WinWeb

And The Winner Is….

November 30, 2009

The five finalists for WinWeb’s Business ‘09 gave their presentations at Olympia in London last Thursday to try and win the first prize of £10,000.

Every finalist gave an excellent account of themselves and of their business, but as with all competitions, there could only be one first prize, leaving our 3 judges with the tough task of selecting the number one.

Our congratulations go to the winner, Sue Acton from Bubble & Balm. Sue’s pitch to the judges explained how she would use the money to develop and launch a world Fairtrade first – Fairtrade certified make up. Sue’s progress will be documented by WinWeb over the next few months so we can see how Bubble & Balm are doing.

Brett Ansley’s idea of fashionable household furniture made of cardboard took the second prize of a years subscription to OnlineOffice Pro. The remaining three finalists each received a years subscription to OnlineOffice.

Special thanks must go to our judges, without whom the final could not have gone ahead. The three judges were:

Steve Pritchard – founder of hiremyparents.com which offers flexible jobs to parents to allow them to spend more time with the family whilst earning an income.

Alison Robson – Project Director at Shell LiveWIRE – the UK’s biggest online community for young entrepreneurs starting a business.

Prof Ian Angell – Professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics.

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition.

Marketing Tips For Your Small Business

November 25, 2009

David Paget, owner of UKSMF Ltd – a free sales and marketing advice site, has put together 5 top tips to consider with your business marketing:

1. Know your customer – The first mistake many businesses make is not knowing their customers. Define your target market carefully through reserach and segmentation, then position yourself as different and as superior to your competitors.

2. Get your message right – A great way to do this is to do a SWOT analysis of your business. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – Write it all out on a piece of paper and you’ll be surprised at how focused this will make you in writing your message to your potential customers.

3. Features and Benefits – A feature is a great thing but it always needs to be backed up by the benefits of the feature. I.E. – “The stereo has a 500 watt output giving you great quality of sound”. The benefits will drive the customer’s impulse to buy against your competitors.

4. Always follow up – You’ve just done all of the hard work and attracted the customer to your product or service, spoken to the potential customer and engaged their interest….. So what do you do next? You need to schedule a follow up and make sure that you do it. Conversion rates can be dramatically improved just by following up properly. Even if you lose that potential it is still wise to follow up 3 months later – maybe they still need the offering that you have.

5. Keep your marketing efforts going – Even if your first efforts bring you 5 customers at once, if you stop marketing your business will become very quiet again. Even 10 minutes a day will benefit your business.

Try different marketing messages as some will work better than others, when you find one that works, stick with it. Running a business is about 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration – stick with this motto and you should not go too wrong.

For more free marketing advice, visit their friendly community @ salesandmarketingforums.co.uk

And the £10,000 Finalists are….

November 24, 2009

Thursday the 26th November sees the finalists from WinWeb’s Business ‘09 campaign compete for the winning prize at the Business Startup Show in London. Each finalist will have 5 minutes to present their idea to our panel of judges for a chance to win £10,000 to invest in their business.

To encourage you to come and watch the final, here’s a quick overview of each finalist with a brief description of their idea:

Finalist number 1 – Brett Ansley
Brett’s idea is to start a business that makes fashionable household furniture out of corrugated cardboard – the perfect way to recycle waste into something really useful.

Finalist number 2 – Sarah Le Long
Sarah’s runs an online shop selling slogan babywear. Sarah’s idea is to upgrade her website and buy her own heat press machine so they can expand their range of babywear.

Finalist number 3 – Victoria Pickles
Victoria runs a business throwing people out of planes and putting them in Ferrari’s (not at the same time!). Victoria’s idea is to publish the magazine she has been working on with her team.

Finalist number 4 – Sue Acton
Sue runs a company that manufactures beauty products. Her company was one of the first to launch Fairtrade beauty products. Sue’s idea is to develop and launch a Fairtrade first – Fairtrade certified make up.

