While the Internet is making the world a smaller place, some companies with offices in remote locations may need more than just a Web presence to attract more business.

As in real estate, the business mantra also seems to be "location, location, location." When Entrepreneur magazine asked 340 fast-growth business leaders what their biggest challenges will be in 2006, 36 percent mentioned expansion to other U.S. markets. Yet for those who cannot afford to pay big-city rent, moving company headquarters or opening a branch in a city like New York is not always feasible.

To attract more clients in high-profile areas, some companies are embracing the concept of a "virtual office" - having a physical address in a major city while the company's actual operations remain elsewhere in the country.

"The virtual office provides a business with a high-profile corporate address and the professional image of a full-time office at a fraction of its cost," said Howard Watler of Rockefeller Group Business Centers, a provider of "instant office solutions" like virtual office space.

Through The Rockefeller Group, for example, companies get more than an address; they get a host of services including a dedicated phone number (answered by company name), fax, voice mail, shipping and professional receptionist greeting service.

Because the virtual office is actually a part of a business center, private offices and meeting facilities are made available for meeting clients or other company needs. The Rockefeller Group also provides a full-time business service center staff to assist with document design, media presentations, desktop publishing, spreadsheet design and production services as needed.

This is a new concept but one that is gaining in popularity. This is for the nautically inclined only with boating skills that are developed. Basically you live your present country and become a citizen of the world traveling perpetually on your yacht. While all this sounds great you still need to have papers and documents of registration and passports to avoid constant hassles with authorities wherever you go. So what can be done is as follows:

You form an anonymous Panama SA company (bearer shares). This company then buys a yacht for at least $150,000. Now you need to hire three Panamanians for at least $253.00 a month each. So you have deckhands, crew, cook etc. This would let you get residency in Panama quickly and after three years you could apply for citizenship and get a Panama passport. You could also do a version of this using the small investor visa to do it with a $40,000 investment and three employees on your fishing or touring boat. You can get a Panama cell phone, mail box, bank account, visa debit card, atm card and you can travel the world. For most this isn't feasible but it is fun to dream anyway.

Investor Visa (Inversionista)

Designed for those who wish to establish a business in Panama (note, though, that some retail businesses and some professions are reserved to Panamanians).  There must be a minimum investment of $150,000 and minimum of three, permanent Panamanian employees hired. It is granted provisionally for one year and after renewal is granted permanently with the right to be issued a cedula identity card. Five years after obtaining the permanent visa, holders will be eligible to apply for Panamanian nationality.

Small Business Investor Visa

(Inversionista de Pequeсa Empresa)

Designed for those who wish to establish a small business in Panama (note that retail businesses and some professions are reserved to Panamanians).  There must be a minimum investment of $40,000 and minimum of three permanent Panamanian employees hired.  It is granted provisionally for one year, and needs to be renewed three more times before it is granted permanently with the right to a cedula. Five years after obtaining the permanent visa, holders will be eligible to obtain Panamanian nationality.

The elusive dream of a successful business depends on how well you attract the interest of potential clients.  In order to attract clients, you need to capture the imagination of aspiring and existing business owners everywhere.  Making such a big impression establishes professionalism and creates trust and confidence.

The growth of the call center industry signals the beginning of a new age in business and communications.  During the past few decades, there has been a major transformation in the way people work, socialize, communicate, and engage in business. Call centers offer a variety of services to organizations and customers such as answering calls, handling orders, complaints, providing technical support to customers, direct response advertising, infomercials, etc.  The demand for call centers increases as businesses diversify and their products and services become more complex.

In today’s global economy, call centers optimize a client company's investment in human capital by providing market differentiation, brand identity and commitment, and ultimately, operational success.  Their business strategy is built on excellence in such areas as technology, database management, and the human capital.

Clients who are always on the go will not sit up with a recorded message when they call.  Having trained customer service agents to answer the phone for you gives you the enhanced image and professionalism clients always look forward to.  No one knows that these agents are not inside your office.  These agents can talk to people all over the world anytime and and access vast amounts of information at the click of the mouse.   They take pride in providing the most advanced solutions and technologies in the industry.  You need to let the client believe that you can fit into the high-powered executive world just as well as anyone.

