There is currently as phone scam doing the rounds where you receive a phone call from a person claiming to be from Microsoft informing you that your Windows computer is reporting virus warnings and problems back to Microsoft and they are calling to help you fix the issue.
They ask you to first open the Event Viewer that is built into windows and then have you look for errors. There are always likely to be some form of error in your event log and they count on this as part of the scam.
The aim of this is to convince you that there is something wrong with your computer and the a virus is causing all the errors. You are then asked you to install software for them to access your computer to fix the issue or may also ask you to go to a website and purchase the fix for the problems you are seeing in the even viewer.
If you recive one of these calls, simply say you don't own a computer or just hang up. Microsoft will never call you about computer related issues or about viruses on your computer.
Please pass this on to help stop these scammers in their tracks. They are making thouands of dollars a day from unknowing computer users all over Australia.
Information for your Business IT.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Mortgage Brokers
Why would you use a bank these days to tell you what loan is right for you. There are now a wide range of mortgage brokers out there that are willing to work for you to get you the best loan. Most brokers will now focus on getting you the best loan rather than play favourites with banks that pay higher commissions.
I can tell you now that banks aren't going to give you any discounts for your loyalty so you might as well have them pay a mortgage broker and let the poor guy make some money for saving you some.
Have a talk to Mark and his crew at Loan Market to save you the hassles with your next loan.
Click here to visit LoanMarket
I can tell you now that banks aren't going to give you any discounts for your loyalty so you might as well have them pay a mortgage broker and let the poor guy make some money for saving you some.
Have a talk to Mark and his crew at Loan Market to save you the hassles with your next loan.
Click here to visit LoanMarket
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Coffee Van
Is your workplace a regular stopping point for your local mobile coffee business?
I've personally witnessed a good majority of my clients workforce line up for their daily brew from mobile vendors and have made a startling discovery. The most recent site I visited had a workforce of 50+ employees. When the coffee van pulled up in to the driveway and tooted the horn, half of the staff in the office jumped to their feet and proceeded outside to line up for their morning coffee. Whilst each coffee was being made all the staff engaged idle chit-chat with their fellow employees even after receiving their coffee. It was 30 minutes later after the last coffee had been served and all the staff had returned to their workstations. From my understanding, this was a daily ritual at this workplace.
I would like to put this into perspective for all the business' out there in a similar scenario.
25 Employees at $4.00/cup of coffee = Coffee Vendor makes $100 for 30 minutes work.
Employer looses 25 employees for 30 minutes = 12.5 hours/day of lost productivity (estimated loss $275/day).
Over the course of a year that is 3000+ hours of lost productivity at an estimated loss of $66,000.
Based on the above figures, it would be cheaper for a business with 50+ employees to have a full time Barista on hand serving coffees all day to your employees workstations for free.
Not wanting to put mobile coffee vendors our of business, it might be worth coming up with some sort of arrangement with your local vendor to organise a better time for visits to your workplace that will not be such a drain on your companies time or charging them to come to your workplace.
You need to weigh the cost of a happy employee versus the time drain on your business to decide if you need to act on this, as they say "time is money". How much is it costing your business?
I've personally witnessed a good majority of my clients workforce line up for their daily brew from mobile vendors and have made a startling discovery. The most recent site I visited had a workforce of 50+ employees. When the coffee van pulled up in to the driveway and tooted the horn, half of the staff in the office jumped to their feet and proceeded outside to line up for their morning coffee. Whilst each coffee was being made all the staff engaged idle chit-chat with their fellow employees even after receiving their coffee. It was 30 minutes later after the last coffee had been served and all the staff had returned to their workstations. From my understanding, this was a daily ritual at this workplace.
I would like to put this into perspective for all the business' out there in a similar scenario.
25 Employees at $4.00/cup of coffee = Coffee Vendor makes $100 for 30 minutes work.
Employer looses 25 employees for 30 minutes = 12.5 hours/day of lost productivity (estimated loss $275/day).
Over the course of a year that is 3000+ hours of lost productivity at an estimated loss of $66,000.
Based on the above figures, it would be cheaper for a business with 50+ employees to have a full time Barista on hand serving coffees all day to your employees workstations for free.
Not wanting to put mobile coffee vendors our of business, it might be worth coming up with some sort of arrangement with your local vendor to organise a better time for visits to your workplace that will not be such a drain on your companies time or charging them to come to your workplace.
You need to weigh the cost of a happy employee versus the time drain on your business to decide if you need to act on this, as they say "time is money". How much is it costing your business?
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Ecommerce and Your Business
As the world of business goes online, so are your potential customers. Everyone from Coles to Big W are venturing into ecommerce launching their own online stores and smartphone apps. EBay posted a 32% increase to net income to $3 Billion this quarter ending September 2011, this has bee attributed to users taking advantage of smartphone and mobile technologies. Resent studies show that 7 out of 10 people that are considering making a large purchase are now doing the initial search for models and price online. This is great for big companies with huge SEO budgets that can ensure that they come up on first page search and bulk buying power to keep their prices down. What does this mean for small or medium business? It does not take a financial analyst to figure out what happens next.
It may surprise you to know that you can take your business online and compete with the "big guys" for less than $6000. Imagine having a salesperson that works 24 hours a day 365 days a year and you never asks for leave or payment for overtime and is consistently telling your customer what you want them to hear. You may start to see that some of your largest competition to your business are purely online stores. The only safety buffer for Australian business for the time being is that our market still like to see and touch what they are buying. This is a trend that is rapidly diminishing in the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA.
In today's business environment the question shouldn't be "can I afford to go online?" as opposed to "can I afford not to be online?".
