Don’t Fool Yourselves

Have you ever gone to a business meeting or networking event and collected business cards from companies you were interested in?

When you looked at the business cards that were presented to you what did you think?

Be honest now…

I know when I am offered a card, one that is really unique or has a professional polished appearance I get a favorable impression, in fact it makes the difference between believing the business is successful or not. When the card is designed really well I get the impression they are a well established successful company, one that knows who they are and what they are talking about. On top of that I think WOW this is a really great card.

Do you think that a great business card or professionally designed marketing materials would make your business stand out to a potential client? Yes of course it would.

Remember the old saying “Your first impression is Your last impression?"

Let's think about the flip side…

You go to a meeting and are handed a business cards that is – designed with clip art and printed from a home computer.What do you say to that – what impression do your get?

If they can’t afford business cards how successful are they?
If they can’t even afford business cards how professional are they?
If they can’t afford business cards_______ (fill in the blanks)

Of course in my world, I would say “You need my services”!! Everyone wants to do business with a successful company if you do not portray success through your marketing material you are missing the boat.

How many people have not taken you up on your offers or investigated your website because they are turned off by what they see? You may want to be frugal and cut corners, but business cards and marketing materials should not be one one of those corners.

Last but not least – those free cards you get from places like Vista Print may be free but I can spot them in a second, in fact on the back it has an ad for Vista Print and it should, after all they gave you that product for free.

This is twice as true when it comes to your website...

Uncle Sal may be a wonderful man, and know how to put together a web page (after all it is free, or cheap) but I guarantee 9 out of 10 times it is not professionally put together.

Successful people who are on the Internet know the difference between a home grown websites and a professional one!!

Remember...
It is your professional image as well as your companies professional image that will make or break your business. Everyone wants to do business with a successful person/company, if your image is less you are ultimately losing money.

Don't squeeze pennies only to lose dollars...

When you don't portray yourself as successful or credible a potential client will not want to do business with you. Don't fool yourselves it is the little things that we overlooked that can create a negative impression.

Pamela Jacob Artista Design

You may look Professional – Do you act it?

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend Salt Lake City chambers meeting by a client. I was looking forward to the presentation it was advertised as “Learn the Latest on Internet Marketing and Design”.

I don't like to toot my own horn, but I am quite knowledgeable in this field. I have learned from being in this industry for so long, of course if you work on the internet your truth is “the more you know the more you need to know”!! I felt like, even if I picked up a pearl or two of information it was well worth my time.

I am not going to name names but the group that was presenting that day was a well known Internet development/marketing company in the Salt Lake Valley. It was an early morning meeting, and I arrived 5 minutes before the presentation was to begin. As I exited from my car and was running to the building a well dressed man in his twenties was just entering the building as well. I

noticed him because he looked professional, and I wondered if he was going to the same meeting as I was. As he rushed along in front of me, he opened the door and didn't have the courtesy of noticing that I was right behind him – so basically closed the door in my face.

My impression – he looked professional but was not – his manners were going to keep him from where he wanted to go. To my amazement, he was the presenter at this presentation. People were already sitting waiting for him as he arrived. The people at this meeting were professional people from different industries. The fact he was not prepared when they came in, ready to shake hands and connect in a professional way caused him business I guarantee.

Once he did manage to set up, the computer was not working properly, and the presentation was not well prepared. He rambled on and on with little structure. I tried to help him out as he was flailing, I didn’t want to take over, and it certainly wasn’t my place.

One by one these business owners left, by the end of the meeting, there were only about 6 people in attendance. After the meeting, I did have some business owners who asked for my card – and I had really held myself back only saying a few things when I felt he was making little sense.

The moral of this story – when you have a great opportunity to present to any group of people the professional presentation goes way beyond your appearance. If you are sending an employee - make sure you send the best presenter. If you are the presenter make sure you are prepared. Arrive early – Stay on the task – make sense…

Above all else make sure when you present anything about your business to a possible client that you talk in layman’s terms don’t use industry jargon…

Make sure you are using terminology people understand. IE: If you need to translate what a blog is and does – make sure you can say it as succinctly as possible…

Most of us know these common sense rules, but it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves – and to teach our employee’s everything that is done in the context of your business must exude professionalism!

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Pamela Jacob is the owner of Artista Design. If you need a website developed or redesigned, project manager, consultant or graphic designer – you have found one. Pamela’s specialty is taking an idea and making it come to fruition. “If you want to own an online business that thrives, if you have a passion for something you want to share, if you have an idea that you want to come to life contact me. My initial consultations are FREE”.

But This Host Is So Cheap!