Call centers do more than just provide a 24/7 "live" call answering service and take phone messages for you. They help screen the calls to minimize your interruptions yet they can just as easily connect to you an important caller in seconds. The need to make an immediate human connection is a concern of every potential clients.  A client's first phone call inquiry is so important that is why it is necessary to make that good first impression as well.

The call center industry has paved the way for cost-efficient work force.  It has reduced overhead, employee paperwork, and extra expenses that are usually associated with hiring employees, acquiring furnitures, as well as office equipment and technology.  No more hassles of having enough phone lines and repair maintenance.  With customer service agents to answer the calls 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, you get a toll-free business phone number and only pay for actual calls answered.

Part of the service that call centers offer is to gather important contact information for your sales and marketing campaigns.  They take the time to get to know your business, find out who your clients are, and identify what customer service needs you can offer.

With the proliferation of call centers, the vision of flowing profits, industry respect, thrilled customers, and a successful business is as easy as saying “hello”.

Vans can be a popular choice for a vehicle for those that have a large or expanding family or those that have a lot of items to cart around with them on a regular basis; it is especially popular with companies that want a set monthly expense, as apposed to those that need to part with large one off payments. Leasing a van can be a very good option for those that feel they are in need of a van, for personal or commercial use. Leasing a van involves the individual or company renting the van for a defined period of time for a set monthly payment every month until the lease expires. There are many advantages to leasing a van and just a few disadvantages that should be considered before one decides on van leasing.

One of the biggest advantages in van leasing is that there is no large payment due at the beginning of the leasing period. There is a deposit due at the beginning of the lease period but this payment is generally quite small and totals only about one, two or three of the monthly payments in the lease period. The monthly payments involved in van leasing are also usually quite lower than those when purchasing a van. Not only does this save the individual or company leasing the van quite a bit of money but it can also make leasing a great opportunity for driving the van of the individual’s choice for the short-term.

Van leasing also allows for the individual to give up a van after it has been driven for a couple of years. At that time, the individual may consider the van to be outdated or they may simply not want to stay with a van that has been run down with regular use. Once the leasing period is up, the individual can simply return the van to the leasing company and enter into a new lease for a new van.

With all of these advantages to van leasing, it’s important to note that there are some disadvantages. The biggest one of those is that one doesn’t actually own the van at any time. Even during the period that the individual is driving the van it is not theirs. It always remains the property of the leasing company.

Another disadvantage to van leasing is that it can be difficult to calculate the annual mileage and other charges. A leased van has a set number of miles that can be accumulated on it. If the number of miles exceeds this number, the charges can be quite costly. To avoid this, it’s important to accurately calculate the mileage that one does in a year. Miscalculating this can lead to heavy charges that the individual or company leasing the van wasn’t expecting. Other charges that may be included in a lease is that the individual will have to pay for any damages to the vehicle. Although this would probably be the case should the person own the van outright, there may be some minor damages that the individual wouldn’t bother in fixing if the van were their own property?

Unlike a loan, it can still cost the person leasing the van quite a bit even if they want to settle the lease early. Unlike a vehicle loan, settling early with a van lease usually means that the individual still needs to pay the interest on the remaining months.

Van leasing usually has more advantages than disadvantages. However, one must do their research and make sure that this is the right option for them before entering into an agreement.

Advanced E-Media, Inc. is an established software technology platform company that serves small and mid-size businesses.  Advanced E-Media’s primary technology service, the WebJaguar E-Business SuiteTM, is a comprehensive Web-based service that is completely scalable.

WebJaguar is robust technology, offered as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, and developed by Advanced E-Media to build dynamic, database-driven Web sites.  WebJaguar is offered in three editions, including, 1) Corporate/Membership Edition with strong content management tools to enable both Advanced E-Media and its customers to quickly and easily manage and change Web sites, 2) Retailer Edition with comprehensive E-commerce capabilities for retailers to increase sales and profits on a local, national and global basis, and 3) Wholesaler Edition with a complete E-Business suite of online capabilities for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and suppliers to increase sales, save on time and costs and better manage their business throughout the supply chain.  WebJaguar also has several add-on modules that can be provided at an additional set-up and monthly recurring fee for any of the three editions.

