We are in an information age and moving to a social and mobile age, where if your business is not accessible/ available on a mobile device, your customers will move onto your competition. I always like this list since it opens up awareness why every business needs to be on the web.
Here are the 15 reasons why EVERY Business need a Website!
1. It is the most cost-effective way to advertise.
2. Your customers expect it.
3. You will sell more products and services.
4. You will be able to provide information to your customers more cost effectively.
5. You can receive feedback via your Web site.
6. It is much easier to stay in contact with distributors and sales reps.
7. You can provide better customer service.
8. It's the best way to stay competitive -- considering that most of your rivals already own their own Web sites or are looking into getting one.
9. Your business will grow immediately. Any small, local business has the ability to be an instant international sensation with franchise penetration in every city -- simply by getting an on-line presence.
10. Your business will look more professional.
11. You will gain credibility. A professional, well-designed site makes your business look successful, and builds trust in your company and its products/services.
12. You are open 24/7 without any added overhead and your sales potential may increase exponentially.
13. You have the ability to update sales information in real-time.
14. It is much more convenient for your customers to purchase your goods and services on-line than by physically coming to your location.
15 You can't afford not to. With Internet sales increasing almost 400% in the last six years, it's just good common sense to boost your business onboard the Internet superhighway.
Go to http://www.aimcbizsolutions.com to build your business website and let us take care of the rest!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
How Social Media Saved Lives This Week in Massachusetts
This has been a devastating week for the folks in Western and Central Massachusetts. It was announced today that multiple EF3 or stronger tornadoes touched down around Springfield and further east on Wednesday, June 1st, resulting in incredible damage to structures and the beautiful forest in the area. For those of you not familiar with Massachusetts, this is a part of the state that has beautiful rolling hills, farms and the third largest city in Massachusetts, Springfield, a city of about 155,000 people. The amazing fact, despite the devastation in highly populated areas, only four lives were lost.
This area is not used to such violent weather and do not have a warning system in place like the South & Midwest to warn people of the impending danger to their lives. Also, most of the houses here have been built over 100 years ago and do not have the strong foundation of a stone or brick house like you seen in tornado prones area.
So considering how there is no warning system such as those sirens you hear, how did everyone prepare and take cover? Most of the people I know that were affected or were in the storm's path have smartphones with Facebook or Twitter and even the Weather Channel application on their phone. Back in the Metrowest at my house, I was connected to friends further west that kept updating their statuses of what is going on where they live and taking pictures of the storm and posting them. This real time activity allowed people in potential danger to get prepared. At one point, the Weather Channel was warning that the tornado which turned out to be an EF3 was making a beeline to my town! Luckily the funnel lifted about 15-20 miles of so away and we ended up just getting a lot of rain, wind, hail and the most amazing lightning show I have ever seen.
Since most of us have smartphones w/ texting, we have communication like we have never had before. We were able to warn each other of the pending danger and in the storm's aftermath, were able to locate missing people very quickly. As of today, Friday, there are no more missing persons, which is amazing considering how bad the storms were. Again, do you think that because people were able to communicate via Facebook, Twitter or text, that they were able to be prepared for the worst?
Now that the state is in cleanup mode, you are seeing a lot of relief efforts being posted and tweeted. A lot of celebrities are posting messages about how we can all help. With hundreds of millions Facebook and Twitter users, their message goes out to a tremendous amount of people with one short message. This did not happen only 5 or 6 years ago. Because of Social Media, we minimized the amount of deaths during and the after the storm. Pretty incredible stuff, just like the weather.
This area is not used to such violent weather and do not have a warning system in place like the South & Midwest to warn people of the impending danger to their lives. Also, most of the houses here have been built over 100 years ago and do not have the strong foundation of a stone or brick house like you seen in tornado prones area.
So considering how there is no warning system such as those sirens you hear, how did everyone prepare and take cover? Most of the people I know that were affected or were in the storm's path have smartphones with Facebook or Twitter and even the Weather Channel application on their phone. Back in the Metrowest at my house, I was connected to friends further west that kept updating their statuses of what is going on where they live and taking pictures of the storm and posting them. This real time activity allowed people in potential danger to get prepared. At one point, the Weather Channel was warning that the tornado which turned out to be an EF3 was making a beeline to my town! Luckily the funnel lifted about 15-20 miles of so away and we ended up just getting a lot of rain, wind, hail and the most amazing lightning show I have ever seen.
