Samsung Claims Apple Is Infringing Seven Patents In Australia

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It's getting more and more difficult to keep track of all the lawsuits, claims and accusations between these two. Legal battles are ongoing in several regions, from Japan to the U.K. and Australia has just been added to the list.

Samsung claims that Apple is infringing on seven of its patents with the iPhone and the iPad. If the court finds the claims real and rules in favor of the Korean company, Samsung could overturn a previous ruling banning its Galaxy Tab. Even more, in such a scenario, Apple's patents could be invalidated (these refer to phones too) and Samsung would win back the Australian market (at least on the legal side).

Source: Electronista

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Seven States Join DOJ Effort To Halt T-Mobile Acquisition

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It's been just a couple weeks since the Unites States Department of Justice decided it didn't like the look of AT&T's plans to swallow-up T-Mobile one bit, and filed suit in an attempt to stop the acquisition. Those opposed to the merger are now further tightening ranks, with seven US States signing-on with the DOJ.

The attorney generals of New York, Washington, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have all gotten behind the DOJ's position that this proposed merger would decrease competition in the wireless market, bringing with it the higher prices and stagnating innovation associated with a monopoly (or, in this case, the Verizon/AT&T duopoly).

Those seven states represent a sizable fraction of the nation's cellphone users, so this action may actually have some weight behind it. Right now, we're waiting to see what goes down on September 21, when the DOJ, T-Mobile, and AT&T have been instructed by the judge presiding over the case to be ready to start talking over the terms of a settlement, if things come to that; the additional backing of these individual states may give the DOJ a little extra ammunition for that bargaining session.

Source: The Consumerist

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Seven Hidden Opportunities in Service - Profits

This is the first in a series of four articles which discuss the topic of "Hidden Opportunities" to improve your Customer Service organization.

The purpose of almost all businesses is to generate a return on investment for the stakeholders. As such, every element of the business should - in some way - be a positive contributor to the overall financial well being of the organization. If it is not, then it is eventually removed.

Perhaps the greatest hurdle in Service Management is that Service is all too often seen as a sink hole for money rather than a revenue source. In the majority of companies Service is considered overhead, something to be endured for the sake of running the business rather than a profit center to be invested in and supported so that it can generate highly profitable cash flows.

There are four basic categories of attitudes towards Service that can be observed in today's market:

Necessary Evil - In spite of decades of experience that show this is not the place to be, this is where the majority of the business world lives. The businesses in this space view Service as an obligation and nothing more than a means to compensate for product flaws and users who don't care to read manuals. Most would be quite happy to do without it, if they felt they could. Because they feel that spending on Service is tantamount to throwing money out the window, organizations in this segment run their Service departments with an absolute minimum investment and grudgingly write it off as overhead.

Any and all categories of companies, large or small, high tech or low tech, consumer or B2B, find their home here. Sometimes they have products that are so simple that the only Service deemed necessary is an on-line help screen. Sometimes the products are in such high demand that spending money on Service wouldn't really have much an impact on overall profitability, so it's not worth the bother. Other times the organization is so small that of the 80-100 hours a week being put in, Service is simply the least important topic to address. Often, however, a critical business mistake is being made and customers are running as fast as possible to the competition and blogging about their abysmal Service experiences.

Sales Enabler - Organizations in this category view Service as a means to help differentiate themselves in the market and bring in more product sales. They often don't consider the revenue opportunities presented by Reverse Logistics or Professional Services to be worth much attention. Their primary goal is to brand their organization as customer centric and give their products a higher intrinsic value. In this segment Service receives decent investments, but is never financially strategic. Companies in this segment are often found in markets where overall market growth has slowed from an initial frantic pace and senior management is looking more seriously at market differentiation opportunities. Service staff in this category will have a middle management role, but not a strategic one.

Complementary Product - Organizations in this category have grown to view Service as a separate and complementary product portfolio. The Service organization is run professionally and as a profit center, receiving investments aligned with the market opportunity. Companies in this segment are most often found in maturing industries where hardware and software margins are under increasing pressure and the much higher margins of Service Products become very attractive. These companies will have Service Management in the senior management team.