The WebJaguar service has a strong competitive advantage in meeting the needs of, a) manufacturers, b) wholesalers, c) distributors, d) suppliers, e) retailers and f) small to mid-sized corporations.  The company also focuses on business alliances with companies that act as resellers with many prospects for WebJaguar and can help the alliance companies better service their customers, including a) hosting companies, b) IT services companies and c) Web design/development companies that do not have the E-Business, E-commerce and content management tools of WebJaguar.  The company’s success achieved in a relatively short amount of time is attributed to its industry knowledge, passion for creating Web site applications that help businesses grow profitably, and a focus on customer service. Contact us at 1(800)718-5051 for a consultation.

Here are a few of our fine clients using our turnkey (http://www.advancedemedia.com/-ECommerce Web Design Site Hosting) :

Team Search Concept  located in Southern California is a Nation-wide, full service, multi-industry Executive Search Firm. Team Search Concept specializes in executive search, which includes retained search, contingency search, professional recruitment search, professional recruiting, and acts as a full cycle recruitment agency. We have successfully performed searches in all industries, including  retail search, management search, information technology search (IT search), human resource  search (HR search) , health care search, sales and marketing search, senior executive search, accounting and finance search.

Team Search Concept management team has over 70 years of combined search and HR (human resource) industry experience, and is positioned to    help you find the best talent available that matches your specific company needs.

Wilson HR Consulting Firm  located in Southern California is a Nation-wide, Sr. Executive-focused and multi-industry Search and HR Firm. Wilson HR Consulting specializes in senior executive search, which includes retained search and exclusive - contingency search; professional recruitment search, professional recruiting, and acts as a premium full cycle recruitment agency. We have successfully performed senior-level searches in all industries, including  C-level, retail search, management search, information technology search (IT search), human resource  search (HR search) , health care search, sales and (http://www.teamsearchconcept.com/-marketing search, and accounting and finance search.)

The management team of Wilson HR Consulting has over 70 years of combined senior-level search and HR (human resource) industry experience, and is positioned to help you find the best executive talent available that matches your specific company needs.

(http://www.wilsonhrconsulting.com/-Human Resources HR Consulting & Senior Executive Search for Retail, IT, Health Care, Sales, Accounting )Contact them: (562) 437.7462

Newport Convertible Engineering Inc., (NCE) - a (http://www.newportconvertible.com/-Designer and Manufacturer of luxury cars, limousines and convertibles) , including:  Coupes Sedans Ferrari Bentley Rolls Royce Acura BMW etc. Newport Convertible Engineering has been the leading provider of exceptional convertible cars for exceptional people throughout the World for last twenty four years - offering the most unique convertible models before you can see them anywhere else in the World. They are committed to providing customers with  the very best individual service in key locations throughout the World and will deliver the car you want, anywhere, any time. NCE creates fashion and passion, helping make cars personal, stylish and fun once again.

They can create and add value to existing cars, as well as help Automakers create new cars that help redefine the road - no matter if the assignment is to help define a brand, to help enliven a brand or to help invigorate a name plate. NCE’s promise is to always add value, always create awe, and always bring exhilaration to the road.

Symak Sales is THE supplier of quality discount merchandise and more than 1000 dollar store items. Distributors, dollar stores, variety stores, and stores of all types can find the products they need at Symak. They are (http://www.symaksales.net/store.tpl?rnd=6010&cart=6C0DFEAD-1CDD-4E83-8DE7-707B2838A409&- Wholesale Distributers of: Kitchen Gadgets, Housewares, Pet accessories, Cosmetics & Personal Care, Party accessories, School & Stationery, Toys, Sewing notions, Shoe Care, Knitting and Crochet) and more.

With warehouses in Plattsburg, New-York and in Montreal, Canada, Symak is able to service customers efficiently anywhere in North America. They offer over 6,000 items of which they carry a substantial amount of inventory. This allows them to ship orders with a completion rate of over 98%, virtually eliminating backorders and lost sales. All Orders over $600  receive free freight.

If you are a business owner, manager, or work in the human resources department of a company, you've probably hired employees who have been less than truthful on their resumes. In fact, recent studies indicate that 75 percent of all resumes contain some form of falsification and fully 89 percent are misleading.

Even though the numbers alone make the case for background checks and resume verification, employers often forgo pre-employment screening of applicants. When they do, the employers' lack of foresight can come back to haunt them. In some cases, companies have been found liable for negligent hiring and retention. In other cases, employers have faced public relations nightmares. Not too long ago, a prestigious university made the news when it was discovered that their admissions officer had allegedly lied about her educational background, and had not received the degrees she had claimed. In the most tragic cases, workplace violence has claimed innocent lives.

