I have to tell you a story about entrepreneurs and good business ideas. A few weeks back I went to see a potential client that wanted to be “number one in the world in the (blank) industry using the web.” There were 4 executives in the room and one of them was snoozing off during the meeting. He said the “web’ was a problem for the “younger” executives to decide. Ouch!

They had been in business for over 15 years and had a very nice import/export operation. Unfortunately the business model was designed for the “old” economy. They were seeing their earnings deplete fast and could not figure out what to do about it. Somehow, they thought “social media” was the answer to all their problems and figured that by getting into the “social media” bandwagon, all their troubles would go away.

Hold on! I said. Why would you want to compete against mega-(blank) company? They have over 10 years ahead of you. They dominate the web traffic for your (blank) product. You will never be able to compete against them, unless of course, you buy them out. They have positions 1 through 10 on page one of Google pretty much covered. I suggested then, we should do a niche analysis and re-direct the company aggressively towards smaller niches. Then and only then, we should attack the social media channels.

The idea was for the company to control these micro-niches in no time. The move would had reduced cost massively and increased profits by dominating niches the big-boys had missed. Instead of going head-on and challenge the big boys, they could seize this incredible opportunity before someone else figured it out…they never called back again. Last time I checked, they were still struggling with their “Social Media” project.

Being a successful netpreneur is a lot more than just having good business ideas. There is a lot of money to be made on the web, but not on speculative, naïve or risky business ideas. The people who are making a killing in the web are those that dominate micro-niches. They understand their target market better than their target market understands itself. “Big-itis” is an entrepreneur’s recipe for failure. In this new economy, the riches is in the niches.

This means that if you are an entrepreneur, you better start thinking how to position your business in this new economy by dominating smaller niches, not just thinking of “good business ideas”. The old days where you could be everything to everyone are long gone.

Why believe me? It took me over 7 years to understand the web game. I have a 100% virtual business that at one time used to be a brick-and-mortar. I also have over 20 sites that currently are on page one of Google. So as you can see, I have been “around the block” a few times. If you want your business to succeed in this new business environment, you must start by thinking about good business ideas in profitable niches. If you get this right, everything else will fall into place.

One of the hardest things to find on the Internet is a really good network marketing opportunity. There are many opportunities on the Internet that claim to help you and want to make you a lot of money. Most people who are new to the Internet right away get excited and fall for every little thing that many of the opportunities tell them.

It is very important that you understand that not all of these opportunities are telling you the truth. Many people get very discourage because a lot of the opportunities that they encounter just simply take advantage of them. This does not mean that there’s really no good opportunity out there for you to get involved with.

One of the best ways to find a good network marketing opportunity online is to dedicate time to doing research. Have you done research before? Doing research is basically gathering information from different sources regarding the same specific thing you’re looking for. In this case you’re looking for a good network marketing opportunity so there will be many different sources that will tell you many different things and will help you go in the right direction.

It is going to be important for you to take your time while doing the research so that you make sure that you find exactly what you’re looking for. Remember that the more information you are able to gather the better the end result will be when you have the opportunity to finally choose a network marketing business. One of the biggest reasons that many people fail is due to the fact that they never put enough time for doing research before getting involved in any company. So make sure you don’t make the same mistake.

Local business listings began with a basic business directory more than a decade ago. Chances are, your business has a local listing wherever you have a physical address location. Check it out — go to Google, type in your company name. You’ll probably see a map locating your business and an address. Of course all you may find other information too. Local business listings are treated passively by many businesses. But that could be a mistake. You’ve probably read that prospects have something specific in mind when they are shopping. So try this test. Go back to Google, type in the name of a product or service your business provides plus your hometown. Did your business show up? If it did: congratulations. If it did not: you’re missing a major marketing opportunity.