We Are Service - Organizations in this category embody Service as a primary driver of customer acquisition and retention. They will typically be a high margin player and one could ask the question - "Are they a high margin player because of their Service focus, or do they afford a Service focus because they are a high margin player?" As a Service professional, I will argue that the focus on a Best In Class and profitable Service offering is what makes them high margin. However, a Best In Class attitude tends not to stop with Service and will have every department rightfully claiming credit for their role in the results.

In this category a Service mentality is all pervasive and receives significant investment. Service drives product strategy and is found at the highest level of management. It is no surprise that companies in this category are often found in tourism and entertainment industries. Oddly enough, this attitude is often lacking in companies active in the Professional Services and Service Management industry.

It is only in the Complementary Product and We Are Service mentality that Service is actually seen as a profitable opportunity. However, many market statistics point to the most successful companies in the market and find that the overwhelming majority of them are in either one of these categories. Could it be just coincidence?

Getting it Right - It would be naive to think that every company in existence should focus energy on making their Service Best In Class. However, the Necessary Evil category can and should be done away with all together. Every company should understand the profit impact of their Service and calculate that into their investment decisions. If Service adds no viable profit, then get rid of it completely and see what happens to your customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Because completely getting rid of Service is not a viable option for any company, everyone should take the effort to understand what the financial value add for Service is and ask themselves the question - would more investment in Service bring a positive return? It is a rare company that will find themselves already over investing. The real question most will face is "Where to invest?", as the opportunities are numerous and sometimes conflicting.

Low hanging fruit for investments are typically found in:

Product and Technology Skills Training - Obvious to most, skimped on by many. It is unfortunately not a rarity that a new Service Technician or Help Desk employee will get a short introduction to the product and technology before they are put on the phones and set loose on the customers. Even those who do take the time to provide an in-depth training seldom take the time to formally test new employees on their capture and retention of the new information. And finally, because every product that is actively sold is also actively developed, update and "refresher" training round out the product and technology related training opportunities.

Interpersonal Skills Training - This is a need that is most specific to the technology field. Many people who find themselves in Service in technology were selected for the role because of a technology related education and abilities, with little or no regard for their interpersonal skill sets. Although unfair to many, the highly propagated "nerd" stereotype isn't wholly without justification. As such, anything that improves your front line staff's ability to relate to and understand their customer has a positive downstream impact on your profits. While this may not be terribly important for "nerd-to-nerd" communication environments, it becomes critical for "nerd-to-consumer" roles.

Professional Development - How many people in Service get a job because they have a "good customer facing personality"? They may be friendly, sincere and courteous, but also disorganized, incapable of managing their time or priorities and completely lacking of any strategic direction. This all has its impact on productivity. Investing in employee Professional Development not only makes for better skill sets in the office, but also for more satisfied and loyal employees, thus driving productivity and retention, all of which feeds into profits.

Sales Training - Is there anyone in Service who isn't - implicitly - also in Sales? Is there anyone in Sales who isn't - implicitly - also in Service? You cannot divorce the two, even though many organizations attempt to. As such, every person in Service should understand the sales process, mentality, priorities and goals. They should know how to recognize and flag cross selling and up selling opportunities. They should eventually become the fodder for future Sales staff.

Process, Documentation and Metrics - While less obvious tools for improving profit, processes, documentation and metrics are the basis of creating reliable, repeatable, measurable, accountable, and successful customer interactions. Although the boss knows who on the team can do what, is this documented? Anyone who has been around a while knows the escalation process, but what about the newbie? Things change constantly, sometimes with breathtaking speed. While we cannot be prepared for everything, documenting how things are supposed to run, clarifying who has ownership and measuring our successes are imperatives.

Equipment - Although I date myself with this example, I'll never forget the experience of visiting a customer who was the proud owner of a very new and very expensive graphically oriented Unix workstation - this was in the days when DOS was King and windows were usually only found in the walls of a building. Although the workstation had cost several thousand dollars, the company owner refused to invest the extra 300 dollars needed for a mouse. Imagine if you would, how your productivity would be impacted if you had to direct your cursor with the arrow keys on your keyboard! The programmers were almost in tears when they told me about how this had gone on for over a month and every single one of them was looking for a new job. While the example is extreme, it exemplifies with horrifying clarity how those who use the equipment are best suited to determine what equipment is best. You do have to trust your team and accept, just like with marketing, that not every dollar spent hits the intended target.

