When a small business decides to take their business online there are usually several mistakes that they do. This is partially due to lack of experience and often lack of knowledge. There seems to be a trend that small businesses think of their website as an online business card instead of a marketing tool. That is where the majority of them go wrong. So let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes done when a small business takes their business online.

1. Order of links

So many times you visit a small business website and they proudly flag the “about us” link as their first link. This is called the pride link because they often think that telling people about the company is the most important thing. The links should be in order of importance. Not in the order of the business owners EGO! If you use a website designer and he does consult you on the order of links, chances are you should be using someone else or at least make sure you educate yourself about online marketing because your website designer sure hasn’t!

2. No focus

Most small business websites lack focus. When you enter you are not sure where to go next which makes it hard for the user to understand exactly what he is supposed to do. The website should flow and the user should be able to make sense of the site within a few seconds of opening it up.

3. No sale / No lead setup

Many small businesses do not use their website to increase sales directly or capture leads. It is nothing more than an online brochure or business card. Sometimes the information is more confusing than it is helpful. If you competitors site is easier to navigate and captures either the sale or lead, you just lost a client. A small business websites needs to be even more on top of catching leads than a corporate website because every client lost counts more!

4. No analytics

Most small business websites have no clue what people do when they enter their site. No clue what users are really looking at and where they are losing their potential sale or lead. If customers just walked in and out of their place of work eyebrows would be raised and something would be done. Shouldn’t the same thought process apply to the site? You need to know what is going on with your small business website and what users are doing.

5. No marketing purpose

This is the biggest “Whammy” of them all. Small business websites tend to fail seeing the potential of using the website as a complete marketing tool. The fundamental reason to take a business online would be to do marketing. The lack of marketing vision explains the mistakes from above. If just this single piece was in place when a small business builds their website, many of the other things would be solved because they would educate themselves about what it means to have a marketing tool!

6. No results!

This is no surprise considering everything above. If there is no purpose, no focus, no vision and no marketing thought behind the site then there are probably no results from the site either. What is even worse is that most small business websites do not even measure results or understand how to measure results from their site. Once again it is a lack of understanding more than anything!

So what can a small business do when they are ready to take their business online and setup their small business website? The most important thing is to educate themselves in a few areas. The most important ones being, what you need to consider before building or having someone build your website. How to use the website as a marketing tool and it would be extremely beneficial to you if you at least had some understanding of what SEO is and how it works. What is the difference between a website designer, website developer and an online marketing company? All of them do different things and have a different understanding of how to use the internet; the question is what purpose is your website supposed to serve? For most it should be a marketing tool, because the internet is the most effective marketing tool available!

If you own, operate, manage or you are starting up a small business then we suggest that you take a look at the 10make90: Get your website up right. (Can be found on www.10thatmake90.com [http://www.10thatmake90.com]). It is a great resource for small businesses looking to build a website and take the step online. You can find all the basic information you need to know before taking that step and taking your business online. Make sure that you are utilizing the power of the internet fully as a small business. The rate of businesses that fail is high enough; at least make sure your business is getting all the leads and sales that it can be getting. Don’t make the same mistakes that others are doing, it takes so little effort for you as a small business owner to avoid those common mistakes!

