International virtual staffing agency, Team Double-ClickSM frequently replies to beleaguered prospective clients who ask, “Do I Need a Virtual Assistant?” Gayle and Jim Buske, founders, CEO and CFO, respectively, offer a remarkably straightforward means to answer this critical question.

Team Double-Click’s recent unveiling of the company’s easy-to-navigate website offers a self-administered quiz entitled, “Fast Quiz: Do I need a virtual assistant?”  Within five minutes, future clients can determine whether internet-based professionals, who provide virtual administrative, marketing and sales support, can indeed contribute to an entrepreneur’s emerging or existing business plan.

Answering a series of nine thought-provoking questions; one for example, “How often do you work additional hours in the evenings or on weekends just to stay on top of administrative tasks?” business owners select one multiple choice answer; each assigned an individual point value.  Upon completion of all nine questions the allotted points are tallied to determine if a virtual assistant can or cannot be a useful team member to assist in the growth of a future client’s particular business. If determined that a virtual assistant is needed, the quiz further clarifies a recommended number of hours an assistant can be contracted to relieve a business owner of any routine responsibilities, project work and/or on-going; albeit important, time-consuming tasks.

Another challenging quiz question presented on the website is, “Do your phones go unanswered because you are often out of the office or busy on another line?” This particular question frequently leaves the small business owner wondering how much revenue is truly lost when potentially important telephone calls remain unanswered.

Additionally, Team Double-Click’s all-inclusive website offers a myriad of other customized virtual office assistant solutions for the entrepreneur.  Targeting small business owners, real estate brokers, investors, and agents, visitors to the site can view a task list that a contracted virtual assistant can accomplish in their specified industry.

In a 2006 interview with Kendra Todd, winner of NBC’s “The Apprentice Season 3”, hosted by Gayle Buske, Todd was asked to explain how she eventually determined that Team Double-ClickSM virtual assistants would add value to her rising real estate empire. Todd explained that as her business grew, a business partner eventually approached her and said, “Kendra, you can’t do it all, and you need a virtual assistant”.  Todd added, “I have a very large database with lots of people – a couple thousand people in my database.  It is important for any successful business owner to keep in touch with their clients, and email and ezines are a wonderful way to do that.”  Todd continued, “It’s hard to pick up a phone and call several thousand people and say, ‘Hello, how are you doing?’ but there are some wonderful virtual ways in which to have an intimate relationship with your customers, and so that was one of the reasons why I really needed to get a virtual assistant.”

Todd has built her real estate team based on the premise that she, “…just want[s] the best people at what they do, regardless of where they are [virtually].” Business owners and entrepreneurs can now determine within a few minutes if a virtual assistant can be a viable addition to a client’s organization and, if so, through the use of Team Double-Click’s virtual staffing solutions website customized tools are available to effortlessly assemble a dynamic virtual team.

Running a bar can be a thrilling experience, but it takes a lot of knowledge to sell a bar.  Buyers expect a lot of information to ensure things are in order.

Timing – The timing for the sale of a bar is very important.  The bar should be doing very well with plenty of repeat customers and the possibility of retaining the customers with the new owner is crucial.  If there are certain times in a year, when the bar is usually full, then prepare to sell it during that period.

Another thing about timing is that, at the time the business is put up for sale, there should be no contracts that are going to expire soon, or else buyers tend to reduce bids.

Bar owners manage their business using the strategy of reducing the taxes by reporting less income, and buyer’s first look at the income that is reported in the tax returns in order to place a value on the business.  This is where advance planning becomes important.  The years prior to putting a business up for sale should be carefully planned and more income shown, even if one has to pay taxes.

Seeking Advisers/consultants - It is advisable to consult advisers or experts to understand government regulations better.  Accountants can help with the financial aspect and taxes.  An attorney can help with the legalities.  If the bar is well-established and depending on the size, one can either use the advice of the experts or engage them to get things done, including valuation, packaging, locating buyers and negotiating the sale.

Confidentiality – The worst part about selling a bar is that, it can have a negative effect on the bar, once it is made public that the bar is for sale. The employees, competitors, customers will start drifting and in turn destroy the placing of the bar, lessening the value.

We also need to talk about how confidentiality needs to be maintained.  Limited information should be given to the potential buyer, until it is determined that the buyer is legitimate and genuine. Asking the buyer to sign a non-disclosure agreement is a must.

