Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

A website that doesn't function properly can turn into a liability. The money and effort used to maintain a useless online presence could be better spent in other ways to promote your business. However, your small business website doesn't have to suffer and end up as the "black sheep" of the business.

Sure, there is paid advertising campaigns like PPC to help stimulate traffic. And you can spend thousands on professional SEO consultants to help improve traffic to your website. However, there are simple strategies you can do on your own that cost nothing, or very little.

Here are systematic strategies that can help you drive traffic to your business website without spending the tons of money.

Provide Fresh Content Regularly

Professional SEO consultants will tell you this easy known fact. However, rather than pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars for this advice, take it from us for free. A website that is regularly updated gets more attention from search engines - period.

Fresh content may be adding a blog to your business website domain so that each post adds freshness to the entire domain. It may mean updating your home page a few times a month so it reflects any and all current promotions, sales, or happenings at your business. However you do it, continuously fresh content will help your website increase its ranking and be seen by more people searching for what you offer.

Find the Perfect Keywords for Your Website

Keywords are essential. However, you want to avoid the broad, widely-used keywords that give small businesses little chance at a 1st page results on Google. Do at least a little research using Google's keyword tool on their Adwords site. Plug in a few keywords that are pertinent to your business. You can discover what other words people use to search for your products or services.

Choose a URL with Your Chosen Keyword

Indeed, it's nice to get a domain with your business name. However, if your business name doesn't contain any of your main keywords, it doesn't help you acquire new traffic. A website named "johnsstore.com" doesn't tell a potential search engine, or a potential customer for that matter, what your business is about.

Instead, you could modify the URL to become "johnsstoreantiques.com" to help all parties know that you sell antiques.

Choose Descriptive Page Titles

All the pages on your website have titles. Usually they are found in the META tags in the HTML coding. Be sure your page titles are not ambiguous. For instance, "About Us" is too general. Use more specific and descriptive titles like "The Story of Janice's Jewelry" to add more keyword 'oomph' to your website.

Link to and Feed From Your Social Media

Your small business website should contain links for your readers to join you as followers and fans on your social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook. Encourage readers to join so they can enjoy the benefits of your exclusive social media promotions.

Likewise, always feed your website updates to your social media. If you have a business blog, you want all your contacts to know about it so they will visit your site. There are online websites that can help you get the most of automatically feeding your website updates to all social media accounts.

Comment on Other Blogs and Forums

There are certainly other popular websites that are related to your industry. Find the blogs and forums that are pertinent to your business and comment on them regularly, and always leave a link to your website. If you can be more specific, such as a link to one of your blog posts that is pertinent to the topic rather than just your homepage, that is more helpful.

When small business owners complain that they do not see any significant changes or improvements in their website traffic, it is no surprise when they admit that core strategies like these are often not applied. You can experience a big difference and explore the potential of your website if you apply this systematic strategy to improve traffic.

You know the benefits of using Facebook and Twitter to help promote your business, but another social media site is making big waves for merchants everywhere called Foursquare.

Foursquare is a social media where members 'check in' when they arrive at certain destinations. It is meant to help users "find their friends and explore their world."  However, the juicy part for merchants is that you can entice your customers and their friends to check-in at your retail store to earn discounts and receive other rewards.

Major companies like Starbucks to even the Bay Area's Rapid Transportation (BART) System have been early adopters of Foursquare, and the list keeps growing longer.  When Coach launched its first men's store, they gave away free cologne to the first 200 Foursquare checkins.  During that weekend alone, 10% of the traffic had Foursquare checkins.  Not a bad way to increase your foot traffic!

Claiming Your Venue

To get your business started on Foursquare, you simply claim your venue by searching for your location. Creating a merchant account is free, and comes with many benefits to you, the owner.

Invite Your Contact List

Once you have claimed your free merchant location on Foursquare, do what you would with any other social media - tell the world! If you already have social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and/or others, write updates and posts informing your other followers and fans that you are now offering special deals through Foursquare when they check in at your store. Foursquare also helps you in this effort by adding your current contacts in Facebook, Twitter, and even Gmail if that applies.

Offer and Promote Your Specials

Not only can Foursquare help you import contacts from Facebook and Twitter, but they will also help you spread the word. By linking your other social media accounts you can give a "shout" about your current specials and see those posts appear instantly on all other media posts.

Give Rewards

What kind of specials work great on Foursquare? Consider the following:

Frequency rewards  - You can base offers on the number of times a customer "checks in" at your place of business. For instance, if you operate a coffee shop, offer a free coffee with every 10 check-ins. Or perhaps give a discount coupon for reaching a set check-in number each month.

Reward by location - Perhaps you are opening a new retail location in your city or region. Consider promoting coupons to those Foursquare members who make the effort to shop at your new store.

