get you to buy in to them. If the business opportunity is legitimate, it’ll still be around when you’re ready to decide.
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