Better Compensation Packages - Because most employers see service as overhead, they tend to pay poorly and invest little. Some go as far as to hire one or two highly talented individuals and then populate the rest of the team with low level and poorly skilled staff. Improving the compensation package doesn't always mean offering more money. Rather, there are several areas that can addressed, from subsidies for daycare and fitness to continuing education support, that will add value to the employee and differentiating you as an employer, without adding to paychecks.

The Working Environment - How many office environments could double as a modern dungeon? How many employees are required to sit for eight hours a day on chairs that are cheap, uncomfortable or even partially broken and work behind desks that came from a second hand shop? It is understandable that a startup needs to save cash and invest wisely, however Joel Spolsky makes an interesting point in his book "Smart & Gets Things Done" about investing in the workplace comfort and how a high end chair actually costs the equivalent of an extra roll of toilet paper per day. Environment feeds emotions and emotions feed productivity. Make the office an enjoyable and welcoming environment and your people will show up a bit more happily.

How could your organization find more profits in Service?

Future articles will explore the remaining 6 opportunities.

Edward Caulfield is a Service Management Professional with over 20 years experience in Service Management for High Tech companies. Throughout his career Edward has executed on a variety of fronts:
* Leadership of Pre and Post Sales Service Teams for globally dispersed high technology companies
* Service Model Conversion from Free Of Charge to Revenue & Profit based strategy
* Merger and Acquisition Management in Global High Tech Market
* OEM Management - Cisco Systems, Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Fujitsu, etc.
* Partner Management - IBM, Brocade, NEC, Sun Microsysems, EMC, etc.
* Client Management - Google, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Colt Telecom, British Telecom, etc.

Although born and raised in America, Edward has been based in Munich for the last 15 years and speaks fluent German. Edward runs the blog http://www.seriousaboutservice.eu

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Selling a Small Business: Seven Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make and How to Avoid It

Do you want to sell your small business? Or you are already in the process of selling your small business? If any of the criteria above best describes you, then read on as I share with you seven common mistakes you must avoid when selling a small business.

Selling a small business is a process every entrepreneur wants to experience but unfortunately, only few will build a business that will worth selling. There are several reasons why you would want to consider selling your small business either now or in the future but I won't go into the details here. I have already written an in-depth article highlighting why entrepreneurs sell their small businesses.

But in this article, I will be dealing strictly with seven common mistakes you must avoid when selling a small business. If you are still interested in learning this now; then follow me as I share with you below common business mistakes you must avoid when selling a small business.

Selling a Small Business: Seven common mistakes entrepreneurs make and how to avoid it

1. Impatience

Impatience is usually a common mistake most entrepreneurs make when selling a business. They want to exit the business and the want to do it fast. Being impatience can affect your deal negatively because your potential buyers need time to go over the deal and if you add pressure on them to sign the deal; they will smell a rat.

When selling a small business, it's advisable you keep calm and hide your nervousness or impatience. Even if you are under pressure to sell; don't act desperate as this could scare away prospects.

"Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves." - J. Paul Getty

2. Indecisiveness

Are you sure you want to sell your small business? How much do you want to sell? Who have you decided to sell to? These are questions you must put to rest before putting up your business for sale. If you don't find the answers to the questions above ahead of time, you are only avoiding a stumbling block that will get back at you in the heat of the process.

One untold fact in the process of selling a business is that there's going to be behind the scene politicking; whether you like it or not. After putting up your small business for sale, there might be a couple of prospects; which will invariably result to a bidding frenzy and behind the scene lobbying.

"The best thing to invest in your business is your time. To schedule, plan and use time effectively, know your turf and know your objectives. Assess the obstacles and opportunities, then devise your strategies." - The Mafia Manager

If the above situation arises, then you must be prepared to take a stand and decide who gets the deal. You must also be clear and strict on your terms and conditions; you must stick to your agreement. No one wants to deal with an indecisive seller; an indecisive buyer is rather preferred. If you have a reputation for changing your stance when under pressure; then let your most trusted business team member oversee the deal.

