Never in history have customers been more fickle and demanding than in today’s economy. Businesses that do not provide outstanding customer service will be long gone. In this new virtual business environment, customer service is your main competitive advantage. Therefore, business success lies more than ever, on retaining your customers. Take advantage of the virtual business strategy to catapult your business profits!

Technology, especially customer service technology, has evolved by leaps and bounds. Customers are no longer chained to their local store to get outstanding customer service; they are empowered to take their business wherever they can get the best service. Now that they are freed of distance constrains, thanks to technology, they are free to buy anywhere in the planet…your competition is no longer the shop across the street; but the one in Asia, South America or anywhere on earth where there is outstanding customer service.

Keeping customers is not only smart business practice but a very valuable one as well. This is clearly measured by the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Most business owners only see the value of a customer based on the first sale, but do not take into consideration the future purchases of this customer. So let’s see an example:

Mary gets her slacks cleaned at the cleaners for $8. Most business owners will see this as the only revenue. Fortunately, Mary comes back the following week and gets her dresses and some blouses cleaned for a total of $20. Now, you did not have to spend any money on marketing, advertising or sales to bring Mary back, she simply liked your service and the way you cleaned her clothes. So in reality, you made $28 from Mary. Therefore the true value of Mary is all the cleaning she has done PLUS all the future cleaning she will get done if you work hard enough to retain her loyalty…follow me so far?

In order to get the lifetime value of your average customers, simply multiply the average sales you made by the average number the customer came back to your business. Here is the simple formula:

So now that you know the CLV of your customers, the next question is…are your customers profitable? After all, you are in business to make a profit. In order to find out if your customers are profitable, simply multiply your average profit per sale by the estimated number of times your customers buy again. Here is the simple CLP formula.

Knowing these numbers will help you decide how a virtual business can increase your customer’s lifetime value and therefore you business profits.

In a virtual business model, you can implement the different customer service technologies readily available to reduce cost (and therefore increase short-term profit). A virtual business model also allows you to implement a multi-channel customer communications system to increase customer loyalty (and therefore increase long-term profit).

 

A virtual business customer service set up:

• Is mostly free or of very little cost
• It is web ready
• You do not need to know programming to implement it
• You can have it up and running in minutes
• You can have employees or virtual agents anywhere in the world

Now, let’s see how these points affect the CLP formula we discussed above. Customer Lifetime Profit or CLP is all about knowing the profit your customers bring. This means, if you lower your costs, your virtual business profits will be higher. Therefore by having a web based customer service infrastructure in your virtual business, your employees can work out of their homes. This lowers your costs because you no longer have to provide office space, utilities, desks, supplies, etc. If your business and industry allows it, you can even hire virtual reps for your virtual business…this means no payroll taxes or employee benefits. Since most of the applications are free or low cost, this means your out of pocket set-up investment costs are truly minute.

 

A virtual business multi-channel communication system is composed of:

• Chat
• Voip Phone
• Virtual PBX
• Online Fax
• Online Support Desk
• Customer Relationship Management System
• Web Forms

….and sometimes the old snail mail

How do these multi-channel strategies and applications help you with your customer loyalty? Again, going back to the Customer Lifetime Value or CLV discussed before, the more your customers buy from you, the higher your CLV. With an online multi-channel, 24/7 support system, they can reach you in whichever way suits them best, creating massive customer loyalty. Loyalty means your customers will keep coming back for more, which in return means higher CLV.

Keeping customers has never been this difficult. As you can see, setting up your customer service system as a virtual business will decrease your costs, therefore increasing your profits (CLP). It will also keep your customers buying from you over and over again therefore increasing your customer value (CLV). Remember, customer loyalty will make you a lot more money in the long run!

To help you out and get you started, I wrote a FREE REPORT: “New Business Success Is All About Merging Your Offline & Online Systems…Learn How to Leave Your Competition in the Dust!” … visit the Virtual Business Dashboard and get your FREE report.

So you decided to start a virtual business…now what? Before you get caught up in the daily routine of growing your company, take a step back and think what you will do with your virtual business AFTER you spent all those thousands of hours building it. Or, if a tragedy strikes, ask yourself, what will happen to your virtual business then?

Don’t have a clue?