After signing of the non-disclosure agreement, the buyer can be given the other confidential information regarding finances and operations.

Establishing the worth – The worth of a bar must be made known to the buyer. For this, the first step is to get everything evaluated. It helps to seek the help of an experienced evaluation expert.  This is a must not only for the seller to fix a price on the business but also for the buyer to understand and appreciate the value of the bar.

Terms of sale – Pricing is not the only factor that needs to be taken into consideration when selling a bar.  The current financial situation and the health of the bar are factors that will also influence the sale. Another important aspect is how the payment would be made, a complete cash deal or offering seller financing, the involvement (if any) of the seller in the bar business after the sale is made and the ownership transferred.  Mutually agreeable terms can be arrived at after discussions.

Some buyers may wish to get the seller to finance all or part of the sale.  Seller financing usually gets the seller a better deal.

Recasting financial statements – This means checking the financial statements to avoid showing that less income was portrayed to avoid taxes, engaging in any illegal transactions that may effect the bar business, or having shifted some personal expenses to the bar.  Adjustments in the balance sheet and income statement should be done if needed.

Advertising - The most crucial step in selling a bar business or any other business for that matter is advertising.  Targeting an active network of buyers is important to reach qualified prospects with capacity to acquire the bar business for sale. Identifying and screening to evaluate the financial strength of the buyer is extremely important.

With all these things done, one cannot go wrong in selling their bar business to the best buyer and be happy in the knowledge that their business is still in good hands.

Is it less taxing to incorporate?

Some companies may seem to escape death, but they will ever be able to escape taxes. That doesn't mean there aren't some tax benefits out there, though, that only the corporations are getting. Companies are tempted to incorporate for a number of reasons, but more and more often, taxes are the main motivator. But why?

Well, it's important to note right away that incorporation only means tax benefits for some companies. For others, taxes might actually become a bigger problem than they were before. However, potentially, you have a lot to gain – in what you won't be paying in taxes to the government – by incorporating. There are a few basic tax benefits that corporations often rely upon.

The first one is tax deferral. All this means, really, is that a company can keep more of its earnings. How can this be? When a company becomes a corporation, it becomes a separate entity of its owner and thus adheres to different rules than it did before. Typically, an owner must pay taxes directly to the government on his or her net income. But if that same owner has a corporation on his or her hands, it's an entirely new ballgame. The corporation has different tax rates than its owner! Depending on the state, a corporation will have to pay little to no income tax. You can expect that the income tax of a corporation will be significantly lower than a personal income tax.

This may all sound very quaint and appealing, but there's more to the story. The grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side because of a nuisance called double taxation. Double taxation happens when both the shareholder and the corporation are taxed for various profits and gains. Especially when a corporation liquidates, this is a problem. (As new dividends make themselves known.) There are ways to resolve the double taxation dilemma, but it does take quite a bit of thought and planning.

Whether you're running a company or a corporation, you must think about taxes in the long term. Don't just plan for this year and next – think far into the future and foresee problems like double taxation. As you consider the tax benefits of incorporation, make sure to also consider the disadvantages and added complications. If you want to get the best bang for your buck when you incorporate, you must play an active role in the process of turning your company into a corporation. And that means you can't take for granted the promise of tax benefits.

Also keep in mind that tax law is ever-changing and tax benefits that generations before you had may be nonexistent today, while new benefits may take their place. It's advisable to keep up to date about what your state legislatures are coming up with from year to year. Because each company has its own personality and ambitions and of course net profits, some tax benefits may be more disposable than others. The only appeal of tax benefits is that a company retains more of its earnings, so if incorporation is costing you money in other areas, you will want to note this. It's important to weigh all the costs and benefits against each other!

You may have the most wonderful hotel in the world, with gorgeous landscaping, comfortable rooms, and impeccable service, but if guests don't know about it, your occupancy rates will be a continual disappointment. In this day and age, the most critical component of hotel marketing is great hotel website design.

Why Hotel Website Design?

The numbers say it all. During 2007, almost a third of all hotel revenues will be generated by online channels. Moreover, over half of your target audience's decision-making is influenced by the Internet. Over a third of hotel guests choose their hotel based on online research, but book through another channel. The remainder researched their choices through an Internet portal, but then tried to book directly with the travel provider.