Since most of us have smartphones w/ texting, we have communication like we have never had before. We were able to warn each other of the pending danger and in the storm's aftermath, were able to locate missing people very quickly. As of today, Friday, there are no more missing persons, which is amazing considering how bad the storms were. Again, do you think that because people were able to communicate via Facebook, Twitter or text, that they were able to be prepared for the worst?
Now that the state is in cleanup mode, you are seeing a lot of relief efforts being posted and tweeted. A lot of celebrities are posting messages about how we can all help. With hundreds of millions Facebook and Twitter users, their message goes out to a tremendous amount of people with one short message. This did not happen only 5 or 6 years ago. Because of Social Media, we minimized the amount of deaths during and the after the storm. Pretty incredible stuff, just like the weather.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Network Marketing and its Evolution to One-to-One Marketing
Network Marketing has been around a lot longer than a lot of people think.
It started back in the 1930's with direct selling. Do you remember the insurance salesman that knocked on your door at dinnertime to try to sell you a life insurance policy? Then came franchising in the 1940s with the invention of McDonalds and Holiday Inn. Franchising was revolutionary since it introduced the "system" for managing the business processes and the ways of working. In the 1950s, multi-level marketing was born. Amway is the most well-known company from this era and introduced what a lot of people thought was a pyramid. Ironically, the Amway organization is closer to horizontal marketing and isn't any more than a pyramid than the typical corporate organization. Then came the 1960s, the big catalog was introduced. Think JCPenney or Sears. For the first time, you can "shop from home" and call a toll free number to order your favorite product. In the 1970s, businesses of all sizes started to use direct mail to market their products and services. These brochures would be mixed in with your bills in the mail and allowed consumers to save money on services. In the 1980s, cable television changed not only what we watch on TV, bu how we shop. For the first time, infomericals were born. QVC and the Home Shopping Network allowed viewers to see product demostrations and then order the product via a toll-free number. This was start of the saving trees movement with less paper in the ol' mailbox. As we moved into the 1990s, another drastic movement in network marketing happened, the internet and the dot.com era. For the first time, consumers were able to shop online at their favorite stores and use credit cards or tools like PayPal to purchase products and services. While the ease of shopping online created a whole new paradigm, for the first time, you started to see the brick and mortar stores start to suffer. Think Caldor, Lechmere, Bradlees and Ames.
So then came the 21st Century... the 2000s-2010s! A new paradigm invented by Market America's founder, James Ridinger, took the best of all of the network marketing stages from the 1930s till 2000 and called it one-to-one marketing. With almost 200,000 distributors marketing cutting edge products and services and partnering with all of the retail stores that helped start the paradigms from the 1970s through the 1990s, one-to-one marketing was born. One-to-one marketing is where you have a personal shop consultant (think the old insurance salesman from the 1930s) who follows a system invented from franchising to assist shoppers to research what they need through a catalog and make a purchase on an online shopping site. It is pretty revolutionary and it is now the best way to connect people to the products they need. What better way to build a one-to-one relationship?
Network Marketing is in fact the Business of the 21st Century. Pretty exciting stuff!
It started back in the 1930's with direct selling. Do you remember the insurance salesman that knocked on your door at dinnertime to try to sell you a life insurance policy? Then came franchising in the 1940s with the invention of McDonalds and Holiday Inn. Franchising was revolutionary since it introduced the "system" for managing the business processes and the ways of working. In the 1950s, multi-level marketing was born. Amway is the most well-known company from this era and introduced what a lot of people thought was a pyramid. Ironically, the Amway organization is closer to horizontal marketing and isn't any more than a pyramid than the typical corporate organization. Then came the 1960s, the big catalog was introduced. Think JCPenney or Sears. For the first time, you can "shop from home" and call a toll free number to order your favorite product. In the 1970s, businesses of all sizes started to use direct mail to market their products and services. These brochures would be mixed in with your bills in the mail and allowed consumers to save money on services. In the 1980s, cable television changed not only what we watch on TV, bu how we shop. For the first time, infomericals were born. QVC and the Home Shopping Network allowed viewers to see product demostrations and then order the product via a toll-free number. This was start of the saving trees movement with less paper in the ol' mailbox. As we moved into the 1990s, another drastic movement in network marketing happened, the internet and the dot.com era. For the first time, consumers were able to shop online at their favorite stores and use credit cards or tools like PayPal to purchase products and services. While the ease of shopping online created a whole new paradigm, for the first time, you started to see the brick and mortar stores start to suffer. Think Caldor, Lechmere, Bradlees and Ames.