Pre-employment screening and background checks prove due diligence, and so can prevent lawsuits claiming negligent hiring. And, by screening out unqualified applicants, employers can save time and money otherwise wasted by recruiting, hiring, and training the wrong applicants. Resume verification and education verification can even help head off wrongful termination lawsuits.

Companies that provide employment screening offer a number of services. The type of screening that best serves you often depends upon the industry in which you work. For example, in the healthcare industry, background checks typically include a state criminal report, a social security number report, education verification, employment verification, a professional license check, a medical abuse check, and a sex offender check.

Those companies that hire delivery drivers or that employ long-haul truckers most often benefit from a national criminal report, a social security number report, a motor vehicle report and a license verification. Educational institutions and childcare centers usually request a national criminal report, a social security number report, a sex offender check, education verification, and employment verification. Those who work in the accounting or finance departments of companies should undergo a national criminal report, a social security number check, a credit check, education verification, employment verification, and an OFAC terrorist check.

Once you make the sensible decision to do pre-employment screening, how do you go about selecting the right company to do background checks? First, look for a well-established company that has a proven track record in both quality and accuracy. Next, make sure that they guarantee confidentiality. Third, check to see that they employ licensed investigators and provide you with the opportunity to speak to a live researcher. Finally, select a company that does both domestic and international searchers, and that does hands-on court research in the United States.

In today's litigious society, and with the prevalence of dissembling on resumes and employment applications, you can't afford to forego background checks and pre-employment screening of your employees and applicants. It's a small price to pay for the peace of mind you'll have knowing that the people you hire are who they claim to be.

Everybody would love to make lots of money quickly, working from home, and only doing a few hours of work per week. I've spent the past two years trying to find a great way of doing this. Only over the course of the past few months have I found any "get rich quick" programs worth buying. I've been trying to make money online for a long time. I had a few small websites, but they never made much more than a few hundred per month. It was easy money and didn't require much work on my part, but I knew there were people out there doing better than I was and I knew I could do as well as them.

Now, I've seen a lot of "get rich quick" programs. Most of these people make claims about earning $2000/day with Google or something similarly insane. Almost all of these people are complete liars. Even if they were making $2000/day with Google AdSense, it'd be because they had high - traffic websites with a lot of quality content. I'd know, because in one whole month, I never even made half of what they promised I'd make daily with their programs. Maybe you've already been scammed by one of these fraudsters. Anyway, I finally got sick of what was being offered.

I decided I'd look through the all of the "get rich quick" programs I could find and see if there were any that were actually legitimate. I found that there were owners selling their programs for well over $100, but the information in them could be found almost anywhere online for free. Additionally, they all contained out-of-date information, had no e-mail support, no money back guarantees, and broken links in the downloads section.

In conclusion, almost all of the programs I found were completely useless. The owners knew it, but they couldn't care less about their customers since they didn't offer refund policies! Amazingly, while looking through all of the programs, I actually did find a few legitimate programs. They were run by ordinary people like you and me, and they had found some great methods of making money from their home by doing very little work.

I spent some time working with those programs, and my income is now ten times what it used to be. These programs provided a large amount of great information on how to make extra money on your computer doing very little work. Numerous customers had provided great feedback and reviews for their products. Many of them have started to make money just days after buying!

Their programs have excellent prices, and the authors have a group of paid staff who are dedicating to helping you or providing assistance if you need any. I must say I was amazed! If you do decide to purchase any of the programs listed below, I recommend you join quickly. Most of the owners tell me they are getting an overwhelming number of sales and plan on raising prices in the near future, so order while prices are still low!

To Your Online Success,

Smell Of Success

The positions in Google are decided by a special formula called PageRank. If you are trying to get more traffic to your website or sell more products then it would be useful to be in the Google top ten for your keywords, yes?

To do this you are probably going to need to know a little bit about how PageRank works. Can you imagine how useful it would be to know what Google looks for in a top ten results and then do it?

Basically, the way PageRank works is that every time a website links to yours it is counted as a vote for your website. The more unique links to your website, the more likely you are to get a higher result and the more free traffic you will get.

The twist is that websites with a higher PageRank have votes that count for more. If msn.com suddenly linked to your website you may find that your PageRank suddenly went up and your search engine position with it.

Of course, this is unlikely, so how do we realistically increase our page ranks?

