technology-3262129_960_720Data that is hacked and exposes your customer records is damaging to your business reputation. This can lead to thousands of your clients personal information being stolen. From word of mouth, your impacted clients can tell their friends using social media about your unsecure network. By describing how your website got hacked, this will further damage your business reputation. Not only that, a court might force a company to pay damages if it is clear it didn’t do everything it could to protect its customers. When a company is negligent in the way they handle data, the company could be liable for damage.

Clients and businesses recognize the threats presented to hacking organizations. Businesses are cognizant of hackers intent to steal personal information. Do not be one of those careless companies that store sensitive information and do not utilize ssls to secure their sensitive data of their customers. SSLs are needed for security. Secure Sockets Layer certificates are used for data encryption process to make internet transactions secure. If your business accepts payments online on your website, you need it to encrypt your users’ personal and credit card information. Also, ecommerce site that stores consumer’s emails, passwords, and banking info, need a SSL. Furtheremore, be secure and use ssls on your website. Therefore, this will give consumers confidence and trust to enter sensitive information on your website.

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business-idea-3175803_960_720Are there layoffs at the large company that you work at? Are the layoffs taking a toll on you? Is the work atmosphere toxic? Are you laid-off?

By going through those experiences, you will learn that you are more passionate for more stability. These experiences will make you want to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is to take action and have the courage to commit and persevere through all of the challenges and failures. It involves the freedom to envision something new and to make it happen.

Become your own boss, develop a business of your own creation, and watch it grow and thrive. Being on your own you control your destiny. Implement a bootstrapping strategy that will build a long-term profitable business. As an entrepreneur, set up meeting goals, develop business skills, and put money back into my business. When starting out, avoid overspending on luxury and keep yourself on a low salary. You are in control how you market and the strategies for client acquisition. As an entrepreneur, you can adjust your pricing and offerings to match the supply and demand.

There will be some entrepreneurs that will experience several failed startups before finding success. It requires a degree of humility to able to accept the education. Furthermore, remain focused, regardless of the obstacles. Therefore, learn from your failures and you are one step closer to success.

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Do you have any online reviews for your company? Do you know the amount of reviews that your company has? Would you like to acquire more reviews?

In this blog, it is pointed out that reviews play an integral role in being found. To get more reviews, provide excellent product and service experience to your customers. Consumers know that reviews are significant to your business. Ask for reviews in person as well as email. When a customer compliments you via email, phone, and in person, ask for the same feedback in an online review site such as Google maps. Ask for reviews as soon as possible, customers are more likely to give you feedback right away.

Do not be afraid of receiving negative reviews. Shoppers will be distrustful, if all they read are positive reviews. They will think that all positive reviews are not legitimate. Negative reviews can help your organization fix areas that need improvement. Take a poor review as an opportunity to learn and develop. When you receive a negative review, reach out to the consumer and try to rectify the situation. Make an effort to remedy the situation immediately. According to entrepreneur.com, over 40 percent want an answer within an hour. Once your company resolves an issue, you should ask the negative reviewer to provide a positiive review update. When a situation is remedied, a negative reviewer will often update a review to a positive one.

Online reviews can be used to win back lost customers. By figuring out why they left, gives you the opportunity to fix the problem and persuade them to come back. Customers that you keep happy can convert into loyal customers. A brand is connecting to the customers, when they get them happy. Happiness leads to gratification. This leads to buying with excitement new products or services. Reviews can be used to do the selling for your business. Showcase reviews can allow potential customers to get a better understanding of the experiences expected. Furtheremore, use reputation management to get reviews.

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Is your website converting visitors into sales? Is your website responsive? Is your website still functional?

In todays competitive environment,acquiring customers is hard enough. Things break and need fixing. Just like your car needs maintenance over time, so does your website. Over time your roof of your house needs to be replaced, just like a website needs a redo. Your website is your real estate.

Often times the first impression of your business is based almost exclusively on your website. According to business.com, 75% of consumers admit to judge a business’credibility based on their website design. An outdated website is not going to encourage users engagement. Older website designs become obsolete. A website that is not updated makes it look like your company is out of business. It is recommended to keep your site’s content up to date. Visitors need to see content that is current and relevant. Also, search engines love fresh content. In addition, have visually appealing photos and call to action on your website.

By developing a modern look website, it shows that you are current on market trends. A redesign should be a continuous process based on changing and testing elements of your website. Visitors expect to have the same user experience in mobile as using a desktop, so responsive design is significant. Site navigation needs to be simple so visitors can find what they are looking for. Load speeds on the website must be fast and the website should be secure. Furthermore, the strategy of a business changes over time and so should your website to include newer functionality and technology.

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Are you in need for more links to your website? Links to your site is a fundamental factor driving your search engine rank and your website traffic. A link needs to provide one more of the following signals, relevancy, popularity and power.

Google tends to give weight to links from major companies, trade groups, government organizations,and suites built on edu domains, which are reserved for educational institutions. Find niche specific links. For example, if you are a distributor of national manufactures, request links to your site. Sponsorship is another way to get links. Sponsor nonprofits and sports teams are great ways to get links. Join the Chamber of Commerce, and Better Business Bureau. Also, joining organizations like bni or rotary to list your websites to gain more links. If the government is a customer of your business, request a link to your website. Look at business incubator programs at universities to get education links. Partner your business with universities to get more links.

