by: Alexa Peters
Your website is the hub and center of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with you in person. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good web site design comes in.Imagine if you are running an brick and mortar company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professional clothes, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.
This is the same case with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute “quick fix”, you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.
If you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you are serious about your business
Here are some good design practices to follow:
1. Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.
2. Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size.
3. Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.
4. Make sure your website complies to web standards and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on potential prospective visitors.
5. Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.
About the Author
Do you need someone to review your current site or you need help in coming up with a design for a new site, the visit us today! http://www.larymdesign.com. We specialize in small business website design.
Showing posts with label online business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online business. Show all posts
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Starting a Small Business From the Ground Up
From the housemaid in a small Texas town near the Mexico border to the CEO of a multimillion dollar corporation in the middle of Silicon Valley, all of us at one time or another have dreamed of opening our own business and making ourselves rich, rather than helping someone else get there.What’s great about today’s business climate is the relative ease with which young and old Americans alike, foreigners and natives, college educated and non, can start their own small businesses. If you’ve been dreaming of dropping out of the corporate grind, the minimum wage slavery, or just want to have more control over your destiny, read on for a look at how you too
can become a sterling example of the American dream gone right.
You may be thinking: but I have no money. It takes money to start your own business. This is true, but seldom to people open their small business with their own money. Fortunately, we live in a country that encourages the entrepreneur, as long as he or she can demonstrate that they know what they’re doing. Banks are perhaps more eager to hand out small business loans than any other type. There are plenty of government agencies that can also be counted upon to give money to the aspiring small businessman. And then there are venture capitalists and angel investors who make
their entire living putting money into startup companies in the calculated risk that they will see a positive return on their investment strategy. All you need is a great idea, a solid and complete business plan, and the type of personality that can convince those with money to hand it over.
If the business you’re planning to open is in the same field you’ve already been working in, you probably have a list of contacts already in the field. Now, there are ethical and legal considerations here. You can’t simply steal clients using inside information you have from working at another company. You can, however, use you contacts in the manufacturing and vending fields to help you get started. If you have personal relationships with your customers, there’s nothing wrong with letting them know you’ll soon be going into business for yourself. If they choose to give your
company a shot, you should be in the clear. On the whole, however, it may be best not to go into direct competition with the company you’ve worked for. You can then use your coworkers and managers for help in getting off on the right foot. If your new business is at right angles with the company you’re leaving, you may be able to help each other.
Your next step is to research the marketplace. This should be done before anything else. You have to know what has worked in your chosen field and what hasn’t. What has been tried before and what might make a big splash in the industry. Don’t come to the dance with nothing new to offer. You can compete on prices, and you can compete on service. But the best form of competition comes in exciting innovation. Think of at least one great idea before you open your own business. Something no one else has tried. You will set yourself apart right from the start, and sometimes that’s all you need.
About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.Ragnhild-Gundersen.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
can become a sterling example of the American dream gone right.
You may be thinking: but I have no money. It takes money to start your own business. This is true, but seldom to people open their small business with their own money. Fortunately, we live in a country that encourages the entrepreneur, as long as he or she can demonstrate that they know what they’re doing. Banks are perhaps more eager to hand out small business loans than any other type. There are plenty of government agencies that can also be counted upon to give money to the aspiring small businessman. And then there are venture capitalists and angel investors who make
their entire living putting money into startup companies in the calculated risk that they will see a positive return on their investment strategy. All you need is a great idea, a solid and complete business plan, and the type of personality that can convince those with money to hand it over.
If the business you’re planning to open is in the same field you’ve already been working in, you probably have a list of contacts already in the field. Now, there are ethical and legal considerations here. You can’t simply steal clients using inside information you have from working at another company. You can, however, use you contacts in the manufacturing and vending fields to help you get started. If you have personal relationships with your customers, there’s nothing wrong with letting them know you’ll soon be going into business for yourself. If they choose to give your
company a shot, you should be in the clear. On the whole, however, it may be best not to go into direct competition with the company you’ve worked for. You can then use your coworkers and managers for help in getting off on the right foot. If your new business is at right angles with the company you’re leaving, you may be able to help each other.
Your next step is to research the marketplace. This should be done before anything else. You have to know what has worked in your chosen field and what hasn’t. What has been tried before and what might make a big splash in the industry. Don’t come to the dance with nothing new to offer. You can compete on prices, and you can compete on service. But the best form of competition comes in exciting innovation. Think of at least one great idea before you open your own business. Something no one else has tried. You will set yourself apart right from the start, and sometimes that’s all you need.
About the Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.Ragnhild-Gundersen.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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