Times have changed
From a marketing standpoint, the use of local business listings has exploded with the increase of social media and mobile devices. Consumers not only use these interactive yellow pages to locate a business, product or service in their area; they are also posting reviews of those products and services. Today, there are over 60 local business listing websites on the Internet in five different categories. They include the search engines, social communities, 411 websites (aka yellow page type websites), GPS websites and that age-old business directory.

You can no longer be passive
To make your interactive yellow pages listing a stronger marketing tool, you must first “claim” the listing with all the search engines, social communities, websites and organizations that lead people to it. Once you prove the listing is really yours you can update it with your business marketing material. Businesses are realizing the importance of this claiming process. Once you have claimed your local listing you can update information with text, keywords, business descriptions, products, services, photos, videos, coupons, and more. Some websites, such as Google, allow you to use all these options while others charge a fee for enhanced listings making this information present for local consumers through web or mobile searches

So what’s the “security challenge”?
The claiming process is crucial to security because if the wrong person gets access to your business local listing they can direct customers to a different location by phone or website address. Additional damage can include incorrect information on photos, videos, coupons, and more. Because consumers are using local business listings to locate a business, product or service in their immediate area, the security around local business listings must have a high priority for any local listing website.

Remember phishing?
Phishing was described in 1987 before the Internet was a commercial boom. The first recorded use of phishing was in1996. The question is whether the business industry is going to wait for something similar to occur using Local Business Listings. The security holes are quite evident with Local Business Listings and I don’t think it takes a genius see what could happen if businesses do not “claim” their listings – the first step in closing those “holes.”

When hackers capture a Local Listing it’s called “high-jacking”
It is absolutely important that businesses not passively wait for local listing websites to put the appropriate security in place before you claim your listing. Installing security starts with the obvious claiming process, but many sites allow data to be inserted from other databases on the Internet and I am not sure there’s good security around this later process. If someone wanted to hijack a local business listing, they could easily insert the wrong information through a low level business directory that sells its data upstream or inserts its data directly into a higher level local listing website.

While the top search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo have “some” front-end security; their API’s (Application Programming Interface) makes them vulnerable through the back door. Data is provided to their local listings from 3rd party sources including “get listed” services. Additionally, if someone cannot claim a listing easily, the process within these local listing websites allows for additional listings with the same address to be submitted by anyone.

Search engine marketing is nowadays renowned to be a very powerful form of online marketing, primarily aiming to boost the success of a business by increasing its popularity and exposure. Thanks to the long-term benefits it offers, lots of online business owners rely exclusively on search engine marketing to boost the profitability of their business. However, in order to get the most out of any search engine marketing campaign, companies have to establish a set of specific goals and make careful preparations.

Any company, regardless of its nature, size and position on the market, should always establish an efficient business plan before initiating new search engine advertising campaigns. The business plan should be properly designed and carefully analyzed down to the last detail. Without proper previous preparations, the prospects of any search engine advertising campaign are very unpredictable. In order to ensure a stable ROI (return on investment) and great exposure for your business equally among new visitors and already-existing customers, your search engine marketing campaign should be properly designed upon the following structure:

- Coherent, relevant and brief mission statement (description of your business);

- Properly promote your specific selling points;

- Address yourself to the most appropriate categories of clients;

- Establish and maintain contact with your clients.

The first step in creating an efficient search engine marketing campaign is to write a solid mission statement or description. This phase is crucial for achieving a successful campaign, so you should ensure that you come up with the most appropriate mission statement for your business. Your mission statement is the first piece of information that will be addressed to your targeted visitors and potential clients, so it should have great potential in drawing people’s attention, enticing them to find out more about your business. It can be quite difficult to write the most appropriate mission statement for your business while restricting it to only a few sentences in the same time. However, the trick is to include in it the major benefits you offer to your clients, using powerful and memorable words.