"Before making an important decision, get as much as you can of the best information available and review it carefully, analyze it and draw up worst case scenarios. Add up the plus or minus factors, discuss it with your team and do what your guts tell you to do." - The Mafia Manager

3. Not doing a personality checkup

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and only five Minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you will do things differently." - Warren Buffett

Are you a person of integrity? Do you keep to your words? Do you have a strong positive personal brand? These three questions must be answered before you even put up your small business for sale. In an article I wrote previously, I stressed the need to invest in your own personal branding. I also explained that your personality can be a leverage for you in the world of business.

I have seen entrepreneurs raise billions of dollars in capital simply because they are trustworthy; meaning they have business integrity. I have also seen small businesses sold for millions and even billions of dollars because of the reputation of the entrepreneur behind that business.

So before putting up your small business for sale, make sure you conduct a thorough personality checkup because your buyers will definitely do. Does your personal name reflect a positive or negative image? Do you have friends and associate who are reputable? Can your business partners vouch for you? How easily can you get an endorsement from someone of high reputation?

These are some of the questions that must be answered during your personality checkup. As a piece of advice, if you know you have a bad reputation; don't be the lead dog in the sale of your business. Instead, let your selling team be led by someone of high reputation; it will get you a fair deal.

"The most important thing in your business relationships is your reputation for honesty. If you can genuinely and sincerely fake honesty, you will be a success. Never doubt it." - The Mafia Manager

4. Showing potential buyers the weakness of your business

When negotiating a deal to sell your small business; be strategic. Know your objectives and capitalize on your business strengths. To sell your business successfully and get a fair deal, you must emphasize your business strength or competitive advantage occasionally; not its weaknesses.

Hide your business weaknesses but be prepared to defend it should in case the buyers hits on it. If possible, tactically divert your buyer's attention away from your business weaknesses. There's nothing wrong with this act; it's strictly business.

You have done your calculations so it's left for your buyers to do theirs. If they fail to spot your business weakness, then it's to their own detriment. You just make sure you keep it that way; it's business.

5. Inadequate Legal checkup

Inadequate legal checkup is a common mistake made by most entrepreneurs when selling a business. You must strive to avoid this mistake because it's deadly. One thing with this mistake is that it can earn you a lawsuit, financial losses or loss of certain rights.

To make sure you don't end up committing this blunder, I will advice you hire an external attorney or legal practitioner to go through your legal framework; it will save you in the long run.

6. Shallow paper work or auditing

Before ever listing your business for sale; you must make sure you have thoroughly gone through the paper work. You shouldn't bother with paper work preparation; I think the accounting department should handle that. But you must sit and review this paper works thoroughly with your accountants. You may even go a step by bringing external auditors to pick holes in your paper work.

It is better external auditors pick holes in your financial statements or paper work than your buyers. As a last note, you should try to have some numbers, business ratios and business statistics off hand. This will prove to buyers that you know your business in and out.

"Know your numbers' is a fundamental precept of business." - Bill Gates

7. Letting the cat out of the bag too early

Until the final papers are signed and business assets transferred; don't spill the beans. Not to your friends, not to your employees and not even to your family. Only trusted men, who will add value to sweeten the deal should be made aware; you core business team as well should be involved in the deal.

Don't spill the beans; don't let the cat out of the bag. Don't, don't, don't. The result of revealing the deal before it is concluded might be more than you anticipated. Revealing that your business is on sale may lead to demoralization of your employees because they will be more concern about their welfare than your business.

Spilling the beans may also earn you some unnecessary competition, unsolicited publicity and media misinterpretation. Or worst still, you might end up with several lawsuits dangling on your neck. So once again I repeat, never let the cat out of the bag until the deal is sealed.

As a final note, I believe you will find these points I have made useful. So when preparing your business for sale; be sure to avoid these common mistakes and I will see you at the top.

And just before i drop my pen, if you really want to learn How to Start a Business from scratch; please feel free to visit our blog. In addition, you can also get quality information on How to Become a Millionaire in less than a year.