It may surprise you to know that you can take your business online and compete with the "big guys" for less than $6000. Imagine having a salesperson that works 24 hours a day 365 days a year and you never asks for leave or payment for overtime and is consistently telling your customer what you want them to hear. You may start to see that some of your largest competition to your business are purely online stores. The only safety buffer for Australian business for the time being is that our market still like to see and touch what they are buying. This is a trend that is rapidly diminishing in the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA.
In today's business environment the question shouldn't be "can I afford to go online?" as opposed to "can I afford not to be online?".
Saturday, October 15, 2011
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
I received a call the other day from an SEO company claiming to be able to get my business to the first page of Google for the industry my business is in. "Really" I replied. So I typed in SEO into Google while the salesperson was reading from a script and then I ask "what is your business name?" (business shall remain nameless) and then said "well I can't see your company on the first page of Google so how are you going to get my business on there?"
If you have ever done research into how to Search Engine Optimise your website, you'll find heaps of information, then more that conflicts with the first lot of information, then more again the conflicts with everything else. Basically there are heaps of tips and tricks you can use to get good Google page rank so I want to share one of the most honest ways to get a good result.
Lets go all the way back to when Larry Page and Sergey Brin brought life to Google in the late 90's. Back when music was still good and we all had no means to communicate as facebook had not been invented yet. Larry & Sergey had an idea to organise the worlds information so that "we" the searcher could find what we are looking for. So with our first words typed into Google, It just worked!! and we have been hooked ever since. We now have the ability to find what we are looking for, everything from how to get gum out of our hair to where is Chuck Norris (almost everything).
How does this all work? I'm not going to go into the technical aspect of Google's search in this post, but I will share with you something important that is overlooked when trying to get that page one listing for your site. In my previous paragraph I mentioned "organise the worlds information" and this is the primary goal of Google.
So if you set out to give people information, Google in all earnest should help you do that.
Lets take a pet store for example that sells pets and pet care products. Mr. Pet Store owner spends lots of money on his fantastic ecommerce website with 1000's of pet care products just like every other pet store in that city/state and sits back and waits for the dollars to roll in. He now and then types into Google "pet supplies", but keeps getting his competitors sites.
Why?
Because some search terms have a lot of competition, words like "cars", "computers" and other terms that are in the top 3 searches but will not be mentioned as to keep this blog safe for young eyes.
So here is something to think about when you embark on your next website or before you consider having an SEO consultant take a look at your website. If Mr. Pet Store Owner had created a few pages that gave you tips and information on pet care, how to groom your pets, how one product have benefits over others and any other information that a potential pet store customer may find helpful. The website would now have useful information that Google would organise. His competitor may have the advantage with the search "pet supplies" but Mr. Pet Store owner now has "pet care tips", "pet grooming tips". Remember, people will always go back to a site that they got good information from. That's why we use Google.
If you have ever done research into how to Search Engine Optimise your website, you'll find heaps of information, then more that conflicts with the first lot of information, then more again the conflicts with everything else. Basically there are heaps of tips and tricks you can use to get good Google page rank so I want to share one of the most honest ways to get a good result.
Lets go all the way back to when Larry Page and Sergey Brin brought life to Google in the late 90's. Back when music was still good and we all had no means to communicate as facebook had not been invented yet. Larry & Sergey had an idea to organise the worlds information so that "we" the searcher could find what we are looking for. So with our first words typed into Google, It just worked!! and we have been hooked ever since. We now have the ability to find what we are looking for, everything from how to get gum out of our hair to where is Chuck Norris (almost everything).
How does this all work? I'm not going to go into the technical aspect of Google's search in this post, but I will share with you something important that is overlooked when trying to get that page one listing for your site. In my previous paragraph I mentioned "organise the worlds information" and this is the primary goal of Google.
So if you set out to give people information, Google in all earnest should help you do that.
Lets take a pet store for example that sells pets and pet care products. Mr. Pet Store owner spends lots of money on his fantastic ecommerce website with 1000's of pet care products just like every other pet store in that city/state and sits back and waits for the dollars to roll in. He now and then types into Google "pet supplies", but keeps getting his competitors sites.
Why?
Because some search terms have a lot of competition, words like "cars", "computers" and other terms that are in the top 3 searches but will not be mentioned as to keep this blog safe for young eyes.
So here is something to think about when you embark on your next website or before you consider having an SEO consultant take a look at your website. If Mr. Pet Store Owner had created a few pages that gave you tips and information on pet care, how to groom your pets, how one product have benefits over others and any other information that a potential pet store customer may find helpful. The website would now have useful information that Google would organise. His competitor may have the advantage with the search "pet supplies" but Mr. Pet Store owner now has "pet care tips", "pet grooming tips". Remember, people will always go back to a site that they got good information from. That's why we use Google.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Tips for Domain Name Registration
A domain name is your websites street address along the information super highway. Choosing one that is best for your business should be pretty straight forward right? If thats the case why are you reading this blog?
Here are a few tips I use when registering a domain
Here are a few tips I use when registering a domain
- Always register the TLD (top level domain) e.g. example.com & example.co.uk
- try not to use hyphens "-" although they can make your domain name look better, people entering your url forget to use them.
- Try not to make it too long. If you business is Jack Smiths Building & Landscaping Supplies jacksmithbuildingandlandscapingssupplies.com is just not going to be that practicle.
- Try to use a domain name that someone may enter into a search engine if they are looking for you. e.g. Search "Great pets for kids" a good domain name would be "greatpets.com" or "kidspets.com".
- Think of one that is easy to tell people about through word of mouth and is spelt how it sounds. A good example is happydays.com as it is spelt how it sounds. A bad example is Krazzyprices.com as it sounds like "crazy prices" when spoken.
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