Just today I talked to a Community manager. His webhost went down under the burden of his system. Yesterday he was in business, today he was completely out of business. It was as sudden as a restaurant having a fire in the kitchen. He contacted a problem solver/systems analyst in his network instantly.
They started the process of bringing the site online, but this man fumed and panicked the entire afternoon. He didn't learn the truth behind the statement ?if it was easy then everyone would do it.?
It is not easy to run a business. There are highs and there are lows. Every day can throw twists that need to be overcome. An advertising campaign may not produce the revenues needed. A new website may not be receiving the levels of targeted hits needed to produce the expected income. The shopping cart may be so difficult to use that consumers abandon the site.
The first response most business owners make is panicking and then reacting in fear. When people are afraid they do one thing ? nothing. This is common in the business world. When a business starts to go under, the average business owner will adopt a ?wait and see? attitude.
By the time the business owner does take action it will be too late. They will either be out of time or out of money. The business owner in the above example did the right thing. He reacted in fear, but instead of sitting back and waiting, or wasting time trying to solve the problem, he found someone with a level head to coach him through the problem.
Emergencies will always happen. The first step to problem solving is to create a plan of attack before something goes wrong. Never wait until a problem hits before creating an emergency plan. This plan should include an emergency fund incase the only way out of the problem is spending cash.
In the same way a family saves three months bill payments to carry them through a hard time, a business should hold money in reserve to carry them through hard times.
A word of warning ? never borrow money to handle an emergency. Of course, it is unrealistic to believe that you will be able to avoid this problem. However, the warning should not be ignored. Almost 100% of all emergencies are caused by problems that do not generate income. Borrowing money for situations and items that do not generate income is one of the biggest small-business blunders.
The best way to keep a business on track is to avoid problems. There are millions of blog and forum comments and replies that discuss how they lost everything because of one minor problem. I personally know two ecommerce businesses that went under because the business owners did not back up both their server and their PC.
There is no reason to lose the data on a PC with services like Mozy.com that costs $4.50 a month. However, I know three freelancers who lost up to one month's work because they never backed up their computer ?off site? daily. One had to pay a data forensic technician $1200 to save on month's work from a corrupted hard drive.
Another had a top ranked website. This ecommerce business trusted the web host's back up service. However, when the web host closed business, over night, without warning, then the business owner lost everything. This was not necessary. Anyone can learn how to put a back up copy of their website onto their computer. It is as easy as writing an email.
Both of these businesses went under because the business owner didn't employ a strategy to avoid all possible emergencies.
There are some problems that are beyond the business owner's capacity to control. In late 2007 YouTube.com went down for a few days. A training company with their ?lectures? on Youtube was stalled for the duration. They did have a back up plan. When the lectures went down, the ?alt? tags revealed where users could find PDF transcripts of the lectures.
Joint ventures represent an amazing business opportunity capable of boosting your profits in record time. Considered the most powerful method to skyrocket sales within a very short time, joint ventures require finding a reputable and reliable partner. It is not difficult to locate potential joint ventures partners, but finding one that will produce substantial results for you is a different story...
Experts in the field recommend teaming up only with marketers who have an excellent relationship with their clients. Be sure to check out all the details of their business and prior dealings, and not rush into things when it comes to setting up joint ventures. The best way to succeed with marketing partnerships is keeping it short, simple, sincere and of course straightforward. The most important thing is to not get discouraged by being turned down, as you will get more rejections than you will considerations or a ?yes?.
A good marketing strategy in the joint ventures sector means setting up a plan that accounts for several rejections in advance ? while maximizing those that do decide to work with you..
The main benefit of joint ventures is to accelerate the process of building momentum in your business -being as you'll be borrowing the momentum (customer base) already in place from another business. And they benefit by producing substantial profits in addition to the regular sales cycle of their regular products.
There are three basic ?types? of joint ventures. The first and most common is the marketing partnership arrangement, where partners team up to promote one or more products ? either for one partner, or both (cross-promotion). The best and most successful way to engage in this type of partnership is to kick the promotion off with a ?launch? of sorts, through the contact list of the partner(s) who are leveraging their client-base, in addition to the long-term integration of the same marketing message into their regular channels.
The second type of JV is a ?co-project?, where two or more parties come together to accomplish a certain objective, or jointly create a unique product to leverage existing technologies or resources and cut development costs.
And the third type of JV is an actual joint-venture in the real sense of the word, where a new corporate identity is formed by two or more existing companies in order to combine resources and work together to accomplish an objective. While this kind of partnership is generally the most complex and risky, it can also be incredibly profitable if done correctly. These types of joint ventures occur regularly in the oil industry world-wide, as well as with international companies looking to simplify the trade process across various national borders.
It is vital when you decide to utilize joint ventures that you do your homework, carefully inspecting the potential partner. Ask for business references; check if they are solvent, take a look at how they treat their customers, and most important discuss how they'll be able to secure a timely payment schedule. Do not rush into things without knowing who you're really dealing with.
Many people who have a small business decide to focus on joint ventures initially because it's a very effective and powerful strategy if you've got a small budget ? but what you don't spend up-front, you'll spend in ?time? and ?effort? in terms of finding partners, negotiating a fair deal and then executing the promotion end of things successfully.
However, while joint ventures will remain the most powerful marketing strategy in terms of ROI, it's important not to solely focus on generating revenues through partnerships. You still need to be collecting leads and customers from as many locations as possible ? which includes advertising and other forms of invested marketing.
The Internet is the perfect place to develop small business marketing skills. Websites are the perfect tool for promoting ones business; they have a wider audience due to the development of the Internet and they are more cost-effective and cheaper ? meaning that they carry a smaller risk. Many business owners know how important is to focus on different small business marketing strategies; this is why more and more people are utilizing the potential of the Internet in promoting their products and services.
When it comes to small business marketing, the trick is knowing how to make your product known to the public in a short a time as possible. Consumers need to test the products before they can talk about its quality; this is why giving free samples can be a good small business marketing idea ? or using any other type of cost-effective strategy to capture and gain customers ? even if you have to run your business at zero profit (just covering costs) for the first while, until momentum is evident and your sales are steady and climbing.
As is often said, ?give away the razor to sell the blades?.
And using joint ventures is the fastest way to get your initial set of ?razors? out there in the public to get things started for you. If you're product delivers more in value than it costs ? and if it's in demand ? than you may very well be only one joint venture partnership away from an extremely profitable business that will support any kind of lifestyle you desire...
Both Mark Walters & David Yuri are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Mark Walters has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Modelling and Real Estate. Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training and investing videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at