Do you have the tools you need?

Do you have the right tools

Many start out without a plan but quickly find they need certain tools to make the journey easier.

There is an old cliché that states, “If you are a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.” While this is trite, businesses often relied on tried and true methods even when the fabric of the business environment has changed. This is not to say that everything has to be thrown out, quite the contrary, but we have to objectively look at what works and what doesn’t. Then and only then we have to decide if change makes sense. We have to determine if there is a return on investment (ROI) for the changes we make. In other words, if we were to move forward with the cost of change, would it pay for itself? How do we define if it pays for itself or not? This is the more difficult follow-on question because not all ROI is tangible, there is a human factor that has to be considered. It’s time for considering new choices in the toolbox. As part of your toolbox, we have several plans that will make this easier.

Website/Social Channels

Twenty years ago, you were not considered a legitimate business if you couldn’t pull a business card out of your pocket. Today, you need a business card, a website and a host of social media channels to compete in the marketplace. The three components to a website is a domain name, the files and graphics that make up your website design/information and the hosting service (the internet-connected server that stores your website files and directs the domain name to the right files). We have several affordable hosting plans for every business need (just see our plans below).

You need a website and social channels
You need a web and social presence to be credible

This is coupled with the various social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) that develops a sense of community with prospects and clients.

Just starting out? Not on the web yet? Let’s start with getting you on the web today.

We use PayPal for secure checkout, you will be securely directed to checkout (and you don’t have to have a PayPal account to purchase). After purchase you will be able to give us details about your new hosting account. Since we handcraft your curated web hosting, it may take up to one business day after payment is received. Terms of service apply.

Email

The most basic business tool. Do you have a “free” email address? What does that say about your company? Wouldn’t it have a higher perceived value if your email address ended in the same domain name as your website? It is easier for customers to remember and reach out to you. This is actually a simple task to do, yet so many do not do it. Call me, I can help. We have affordable hosting plans that will consolidate this and still run on familiar programs and devices that you already have. This should be easy-to-use and not leaving you banging your head on the wall (like a hammer). Check out our affordable packages above to get the size plan you need, whether you are just starting out or are looking to expand your business. We can help you with personalized autoresponders to engage, qualify and respond to potential and existing customers as well.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

The level of expected technology has grown exponentially even in the last 10 years. Everyone wants to design websites (we do, too), but the bigger challenge is ongoing maintenance of your internet presence without a huge time and money commitment. The days of the basic 5-page HTML static website are gone. We are experts in several Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, and more. Internet users are seeking deeper experiences and levels of information. If SEO, SEM, PHP, and PPC are just alphabet soup to you, just call us. You shouldn’t have to be an auto mechanic to just drive a car. But when you need help, that’s were we step in. You are busy doing everything to run your operation, you shouldn’t be in the “web business.” Technology is our specialty, let us offload that burden to free you up for more profitable activities that focuses your specialty. We have the tools to help you with this, Each of our hosting packages come preinstalled with WordPress so you can get your web presence up and running quickly. Already have a website? We can help you with ongoing maintenance or migrating to our servers.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

How do you acquire, cultivate and manage your clients? Most businesses need some tools that provides tracking of leads through fulfillment and seeking additional opportunities to work with your hard-earned clients. It is important to know which clients are profitable and which ones actually cost you money. Reporting on performance, cost of acquisition and profitability are vital metrics that every business needs. Both our Business Builder and Business Expander web hosting packages comes with a world-class CRM package, see our affordable plans above.

Learning Management System (LMS)

You have training needs. Every time you on-board a new employee, there are certain policies, procedures and corporate culture points that have to be covered. There are also compliance, technical and regulatory training that has to be conducted. You may have “on-the-job” training, but is it consistent? Can you say that it is effectively delivered consistently and your employees demonstrate mastery of the topics presented? How will you know the student is successful or not and be able to document their progress? You need a framework that houses your courses (which we can help develop) or integrate your existing courses into a portal that will give you the management reporting you desperately need. We can help you with product selection, installation, integration and course development for your specific needs. My experience has created expertise in several open source and commercial products such as Blackboard, Canvas, eCollege, Moodle and more. Ask about affordable consulting and product selection.

Training and Course Development

Don’t have staff to meet your training needs? I get it, everyone is very busy. Allow me to provide you with on-site instructors or help you with training the trainers. It is easy to take existing content and brand it to your corporate standards. Not satisfied with off the shelf products and courses? Lets start a conversation about your next training initiative to get you where you want and need to be. If you are looking for deep experience in metrics and competency-based training, give me a call today or see some of my work here. Let’s schedule a time to present several samples that are a very cost-effective solution to meet your business and regulatory requirements.

It is important to partner with an experienced, professional team that seeks to create value for your specific needs, not just there to sell you what they have. You want partners that are long term and have deep experience in all of these areas, not someone that is learning as they go. Check out the Three Types of Customer Models article to see how I adapt to meeting your requirements. Seek specific skills that are foundational and core to what you need. You want a team that has all the tools in the toolbox and knows which is the right tool for the right job.

Just to be transparent, you may see affiliate links to third party websites. These links are at no additional cost to you (some even have a discount). Should you choose to go to one of these websites, I get a small commission which helps keep a lot of the content free on this website.

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