The first step is one of habit. If you regularly post on blogs, or comments on them, or on forums then include your link with every post. Put it in your "signature" if the bulletin board allows this feature.

The second step is a little more active. Link exchanges are a very good way to increase PageRank. You find a likeminded website and contact the webmaster by email. You offer to put a link to his website on yours if he does the same for you.

You set up a page on your website called "Links" and that will be where you put all of your links to other websites. You repeat this with other like-minded websites for free and easy traffic.

Any directories of websites like yours or even websites in general should have your link on them. Articles are also a good way of getting your link onto other websites as I have discussed in other articles.

If you can provide any other service for webmasters that allows you to put something on their website plus your link then do that. I once heard of a man who invented an automatic "quote of the day" script to put on websites and made his money that way.

Avoid "FFA"s or link "Free For Alls" at all costs because they are a waste of time and/or money. These are websites that ostensibly allow you to increase your Page Rank by placing your link there (either for free or a small charge).

However, search engines like Google do not check just the amount of links leading to your website but the relevancy. Therefore FFA sites with bundles of irrelevant links usually have low page ranks and so their link to you is worth very little.

Use of FFAs may work to increase your page rank but it is definitely working very hard for little rewards and I do not recommend it.

Sometimes banner exchanges are a good idea but that requires that you go to the effort to design a banner. This can be done for free but the visual affect is rarely stunning. Usually to get a good, traffic-pulling banner you have to hire someone to design one for you and so this technique has its financial downfalls also.

This article brought to you by Women About Biz. Get more business information at the #1 Small Business Resource for Women. www.womenaboutbiz.com.

In an era when giant retailers and mega-corporations are pouring millions of dollars into Internet marketing and advertising, owners of small - and medium-sized can become easily discouraged. With limited marketing budgets, can smaller businesses compete in the high-cost world of Internet marketing and advertising?

The answer is a definitive "yes." Indeed, one of the best ways to leverage limited marketing budgets is to use email marketing, which can be used to streamline, organize, and enhance customer relationships and communications. Email marketing is the perfect vehicle for distributing a company newsletter, contacting potential clients, sending offers to existing customers, or simply keeping in touch with an audience about updates and changes to the business.

At first glance, it may seem that email marketing is a good idea in theory, but difficult to execute in practice. Compiling and maintaining email lists, composing and keeping track of email messages and offers, and sending out the emails manually or using rudimentary email blast software is difficult and time-consuming. It's also a gamble, since so many blast emails are caught in spam filters and are never delivered to the recipients. The only way to truly get the message to the customer is through sophisticated email marketing software.

Historically, email list management software has had limited features, was unreliable in terms of assuring delivery of emails, and has been cost prohibitive to all but the largest companies. The good news is that new products have entered the marketplace that not only overcome these limitations, but that also offer enhanced affordability.

As a small or medium-sized business, shopping for email list management software can be tricky. Look for the following features:

* Affordability - Email list management software should allow you to send up to 50,000 emails a month for under $100. There are even some email list management software systems that periodically offer introductory rates of $1 for the first month.

* An intuitive, Web-based interface - Web-based software is the wave of the future; a Web-based email list management system means you never have to worry about software maintenance or upgrades.

* Limitless email lists - You should be able to maintain as many addresses as you wish and as many lists as you want without incurring extra expense. Beware of companies that charge based on the number of database entries you have!

* Rollover credits - If you don't use your allotted number of emails during a given month, a good email marketing package will allow you to roll unused credits over into the next month, or to purchase additional credits on the fly, in real time.

* Importing lists - You should be able to import entire mailing lists into the online system with a few clicks of your mouse. You should also be able to rent or buy opt-in email lists and migrate them into the system.

* Sequential mailings - The best email marketing software systems allow you to import a series of messages and set up sequential mailings to be sent at the day and time you desire. In other words, you should be able to implement a six-month email marketing campaign in one sitting.

* Flexibility - Look for software that allows you to edit your lists and messages right up to the minute your mailing is scheduled to be sent.

* Automated list management - Email marketing software should automatically handle bounced emails, bad addresses, and requests for removal. It should also allow you to remove any blacklisted addresses and build opt-in email lists.

Great email marketing software can be the great equalizer, allowing small - and medium-sized businesses to compete with the corporate giants in the world of Internet marketing and advertising.