The Fine Art Of Surfing Or How I Won The Web Over

There is firstly a dive you must take into the world of the web - starting a business these days needs to take a firm grip on the Internet, whether the business actually will use the www or not. The purpose of the net to many companies starting out is that wonderful word which can make or break a business - advertising.


The web must be seen as a tool. Thank goodness, gone are the days of small businesses trailing around the streets of a looming trading estate, idly flipping leaflets through each door of each prospective customer (besides, did you know that this sort of door drop marketing only ever brings back 1 or even 2 per cent of trade? Not worth it is it?) in the pouring rain only to find that virtually next to none of these leaflets grow into actual custom. I must admit, door dropping is worthless for most businesses, particularly ones who are just getting off the ground. So, therefore, take some advice from these well constructed bullet points (and we all know how much we love these!)

• Don't door drop unless you are starting up a pizza delivery firm - in other words, if your business is going to primarily deal with going actually to a customer's own front door, why should they take a business offer in this way? Think about it.



• Do, if you are set on door dropping, make sure you are talking to your customers in a language they will understand - in other words, if they are to a certain age group, then talk to them in their 'lingo.'



• Don't door drop in the pouring rain - this one might sound silly but think about it for a moment - your leaflets will be soggy, and very uninviting, but most of all, you will not feel in particularly great about what you are doing, whilst your doing it!



• Do research your target market first before door dropping - this means simply that you won't waste valuable time, energy and ink on a load of leaflets in a neighbour of people who are never in a millions years going to want your service.

So there you have it - in a nutshell, it has to be said that door dropping is very unappealing and not worth it, unless you are the pizza company we mentioned. The days are gone when this would have been a viable intention, but in the recent light of junk mail, many folks will find this type of marketing an intrusion.

Get caught in the Web

The spider should not be something feared. There is literally an entire planet right there at the click of a mouse. Without sounding too much like a cliche, the world of marketing has been tipped upside-down since the introduction of the Internet - suddenly you can do business with anyone in the world, so it's best to consider this. Now, this may be a daunting prospect for those of you who simply want to play it safe and only deal with your own neighbourhood in the meantime, but as a clever entrepreneur once said, 'don't fear success' in other words, don't be afraid of pushing out towards a global market, particularly if much of your business can be conducted via the Internet and email.



Taking Advantage of Free Experience

Like many things in life, experience says far more than education and with the Internet improving and expanding everyday, we all need to stay on top of the game. Even if you are a PC whizkid, you still need to keep up to date with the way everyone else is doing business online, especially your customers. So, it might be worth considering the following (oh goodie, here comes those bullets again...)

• Join an agency - if your business is already being conducted by an online agency full of other hopefuls, join up - especially if they might be able to find customers for you - it is a good chance to get into online networking and also check out the competition.



• Take advantage of online courses - there are plenty out there in what ever field is going to help you market your company online. Yes, there are many who will take off your hands vast sums of money for courses via email, but if you haven't got much money, then it is best to avoid these. Got to http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/ for more information. Also check out learn direct if you are in the UK as well as your local council website who will have details on how they can support you in starting your business. You may also find that some online agencies will have courses, or other documents you can download, (mostly in PDF so make sure your PC can read these once you have saved them,) so you can read them later.



• If you are fairly confident with the keyboard, go to Microsoft home page (http://www.microsoft.com/) and click on the training and events tab at the top - here to will find a mass of tutorials which are easy to follow and short as well as offering a short test at the end so you know how much you have taken in. If you need to brush up on Word, Excel, Access and all the other weird and wonderful MS packages you will find all you need here. It is best to get a good idea on how these packages work from 2000, 2003 and 2007 - they are all quite different so it's worth making sure you know how each one works as not all companies are up to date yet.

Don't also underestimate the importance of a website and all the ways you can advertise via this - well will cover this in the next entry....