Finalist number 5 – Mark Jennings
Having already won Inventor of the year at a previous competition, Mark’s idea is to turn his fully developed invention of an enhanced expiry label into a profitable business.

Come and watch the finalists present their ideas and develop your own at the Business Startup show at London’s Olympia on Thursday at 12:30pm. WinWeb will also have a stand at the show (stand 680) so if you want to learn more about running your office online, come and meet some of the team!

Find out more @ The London Business Startup Show

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Career Path: WinWeb Local Partner

During this recession many more people start a new business with WinWeb OnlineOffice or OnlineOffice ProEdition. Supporting these businesses with local services is in itself a great way to earn a living and help entrepreneurs in your local area to succeed.

Any business start-up needs essential services and tools provided by WinWeb OnlineOffice, like:

• small business accounting & Bookkeeping software
• a domain name and domain hosting
• unlimited email accounts
• website & online shop hosting
• secure data and file sharing and online backup service
• business planning software and tools
• and much more…

Providing a hands-on service in your local community to support small business start-ups with these essential business tools is personally rewarding and a viable career path for our future partners. With substantial help and revenue sharing you too can build a low overheads business, which you can run from home.

If you are outgoing and ready to take on a new opportunity this could be just what you have been looking for. We are looking for highly self-motivated local partners with sales, marketing or small business experience, to help us to provide a better service to our clients in your area. We offer the following benefits:

• work from home opportunity
• full training and support
• provision of all necessary online tools
• WinWeb Local Partner micro-website
• WinWeb Local Partner email services
• online marketing in your local area
• recurring revenue share

All you need to work with us is a computer, internet connection, digital camera and a means of transport in your local area.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity to make yourself independent and build a secure future for yourself, contact us to find out if this opportunity is still available in your area.

Exhibitions – London Business Startup Show

November 18, 2009

Business exhibitions sound neither eponymously nor inherently exciting; but don’t be naïve. It’s not all briefcases, suits and starchiness of past.

Go to any major business show across the country and check out the demographics of the place. Invariably an indiscriminate mix of age, class, experience and ethnicity, business exhibitions are evidence that, in the twenty-first century, anyone can be commercially propulsive when backed by a good idea, a sound business plan, and the right tools, advice and contacts for the job.

A business exhibition isn’t an onslaught of sales pitches either; far from it. It’s a chance for anyone, from fledgling to seasoned entrepreneurs, to get educated and seize opportunities. Explore aisles and stands of ideas and services, all of which conducive to your business plan or existing company. Listen to industry experts giving insightful, anecdotal and practical information. Get networking with likeminded people and make invaluable contacts for life. And investigate other features like conferences, forums and advice sessions.

Business exhibitions have come into their own: they’ve evolved, they’re savvy, self-aware and innovatory, just like the visitors they attract. A recession won’t defy itself, but a business won’t build itself either. So grab some bricks and mortar, because the future of business is no longer in the hands of a few. It’s anyone’s for the taking.

WinWeb will have a stand at the upcoming Business Startup show in London’s Olympia on the 26th & 27th November.

Find out more @ London Business Startup Show

Pursuing Your Entrepreneurial Dream

November 17, 2009

Being your own boss, being self-reliant and master of your own time – that is what many of us are dreaming about. Running a virtual assistant business from home, not having to commute to work everyday and being more around the kids when they are home, has more than mass-appeal.

Starting this business while still being employed is one way into becoming your own boss. Making sure your own boss knows about your entrepreneurial plans is not only good practice but a prudent business move. Your current boss could be your first customer.

But one big question is ‘how can you start a business while still working?’ You can’t leave your job before your business is off the ground.

Advances in technology make it possible for you to run your business while you are still in full-time employment. Our OnlineOffice is an office online, allowing you to stay in touch, control and most importantly allow you to outsource the daily admin tasks, leaving you free to spend your sparse time on business development and not business admin.

