Hub You - Internet and Businesses Online

Reasons For Online Background CHecks
There are many valid reasons for wanting to check out the background of someone you know. If you are an employer looking to hire a new employee, it is important to know their background for several reasons. If they will be driving a company vehicle, its important to know that their driving record is acceptable. Your companies insurance premiums will skyrocket if it is not. You will also want to know their criminal history, especially if they will be handling money or accounting jobs. It is also a good idea to know if a prospective employee has a history of assault charges, or stalking problems or anything of that nature to protect yourself and your other employees.Or maybe you met a new guy (or girl) online and are interested in getting to know them better. Wouldn’t you rather know ahead of time if they are who they say they are? You can save yourself potential heart break, not to mention possible physical safety issues and financial stress by knowing the background of the person you are dating or thinking about dating. A background check does not guarantee your safety or well-being but it can help by providing you with some information on the person you are interested in.I landlord can also utilize a background check when making renting decisions, especially if the apartment is connected to others. He wants to m

tance to the possessor". In a typical business transaction this is easy. You provide goods or service (transfer possession) which your customers find useful or important and they in return provide you with a payment (usually money) which you find useful and important. But we're talking about giving things away here so how do you receive your value? The answer is really simple. You build your value (that is the value you wish to receive) into your giveaway. Curiously, it's the intangible assets that are best suited to this.

Worrying About What People Say About Your MLM Business?
"Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire? " - Dale CarnegieHave you come to think the above quote is also applicable in network marketing?It is.Why not do what Dale Carnegie advised?I mean, something like:“Instead of worrying about what people (co-workers, family members, friends, etc.) may think about us, we just work hard and do something which will create admiration comments from all of them, and create big numbersthat way will prove to them what we are made of.“Yeah, let’s show them our real MLM character!”Of course we can. If we work hard at it, that is.But here’s a problem right away.A big problem.We don’t want to be dependent on people and their approval for us to feel good about MLM.This is not a good thing for us, network marketers/MLMers.Having other people’s approval on a MLM game they don’t even know how to play well -otherwise they’d be playing it , I can assure you - is not a good way of conducting our MLM business.Relying on other people’s opinions to see if this mlm deal is good for us or not, is putting these other people at cause point, and us, at effect.Kind of waiting for their final approval seal, as if they were our busin

"Never underestimate the value of giving things away." I remember as kid hearing these words on a regular basis. In fact this philosophy was re-enforced so much by my parents in my younger years that it has become a part of who I am today. But, I'm also a businessperson who enjoys earning a living, and in business, our primary goal is to maximize profits. So we have what appears to be an obvious conflict here. How does one remain profitable, let alone increase profit levels if they're giving things away?

This really isn't a new concept. In the traditional business world it's been done for years. It usually comes in one of two forms or a combination of both. The first is giveaways that are used to lure customers into making a purchase or as thinly veiled advertisements. We've all seen these tactics. Contests you can win if you purchase a product, free Tupperware for applying for a department store credit card, a pen or a mug for every $20.00 of gasoline from a particular service center. You get the idea. We've also seen large companies and wealthy business owners throw a lot of money and/or resources at "good causes". I'm sure that some genuinely do this for the betterment of society. The skeptic in me though suspects that often this philanthropy is nothing more than an attempt to buy credibility and respect as opposed to earning it.

So how does all of this apply to online business and how is a small online businessperson able to capitalize on it? Actually, when we look at the online world we don't have to look very far to realize the potential value of giving things away. In fact much of the technology we use online was "given" to us by a few brilliant people who were more interested in sharing their inventions and ideas with the world than becoming millionaires. It should be noted that many of these people as a result of their efforts have in time done very well for themselves. They have earned a great deal of respect, a loyal following and incomes to match as a nice little bonus. Indeed on the Internet today there exists an entire culture of people with this mindset. Why do they do it? Why give it away for free? Are they crazy? The individual reasons are as abundant as the number of individuals but they all share one common thing. An understanding that by providing value to people, they will receive value in return. It may be money, fame, additional resources to continue with projects, respect or simply the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a job well done. Not so crazy...and there's a reason why quite a few fortune 500 companies are embracing the philosophies of the open source software movement. The business world can learn a lot from these ideas.

However, there has to be a balance when it comes to business. If you are in a position where you don't need to worry about profits and don't have any expectation of future ROI, fine. Give everything away and someday you may very well be rewarded. Unfortunately there is realty to contend with! The reality is that we are here to make money. So what can you give that won't hurt your profit margin? Lots of things! If you're really smart about you will actually be able to boost your profit margin considerably.

Consider all of the things you have in your ‘inventory’ of assets. This includes tangible items like cash on hand, products, etc. It also includes such intangible items (those that are more difficult to assess a finite value to) as knowledge, skills, time and the like. Now think about which of those you can 'afford' to sacrifice a little of.