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Establishing Business Credit - The Seven Steps to Success

Business versus Personal Credit:

Personal - Personal credit building starts when an individual provides their social security number and applies for their first credit card. At that point a credit profile is started with the personal credit reporting agencies in the region of the country in which they reside. This profile, also commonly known as a "credit report", is built with every credit inquiry, credit application submitted, change of address and job change. The information contained in the report is usually reported to the credit bureaus by those businesses issuing credit. Eventually, the credit report is viewed as a statement or report of an individual's ability to pay back a debt, and is the key tool to access and grant credit.

Business - When a business issues another business credit, it is referred to as trade credit (credit from vendors or suppliers). Trade, or business, credit is the single largest source of lending in the world, but it typically not reported to the business credit agencies by most small businesses. The data regarding trade credit transactions must be submitted and then is accumulated by the business credit bureaus to create a business credit report using the business name, address and federal tax identification number (FIN). The credit bureaus use this data to generate a historical report about a company's business credit transactions and payment history. Typically, the businesses issuing credit rely on the business credit report to determine the credit they are willing to grant and the amount of the credit limit. Additionally, many businesses (suppliers/vendors) will submit credit reference applications to the key suppliers of the business as a method to obtain payment patterns as part of the credit granting process.

The major credit bureaus are:

Dun & Bradstreet
Business Credit USA
Corporate Experian
Small Business Equifax
TransUnion (Personal)

The information provided to the business credit bureaus (primarily D&B) is sent in voluntarily, as businesses are not required to report. Therefore, credit bureaus may never receive any information about the business transactions on credit and a business could go for years accumulating business history without being reported to the credit bureaus and establishing a positive business history of sound credit practices.

Establishing Business Credit History:

Business credit scores range on a scale from 0 to 100 with 75 or more considered an excellent rating. Personal credit scores, on the other hand, range from 300 to 850 with a score of 680 or higher considered excellent. With today's tighter credit scrutiny the higher the credit score, the more likely an individual or business is to obtain credit and at more favorable terms (interest rate and contract length).

While it is important to know that there are many factors http://www.myfico.com that affect a credit score; it's based on more than just whether you pay your bills on time (still very important). The credit score will be affected by the amount of available credit you have on bank lines of credit and credit cards, the length of time you've had a credit profile, the number of inquiries made on your credit profile, paying the bills on time, bankruptcy, as well as other considerations.

The typical American consumer credit report receives two to three credit inquiries per year and usually has 11 credit obligations - typically broken down as 7 credit cards and 4 installment loans. Business owners are not your typical consumer, because they carry both personal and business credit. This typically doubles the number of inquiries made to their personal credit profile and the number of credit obligations they carry at any given time, all of which negatively impact the personal credit score. Additionally, because business inquiries and personal inquiries are not separated on the personal credit report, the personal credit scores are negatively impacted. As mentioned earlier, using the personal credit history to get credit for their business, businesses are not able to build their business history/score, all of which could help attain critical business credit in the future.

A critical mistake many business owners make is using their personal information to apply for business credit, leases and loans. This practice has the resultant impact of potentially lowering their personal credit score, while not building a business credit history and business credit score.

A key to establishing credit for the business and a profile and score is to find companies (UPS, FEDEX, etc.) or your key supplier and vendors that will grant credit for your business without using your personal credit information and then report the payment experiences to the business credit bureaus. By reporting the information to the proper credit bureaus, those companies will help the business establish a business credit profile and score.

The Seven Steps to Success:

1. Company Legal Structure - The business must be a legal entity unto itself in order to establish business credit. Therefore, it is recommended to form a corporation (C Corp) or LLC (discuss with your CPA the advantage/disadvantages of a C Corp versus LLC) as opposed to structuring your business as a sole proprietorship or partnership. Formation of a sole proprietorship or partnership, dictates that personal credit information could be included on the business credit report. Additionally, as a sole proprietor or partner in a partnership, you are personally liable for the debts of the business and all your personal assets are at risk in the event of litigation.

Corporations and LLC's, on the other hand, provide the business owners liability protection, and can build a business credit profile that's separate from the personal credit profile. Therefore, apply for credit under your business's name and find businesses will to grant credit without a personal credit check or guarantee.