As many women already know, there is nothing more empowering than having control over your own finances and future. Women are making great strides in today’s world, and many empowered women today are entrepreneurs and business owners. In fact, the statistics on women in business and women who own businesses just keep getting better. If you Google “empowered women” you can find a wide variety of topics, from successful career women, to women’s self-help sites, to women’s blogs, to home-based business opportunities, to stay-at-home moms who made it big with a product or idea that really paid off.The idea of women in business is not new. Women are the original mothers of inventions. If they need it and can’t find it, they invent it, market it, and sell it. Women juggle families and careers and still manage to donate, volunteer and support others. Some women are choosing to keep their traditional jobs and careers, while others have made the leap into entrepreneurship and have started their own home-based businesses.According to figures published by the DSA, Independent Research and Bureau of Labor Statistics:53 percent of all businesses in the US are home-based.
The home-based market has grown over 15 percent each year since 1995.
There are over 14 million home-based businesses in the US.
These home-based businesses generate over $1 trillion annually.
Direct selling accounts for a huge percentage of home-based businesses with sales of $30 Billion in the US and $100 billion worldwide.
Direct selling has added 175,000 people each week in the US and 300,000 worldwide.Did you know that the profile for a home-based business owner is predominately female, 35-54 years of age, who is married and most likely to be college educated? These women typically work on their businesses part-time. The majority of these women are involved in direct sales with companies that successfully empower women such as Avon, Cookie Lee, Creative Memories, Pampered Chef, Shelf Reliance/Thrive Foods, Jewels by Park Lane, Etc.Empowered women entrepreneurs and business women are quickly gaining the edge in the competitive world of marketing. Companies are changing how they design, produce and market products in order to appeal to these niche businesses and the women who own them.Because technology has made such great strides in the past decade, working from home is no longer something you have to dream about doing. Working from home is now a viable career option and a very realistic means to financial success.To decide if a home-based business is right for you, ask yourself where your talents or passions lay.Do you have an idea or an invention that you would like to market and distribute?Do you want to work on your business full-time or part-time?Are you interested in direct sales?Do you interact well with people?It is always best to set a realistic goal for yourself, thoroughly research any ideas you might have, and create a business plan for yourself. If you decide to go into direct sales, be sure that you understand how much time, effort and money you will need to invest before you start making money. Be certain that you understand the compensation plan of the company you are thinking of partnering with. Know if you will be required to recruit mass numbers of people to create “teams” in order to be successful. Research the company and check the complaint boards to make sure you are not joining a company with mostly negative reviews.If you feel that being in control of your own financial success will empower you and you are an entrepreneur, then a home-based business may be right for you!

The title of this short article asks the question: Home Based Businesses, are they real? Well, a bit of a silly question you may think. Of course they’re real. But, with one caveat…if they work for you! What I mean by that is, there are an abundance of Home Based Businesses out there, some better than others, but the one critical criteria will always remain, will it work for me?Let’s take a step back before we move forward. Most of us are in the ‘Rat Race,’ right? We are destined to work for approximately 40 hours per week, for about 40 years of our lives and then retire on approximately 40% of what we used to earn if we are very fortunate. In reality, most of us will stumble through painful periods of our work life and almost certainly never attain that magic 40% income in retirement. So, the upshot is we work with someone else pulling our strings, dictating our time off, the holidays we take, the car we drive and ultimately the amount of money we can have when we retire. Remember, this is a version of a good scenario; it’s still a very real version of ‘The Rat Race.’Now, back to Home Based Businesses, are they real?Well, that is subjective. How much do you want to get away from ‘The Rat Race’ and how much are you willing to put up with it like the majority of your neighbours? Right there is the determining factor. That question on its own will separate the wheat from the chaff, the boys from the men, so to speak.You see, of course there are some scams out there in the big wide world of Home Based Businesses or Online Businesses BUT, almost without exception, for the real opportunities that are available to virtually everyone; it’s your level of desire, your ‘want,’ your determination, that will ultimately decide whether or not a Home Based Business is real.Do you get it? I mean it, do you really get it? Without wishing to labour the point, if anyone goes at ANY business half-heartedly, they will, without exception, fail. There is no grey area here, commit or don’t even bother getting started, is my strongest advice.The problem with Home Based Business you see is that most of us are actually conditioned to be satisfied, almost to the point of believing we are utterly secure, with ‘The Rat Race’ and today more than ever, nothing could be further from the truth, what an economic mess the world is in! Whilst we have this ‘warm feeling’ that ‘The Rat Race’ gives us, then almost any Home Based Business that an individual may start or get involved in will simply not work and therefore will be labelled as ‘not real.’They are of course very real in most cases, but until an individual takes a massive, and I mean massive, attitude adjustment and realise that Home Based Businesses won’t work whilst you’re still holding tightly onto the promise of a pitiful pension from ‘The Rat Race,’ then the internet and the TV watchdog programmes will be littered with reports that Home Based Businesses aren’t real or are some kind of scam. They’re wrong.