Some people will take the easy route and decide that they will give away a tangible item (a product sample, a huge discount or a cash reward for example) as a way of enticing customers to purchase more. Now this in itself is not a bad thing. It's better than nothing. Remember the big department stores with their credit card applications? It must work. Right? Yes and no. It does have the desired affect in a limited way, but overall is a very short sighted approach. It provides an immediate payoff for both the business and the customer, but has no lasting value for either and therefore must be repeated over and over to achieve a lasting result. A much better option is to come up with something that will not only provide a payoff for both parties, but also build long-term value.

So what is value, why is it important, and how do you provide and receive it? The dictionary deals with the term as it applies to business and finance in several ways. The definition I like is "worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor". In a typical business transaction this is easy. You provide goods or service (transfer possession) which your customers find useful or important and they in return provide you with a payment (usually money) which you find useful and important. But we're talking about giving things away here so how do you receive your value? The answer is really simple. You build your value (that is the value you wish to receive) into your giveaway. Curiously, it's the intangible assets that are best suited to this.

Hand Out Warm Glows
Do you remember how you felt after your last interaction with another person either on the phone or face to face? That person - it could have been a customer, a colleague, a salesperson, a friend or even a member of your family. Did they make you feel good, uplifted and more positive, did they leave you feeling neutral or did they make you feel down and more negative.Unfortunately, most of us have grown up in a negative culture where it's much easier to tell people what they did wrong rather than praising them when they succeed. Research in the United States found that 65% of employees received no recognition for good work in the past year. Similar research in other countries of the world shows comparable results.Other research has shown that the number one reason people leave their job and customers take their business elsewhere is that they don't feel appreciated. (And if you think about it - many people leave their partners for the very same reason)If customer's leave an interaction with you or one of your team feeling better than they did before, then they're much more likely to come back, recommend you to other people and spend more with you.If one of your team feels better after an interaction with you then they're much more likely to pass that feeling onto a customer. "

at some genuinely do this for the betterment of society. The skeptic in me though suspects that often this philanthropy is nothing more than an attempt to buy credibility and respect as opposed to earning it.

Falling into a Numbers Trap at Trade Shows ?
Here’s the Scenario – There is an attentive attendee in front of you. You two have chatted for a couple of minutes and now he says –o Sounds good. How much is it ?o What will the maintenance contract cost me ?o What are your financing options over 3 years?o What’s the best deal you can give me ?o What are the dimensions of these three models?o Can you up the capacity 14% ?o How many hydraulic spring return actuator for 3200 psig do you have in stock ?WHAT TO DO?Many folks fluster around if the question is not part of their direct expertise. Maybe you are an engineer but don't know inventory levels or financing details. Maybe you know those answers but not the intricacies of engineering ABCs.You certainly do not want to look bad, so perhaps you come up with a quick retort or bluff or just lie. You figure maybe he won't remember what you said, or you will have time to get the right info to him after the show. Chances he will. You will not.On the floor, Numbers may be money, parts identifiers, chemical formulas, shipment documentation, production schedules, or the time to meet for a drink. Numbers float around and it is easy to fall into a Numbers Trap.TRY THIS QUICK QUIZ. After you take it, read it out loud to your fel

at by providing value to people, they will receive value in return. It may be money, fame, additional resources to continue with projects, respect or simply the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a job well done. Not so crazy...and there's a reason why quite a few fortune 500 companies are embracing the philosophies of the open source software movement. The business world can learn a lot from these ideas.

Corporate America vs. Freelancing - Are You Cut Out to Leave Security Behind?
How many times have you sat in your beige cubicle and thought about leaving your predictable 9-5 life behind? Whether the motivation is boredom, problematic boss or the hassle of commuting to and from work each day, the idea of working for yourself is tempting. However, the main perk of working for a company is the piece of paper that is distributed to employees on paydays. Make no mistake, it is always on time and happens like clockwork. What if you decided to become a freelancer? Pay happens when you complete a project and it might not be as steady and consistent as your office job.These are just a couple of issues that one must contemplate when making the all important decision to leave corporate life for the freelancing life.What does it take to become a Freelancer?If one is serious about becoming a freelancer, a series of steps must be taken in order to prepare for the transition. While you are still employed, begin saving money with a vengence. It's wise to set aside 3-6 months of income aside for those times when jobs are few and far between. It is rare that a freelancer is able to stay consistently busy 12 months a year, every year. Think of it as an insurance policy for those times when you are in between jobs. You'll thank yourself later!The next step is to consider health

inite value to) as knowledge, skills, time and the like. Now think about which of those you can 'afford' to sacrifice a little of.