2. Register with Business Credit Agencies - The best known business credit bureau is Dun & Bradstreet. Dun & Bradstreet has a process on their web site to establish a D-U-N-S number (a specific 9 digit number related to your business) and instructions how to establish a business credit rating. It is strongly recommended that you contact D&B and follow their process to establish business credit. The following is from the D&B web site:

How do I get started with D&B? With our unsurpassed global data collection system, D&B continually gathers the data that initiates the creation of business credit profiles on new companies. Many kinds of activities can trigger a profile on a new company, such as incorporating your business, applying for a loan, getting a business telephone number, taking out a lease on office space - even just when another company seeks information from D&B about your business. Still, a new business may not have a complete business credit profile. Getting a D-U-N-S Number from D&B - the worldwide standard for business classification systems - is an essential part of helping you establish your business credit profile and will ensure that when a company looks you up in the D&B database they will find you. In some cases, a D&B D-U-N-S Number is so a requirement for doing business some entities, such as the US government.

You should make sure you have a D&B business credit profile if:

You are planning to obtain a business loan
You need to purchase or lease equipment
Your cash flow is tight
You want to ensure you are getting a fair deal from lenders compared to your competition
You want to pay net 30 days instead of COD (Cash On Delivery)
You are paying interest at prime plus 1, or even higher
You plan to do business with entities that require a D-U-N-S Number, e.g. the US Government

These issues and dozens other like them can be addressed by having a strong business credit profile. A good rating provides you with the financial freedom to take the steps you need to grow, and is a straightforward, unbiased method for other companies to assess your level of risk when considering taking you on as a creditor. A poor credit rating is a certain barrier to growth and success, preventing you from getting adequate funding on fair terms.

Communicating directly with D&B will help establish your business credit in less time. If you are a new company, D&B can help you build a complete business credit profile from the ground up; if you have been in operation for a while, you will want to improve and/or protect your business credit profile. Find out more about how to establish, monitor, improve, or protect your business credit.

3. Credit Market Requirements - Businesses must meet all the requirements of the credit market in order to have a higher probability of credit approval, as not being in compliance with the credit market can "send up signal flares" with both credit bureaus and potential grantors of credit.

Some of the "signal flares" include:

not having a business license,
not being registered with the Secretary of State for a certificate of good standing,
operating under your social security number rather than a FIN or EIN,
not having a phone line (land line) that is listed in the phone directory in the exact business legal name,
no web site, or
not having a business email address (not AOL or gmail, but a specific URL for your company).

4. Small Business Credit Lines - Investigate and locate a minimum of five businesses (vendors/suppliers) willing to grant a small business credit without personal guarantees and will report the payment experiences to the business credit bureaus. This will assist your business to establish a credit report and build a financial credit foundation for the company. Find companies willing to grant credit that report to the credit bureaus such as marketingoncredit.com, UPS, FEDEX

5. Business Credit Cards - Obtain three business credit cards (Sam's Club Discover Business card), that are not linked to you personally and that report the business credit to the reporting agencies. Then be sure to always pay your bills on time!

6. Financial Statements, Business Plans and Loan Packages - These documents are often required by many credit grantors as part of their loan application process. CxO To GO is a national professional services firm that has assisted many business with their financial statement preparation and business plans. Additionally, CxO To Go has packages such as PowerPlan and PowerPlan2 for business plans, PowerPuncher for executive summaries, CFOCast for financial projections and BankSell for bank proposals so lenders and bankers will take action. It is important to note that 61% of all businesses are turned down for a loan due to a poor loan package, however with BankSell the lender loan package gets results and moves the applicant to the top of the list for review and credit committee approval.

7. Debt management - Be a smart money manager and manage the debt levels to ensure they are not too burdensome and can be paid back with current cash flow. Do not incur debt that will over leverage the company and cause missed or late payments.

Keith McAslan is a Partner with CxO To Go a national professional services company headquartered in Denver, Colorado that provides on-demand C-Level expertise and best practices to client companies on a part time, flexible, and affordable basis. Keith is sought after to provide advisory services as the Trusted Advisor to Owners and CEO's. By utilizing his extensive experience as a successful financial and operational C-level executive, Keith brings a results driven leadership style to complex situations.