Without great hotel web site design, it's as if you printed 1,000 beautiful, four-color, ten-page brochures that stunningly captured the unique nature of your hotel at ten dollars apiece, and then locked them away in a cupboard. How effective would they be? The "look and feel" is vitally important in motivating visitors to explore your hotel product, and in guiding them to buy, but without the right technology, site structure, and navigation methods, you will only have marginal online revenues.

Hotel Search Engine Optimization

Even if you have a wonderful hotel web site design, if no one can find your website when they are searching online for that "luxury San Diego hotel," that "romantic B&B outside Paris," or that "adventure scuba holiday in the Maldives," it's as though you didn't have a website at all.

The way that potential guests will find your hotel web site is through search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is both an art and a science - and shouldn't be left to amateurs. Search engine optimization techniques will enable your hotel website to be returned high in the rankings of search engine results - a critical element of effective online hotel marketing.

Factors to Consider

When choosing a marketing company for your hotel website design, make sure that they understand and meet these goals:

* Generating qualified, quality visitor traffic

* Motivating visitors to delve deeper into your hotel website

* Converting visitors into online hotel revenues

Too often, hotel websites are developed in reverse, placing the emphasis on design rather than on generating website traffic. The key is to balance traffic generation effectiveness, the site's "look and feel," and conversion techniques to produce a hotel web site that looks great, gets plenty of traffic that converts into bookings.

Find a Hotel Website Design Company

Today, Internet design and marketing companies have specializations. In order to get the best return on investment, it's best to choose a website design company that specializes in hotel website design. Make sure that their approach adheres to the following guidelines - otherwise, keep shopping. The company should:

* Identify your visitors' expectations and intentions

* Work with you to clarify your own objectives

* Develop a hotel website revenue conversion strategy

* Determine site components that satisfy both design and search engine optimization goals

* Map our "click paths" that will lead to conversion

Your hotel website design and search engine optimization are the two keys to generating the kind of traffic that will keep your occupancy rates in the stratosphere!

We get asked this question a lot by customers who own an HP or Lexmark printer, especially ones who have previously owned an Epson or Canon printer. So why do the majority of HP and Lexmark compatibles ink cartridges cost more? Well, it’s basically down to the design of the ink cartridges these brands of printer use. Most HP and Lexmark printers use a cartridge where the print head (the device that puts ink the on the paper) is incorporated into the cartridge and cannot be removed. This means each time a new cartridge is installed in the printer the print head is also replaced.

Replacing the print head at each time the ink runs out has a number of advantages in terms of the quality and reliability of the print produced. The downside however, is that a print head is expensive to manufacture, it is a highly engineered electrical device which requires high levels of expertise and technically advanced machinery to produce. You will not find third party companies offering print head cartridges cheaper than the branded products, because they are unable to manufacture them at a low enough price that would draw the consumer away the branded OEM product. Another downside to having a throwaway print head of every cartridge is that its not very environmentally friendly in terms of the energy it takes to produce it. Although HP and Lexmark do recycle the materials used in their ink cartridges.

So what are compatible HP & Lexmark cartridges? Compatible HP & Lexmark cartridges are remanufactured. This means the cartridges have been recycled in an environmentally friendly way ready to be used again. So they just refill them with ink? No, remanufacturing and refilling are entirely different things. Remanufacturing is a much lengthier and thorough process; as a result it produces a much more reliable recycled ink cartridge.

The remanufacturing process consists of sourcing empty cartridges that are suitable for remanufacturing. The majority of these are bought from brokers and the cost of which varies tremendously, depending on the availability of the particular cartridge (new cartridges to the market are generally more expensive because there are less in circulation). Once the cartridges are received each one is carefully inspected for any signs of damage. Cartridges that pass visual inspection are then thoroughly cleaned using state-of-the art equipment and then electronically tested to ensure the electronic circuitry on the cartridge is functioning. The next stage of the process is refilling, this is done using premium quality ink and highly accurate manufacturing equipment. On completion of the filling process the cartridge is again inspected visually, electronically and under pressure controlled conditions to ensure the unit is suitably sealed (so that it doesn’t leak). The final stage is packaging, this involves placing the product in a uniquely designed box which is clearly labelled with all relevant product codes. The box will also contain a freepost bag to return the cartridge to the recycler when it has been used in order for it to be recycled again.