So then came the 21st Century... the 2000s-2010s! A new paradigm invented by Market America's founder, James Ridinger, took the best of all of the network marketing stages from the 1930s till 2000 and called it one-to-one marketing. With almost 200,000 distributors marketing cutting edge products and services and partnering with all of the retail stores that helped start the paradigms from the 1970s through the 1990s, one-to-one marketing was born. One-to-one marketing is where you have a personal shop consultant (think the old insurance salesman from the 1930s) who follows a system invented from franchising to assist shoppers to research what they need through a catalog and make a purchase on an online shopping site. It is pretty revolutionary and it is now the best way to connect people to the products they need. What better way to build a one-to-one relationship?
Network Marketing is in fact the Business of the 21st Century. Pretty exciting stuff!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Social Media Is Not A Fad, It is For Real
With over 600 million users and thousands being added every minute, Facebook is the most powerful communication platform on earth. It recently passed Google in terms of number of searches and has fast become more of a business platform versus a platform of embarrassing pictures of your high school prom. Twitter is adding 10,000 users a day and has become the dominant way to become discovered again by search. YouTube is the dominant video platform on earth. Just think, you can create a video and reach billions of people with one click. Wikpedia is THE Encyclopedia, the domimant resource in the world. Sound like a fad, I think not.
Colleges and universities are adding Social Media as a certification and even as a bachelor's program, marketing programs are changing, journalism degrees are going away and 99% of all college students use Facebook and Wikipedia for all of their research. Is this a fad? Pretty Powerful...
In the business world, Social Media Management is a job now and every company that is serious about surviving today's economy needs to divert their marketing and advertising budget toward personnel and social media tools to help stay relevant. It baffles me today when I meet someone and they don't have a website or think Facebook is for kids. Well, I hope they will be ready for retirement considering they will probably be out of business soon. Businesses still need to have a balance of print advertisement and online social media promotions but the shift is on. Where social media distiguishes itself is that it helps business build a relationship with their affiliates, partners and customers that a print advertisement does not do.
Social Media is the real deal just as the mobile device is today and electricity was long ago. It is simply the new age of sales, marketing and communication. Enjoy the ride!
Colleges and universities are adding Social Media as a certification and even as a bachelor's program, marketing programs are changing, journalism degrees are going away and 99% of all college students use Facebook and Wikipedia for all of their research. Is this a fad? Pretty Powerful...
In the business world, Social Media Management is a job now and every company that is serious about surviving today's economy needs to divert their marketing and advertising budget toward personnel and social media tools to help stay relevant. It baffles me today when I meet someone and they don't have a website or think Facebook is for kids. Well, I hope they will be ready for retirement considering they will probably be out of business soon. Businesses still need to have a balance of print advertisement and online social media promotions but the shift is on. Where social media distiguishes itself is that it helps business build a relationship with their affiliates, partners and customers that a print advertisement does not do.
Social Media is the real deal just as the mobile device is today and electricity was long ago. It is simply the new age of sales, marketing and communication. Enjoy the ride!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Are We Really Ready to Join The Cloud?
The hottest buzz word in Information Technology today is Cloud Computing. Read any technical magazine from CIO to ComputerWorld to Information Week and the word on the street is that everyone is migrating from client/server applications running in their own data center to a cloud computing environment at an infrastructure provider. We are currently going through the same transition and technology paradigm we did back in the early 1990s when companies were migrating critical applications from large distributed systems like mainframes and AS/400s to client /server on Windows or UNIX servers.
Cloud Computing, in particular Elastic Cloud Computing, makes a tremendous amount of sense for companies that have business applications that are cyclical in demand (i.e. retailers or accounting firms). I know from experience working as a system administrator at a large retailer that on Black Friday, we really put our infrastructure and network bandwidth to test. But then there are other times in the year where the systems sit at 10-15% utilization. A big waste of green money from an environmental and financial perspective. Paying for computing resources like we do for electricity is a great concept. In terms of risk, the thinking is that data security and control of the environment are the reasons not to move critical applications to the cloud. Both risks have been addressed recently by leading vendors like Amazon, Google and others.
The reason I am asking the question if we are really ready to join the cloud is a result of the huge outage Amazon had yesterday with their EC2 platform. The outage affected the web properties for over a hundred companies. I do not know the details why there was such a big outage but my thought regarding risk in addition to security and control is availability. When working with a cloud vendor, understand the contingencies in place to make sure the cloud vendor meets service levels. It is always assumed that you should have a service and operational level agreement in place and if they are not met, then the cloud vendor should be financially responsible. One of the contingencies that should be in place are multiple electrical grids and internet service providers available in the data center facility where the cloud infrastructure are supporting your critical applications.