A good example of a solid mission statement looks like this: “Our Company specializes in designing and developing highly competitive business management solutions that boost the efficiency and profitability of online companies worldwide.” This statement presents the services you offer to clients, the clients’ benefits of employing your services and the targeted market (in this case online companies). You should create similar structures, always keeping them right to the point and using “catchy” phrases. Never neglect this first basic step when trying to achieve a successful and rewarding search engine marketing campaign.

The second step in building a powerful search engine advertising campaign consists of promoting your unique, specific selling points to your site’s visitors and potential customers. This phase of the campaign requires you to identify and emphasize the unique features of your company, the traits that separate your business from the rest. Remember that your specific selling points may take various forms: superior services or products, more affordable fees, very quick delivery of the products, long-lasting warranty and so on. You should carefully analyze all your specific selling points, and prioritize the selling characteristics of your business, always starting with the ones that you consider most relevant and important.

The third step of your search engine marketing campaign consists of identifying the most appropriate categories of clients you wish to address to. Practically, this phase requires you to mentally portray the image of “the ideal customer”. For instance, your targeted clients might be your already-existing, regular customers, newcomers or, why not, the clients of the competition. After you have marked the overall features of the “ideal client”, you should progress by sketching the traits of your targeted customers in higher detail. You should account for features such as age, sex, marital status, level of income, ethnicity and so on. Undoubtedly, the more information you gather about your targeted customers, the better prepared your business will be at appropriately servicing the targeted market. This phase is vital for achieving success in your search engine advertising campaigns, so pay lots of attention when going through this section of the business plan.

The final step is also considered to be the most important, so you should carefully elaborate this stage. Establishing and maintaining contact with your targeted customers is vital for the success of your business, so you need to come up with appropriate “calls to action”. Remember that in order to sell your products or services to customers you have to maintain a good level of interest among your targeted visitors and keep them on your web pages for as long as possible.

Call to action plans can take multiple forms: determining the potential clients to subscribe to your free e-newsletter, to ask for more information about your business, to ask for advice from your representatives, etc. In order to achieve success in your search engine marketing campaigns, you should elaborate as many calls to action as you can think of. In addition, you should create a set of keywords and design “landing web pages” for each individual call to action. By doing this, you will be able to get the most out of your campaigns and improve your business’ ROI coefficient.

Pay equal attention to all these previously described aspects and you will be able to achieve powerful search engine marketing campaigns which will bring long-term benefits to the online business you are running.

If you found this article, you are probably wondering if Univera is a scam or a good business opportunity. I have had many people asking me if they should get involved in Univera. In this Univera review we will have a look at the four pillars of network marketing and discover once and for all if Univera is a good business opportunity for you.

1. Univera Company

Univera is a health and wellness company founded in 1999 by YunHo Lee, a successful Korean businessman. He decided to start this company on a vision to bring the best of nature to the market. Univera was founded after Mr. Lee experienced the benefits of the Aloe Vera while he was not seeing any results with conventional medicine. Univera was developed as part of the ECONET, an ECOlogical and ECOnomic global NETwork of companies. It is a network marketing company with many products and millions of distributors worldwide.

2. Univera Products

The goal of ECONET was to develop products using pharmaceutical expertise to the world of natural products. Univera and Unigen (its Research and Development entity), created many products protected by more than 160 patents. The products revolve around four areas of helping the customer’s body: Nourish, Restore, Fortify and Vitalize. Some of the most noticeable products include Ageless Xtra, Essentials, Meta Green, Meta Berry or The Inthinity System.

3. Univera Business and Compensation Plan

As many people are looking to become healthier, starting a home based business in the health and wellness family is a good idea. For a small $40, there are 7 ways to make money with the Univera Business Opportunity: Retail Commissions, Unilevel Pay, Generation Pay, Xcelerate Your Drive, Blue Diamond Bonus, Incentives and Trips, Promotional Pay. The Univera compensation plan is built around a 4 level deep unilevel plan. A nice feature of the plan is the fact that new distributors will earn a higher percentage of commissions. A new distributor will be paid 15% on the first level and 5% on his downline. This is not bad and Univera is a great business opportunity overall.