As you can see this is not a process that can be done “while you wait”. Due to the amount of time and equipment needed to recycle ink cartridges the end product can be a little bit more expensive compared to third party compatibles for Epson and Canon printers.

So why are Epson and Canon compatible cartridges cheaper? The reason for this is that the majority do not contain a print head and are therefore, simply ink tanks. These can be manufactured (in China mostly) in a very cost effective way and the end product can be retailed at a much cheaper price compared to the equivalent OEM branded product.

Net Promoter Scores is one of the hottest business measurement tools. In fact your next promotion or bonus may be based on your Net Promoter Score – which asks customers one question – “On a scale of zero to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend us to your friends or colleagues?”

Customers who respond zero to 6 are detractors, all who respond 7 or 8 are passive, and 9 or 10 are promoters. The percentage of promoters minus that of detractors is your (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/-Net Promoter Score).

So, let’s suppose your company just implemented the Net Promoter Score. That means you, your pay, and your future promotions are tied to your ability to turn customers into promoters. At (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/-Customer Focus, Inc.) (www.customerfocusinc.com) we’re a (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/content/view/23/35/-customer service training) company who helps raise Net Promoter Scores. We’ve discovered fast ways to raise your scores.

Whether you use a (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/content/view/23/35/-professional customer service training) company or do it yourself, have your people learn and practice these seven techniques. Then observe, measure, and reward them. They may sound simple, but they work and do so quickly.

1. Welcome and thank every customer

Begin with every customer “Welcome to…” or “Thank you for calling …” And use a warm and sincere tone of voice that lets the customer feel like an invited guest. And if you recognize, say “It’s good to see (hear from) you again”. Score 2 or 3 points already.

2. Use names as often as possible

Quick quiz: What’s the most important word customers want to hear? In an increasingly impersonal world, customers thirst to hear their name. Train your people to use each customer’s name at least twice. Each time is worth a point up to three points. Then, to lock in those points, have your people state their own name twice. The first time, the customer didn’t hear it. Then after you use the customer’s name, they hear your name the second time you say it.

3. Say glad, happy, pleased, or pleasure for every request

There’s a reason at Ritz Carlton they say, “My pleasure.” Train your people to respond to every request with, “I’d be glad to take care of that,” or “I’d be happy to do that,” or even, “Sure, that’d be no problem.” Let them use their own words and let the positive feelings rub off onto your customer.. Rack up at least two points the first time you say it, and one or two more for saying it consistently.

4. Apologize whether you’re sorry or not

You work hard to build up your points with a customer, but you could lose 3 or 4 points in a blink. When customers feel wronged or upset, apologize and show empathy to keep your points.  Take responsibility and never blame anybody else. The customer will feel they can trust you to take care of them and who they recommend. Sincere apologies create promoters. A person in one of our (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/content/view/23/35/-training classes) once said, “We were told never to apologize. You never want to admit blame.”

Employees don’t have to admit blame or say, “We were wrong” to apologize. Apologize for the customer’s inconvenience, or for having made the customer upset, or for the situation. In the Net Promoter world, such words are magic.

5. Provide GEMs to meet Uniqueness Need

We start our (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/-customer service training) by saying that customers have three TRU needs: Task Need, Respect Need, and Uniqueness Need.  You create a Distractor by not meeting either of the first two needs, you create a Passive customer when you meet just the first two needs, and you create a Promoter when you meet all three.

To make a customer feel Unique do something extra that exceeds expectations. We call those extras GEMs™ for Going the Extra Mile. We provide many guidelines and examples of GEMs, but one thing is common in all GEMs – you cannot standardize them. Train your employees to think, “What else can I do for this customer” or “What more can I do?” And the greatest opportunities are with your greatest challenges. Give a great GEM and do the first four above, and you’re good for an 8 or 9.

6. Train your employees to create an “experience” for the customer.

Net Promoter is all about getting people to talk about your company in a positive way. (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/-Great experiences) generate great stories, and terrible experiences generate horror stories. What stories are your people generating? As a manager, you can encourage (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/-great customer experiences) by collecting stories of those experiences and rewarding those who create them. You can set the bar for the rest of your company by featuring and publicizing these stories, as well as receiving the high Net Promoter scores these experiences engender.