Don’t worry, you are not alone. Most virtual business or small business owners do not plan that far out, they are just trying to make it through the day. So I thought I’d give you a few ideas on the best way to transfer or sell a virtual business when the times comes, this way you will have a clearer idea of where you are heading even before you start.

Remember though, the key to building a business ready to be sold at any time, is to remove yourself from the daily operations. This is the reason why, it is imperative to build a process driven, instead of an owner driven company. If you eventually do not make this transition, your business will be worth less and you will most likely receive less for your company!

Here is an overview of the best 7 virtual business (or small business) exit strategies:
1. Employees: A few methods to selling a virtual business to your employees are the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), an MBO (Management Buyouts) and MBI (Management Buyins)
2. Charitable Trusts: This is a great strategy for those virtual business owners who want to benefit from charitable giving. A few methods are CRTs (Charitable Reminder Trust) and CLT (Charitable Load Trust)
3. Family: This is when you want to transfer your virtual business to your children or a family member. A few methods are gifting stock, GRATs (grantor retained annuity trust), FLPs (Family Limited Partnerships), SCINs (self-canceling installment notes), IDGTs (intentionally defective grantor trusts) and private annuities.
4. Co-owners: When buying out a partner the co-owner transfer channel is a good method. It includes buy/sell agreements, rights of first refusal provisions and other transfer techniques.
5. Retire and Sell to an Outsider: When retiring, numerous of the previous mentioned methods can be used. Such as charitable trusts, private annuities or grantor retained annuity trusts.
6. Continue in the Business but Sell to an Outsider: This strategy is usually implemented when an owner needs growth funds but does not want to invest personal assets. It can be sold to a private entity or to a public one.
7. Going Public: This is the process of offering securities (common or preferred stock) of a private company for sale to the general public.

As you can see, planning for the future takes time. So to help you out here, I wrote a FREE REPORT that shows you how to build a valuable business: “You’re About to Learn Secrets That Most Business Owners Will Never Know About How to Really MAXIMIZE PROFITS!” …visit the Virtual Business Dashboard and get your FREE report.

You may have noticed the word “Twitter Patted” in Twitter lately? At first, I had no idea what it meant but according to the Urban Dictionary, Twitter Patted or twitterpated’s definition is:

• Complete and immediate infatuation with someone or something that occurs in the onset of Spring; giddy excitement rooted in the physical. After meeting a potential romantic partner, the overwhelming physical desire and excitement to see them again
• The way you feel when you really like someone but you just dont know how to explain how you feel.
• Complete and immediate infatuation with someone or something that occurs in the onset of Spring; giddy excitement rooted in the physical.
• An enjoyable disorder characterized by feelings of excitement, anticipation, high hopes, recent memories of interludes, giddiness, and physical overstimulation which occur simultaneously when experiencing a new love. These feelings take over without warning, usually at odd times (such as at a check-out line), with or without the partner present, and make it difficult to concentrate on anything but romance. They interfere with work and safe driving, but should be experienced at least once in every person’s lifetime.

There you have it. Twitterpatted basically means to be eagerly enthusiastic, aroused or infatuated with a person, place or thing…have you been feeling twitterpatted lately?

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

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Recession Proof Your Business Now!

On Oct 7, 2009 The New York Times published a Small Business Guide to getting government contracts.

There are many federal contracting opportunities for small businesses, but to take advantage of them you have to know the ins and outs of the government’s contracting rules and regulations. Of the more than 20 million small businesses in the United States, only about 500,000 are currently in a position to do business with the federal government. That’s not because they are the only ones capable of doing the work; it’s because they know how to get the work.

Continue Reading: “Getting Government Contracts”

Recession Proof Your Business Now!

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Hashtags are a tool that you can use in Twitter to track twits, tweets, and anything ‘twitable’. According to a Twitter wiki, “Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.”[1] They were developed as a means of creating groupings within Twitter.