So in a nutshell, if you take into account security, control and availability, the cloud is the way to go especially if you are a web property and are running a Software As a Service. Don't let yesterday's outage make you run back to a mainframe, learn from it, and make your cloud vendor accountable so you do not experience an outage like that with your own applications.
Cloud Computing, in particular Elastic Cloud Computing, makes a tremendous amount of sense for companies that have business applications that are cyclical in demand (i.e. retailers or accounting firms). I know from experience working as a system administrator at a large retailer that on Black Friday, we really put our infrastructure and network bandwidth to test. But then there are other times in the year where the systems sit at 10-15% utilization. A big waste of green money from an environmental and financial perspective. Paying for computing resources like we do for electricity is a great concept. In terms of risk, the thinking is that data security and control of the environment are the reasons not to move critical applications to the cloud. Both risks have been addressed recently by leading vendors like Amazon, Google and others.
The reason I am asking the question if we are really ready to join the cloud is a result of the huge outage Amazon had yesterday with their EC2 platform. The outage affected the web properties for over a hundred companies. I do not know the details why there was such a big outage but my thought regarding risk in addition to security and control is availability. When working with a cloud vendor, understand the contingencies in place to make sure the cloud vendor meets service levels. It is always assumed that you should have a service and operational level agreement in place and if they are not met, then the cloud vendor should be financially responsible. One of the contingencies that should be in place are multiple electrical grids and internet service providers available in the data center facility where the cloud infrastructure are supporting your critical applications.
So in a nutshell, if you take into account security, control and availability, the cloud is the way to go especially if you are a web property and are running a Software As a Service. Don't let yesterday's outage make you run back to a mainframe, learn from it, and make your cloud vendor accountable so you do not experience an outage like that with your own applications.
Monday, April 18, 2011
China is Kicking Our Butt, So What Are You Going to Do About It?
China is now the second largest economy in the world, right behind the USA, after passing Japan in 2010. Their economy is growing 9% annually while ours is stagnant, with little or no employment growth and terrifying debt. While we are having problems with foreclosures and jobs getting sent offshore, China's residential growth is astronomical and they are adding jobs in a frenzied pace. Shanghai will be the world's largest city by 2025 passing Tokyo. New York City is not even close. China owns around 60% of the USA debt. So those are the some of the economic facts, however, China is kicking our butt in network marketing too.
I was at the Market America convention in North Carolina this past year and learned a lot. I was excited for new developments in my network marketing business, but was also alarmed at the same time how there was a distinct difference in the success of my Chinese colleagues versus the Americans in the business. On a Friday night after the convention was done for the day, back at the hotel, the difference was pretty evident. The American distributors were busy drinking at the bar, swimming in the pool, and generally wasting time doing nothing. The Chinese distributors were having business meetings otherwise known as corings, were mingling with the executives of Market America and generally doing everything they can to make sure they bring their business to the next level after the convention.
At Market America, we have something called The Power Profiles (http://www.thepowerprofiles.com) which showcases successful people in our business. Take a look and what do you notice? The majority of the big money earners are Chinese. Some have come to America with nothing but the clothes on their back and are now making over a million dollars with their Market America business.
I am always looking for entrepreneurial professionals to partner with in my business. I am determined that my Market America business will help me and my business partners retire much earlier than they would if they worked the typical corporate career. The challenge I have had is finding the right people. When I introduce my business to an American colleague, the usual excuses why they cannot do the business always come up. They have no time, no money, they are all set and most of all "is it a pyramid?"... Dumb, just dumb. Meanwhile, they are wasting time watching "Dancing With the Stars" or comfortable with their stagnant life of going to their job making the top of their pyramid (the president or owner of their company) richer. Another example? Go to a Casino. Americans want the easy way out and hope they hit a jackpot even after they dumped their paycheck on a little video poker. By the way... how many Chinese people you see there?
I am sure I am striking a nerve with some people. Instead of getting angry about it, do something about it. Look to China and their drive to be successful and duplicate it yourself. Small business is alive and well and will be the only thing to get us out of this terrible economy. So do want China to claim that they are number one in 2025 or are you going to shut your TV off and look at ways to become more successful whether it is through network marketing or other entrepreneurial ventures?
China is Kicking Our Butt, So What Are You Going to Do About It?