Content is king. Certainly, creating high quality, well written content can help your business gain more links. Create a blog and post to facebook and twitter to get more links for your business. Moreover, follow my suggestions in order to get more links. Therefore, gaining more links can increase your visibility.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google handles 90% of the world’s internet searches. Local SEO keeps becoming more integral each day. Not only has mobile revolutionized SEO with digital assistants,your reputation,local SEO is significant in terms of visibility providing results. Google Questions And Answers also plays a role in being found for local SEO.

Google developed a new feature called Questions and Answers for Google Maps in August. This allows businesses to post FAQs in the local panel. Google Questions and Answers can be used for feedback and opinions. Google Questions and Answers allows local business owners to answer consumer questions. Users can collaborate to find answers. Think of this as an open forum concept. This feature moved from only mobile to include desktop in December.

Reviews, questions and answers can potentially impact your online reputation. Local businesses need to implement this feature to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions. Protect your reputation. Google continues to make developments to this feature. They do this to help make it more useful to both users and businesses. Moreover,this is great for Google and for consumers looking for answers.

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A website is the face of your business. Your website should reflect your brand. Often times it can be the first point of contact for your potential customers. Selecting a web design company can be challenging for visitors who do know what to look for. A web design firm should be looked at as your marketing partner. The website designs play a significant role for your company achieving its goals. The hiring decision that you choose will dictate your website success. The company who you choose should be friendly, responsive, and ethical.

In evaluating potential web development agencies, do not be cheap. Check out the web design portfolio for the quality of design, ease of use,consistent fresh, modern look throughout each site. See the look and design of the custom websites developed. In addition, the website should be easy to navigate. The company should specialize in responsive design. When the visitors browse using a laptop or a mobile, the user expects the same usability features as using a desktop.

With many options of web design companies,it can get overwhelming determining the right fit for your business. What I recommend doing is read reviews on Google for the reputation of the business. In particular, see if the company has 6 to 10 reviews to provide. You want to see 4 star and 5 star reviews for the business on Google.

Find out their expertise and credentials. Read up about the education and experience. In addition,ask the technology platforms that the web design company utilizes. Ask for references. Furthermore, select a financially stable company that wants to build a long-term relationship with your business.

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Is your website visible? Do you know your website visibility score? Do you want to see a tool to see your website visibility?

If your website cannot be found, you need to improve its visibility. To attract more customers your business needs to be listed on all the major directories. In addition, the information of your company needs to be 100% accurate for your company name, address and telephone number. This would allow potential customers to call your business and find your location. Find out your visibility score by trying our visibility tool. Our visibility tool will grade your company for visibility, video visibility, reputation, and negative reviews.

After you review the report, you will see what your company needs to do to become more visible on the web. Take action from the suggestions of our free visibility tool. Once you do the suggestions from our visibility, test your visibility by running the report again. Moreover, there are millions of websites on the internet and your competition keeps growing. Furthermore,the more visibility you have, the greater opportunity you have to bring new visitors to your website.

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entrepreneur-593362_960_720Are you a corporate refugee? Are there layoffs at your company? Do you feel fearful of being laid off?

If so, start your business and be your own boss. Be an entrepreneur and control your destiny. Take the risk and be your own boss. Control your financial destiny. The amount of money you bring in as entrepreneur has more potential than being an employee for a company. Just know that careful planning is involved in being an entrepreneur. Develop a business plan. Research and develop innovative products or services for the right market. Test the products and get feedback from potential customers.

Lean marketing is integral to create a profitable business model. It is recommended for entrepreneurs to be able to communicate their message in a clear, concise and compelling manner. Guy Kawasaki said, “The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning — to create a product or service to make the world a better place.” To be successful as an entrepreneur, it takes hardwork, determination and persistence. You also need a positive attitude and the right mindset.

Do not be afraid to fail and learn from your failures. As an entrepreneur, you are in a game that is stacked against you. Tony Robbins reports that 96% of businesses will fail over a 10-year period of time. The remaining 4% does not mean they succeed but they were able to survive. Very few entrepreneurs make it big without first experiencing some failures. Moreover, continue to acquire more qualifications,take risks and be an entrepreneur. Furthermore, continue to improve your products and services to differentiate your start up business from your competition. Therefore, accomplish your dreams by learning from your failures.

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You have a great idea for a new product. Document your idea, research a product, develop the prototype,file a patent and create a business plan. Now comes the strategy about the product launch.

Launching a new product involves innovative tactics. During product development have your team members familiarize them with the new product. Marketing is the driving force in developing the right strategy for the the product launch. Launching a new product can be challenging. A new product to be successful in the marketplace needs a plan. Set goals to measure the product.The product needs to be tested beforehand. Continue with the testing to make sure that it is bug free. Have users experience the product to see how your product or service works. Collecting feedback and insight can determine product success or failure. Do not wait too long by trying to perfect your product before going to market. Release it, and start planning the next model.

You will need to develop your marketing materials. The marketing materials includes landing pages, utilizing social media accounts, and press releases. Get written customer testimonials of the product. Finally, industry events and trade shows are an excellent opportunity to announce your product launch. Moreover, larger companies can have news conferences.

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