Casual Articles - Internet and Businesses Online

Bad Hires: Seven Ways to Avoid Doing It Again
Have you ever made a bad hire and wondered how it happened? The resume looked good, the candidate seemed to interview well — he or she said all the right things — yet after you made the hire you realized you made a big mistake. How could that happen? What went wrong?Recruiting good candidates is not an easy task for any manager. The process is complicated. Candidates often know what to say and do to get the job. And the process is going to get more difficult.As the economy continues to improve, your current employees who were concerned about changing jobs during the recent recession are now starting to look for other opportunities. According to a recent America Online study, 58 percent of the 5,000 respondents said they may or definitely will start a job search when the economy improves. At the same time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports by the year 2010, we will be short 10 million workers in the United States alone.So what should you do? Make recruitment the focus of everyone in the organization.But just saying that everyone should be involved won't get it done. As with all things, when managers spotlight an issue and measure the results, good things often happen. So here are seven additional secrets to improve your overall recruitment program:Look at your organization

ur specific needs.

• A plan that will take you step-by-step through the maze of software, tools, and activities necessary to make an online success of your business.

• Which current technology is best for my personal circumstances?

• How can I minimize my expenses while having the maximum benefits?

• Where can I go to get truthful answers to important business questions?

• What is different on the Internet opposed to my current marketing offline approach?

• How do I get advertising exposure if I can’t get a good search engine position?

• What advertising alternatives are available besides search engines?

• What is Affiliate Marketing? Scam or real income generator?

• Shortcuts to automating and managing a new online business

The list is endless but we will focus on getting started, teaching you how to crawl (quickly), then to walk, and finally to run. Our goal here is to open your eyes to the real value of taking your business online, a true expose and road map on Internet success. Now let’s cut to the chase!

Access to accurate important information that provides working solutions

I suggest taking some time to get acclimated to the Internet b

Quiz - What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?
A few months ago a strategic planning exercise led me to ask about the kinds of technology entrepreneurs that I have encountered in the marketplace. Since then, I've done some research into typologies that help with understanding ourselves and others. After I describe my eight entrepreneurial types, I include some quick references into this type of research.My work focuses on helping Entrepreneurs to build and grow their businesses, especially those dealing with software, internet or e-Commerce related businesses. If you were an entrepreneur I worked with, I'd first want to understand you from the perspective of your deepest motivations for your business. This knowledge helps me to answer important questions like:* How do you define success?* What are your business biases?* How will others in the entrepreneurial eco-system perceive you?* What are some prescriptions for filling gaps you may have? Following is a quiz that highlights some of the key elements of the different "entrepreneur archetypes" that I've encountered. What kind are you?Answer the questions under each type and see which one(s) resonate most deeply with why you would start a business. I include a brief commentary on each archetype. In the future, I'll publish some details on the i

This series of articles takes a different slant than the usual targeting of aspiring entrepreneurs. Here we focus on existing business owners that believe the Internet is important to their future success, but they just can’t seem to get started embracing it as an effective marketing tool. Since this is a series of articles we will need to lay a little ground work here. This introduction may seem a bit lengthy but it’s necessary to be sure we are on the same page and the message is clear. Then we’ll get to the main course and cut to the chase!

There are countless of experienced business persons knowledgeable in brick and mortar offline business operation, but don’t really have a clue as to what the Internet can really do for their business or how to do it. Yet, they see its overwhelming impact on business worldwide and realize they had better embrace this new technology or risk falling behind the competition. This article series is dedicated to YOU! Even if you are a beginner, the practical information here can be of great benefit to you.

Yesterday, I had a call from Frank M. in St Petersburg, FL. He is a very intelligent person that built a strong website around a niche product. The presentation is professional and he’s been at it for several years with unsatisfactory results. He’s paid good money after bad for “consultants” that have made grandiose promises of Internet marketing magic, claiming they have the best Opt-in mailing lists, miraculous software guaranteed to eliminate all the work of running an online marketing business, or even to place his domain name at the top of Yahoo or Google. All were a waste of his resources.

Are you experiencing similar disappointments, money and time wasters? You likely seek what Frank wants, real information, not blue sky dreams. If you’re successful running an offline business, you don’t see the world through rose colored glasses, but know it takes a polished business plan, you are forever refining, for ongoing success.

Welcome to the real world of the Internet. The same rules apply. There just isn’t any secret formula like many so called Guru’s would like you to believe. Like any business endeavor, you must research and learn the right information that works. We call this “insider secrets.” Not because it’s mysterious, but because successful people generally don’t reveal their secrets. All industries have their specialist that have “been there done that,” and are willing to write about it. We’re not referencing “get rich quick” formulas targeting rookies and wannabe millionaires.

We mean consultants that have a proven track record of doing it themselves and testimonials from others that have done it. The real problem here is anyone can create a website and have their friends give bogus testimonials. Most of their “how to formulas” don’t work. You’ve probably already learned that lesson. Frank did.

So what’s a person to do? What approach did you use to setup your existing offline business? You researched your industry, learned all you could about it, and finally implemented your business plan. And you’re still developing it, in some cases after many years. It must change as the times change. Again, welcome to the Internet.

Let me explain. Internet technology is changing faster than most of us can keep up with. That’s confusing. We purchase some software to provide a solution for a business need. Then a new way comes out that seems much better and we upgrade losing our investment in the older version, which we may not even had time to utilize. This happens because most individuals running brick and mortar businesses can’t seem to spend the time to focus on their Internet business. Sure it’s the same business just a new marketing tool. The reality here is it takes the work and knowledge of setting up a completely new business.

We get the point. We have explained some problems facing your Internet marketing endeavor. But what are the solutions, real practical answers. We will cover the following topics in this series. We’ll break each one down over the next several articles.

What you need to get started in the right direction:

• Access to accurate important information that provides working solutions.

• Will my product or service have a chance for success on the Internet?

• Identifying important information that is true, timely, and works. Not the phony claims from individuals that supposedly “made it” but didn’t or those that had a tremendous behind the scenes advantage over competitors from the get-go. Sure, there are always the exceptions that project “If I can do it so can you.”

• Knowing what really works and what doesn’t on the Internet.

• Examples and case histories of others doing it and some insider information on how they are doing it.

• Having choices to the best solution for your specific needs.