4. Univera Sponsor Distributor

Now that we have seen that Univera is a good business by itself and that the Univera products are good, there is one more important point to look at. It is your potential upline sponsor. And this is critical. As in all network marketing companies, your business will grow when you find people to sponsor and help them do the same. To explode your business you must make sure that you find a sponsor that will teach you modern methods to find prospects using the Internet and not those old school methods of bugging friends and family.

For the uninitiated, reading the business section in a newspaper or reading business magazines can often be a bit mystifying. On one hand, everyone knows about stock trading in a very basic way and all the talk about bulls and bears can be confusing, even in light of the fact that a bullish market means share values are up while a bearish market indicates sluggishness or lower share values. The end result is that a simple and straightforward exercise of investing in the stock market appears to be complicated and full of strange notions that seem to make no sense.

Stock

The “stock” in stock market is basically a representation of the assets of a company. When you own stock you basically own the equivalent share in the company. Buying stock is equivalent to buying part-ownership of the company. The whole point of buying stock is that when the company makes a profit then you, as a stock holder, receive a percentage of the profits equivalent to your share in the company. The downside is that when a company goes into loss the stock value goes down.

Stock Option

Buying stock option gets you the right to buy or sell the stocks of the company within the time allocated to that option. Stock options are considered a lot safer by investors as you require much lower capital. You can make money real quick using stock options but there are still some risks of losing money equally fast if not faster.

Call

The process of buying stock options is known as “Call”. Here is an example of the Call operation. Assume that a certain stock is selling for $90.00 per share. Your research informs you that after a period of one year, this stock will have appreciated by a significant amount. You will then purchase a 1-year contract for 100 stock options at $1.00 per share and the contract includes your estimated price of $100.00 per share. This gives you the right, without any obligation, to buy that many number of shares when the price hits $100.00 After 10 months, you discover that the price of the stock is at $120.00 per share. You can now purchase those stock options at the agreed price of $100.00 and immediately sell them off at $120.00. The extra $20 per share nets you the profit as per the number of options you included in the contract. Call makes a profit when share values go up.

Put

Following the above example, assume that your researches tell you the price is going to fall significantly after one year. This time, when you enter the contract, you get the right, but are not obliged to, sell your stock options within 1 year at the agreed price of $100.00. If, after 10-11 months the price is around $80.00, then you can sell your options at the contractual price of $100.00 and the $20.00 per share is the profit you make. Put makes a profit when share values fall.

There are many strategies to trading itself but all trading comes down to Put and Call.

No one likes to receive a complaint — but complaints are worth their weight in gold if an organization learns from them and then uses the information to improve the customer experience. Customer complaints can be used to build a better customer experience and turn a dissatisfied customer into a raving fan.

A good response to a customer complaint also ensures you’ll receive that particular complaint only once. The company will know how to handle that issue in advance in the future