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Steps

1. In order to track hashtags more effectively, follow @hashtags. This allows them to be tracked more productively.
   • Hashtags is part of Hashtags.org.
   • They can also be tracked without following someone at Twemes.com.
2. Start using hashtags in your tweets, preceding key words. The hashtags should have meaning to you.
   • It can be helpful to do a little research first, to find out if the subject you’re tweeting already has an established hashtag.
   • Also, check Suggestions and Tips and Example Uses below for etiquette and general usage.
3. Finally, track other tweets on the subjects you’re interested in (ie: those containing the appropriate hashtags) by browsing/searching at Hashtags.org or TwitterGroups. You can set it up with RSS feeds as well.
4. Learn about the stats resulting from tagging. You can do this with:
   • Organize and display them through an RSS feed, making them available to everyone, including non-tweeters.
   • Use the developing Twitter search engine.
   • Tags have their own webpage through hashtags.org. For example #followfriday
5. Know that you don’t have to hashtag everything. Hashtag etiquette is still evolving, so let good social manners be your guide. It is a rare “tweet” that deserves a hashtag, so tag only those updates that you feel will add significant value to the conversation. One hashtag is best — two are permissible — but three hashtags seem to be the absolute maximum, and risk raising the ire of the community. Tag sparingly, and with careful discretion.[2]

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Warnings

• Don’t Tweet and Drive.
• Read my Tweet on new Google Real-Time Search

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Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Sources and Citations

1. ? http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Hashtags
2. ? http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog/archive/2008/03/11/an-introduction-to-twitter-hashtags.aspx

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Use Hashtags With Twitter. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

This article recently came out in “Entrepreneur.com – 2010 Trends”

“It’s not the $700 billion bank bailout. And no, it’s not the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The real economic stimulus is … wait for it … the recession. That’s right, the Great Recession. This upside-down economy is creating entrepreneurial opportunities aplenty, so long as you can deal with a situation about as stable as a lava flow.

Results from Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ job market index revealed that 8.7 percent of job seekers gained employment by starting their own businesses in second quarter 2009–way, way up from the record low of 2.7 percent during the last quarter of 2008.

Even in finance, confidence and risk tolerance are on the rise. IbisWorld, an industry market research firm, expects that after a great purge, loan brokerage services will see 40 percent growth in 2010.”

DON’T BE LEFT BEHIND….build your own business now!

Please visit VirtualBusinessDashboard.com for more information on how to build your virtual business with little or no money!

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Different social media have different uses, strengths, advantages. Twitter[1] could be called a ‘real time social networking’ site. Learning how to use this fun, and useful, tool can be a bit intimidating. However, with a little effort, it is a tool that can make you ‘digitally’ famous!

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Steps

1. Go to Twitter.com[2] and sign up for a free account.
2. Work on your ‘bio’. You want to make it eye catching, and interesting. Do it just right and it will help you build up ‘followers’.
3. Add friends. You will probably find that you know quite a few people on Twitter. Using the ‘Add Friends’ utility, you can find people you know through your various GMail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts.
4. Using @Replies. Click ‘@Replies’ to see if there are any replies to any of your ‘tweets’. When tweeting, using ‘@’ followed by a user name (with no spaces) in your Tweet will send a ‘mention’ to the user you choose. For example, ‘@Username’ will send a mention to Username and the entire Tweet will show up in his ‘@Replies’ section.
5. Send DMs. DMs are Direct Messages. They go straight to the intended person that you are messaging. It utilizes an inbox and outbox system, but you are still limited to using 140 characters; you are also limited to users who follow you.
6. Send updates. This is where the tweets are generated from. If you want to let your followers know what you are doing, type it in the ‘Update’ text box and then click on ‘Update’. You are allotted 140 characters to do this with.
7. Use hashtags. Prefacing a word with a ‘#’ will create a hashtag. For example A hashtag makes a certain word easily searchable.
8. Learn the Twitter lingo and use it appropriately.[3]
   • Retweet or “RT” – copying a tweet from another user.
   • Tweet – a Twitter blurb or update
   • TweetUps – Using Twitter to meet with other Twitter folks
9. Look for people from organizations that you are in or for those that share a common interest.

Video

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Tips

• Try to use just one tweet to get your point across. If it carries on to another tweet it should be shortened.
• If you use Twitter, remember that your tweet can go to the time line and you can get yourself some followers!

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Warnings

• Don’t give out personal info to others!

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Sources and Citations

1. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
2. ? http://www.twitter.com
3. ? http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Twitter+Glossary

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Use Twitter. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Recession Proof Your Business!

It is truly amazing how much money the government spends contracting with businesses.  At a time when companies are cutting back because of lack of business, the government is spending more than ever…nearly $500 Billion will be spent this year alone!