I was at the Market America convention in North Carolina this past year and learned a lot. I was excited for new developments in my network marketing business, but was also alarmed at the same time how there was a distinct difference in the success of my Chinese colleagues versus the Americans in the business. On a Friday night after the convention was done for the day, back at the hotel, the difference was pretty evident. The American distributors were busy drinking at the bar, swimming in the pool, and generally wasting time doing nothing. The Chinese distributors were having business meetings otherwise known as corings, were mingling with the executives of Market America and generally doing everything they can to make sure they bring their business to the next level after the convention.
At Market America, we have something called The Power Profiles (http://www.thepowerprofiles.com) which showcases successful people in our business. Take a look and what do you notice? The majority of the big money earners are Chinese. Some have come to America with nothing but the clothes on their back and are now making over a million dollars with their Market America business.
I am always looking for entrepreneurial professionals to partner with in my business. I am determined that my Market America business will help me and my business partners retire much earlier than they would if they worked the typical corporate career. The challenge I have had is finding the right people. When I introduce my business to an American colleague, the usual excuses why they cannot do the business always come up. They have no time, no money, they are all set and most of all "is it a pyramid?"... Dumb, just dumb. Meanwhile, they are wasting time watching "Dancing With the Stars" or comfortable with their stagnant life of going to their job making the top of their pyramid (the president or owner of their company) richer. Another example? Go to a Casino. Americans want the easy way out and hope they hit a jackpot even after they dumped their paycheck on a little video poker. By the way... how many Chinese people you see there?
I am sure I am striking a nerve with some people. Instead of getting angry about it, do something about it. Look to China and their drive to be successful and duplicate it yourself. Small business is alive and well and will be the only thing to get us out of this terrible economy. So do want China to claim that they are number one in 2025 or are you going to shut your TV off and look at ways to become more successful whether it is through network marketing or other entrepreneurial ventures?
China is Kicking Our Butt, So What Are You Going to Do About It?
Friday, April 15, 2011
I'll Pat Your Back and You Can Pat Mine, But Please Don't Burp
I have been going to Networking Events for the past four years and think I have evolved into a pretty decent networker. Even though I have a couple of businesses that are my lifeblood toward hopefully a nice retirement, I do not go to events today thinking of how many prospects, business cards and follow-ups I can get. However, that was not the case a few years ago, when I would go to an event, meet some business owners, and before I even know their name, I would spill the beans about what I do. An example is this scenario, "Hello I am Jeff DeSocio, I sell Isotonix, Torch, Transitions supplements, save money for my customers shopping online, help small businesses with their websites and are looking for people that want to start a network marketing business. Uh, and what is your name.....". How would I know what their interests are, why are they even there, and if anything I said register?
What I learned over the years, is the art of networking is just like politics. You know, the old "I'll pat your back if you pat mine" Politics have been around for centuries so why did it take me years to figure it out? So, instead now, I like to go to events and simply get to know the people I meet on a personal basis and always ask what they like to accomplish at the networking event. My rule of thumb is to pat their back first. With the following I have today with over 1100 LinkedIn connections and 500 Facebook friends, chances are, I will know somebody that they can connect to, to accomplish their goal. After the connection, they would have a good feeling about me and when they come across a referral that needs my services, I would be the first person they think of and they will go ahead and pat my back.
So what do I mean by the saying "Please Don't Burp". It simply states that you should try to balance how much you and a networking contact/referral help each other out. Don't ask for ten favors while they only ask for one or two. Maintain a balance. If you cannot do that, move onto to another networking connection you have. So, take a look at the people you have met so far and always work toward trying to help them out first before thinking of yourself. While meeting new people at an upcoming networking event, listen, learn and think about how you can help them. If you do, you will get help in return, no questions asked.
What I learned over the years, is the art of networking is just like politics. You know, the old "I'll pat your back if you pat mine" Politics have been around for centuries so why did it take me years to figure it out? So, instead now, I like to go to events and simply get to know the people I meet on a personal basis and always ask what they like to accomplish at the networking event. My rule of thumb is to pat their back first. With the following I have today with over 1100 LinkedIn connections and 500 Facebook friends, chances are, I will know somebody that they can connect to, to accomplish their goal. After the connection, they would have a good feeling about me and when they come across a referral that needs my services, I would be the first person they think of and they will go ahead and pat my back.
So what do I mean by the saying "Please Don't Burp". It simply states that you should try to balance how much you and a networking contact/referral help each other out. Don't ask for ten favors while they only ask for one or two. Maintain a balance. If you cannot do that, move onto to another networking connection you have. So, take a look at the people you have met so far and always work toward trying to help them out first before thinking of yourself. While meeting new people at an upcoming networking event, listen, learn and think about how you can help them. If you do, you will get help in return, no questions asked.
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