Customer complaints are usually not personal. When employees understand that the customer’s anger is directed toward the company, not the employee, they are better able to deal with the emotions of the customer. If the employee doesn’t take a customer’s comments personally, it will help them remain calm. Remaining calm will, in turn, help calm the customer more rapidly. Focus on the customer rather than the complaint. Customer-focus will help the employee empathize or “walk in the shoes” of the customer. It will help them listen more sympathetically to a complaining customer — which is often all the customer wants. Plus it will help them remain calm and polite while a customer vents his frustrations. Attitude is everything in creating satisfied customers. Even the most irate customer will usually calm down when dealing with someone who is obviously doing their best to understand the customer’s situation. If employees truly listen to a customer complaint, valid or not, the customer will at least feel as if they are being heard. Sometimes that’s enough to completely diffuse a negative situation. Empower employees to handle customer complaints themselves. Obviously, there will be a point when a more senior person must make a decision in dealing with a complaint, but empowering employees to deal with common complaints and issues on their own will go a long way toward creating a more positive customer experience and increasing employee engagement. Verify before taking action. Make sure that you ask what would make the customer happy and then verify before taking any action. Customers will rarely ask for more that we are prepared to offer, so ask what will make them happy first. Once they have made their suggestions, then verify that if you are able to provide that remedy, the customer will be satisfied. Nothing worse than working to resolve an issue only to find that the customer is still not happy. Move quickly to resolution. Once a resolution is agreed, move quickly. When an upset customer calls and receives an immediate resolution to their problem, they will be much more likely to return as a customer. In fact, a good recovery builds greater customer loyalty than simply delivering as expected — so make sure to use this to your advantage. The exact opposite is true, however, if the customer is “given the runaround” by being transferred from employee to manager to higher level executive before their problem is handled. Provide tools. Give employees options when dealing with difficult customers or those with an issue the employee can’t resolve. For example, if a customer bought an item on clearance, and the store’s policy is to never accept returns on clearance items, allow employees to offer the customer a complimentary gift card, an extended warranty on the item, or a similar bonus. While it may not be exactly what the customer asks for, it will show customer appreciation and help them see that the company is going out of its way to satisfy the complaint. There will be times when nothing can be done to satisfy an unhappy customer. At that point, the customer service employee must simply defer that customer to a manager or supervisor. But employees who handle customer service complaints quickly, efficiently and professionally will minimize those issues and will give employees a sense of ownership in their jobs and in the company.

There are always many questions when it comes to making an investment in a home based business. Many people wonder if its worth it to even invest anything into the industry and the reason why they always question themselves is due to all the rumors going around about home businesses not being as legit as they say they are. This article will illustrate how to analyze whether the investment is worth it and also give you an inside on the home business industry.

The first thing that you have to know is more on the home based business industry in order to clear all the rumors that you may have heard. The truth is that just like in anything in life you are going to have honest businesses and also dishonest ones. The way to tell them apart is by simply looking at what they have to offer. If the business promises you success overnight then you definitely know that is not very legit but remember that you have to do your research before making any actual judgment.

Within time you will be able to tell which ones are good or not. Now to know if the investment is worth it you definitely have to do your research and take down some numbers. In business you have to pay attention to your ROI, which is your return on investment. So for example if your business costs you 10 dollars a month and you are earning 100 a month you are making your money back and profit on top of it. It will take some time for you to get use to it but it will become second nature eventually.

Starting a new business can be an exciting and challenging endeavor, and the first step that people recommend is to do extensive market research as well as competitive analysis. This will give you a clearer idea of the business as well as a chance to find out all you can about the business. You have to analyze if you are capable of running the business, have the necessary resources, and also determine if the return on the investment is good.

Competitive Analysis:

This is necessary to study your competition and ensure that you offer better services or products than they do to capture the market when you commence operations. It will help devise a competitive edge to your products or services.

Determine the Services or Products That You Want To Sell:

Extensive market research will give you a better idea of the demand for your product or service. You can design better products or services in such a way as to make your offer irresistible to the customers. Pricing of the services or products you sell also has to be calculated carefully, making sure you are not under-pricing.

Business Plan:

The experts cannot emphasize enough the importance of drafting a business plan. A business plan is a valuable performance assessment tool. A good business plan will include a brief description of the business, its history, and a list of the owners or partners. It will describe the target goals and objectives, the services or products that you are offering, the demand for them, the target market, and the strategies to be adopted. It must include cash flow projections, as cash flow too has to be planned carefully. Many are the businesses that have failed because of insufficient cash flow as well as mismanagement. A good plan will identify areas where improvements are necessary and how to achieve them.

Planning a Loan Proposal:

It will be necessary to plan a loan application to ensure that your loan is granted to finance your start-up. A well-drafted business plan, cash flow projections, bank statements, articles of incorporation or partnership documents, collateral if necessary, and tax returns need to be submitted along with the loan application. You have to convince them you are a low-risk investment for them.