Reward for loyalty - If you want to retain loyal customers, reward them for their efforts. Encourage them to check in using Foursquare every time they patronize your store. Using Foursquare's useful stat tool you can see who the most loyal customers and are spending the most at your business. Be sure you reward them for their continued loyalty with bigger discounts and/or free stuff.

Improve Customer Traffic with Free Stats

Foursquare provides all free merchant accounts with real-time statistical data. Want to know who are your most frequent visitors? Who has the most check-ins over a time period? How about a gender breakdown of those who check-in? All these answers are provided through the free venue stats provided by Foursquare.

In addition, you can use these stats to find out traffic patterns during your business hours. Say for instance that Foursquare shows that you have good foot traffic into your store during lunch and afternoon hours, but you want to get more customers in the door in the mornings. Use your Foursquare merchant account to help entice followers to check-in during those hours for special discounts and sales.

Tips to Leverage More Foursquare Power

Below are a few tips that have helped other small businesses make the most of their Foursquare merchant accounts.

• Advertise it! - Be sure you post on your storefront that you are a Foursquare merchant. Otherwise, customers may not know or may forget to check-in.

• Train Staff - Keep your sales staff up to date on your Foursquare promotions, and be sure they know how to realize the sales to your customers.

• Use The Foursquare Dashboard - You can get more out of your Foursquare account by monitoring your stats. Use the provided dashboard to get realtime results.

•  Don't Give Away Too Much - It can be tempting to offer big deals, specials, and sales that eat away much of your profit. Be sure you monitor your promotions to increase sales AND profit.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners who work from home enjoy not having to pay high commercial rent for their place of business. With a spare bedroom, a remodeled garage, or even just a spare desk in the corner, many small businesses are successfully operated without the need to commute to work every morning.

However, there are many risks associated with working from home. One of the major risks that savvy business owners need to avoid is that of leaving their valuable and precious office and client data susceptible to cyber theft. That is why the lone entrepreneur or small business owner must wear an additional hat, that being the IT and Data Security Manager.

What Constitutes Adequate Security?

Does that mean that a small business owner working from home needs to purchase tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of security software and computer networking protection? Of course not. But these types of business owners are expected to take adequate security measures to protect client data as well as their own information.

What Data Must Be Protected?

The first step in preparing an electronic security system is to determine what data falls into the category of "Top Priority" protection.

Client/Customer Data

Your client and customer information is of utmost importance on the Priority list. Items in this category include:

Don't forget that if you have employees or staff, the same type of information listed above is just as important to protect.

Business Information

While protecting client and customer data is top priority, you also have a responsibility to protect your sensitive and valuable information from hackers and thieves. The following data types are the information that not only keeps you in business, but gives you a competitive edge over competition.

Financial Data

● Checking accounts/Bank statements
● Sales register
● Asset accounting
● Cash flow statements
● Income statements
● Balance sheets

Intellectual Property

● Research and development
● New product inventions
● Strategic marketing plans
● Contracts

Perform a Security Analysis

To get an idea of your current data security situation, you should perform a risk analysis. A thorough security analysis will let you know what adequate controls are already in place and at acceptable levels, and reveal potential threats that need to be shored up.

In these instances, it may be best to hire an outside consultant. A specialist in data security will be able to find the areas that are vulnerable, such as laptops, firewall software, and your backup procedures.

Tips to Improve Data Security

Even without a security analysis, there are plenty of steps you can take to ensure that your electronic data is collected, stored, and backed up safely. Here are a few good tips:

Avoid Public WiFi

Do you often bring your company laptop to Starbucks and perform business duties there? Beware that a public WiFi signal is ripe for the hacking. Any information you send between your computer and the public WiFi router is up for grabs. If using WiFi, be sure it is an encrypted local signal with password protection.

Regularly Update Your Anti-Virus

Whether you use Norton, McAfee, or other major brand of anti-virus software, you will want to form a policy where you regularly update the software. Major anti-virus companies will regularly send out security updates and patches to fight new viruses. Be sure you get your updates before any of your business computers get infected.

And, never automatically open a file sent via email or downloaded from the internet. Be sure you always scrub any downloaded file through your anti-virus.

Get the Strongest Firewall You Can Afford

A good firewall software will protect you from hackers getting into your system. Don't go cheap in this area. Spend for the best you can afford.

Always Use Encrypted eCommerce

If your customers buy online, always use SSL Certificates. This is a cryptographic protocol that ensures that information transmitted between your website's server and your customer's computer is randomly encrypted and only read by each other.

Lockup Laptops

A portable computer has the potential to get stolen. Do your best to keep thieves from finding the data. Use laptop locks if possible, and always have a secure sign in to access the hard drive.

Backup Backup Backup

You can never hear it enough. Always backup your electronic business data on a regular basis. Best process is daily, weekly, and monthly full backups. And store your backups off-site. You never know when you will need to access it to restore after a theft.

Your data security policy is one of the most important policies in your business computer arsenal. Take a look at your procedures and update as necessary to ensure you have protected data.