7. Create a “Cheat Sheet” for your employees to use with every customer

If employees don’t know how to turn detractors and passives into promoters, a company’s Net Promoter scores will never go up. Ongoing training and reinforcement in these skills is crucial for high net promoter scores. After training, create a “Cheat Sheet” for your employees to use with every customer. Then, either hold a team meeting or coach your people individually, or both. Do ongoing role-plays with each employee to practice these skills. Observe them in action and give them feedback, especially praise. Companies are adopting (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/-Net Promoter) because it is remarkable in its power and simplicity. By taking all these actions, you just might get to keep your job, get that bonus, and move on up.

Go to our website at www.customerfocusinc.com or call us to find out more about getting fast training to increase your Net Promoter scores.

About the Author

(http://www.customerfocusinc.com/-Customer Focus, Inc.) is an international (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/content/view/23/35/-customer service training) company that provides innovative, world-class (http://www.customerfocusinc.com/content/view/23/35/-customer service skill building) and culture-building training programs at low cost. Contact Steve Fugate: (817) 303-5256

© Copyright 2007 Customer Focus Inc.

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Get Rich Quick Scams RevealedRead this article before you consider paying for a "get rich quick" program.

From: designer handbagsEverybody 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, designer handbags

You can earn money on the web through a variety of ways, primary among these are the models which are tried and tested by others. Before starting a get rich soon model of your own, get a feel of the market.

To do this, you might want to have a look at some of the other sites offering the required services similar to the ones provided by your site. These sites often require users to join in before they can actually see the benefits if the site.

Hence you might actually have to join in the site. These sites often demand some money from the people wanting to join in the site. They tell this as a part of the joining fees. The money gives you difference benefits like e-books on how to get rich soon, other e books on how to make money online and so on.

These websites also offer you the choice of a great deal of other programs of getting rich from where you can choose one. Hence, you would do well to join in one of these sites before starting a survey of your own. There are a number of advantages of this too.

For one, you will have a sure shot idea of how to lure people to your web site. Also, you will have an idea of what people look for in a website. All this information can then be used in the formation of your website and then you can loom forward to making it a huge success.

There are different types of sites providing different services to the people. There are sites which help you invest, there are sites which help you earn money online.

There are also some sites which are called web design sites which help you create your own identity on the internet. These sites help you not only to create your site but also to get the work done and the money earning on your site.

These are called design web sites also. You can make money through the help of these sites. You can take the help of these sites for the purpose of setting up your own site or you can make a web design site yourself ad give your services to the people. Either way, you will benefit as you will be the one who will be on their earning side. Thus, you can make a decent amount of money on the web.

All the reverse funnel system is…is an automated sales process that closes people into your business for you automatically.  Ty Coughlin and the inner circle hired VERY expensive copy writers, and web conversion experts to design the system.

But how does it work for you?  You need to work the system and you need to get hard workers to work underneath you.  When working for GRN (Global Resorts Network) you and your uplink get a $1,000 commission.  So when you become the up line your worker’s and you get $1,000 commission.  That’s a thousand dollars free for you as long as you teach the people under you valuable marketing skills.

So the Reverse Funnel System is a system that has enormously high conversion rates on the back end, 30-40%.  On the front end you run traffic to a provided front end sales page and will hopefully get most people to fill out the $50 paid survey.

Then your traffic gets sent to your copy of the system, a brilliantly designed access page that tells it all, and it tells a lot; value, stories, marketing skills, personal information.  It tells enough to get your already very interested customer (he/she paid the fifty dollar survey fee) to trust that he has fallen into the right business opportunity.

That is why the Reverse Funnel System works so well.  It builds anticipation and value by making potential sales go through a paid survey while at the same time it weeds out those who would be uncommitted and a waste of your time and energy.

As long as you are out there and working and driving traffic the Reverse Funnel System will do its job and work for you.  Take this advice however, put value on your front end sales page, put information about yourself, and methods of marketing, try to be friends with your traffic because if they sign up under you, you will become friends because you will be working together as often as you can to make sure that traffic is driven

The system works but the system needs you to push the traffic into it.  If you have any system, lets say your cardio-vascular system, if you don’t push that traffic of oxygen into your lungs, your blood will not get this vital element and you will die.

If you don’t push that traffic into the Reverse Funnel System it wont die but it will be useless.