Using our OnlineOffice ProEdition to find new customers, do your bookkeeping and keep your IT running like clock-work makes it easy for you to focus on your business goals.

Pursuing your dream has never been easier.

Planning and Starting Your Business The Easy Way

These days many of us are thinking about starting a business and many of us are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of things to consider – is that how you feel?

It can be a lonely business starting up a new business, especially if you do it for the first time. Like so often in life there is good news and there is bad news.

The bad news is – you’ll need all these business tools and services to succeed:

• accounting & bookkeeping software
• a domain name and web hosting
• a website and online shop
• online payment software to take money
• blog for online marketing
• business planning software
• complete IT setup
• find a bookkeeper
• find customers
• setup your company

All these issues are very distracting and don’t help you to focus on your business goal – making money. Because they are a distraction they actually stop you from making money, since you are not dealing with customers and sales, you are dealing with admin. We all know you do not earn money by doing your admin.

The good news is WinWeb can do all that for you for a very low monthly price, that does not break the bank and no artificial limitations, like the number of users, or number of transaction, invoices, etc. The fact that our OnlineOffice is very highly integrated makes it the best way to manage your business and office online – you can try it for free for 30 days.

Find out more @ WinWeb OnlineOffice – Your Office Online

Sales Basics for Every Small Business Entrepreneur

In the end sales is what makes or breaks your business, it is the way your business, no – every business makes money. Even when your phone rings and visitors come to your shop or website – you have no sale until the order is signed or the money handed over.

The last moments before a sale often decide if you will get the business or not – here are some basics to remember to increase your chances of success:

• People buy from people.
• Build trust & internal relationships.
• Create confidence in you and your company.
• Make a good impression.
• Take note of your customers style and needs.
• Dress appropriately.
• Do not take your customers for granted.
• Involve your colleagues to cement the relationship.
• Travel with your client to venues.
• By yourself.

This all sounds very trivial – next time you don’t get the sale go over this list – you may be surprised. We can help you to find new customers, but you need to make the sale, it is often a little thing that makes you not get the sale.

If you need to find new customers look @ OnlineOffice ProEdition.

The Best Way To Manage Your Small Business

November 16, 2009

Managing your business begins actually before you even start your small business, let us explore some of the issues facing the new entrepreneur.

When you analyze the numbers of business failures during the fist 12 months, you will find that about 28% to 34% of businesses close their doors again. While these numbers are horribly high it is very easy to avoid becoming part of this statistic. Let us look at how:

1. Your goal – what do you want to achieve, not for the business, but for yourself? How much money is enough? Think about this and make a note of your goal.
2. Your business idea – can your business idea deliver this kind of return in a reasonable time to allow you to reach your goal? You can test this by doing a break-even calculation and cash-flow forecast.
3. Bootstrapping – make money, don’t spend it or even worth borrow it – being frugal in a recession is a no brainer, but being frugal as a business model is a winning business model.

These simple rules will help you to stay in business for much longer than 12 months. They will enable you to build a long term business and generate a good income for your family while still allowing you to enjoy your life.

Questions? Contact us @ WinWeb Business Advice.

WinWeb’s UK Customers Can Save With MasterCard Business Savings

The credit card organisation MasterCard and Winweb have joined forces and bring a 10% saving to all WinWeb customers.

To get this discount you only have to use your MasterCard to pay for your WinWeb subscription, no coupon or promo-code needed. You will need to register your MasterCard for these automatic savings at the the MasterCard Business Savings website – it is easy and fast, and best of all you only have to do it once.

Other partners in the MasterCard Business Savings program, like Microsoft, Avis, monster and HP, offer great savings too. Needless to say that this program is going to grow in terms of partners, products and services. Using your MasterCard for business in the future could land you with a welcome savings discount courtesy of MasterCard.

At WinWeb we love to get involved with organisations helping small business to stay afloat during these difficult times and MasterCard is certainly doing their bit.

Find out more @ MasterCard Business Savings.