McAslan's expertise includes: financial advisory; management consulting; part time, interim & virtual CFO, COO and CEO; debt and equity financing; turnaround management; acquisition and divestiture advisory. Most recently Keith, was instrumental in the successful sale of Western Forge to Ideal Industries. As the interim CFO with finance and private investment transaction experience, he guided the management team through the complex sale and due diligence process completing the sale from prospective buyer presentation to close within 60 days. Please contact Keith at 303-520-2493, http://www.cxotogo.com, or kmcaslan@CxOToGo.com for your free 2 hour strategy call to discuss your business needs.

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Seven Reasons Why Your New Business Venture Will Fail

"Here is the prime condition of success: Concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun on one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it." Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919.

That quote represents what most new business owner's lack: a high level of eradicating the things that don't work about their business, and the required effort to make constant improvements on the things that do work. You cannot succeed in the business you've chosen unless you come to terms with this equation. The following examples are the things most new entrepreneurs fail to do. The solutions to the problems are stated in easy to understand terms with clear steps that needed to be taken by you to avoid these horrible business pitfalls.

1. No optimization of cost-effective ways to do business. When most people start their businesses, orders that come in from customers are very slow. Over time that will change with a successful business model. The biggest mistake most business owners make is they continue to use the same, slow way of processing their orders. If you started out selling books online, and the for the first 6 months you sold 20 books a day, a manual way to process orders through manual credit card processing would be fine. But after the six-month period, your sales increased to 50 books a day. Now you have two choices: Either hire somebody else and pay them money out of your hard-earned profits to help you with the manual order processing, or pay an initial one-time fee to upgrade your order processing into a software program so your business can receive Paypal payments or direct deposits from your customers that go directly into your business checking account. If you don't want to do the processing for your business at all, there are very many choices you can make in the field of fully automated online payment companies that will do the work for you with minimal fees. They usually charge you only by the quantity of orders per day. Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of failing to automate routine business tasks like communications, marketing, inventory management and accounting. There are plenty of software programs and small online businesses that will gladly help you to optimize these tasks so you can do the more important things that keep your business in the black: Finding new customers for your business and expanding your overall customer base.

2. Your business is too formal for new customers. In this day and age, people all over the world expect a more friendly business environment when they are looking to purchase goods or services. Even in an online business, customers expect to be greeted with that human element, either by a more relaxed email message from the storeowner, or by the personal blog that the owner refreshes on a weekly basis. People want to build relationships with other human beings, not a computer screen! So always put your emotions into what you are selling on display to your potential customers by greeting them with a "Hi Bob!", not a "Hello future prospective customer..." You get the idea. Even your business cards, business headings, voice mails and outgoing email messages should ALWAYS be loose and have that personal touch that only you can give your customers. By doing this, you will establish a long-term customer every hour of the day.

3. Not knowing your customer base. If you sell to the wrong base of customers, you're not doing anyone any favors, most of all your own business. This is usually the number one cause of the failures you see happening with newer businesses every day. When a customer drops by your marketing-help web business, and is too cheap or broke to pay your lowest fees available, don't waste your time trying to get him as a new customer. A lot of business owners try to grab a hold of a dead-beat customer and beg him to stick around until he gets the funds to purchase their services. DON"T DO THIS! Just send them to a competitor's site/store that does fit his budget and continue to look for your more upscale customers that will have the finances to not only buy more of your items/services, but will refer others like them to your site/store. Trust your gut instinct on this one. If a customer does not sound like a potential moneymaker for you, then don't waste your time on them. Move on to better prospects immediately and work on defining your biggest-paying customer base. Do a search on Google to find out where your best customers live, or what kind of sites they hang out on. There are research companies that will do a database search for you depending on what kind of services you sell. Then you can start an e-mail or snail mail campaign and target your customer base so they will come in droves to your business.