One of the things that I find confuses a lot of my clients is what type of hosting package to buy. If you are new to the Internet business world and your have never had a website – a host is a foreign word to you, even if you do have a website you may not know what you need in a hosting provider. I hope this article will help clear up some of that confusion. I have met the most brilliant business people who have been confused by terminology so let me first start by explaining the difference between an ISP and an Internet hosting provider… ISP – Internet Service Provider This is the company that actually provides you with a way to access the Internet – if you have a dial-up then it would be something like PC People or Earth Link. If you have cable modem it would be Comcast, Quest – etc. This is the connection that goes from your computer to the Internet. Internet Hosting Provider Which is where you place your website – if you were/are a business owner that had a brick and mortar business you would rent a store and place your goods in that store. The same holds true with an Internet host they hold all the pages of your website, graphics, scripts and everything else. This is a simplified explanation, but you get the picture. Now that we have that out of the way lets talk about hosting packages and what to look for. As a web developer/designer I have worked with the best and worst of hosts. I have found hosting companies that look inexpensive but nickel and dime the customer to death by the time they are done. They look great in the beginning and even sound like a fantastic deal but are really not a great bargain. I have found hosting companies I have loved in the beginning but later have gotten so big or changed hands and the customer service was so bad I had to go else where. I want to warn you of the one stop shop hosting companies that do everything – they will register your domain name – build your website (usually template websites) and host them. Saving you money and touting the convenience of all they do… Ultimately you feel like you are hostage to them – they own your domain and website. Please see this article for more … Promotional Designer: I thought it was a good idea... What do I do now? I know as a business owner you want to save money where you can – which is just good business sense, there are a lot of choices – do your research - make sure that host will meet your needs. I want you to chose carefully – be wise about the host you pick this is so important because all hosts are not created equal.

Factors to look at when selecting a hosting company

• Live Tech Support This is one of the most important aspects of a host I want to be able to talk to a live breathing person – through chat on the Internet or phone. I do not want to rely on an email period. Which is my position – if my store (website) is down or my email is out of order my business is going down the drain. This is #1…

• Do they use a C-Panel What is a c-panel you say? A C-panel allows you or your web developer/designer to be able to control different elements of your website. You can add emails, change passwords, even point domain names and many other important tasks. It gives you control over many aspects of your website.

• What is the up Time If the the server is down and your website is not up on the Internet 24/7 then what happens when your website visitors go to your store? You lose business ! I look for a 99% up time guarantee . There are ways to monitor your up time go to www.artistadesign.com/resources.html you will be able to get a free website monitor. Just click on the monitor you see on the left hand side of the website. You will be able to register and get a monitor to put on your website - best of all it is FREE!

• Disk Space - Depending on how large you website is will depend on the disk space needed. If you have a logo and a lot of text you will need very little disk space.

• Bandwidth - If you are running a site with lots of images or downloads you will need a lot higher bandwidth than a small site with mainly text. If you go over your allotted bandwidth you will usually pay a lot of extra money or visitors may not be able to download files you need them to download.

• CGI Bin - It is very rare you will see a host without a CGI bin. It is important that you have one. If you do not have you own CGI bin you cannot install scripts and programs.

• MySQL Database - Some programs require a data-base. If you are going to have a shopping cart, a customer log in or a number of different functions for your website in the future you may want to store the information. Some hosts will want to charge you extra for MySQL included in a hosting package - but you will fine most good hosts will include it. Even if you don't think you will ever need it, I would find a host who has it in a hosting package even one which is an upgrade from the one you are purchasing. I find most websites grow as the business grows, and eventually you may need a database for something.

• PHP - Many dynamic scripts and programs require PHP support. Again, this feature can be extra with some hosts but most good hosts will offer this free. With this you will find free blogging scripts (WordPress) shopping cart scripts (Zen Cart) and many other things. As a matter of fact in the host that I use and would recommend these things are right in the C-Panel and can be applied with a click of a mouse!

• Perl - If you do not have Perl, you cannot run Perl programs. Many good scripts that you can get for free or buy are written in Perl.

• SSL (Secure Socket Layer) - If you intend to accept credit card orders directly from you website, you will need Secure Socket Layer included in your plan. This is an easily overlooked feature. To use this feature you need a merchant account – there is no essential need to make this a priority if you have no merchant account – or if you use a 3 party processor such as PayPal.

• FTP Access – Unlimited and unrestricted ability to transfer files to your site is essential. You will need an FTP program to transfer files.

• Statistics Program - I use to say have a great statistics program and it still is an essential tool to have. Most good hosts provide this as well.

  My preference is Google Analytics it is an impressive tool and you would not believe how much information you can gain from having that on your website. It goes way above and beyond anything I have seen a hosting package provide. Google provides the code for free you just need your web professional to place it on the pages of your website. You will be able to fine tune your marketing it is outstanding. Pamela@artistadesign.com