The U.S. government is required by law to award contracts to civilian businesses. Nearly 40% of all contracts MUST be given to SMALL businesses like yours.

If that is not enough:

• ALL federal purchases between $2,500 and $100,000 MUST be Set-Aside for Small Businesses
• The government is required by regulations to pay small business in 30 days.
• Federal agencies have a statutory obligation to reach out to small businesses and to purchase from them whenever possible.

Recession Proof Your Business!

Here are five steps to winning a government contract:

1. Understand the System: The government’s procurement process is not easy to navigate.  You have to become familiar with its rules and regulations.  The Federal Acquisitions Regulations is like a maze.  Before you start bidding on government contracts, you must learn this process first. 
   
   Don’t assume just because you are dealing with government it is not business as usual.  The government will look at your business organization and see if you are qualified to support a government contract.  Therefore, make sure you get your company in order before you start bidding.  Get your processes, staffing, financial status, track record and performance straightened out first.
2. Take Advantage of the Set Aside Programs: In 1994, The Federal Government passed the “FASA” or “Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act”. The goal was to simplify and streamline how the government purchased goods and services valued at less than $100,000. Under this act ALL federal purchases between $2,500 and $100,000 MUST be Set-Aside for Small Businesses

Additionally the set aside programs help:
• Women-owned businesses: A woman-owned business is one that is owned and controlled 51% or more by a woman or women.
• A small disadvantaged business: A small disadvantaged business is one that is 51% or more owned, controlled and operated by a person who is socially and economically disadvantaged. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Subcontinent Asian Americans, and Native Americans are presumed to meet this standard. Other entrepreneurs can qualify by showing, via a “preponderance of the evidence,” that they are disadvantaged.
• A veteran-owned business: This is a business that is owned 51% by a veteran.
• A service-disabled veteran-owned business: This business is owned 51% by one or more service-disabled veterans. The Veterans Administration confirms the disability.

3. Register as a Federal Contractor: To bid on government contracts, you need to register with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR). This is your company’s profile and the starting point for all government contracts.  This is where you make the best representation of your business and present your “brand”.
4. Find Bidding Opportunities: Learn to navigate the FedBiz Opps, Dibbs and Other Programs.  Become acquainted with each agency’s contact person, they are your greatest point of contact.  Attend the SBA’s “Business Matchmaking” events.  This is where small businesses can quickly meet with government and corporate procurement officers.  Business Matchmaking, is like a traveling road show of procurement opportunities.
5. Bid: The steps above will get you to the contracts, but you still have to bid, build credibility, and sell the government on the idea why your business is best qualified to win the contract.  Pitch your product or service…in other words; you have to sell it just like any commercial transaction.

Recession Proof Your Business!

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Ahh, the world of Twitter… an amazing and liberating (and sometimes intimidating) experience, that allows you to be yourself or anyone else you wish to be. But if not careful, you can become inundated by the constant flow of information (tweets) being shared by one another (usually many others). Although I am relatively new to the process, I have devoted a lot of time to learning the nuances that make Twitter the most active and dynamic social network on the net.

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Steps

1. After getting the hang of a few tweeting basics like signing up, choosing a username and getting the overall jist of things you can quickly immerse yourself in the world of Twitter. What you might quickly find is the immense potential Twitter may have on an aspiring business.
   
   Twitter is first and foremost a social networking site but when used for ways of commerce, this is when Twitter’s abundant usefulness and resources truly become apparent.At the beginning you start out as a fledgling tweeter as everyone else does, but quickly realize that you have the opportunity to become somebody important! But how??? How does one find their niche? That is entirely up to you! This brings me to the reason for this post.
   
   Twitter, if used correctly, can be a marketing tool of enormous potential that reaches thousands! The best part of all, it’s free! If this is the primary reason for you joining twitter then I have a few tools that have helped gather me more exposure (followers) much more quickly than traditional means. And when you have followers, you have exposure! This is what I’ve been trying to get at!
   