The Courier Service Trucking Industry: You Can Avoid Unsafe Shipping Practices
Many trucking companies and industrial courier service providers do not enforce safe shipping practices, let alone train drivers to follow proper safety procedures. Lost or dropped shipments are some of the main problems in this trucking industry which are only compounded by damages incurred that can increase your costs as you wait for a replacement item to appear. If you are in the market for a new courier service company, the following unsafe practices are something you must be aware of to avoid trouble later on.Countless accidents on roadways have made the evening news, accidents which often involve a driver's load being dropped onto the street with extensive damage to freight, vehicles, and people being the end result of such mishaps. A quick survey of the news over the past year reveals the following types of accidents among those taking place:· Vehicles have caught fire on freeways simply from running over objects which were lying in the road· Precious and / or expensive [as well as hard to replace] cargo is damaged· Traffic tie-ups have occurred due to cargo being dropped on the roads while the driver manually loads everything back onto their decks· Most freight is simply too heavy to manually lift back onto the vehicle, thus further time consuming arrangements must be made to have pic

Let me give you an example. Ken Evoy is very well respected in the online marketing world and is also a master at maximizing profits by giving things away. His company, SiteSell.com specializes in selling books, courses and software aimed at teaching people about e-commerce and how to be successful with it. In addition to the products he sells online, his web sites are a virtual treasure trove of free information on the subject. Now this may sound counter productive. I mean, why invest all of these resources in developing top quality products to sell and then invest more in developing similar things to give away for free? To understand this we need to look at Ken's business model. Most of his sales are generated though his 5 Pillar affiliate program (5PP). This free information acts as training material for his affiliates around the world. Given the quality of the material, (it genuinely has real value) it helps his affiliates become successful at what they do. This in turn drives sales to Ken's business. Here's the neat thing about it all. Access to this information is not restricted to just 5PP affiliates, but is available to anyone. Why would you give out information to just anyone, who could then take his or her new found knowledge to benefit the competition? It's a risk you take I suppose. I suspect that Ken has calculated this risk and realized the insignificance of it. The truth is that after reading through some of the free courses offered, many people will end up becoming one of Ken's affiliates. There are a few reasons for this. The material while being very neutral (not a sales pitch at all) in content is well branded throughout. This is a very subtle method of advertising. Ken writes this information himself and not only is he a respected expert, but he writes in a style that is very personable and genuine. One can't help but leave with a certain level of respect and loyalty towards him. Further to that, I'm sure that some people choose to purchase additional products based on their experience with the free "samples". So now, not only does Ken possibly acquire new customers, he also develops loyal affiliate partners for his business. As a bonus these new affiliates are already positioned to be successful having acquired much of the necessary knowledge. As you can see, Ken wins from every angle. And as for the other side (the customer)? None of this would work if the free 'giveaway' weren’t valuable in the first place. They've already gained "usefulness and importance" from the knowledge that was shared with them. They also have a real possibly of gaining more in the future in tangible ways by joining the Ken's business as an affiliate. This is building value into the free offering at it's finest.

Now that's great for Ken with his expertise and years of experience, but what about the rest of us. I actually had an opportunity to test the theory of giving things away when I first started www.AtHomeBusinessNetwork.com. I had just put the web site up and was moving into the phase of actively marketing it. Anyone who has ever done this knows how tedious it can be and how long it can take to see any measurable results. I had come across www.emoneyreport.com recently and it had intrigued me. Firstly, because it was obvious that it was still a very new web site and secondly, at first appearance, it seemed that it was trying to accomplish much the same thing as I was. That would make us direct competitors, right?. After all we are both trying to generate revenue from the same sources and tap into the same traffic. I put all that aside, I came up with a list of complementary items that they offered that I didn't and vice versa. I then composed a well thought out e-mail to the owners of the other web site outlining how I felt that we could complement each other's services. I explained my belief that we could help each other's web sites gain traffic and popularity by referring visitors to each other and thus capitalizing on each other's marketing efforts. I further went on to let them know that I had a prominent banner placement on my web site which was currently under utilized. I informed them that I would be more than happy to place a banner for their web site in that location for a short time. All for free and with no strings attached of course. Was it a bit of a gamble? You bet, but I believe that people are usually pretty fair-minded and I wasn't disappointed this time. Within hours, I received a reply to my e-mail which was way above anything I could have expected. Not only where the owners of the other web site thrilled with my proposal, they had already reciprocated the favor by giving me front-page prominence on their web site. Traffic although still small, tripled for me overnight! It also looks like we will have a prosperous relationship with each other in the coming months or years through mutual co-operation. Not bad considering many would consider us to be competitors. The value in this case was for both of us in the form of less competition, the sharing of ideas and information, added value for our respective visitors, increased traffic and consequently revenue... and this is just the beginning. All for bein

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Experience works as a virtual road map for entrepreneurs in the software industry. This article documents the do's and don'ts when creating a software start-up.

In part one of this series we will discuss why you should accept credit cards, and the basics of getting merchant status. Part two will deal with objections you might get, which credit cards to accept, and the check paying option.

For those of us who are new online, let us raise our right hands and swear: We will not forward any dumb joke, chain letter or unimportant e-mails to my friends without their permission. We realize that by doing so we may fill up their inbox, use others' resources unnecessarily, and may cause other, important e-mail to bounce. We realize that most people have already gone through these e-mails a thousand times and find them annoying. We know that by forwarding these so called humorous e-mails we may tick off people who do not share my sense of humor or who are sick of having silly e-mails forwarded to them each time a newbie hops online.

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