4. Being unaware of where to spend your budget. In the world of the internet, anybody can start a business with very little cash. Knowing where to put that cash is a very serious factor that will determine your success or failure. Don't ever spend much money on fancy logos or flash tools when building your web site. Just spend the eight dollars required to register your domain name, and look for bids on web developers who have a clear definition of what to bring to your web pages. Find someone who knows exactly what you require, and make them send you samples on demand, with no upfront fees. Believe me, there are so many web designers that need work, they will beg you to hire them. Make sure you hire the right one. With every dollar you put into your business investment, there has to be a way to extract two more dollars if your business intends to succeed. Content is still king, so make the content your number one selling point to get new customers. Content is always free as well, as long as you're the one writing it. Don't hire anyone else to do a job you could do. Just take a writing class, or research some web sites that specify what web surfers are looking for, and how to write effectively for them. It always helps to get a second opinion on what to spend your budget on, so ask anyone with a business degree for some help. Spend your marketing dollars on effective ad campaigns that reach out to your target audience. Most marketing can be done relatively cheaply these days, and you can do a lot of it. Just search Google for tips, or go to Amazon.com and get a few used books on guerrilla marketing for business owners.

5. Taking people at their word. In business today, there are a lot of weasels that want to take advantage of newbie business owners like yourself. They always try to say they will sign your business contract and stick to the deal you both agreed on, and then renege on the entire contract without paying you a dime. It happens all the time, but don't let it happen to you. If you have to fall back on the written contract, and not the business client's honesty and integrity, then you are in big trouble already. You have to be able to screen out the low-lifes out there and discourage them from doing business with you. Always demand money up front, even if it's only a portion of the agreed-upon amount. Never ship out a product it the customer's check is still being processed. There are many CEOs of large internet companies that will just take from you and give back nothing. How they live with themselves, I'll never know, but do your diligent research before dealing with anybody on a large scale contract, and you should do fine. Combining good research skills along with developing relationships with your potential clients should keep those weasels from your doorstep.

6. Not creating value in your business. To sustain any long-term business, you must put value above everything else. To many business owners, the profit margin is the bottom line, and they will do anything for that profit. You need to be more value-oriented than that. You should always ask yourself what value are you bringing to your customers on a day-to-day basis. The worst business model you can have is the one in which you just sell products for a few dollars of profit, and then try to upgrade that profit margin on a yearly basis. The business world has plenty of companies that sell items, but not enough companies that actually add value to the people who buy from them. Give your customers something free that they would normally pay for at other sites, and they will come back and actually spend more of their hard-earned money on your site than all the other sites who just sell to increase their profit margins without giving their customers any value. Give out free information or even free videos to people buying over a certain amount of merchandise on their orders to make your customers keep coming back to you many times every month.

7. Being phony. Don't tell your customers that you are a huge organization devoted to just their needs. If you are the sole owner of your business, be clear about it and tell your customers. Be honest with them about how you will fulfill their needs by being able to focus on them as personal human beings, and not just a number. You can use your honesty as a selling point to them, because you are now opening up and revealing your true identity. This helps bring that human element into the equation, thereby bringing a long-term business/customer relationship to fruition. No amount of marketing can generate such a fruitful business goal like that. Most customers will trust that an individual who owns his/her own business will be good for their word, as opposed to the monoliths of the business world like Microsoft or Hewlett Packard. Big corporations are seen as impersonal behemoths that will take the customer's money and not care if something goes wrong with the product, or if the service fails to live up to the value and content the customer paid for. If you have to put on a front and lie to your potential customer base, then maybe you should not be in the business you chose in the first place. Believe me. web customers can smell a phony from a mile away and they won't hesitate to tell other people not to do business with you. With the world wide web being the best place to spread bad news fast, your business could be shut down within a few weeks of an irate customer's hate mail to your competitor's web sites describing how phony your business is, making your company be seen as a dishonest business that people should avoid like the plague. The competition always enjoying tearing down a new business, so just make sure you always leave a customer happy and content with their purchase.

By avoiding these common pitfalls that new business owners fall into, your business venture should be a very successful one.

Rob Mead has written many articles about internet marketing and how to create and find great website content that will increase your web site's traffic overnight. Go to http://www.perfectwebcontent.com and you will be able to use all of the web site's resources and articles in your quest for internet success.

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