   Keep in mind that other’s have discovered this process long before you…so tact and imagination are the order of the day. Do NOT spam! Do NOT become intolerable to those around you! This may be the BEST resource you ever find in your quest for success, so treat it with kid gloves and look before you leap. The following sites are all free and designed to get you more followers (potentially more money) in a short amount of time.
2. Tweet Glide This is a brand new and revolutionary way to manage your Twitter account. The main, or Home Glide. This is where you will see posts from all of your “friends” or followers. Posts made by you are a different color, which allows you to see your posts quickly and easily. The @Mentions and Direct Messages can also be turned on or off in the Home Glide and are also a different color! When others reply specifically to your tweets or you reply to others, the tweets become “threaded”, so when you read replies, they are attached to the message being replied to. No more confusion or searching for the original tweet! ‘Sponsored Tweets’ – as the name implies, this is where you view ads by other TweetGlide members, as well as your ads. This Glide can be turned off, but can not be moved from the second column as long as it’s turned on. Mentions – an easy way to view any mentions of you. Now you know quickly when people are replying to your tweets, or mention you in other tweets. Direct Messages – view all messages sent to you, or all messages you have sent to others!
3. FastFollowers.com FastFollowers creates a virtual marketplace for followers. Unlike some of the other schemes out there that require you to follow a hundred people before they place you on the list, FastFollowers uses a fair credit system. When you follow people you earn credits from them, and vica versa when they follow you. You can decide how many credits you want to offer per follow, and when you run out you remain on the list so people can still follow you if they like. You can also bulk-purchase credits if you’d prefer to do less following yourself, and just want to grow your own followers.
4. TweeterGhost A great site for gaining followers that offers free and paid services. Free service enables you to follow all the people on the “twitter train”. People that pay to be VIP’s get to be first on train and get to be on it more often, therefore gaining more followers. A very effective way to start.
5. Sponsored Tweets Participating Advertisers create and list opportunities in the Marketplace located on the site, which offer TWEETERS the chance to receive compensation from the Advertiser in exchange for creating TWEETS. Each Opportunity listing contains a description of the desired TWEET and the compensation to be paid by the Advertiser.
6. TweetBrain A fun site that allows you to ask and answer questions on twitter. The principle behind this is, as more people ask or answer questions more people become involved. Yours and their answers are tweeted and more followers view them and become interested and involved. Here’s a link to a video that explains the process firsthand.
7. Twitter Karma A very useful tool. Basically, it’s a Flash application that fetches your friends and followers from Twitter when you click the “Whack!” button, then displays them for you, letting you quickly paginate through them. By default, the list contains all your friends and followers and is sorted by last update, showing those who most recently updated first. You can sort the list alphabetically either ascending or descending by Twitter ID. You can filter the list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends. These are but a few of the better ways to utilize the full potential of Twitter. Hope this helps get you off the ground and tweeting with the best of ‘em!
   

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Manage and Grow Your Twitter Account. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Hey there…it’s Jackie Burgoa from @JackieBiz here and I have some exciting BUSINESS news – I am absolutely beside myself about sharing them….

You see couple of weeks ago after the “Thirty Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter” FORBES article came out; I was bombarded with questions from my friends and Twitter followers wanting to know how I did it, well… I am usually reluctant about sharing too much about online marketing since there are so many gurus out there. Which is why I am so excited…

I am just humbled by the incredible feedback and support – so I decided it’s time to share this knowledge with you:

After only four months of going from zero tweets to earning such an incredible accolade I am absolutely beside myself with excitement – for lots of reasons…

But let me tell you one of them – isn’t it funny how so many times you know you have so much knowledge to share but you don’t think anyone is really interested in listening? I mean, I bet Jack Dorsey at one point had a hard time having anyone listen to his Twitter ideas!

In any case, even though I’ve been in business for 16 years and I understood the power of technology; after all I spent 7 years converting my brick-and-mortar into a 100% virtual operation… sometimes I thought my advice was falling on deaf ears with fellow business owners. But one lucky day, someone heard me and took my lessons to heart, and she made my ideas and business concepts blossom…

And now I am on the Forbes “Thirty Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter” list!

So I decided that there were just too many questions being asked to keep them to myself…therefore I put them up on a report so you could get them yourself. You can get it at this site:

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

There are 13 of the most asked questions there. I hope they make a difference in your Twitter experience.

And PLEASE feel free to leave your own comments or questions in this post. I would love to update the report in the near future.

You can see that there is a link to leave your comments at the bottom of this post.

Here’s to business success all around!

Warmly,
Jackie

P.S. Reading all questions and answers on one report, is like an instant injection of Twitter adrenaline – here is the link again:

Learn How to Unleash the Power of Twitter

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