Debbi Arnold of D.A. Consulting is presenting Small Business Workshops at the Miles Nadal JCC (750 Spadina Ave, at Bloor). The next two are:
Time Management: November 4, 2011. 10:30am-12:30pm. Learning effective time management skills to set yourself up for success
Marketing 101: November 11, 2011. 9:15am-12pm. Learn marketing fundamentals to build a successful business.
Each seminar is $40. Register online via Paypal at http://www.daconsult.ca/
Bruce Hunter, CEO of Lighthouse 360 reports that 93% of business owners have no plan on how to increase the value of their business. Much of this stems from the entrepreneur “working in the business” rather than “working on the business”.
Bruce has a useful tool on his website – a free business assessment tool that can get a small business owner started down the path of thinking more strategically around the growth and how to manage it.
BOSS System, a premier B2B Toronto business networking organization in the GTA, is having their big quarterly event this Thursday Sept 7 at the Old Mill Restaurant/Convention Centre in Toronto’s West End. There will be presentations, vendor exhibits, structured networking to build business contacts and give-aways as well.
TorontoSmallBusiness.com, in partnership with SouthCostaRica.com, is giving away one week’s accommodation at the luxury vacation Villa Mariposa as a draw prize.
For event details, visit the BOSS website
When looking at sales funnel development for a B2B web site, I am struck by the similarities between the expectations for a website and those for a human sales rep.
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Sales Rep
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Website
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Develop Pipeline
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Capture traffic
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Differentiate Company and Solution
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Convince visitor you have their answer
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Close
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Convert visitor into prospect
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It follows then that the web site has to show elements that mimic a sales rep, especially when guiding a visitor down the path towards becoming a client.
Site navigation and properly placed CTAs (Call to Actions) that lead the visitor to make a commitment (such as signing up for a newsletter, webinar or whitepaper) are essential to ensuring your site becomes the lead generator you want it to be.
Follow this link to learn more about conversion
Learn the first steps to turn your Toronto small business website into a sales rep that creates new prospects for you.
As small business owners bravely move into social media, creating content on blogs and social networks like Facebook and Linked In, it’s clear that search engines are promoting optimized videos, especially Google (who owns YouTube) – Videos can help you leapfrog up the Google Search Rankings. So in the spirit of walking the talk, here’s the first in a series of educational videos to help Turn Your Website into a Sales Rep.
The Ontario government has a resource site for small business owners, covering registration, starting up, possible venues for grants and loans and more. Here’s the link:
For getting found on the Internet once your small business is set up, visit TorontoSmallBusiness.com
Increasingly, Google is prioritizing local businesses in search results, and this will impact Toronto small business. Given that:
Google is guessing that when you search for something, you want something nearby, and will present search results based on that premise.
The net result is that small business websites highly optimized for a search term may find themselves pushed off Google page one by a long list of local business listings.
Here are some strategies to offset you potential loss of ranking in Google:
TORONTO, July 26 /CNW/ – Ninety-eight per cent of Toronto business owners say owning their own business gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that they are a happy group:
These are findings from the TD Small Business Happiness Index, which examined the attitudes and behaviours of North American small business owners in a dozen urban centres.
Here’s the PDF that describes how the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on different goods and services. It describes what is taxable and what is not. The Ontario HST comes into effect July 1, 2010.
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