Planning Effective Marketing Strategies:

Advertising and marketing are crucial aspects of a business that have to be planned extremely carefully. Budget your resources carefully and make sure your ads in the newspaper, radio, and other media appear at regular intervals. You can also send out occasional fliers. Make sure your advertisement extols the benefits of using your products or services.

When all these factors are carefully considered, planned and implemented, your business is sure to succeed if under good management. You could make use of the services as well as products that are designed to help new entrepreneurs manage a business successfully.

These are a few things that have to be taken into account while planning a business to ensure its success.

The voice of an account service manager rose above the rest during a recent industry event. A client, the man complained to a colleague, had re-written ad copy to include certain sale items. Seemingly-frustrated, the man recounted the story with great detail, including the fact that the client had completely re-written the copy for the advertisement.

“I would love my job if it weren’t for the clients!” he then concluded.

Therein lies your problem, I thought. You have your job because you have clients. This man’s attitude would likely be his real source of frustration, if not his ultimate downfall.

I’ve observed disdain for customers before. And I can certainly relate to feeling as though clients “undervalue” offerings. I’ve always put 110 percent of myself into my work and what I deliver; that’s a true reflection of my values. So, in the past, if clients didn’t fall over themselves with praise for what I had created I’d take it personally, feeling disappointed and disheartened.

As I was reading “100 Ways to Create Wealth” by Steve Chandler I had a true “A ha” moment: I realized that my job wasn’t as much about me as I’d thought! It was about the wants and needs of my clients. I needed to stop focusing on my bruised ego and listen to what they were saying

Here’s an example: Several months ago a client asked me to set up a promotion celebrating a major milestone in his business. He also asked me to invite surrounding businesses to participate in order to expand the celebration, help defray the costs and increase customer traffic. I reached out to several of the retailers in person and via e-mail. One business owner jumped on board immediately, responding, “We’re in!” I was thrilled.

The promotion proved a major success despite menacing winter weather. People turned out and supported my client and the surrounding retailers. Then it came time to collect the money from the participants. That’s when the trouble started.

The first neighbor on board was holding out. To say I was shocked is an understatement, but what followed really threw me for a loop. That business owner said that I had not fulfilled my promises and had misled everyone involved. He couldn’t believe that a person like me was still in business, he said. I didn’t know how to respond.

I considered telling this guy where to go, sending him a nasty-gram or having my assistant “handle it.” Instead I let a few days pass and reflected on where my accountability lay in this situation. Here’s what I realized:

This man’s complaint was just information. Not good, bad or otherwise. Just information, from his perspective. As cliché as it sounds, it wasn’t personal; it was just business. I needed to put my Savvy Businesswoman hat on and give up the tantrum. I didn’t need to be on a mission to prove him wrong. I needed to learn from this experience and move on.

A complaint, while maybe unpleasant, can be a great jumping off point for uncharted territory in any direction. It’s valuable information when used properly. It’s a chance to analyze and improve, a rare opportunity for growth.

In this case I concluded that although e-mail is convenient for me, it’s not always the best form of communication for others. I don’t believe this man had truly understood what his business would be receiving as a participant in the program. He’s a man who appreciates face time and in-person explanations. I had not managed all the expectations well.

If do-overs applied, I’d do that one differently. But that’s not the way life works. So I view this as a valuable lesson in how to always come from a place of service, communicate effectively and better manage expectations.

When you take the emotion out of a conflict and treat a complaint as an exchange of information rather than an accusation, important dialogue can ensue. My advice to any business person is this: Rather than avoid customer complaints, embrace them for the powerful information sources they are. Just make sure you hear the rationale, not an accusation. Don’t let a defensive ego undermine this gift you’re receiving. You might just find that your relationship with your client grows stronger by your willingness to deal with the complaint… uh… information you’ve been given.