6 Inches of Business Cards Tell A Net Story

Local Businesses Are Not Leveraging The Net

My business requires that I constantly engage in face to face contact with business owners across Trinidad and Tobago.

The topic of each conversation has changed over time but I have maintained a habit of requesting a business card at the end of each conversation.

Today I have acquired over 500 business cards. Approximately 6 inches of business cards stacked on top of each other. That collection represents a lot of communication with the local business community.

But that’s not why I’m bringing up my business card collection today. It is because today I had a good reason to review each one. The task was to identify the businesses with websites.

At least for the ones I had cards for. That’s when it hit me, I realized the extent of the challenge when it comes to the Internet for local businesses.

Here we are in 2010 at a time when the Internet is being used by approximately one third of TnT, about 300,000 online. Granted, this is only an aggregate of all internet service providers’ data available to the public. The point is the size of the audience is unquestionable.

Most business owners have an online connection at their business location.

Question is: Why do so many business owners give out business cards without a web address? Every business card has a phone number, and some even an email addresses. And by the way, have you ever emailed someone you wanted to purchase a product or service from? Just thought I would ask because I never did.

Less than one percent of all the business cards in the 6 inche stack had a web address. Those are the cold hard facts but what does it all mean?

It means that as a people, although we have embraced the internet we still percieve it as a global phenomenon, a useful tool for research and to goggle products and services globally but locally it's not much use.

If it was, most business owners would be falling over each other trying to be the first and biggest thing online. That’s just how we are. But the answer is not always as obvious as it appears, there could be some underlying issues that keep most local businesses offline.

We can easily speculate about how most business owners perceive the Internet.

• From a global prospective, not local.
• Very expensive market to enter, finance and man hours
• Businesses offline are doing great; so why bother?

That’s all speculation, so what do you think?

Maybe the online market is still in its infancy and need to be developed before it can become more relevant to the business people and the local consumers.

What we do know is that a large percentage of locals are using their credit cards to purchase product and services online. If there are not a lot of local businesses online we can easily deduce that the purchases are not from local businesses.

The $64 question is how can we change this.

We cannot change what we cannot measure. Look out for the next post where we discuss some strategies for changing the net scape to a more local one.

4 Reasons Why It's Plain Stupid Not To Start Your Business Blog Today

A secret that’s not a secret.

The quickest way to begin establishing a web presence is to start with a blog. This is a secret that many designers rarely tell their clients. The reason is simple; there is no profit in telling you about a blog.

Of course, you need a website but before you go running to a web designer, build a business blog; the reality is that having a website is not all it appears to be. Ask any business owner with a website.
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Most websites attract very few visitors and direct revenue from many of them occurs only occasionally. It’s depressing but true many business owners would rather not discuss their website numbers; if they are even aware of what they are.

What they do know is that there is very little business originating from their sites. The reason is simple. Most business owners are not on the internet enough to market their sites.

FREE BUSINESS MODEL GENERATION WORKSHOP 

Saturday May 25th:  GO HERE

Add to that it does not matter how educated a person is even with degrees in marketing, internet marketing is a ball game that everyone needs to learn to play before jumping in.

The way things are done on the internet is a little, well a lot different from what is done offline. That is only one of the reasons my recommendation is that…
Every business should have a business blog.

This blog should be the hub or an outside connection to your website. It is where you can meet, greet and qualify new prospects or communicate with your favorite or special clients.

A place where you can explain your business, show your passion and expertise in what you do. Even if your business does not have a web site, you should have a blog. In fact even businesses with a website should also invest the time it takes to setup a business blog. Here why:

1. Blogs are free: and you can choose from a number of free blogger platforms Goggle's Blogger, Wordpress and almost every membership site has a blog or some sort of private posting space.
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2. Once a blog is setup adding business content as simple as logging in and posting. It does require that that you are creative with your content but there are options.

3. No need to develop content: If you do not have the internal staff expertise you can use private label right content or out-source it to a freelance writer.

4. DIY: If you have the ability or can follow instruction you can do it yourself. There are a variety of programs on the internet that makes it really inexpensive to set up and use a blog.


As you may know, I’m in the process of build my site. In fact the site should have been up by now but it’s still under construction. I switched from Blogger to a Wordpress blog because of this new software I came across. It allows you to get started quickly.

Take a look at my new blog. It is temporally hosted under my domain name.

Guerilla Marketing Consulting Ltd.


With the new platform and software I was a bit skeptical myself until I had a chance to try. It is really a no-brainer process of uploading one file, editing one file and then filling a few blanks on a web form and choosing the niche. I choose you. Smile

The product is based on knowledge and experience of a very successful blogger who is been holding almost entire first page of Google results for his chosen (and very competitive) keywords for over a year!
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All his knowledge and experience were turned into complete Video Tutorials where he guides you step-by-step and makes it a complete no-brainer to install, even if you never created a single page on the Internet!

You will also get a custom script that does the full blog configuration and customization based on a few answers you provide on web page and you got a clear winner.

You should take a look at the video to really understand what it’s all about. There is a free version but there is also a very affordable. Just check it whether or not you have a website.

This is where you will keep in touch with your market.

When you do make the decision to get a blog, which ever way you go you can always post your URL on this blog. In fact I will set up a page where you can post your full URL along with an ad for your product or service.

Free Online Wordpress Software.

Be Well

P.S. If you are in business and do not have a site you need to do something soon. Getting on line is a learning process and it’s easy once you begin to understand it. Whatever you decide to do find a blog and start building your web presence.

A Simple Sample of The T&T Web Market

Today I sipped the market. Live face to face intraction with busines owners. Not to sell services but more to gauge their perceptions of the internet and a website. What I found was very interesting.

My approach was simple and semi scripted. After identifying the owner and introducing myself: I asked...

Do you have a web site?

Ok, I admit a sample size of 10 is too small to draw any serious conclusions from but this was not a full fledge scientific study, merely a peep into the minds of 10 Trini bueiness men. The results were as follows;

3 out of 10 had a Web site,
5 out of 10 had an email addresses on business card/stationary
5 out of 10 had a phone number only

Of the three businesses with web sites only one actually was a professionally built site. That means that of the 10 business owners that I collected cards from, 90 percent did not have a web presence and 50 percent of them did not have an email address on their business stationery.

On more than one occasion people responded yes to my question and proceeded to give me an email address. One business man angrily said he would have to hit someone on the head with a computer. It was alright at home, he said, but the store; never. Another attempted to convince me that the free domain and host was enough for him because according to him,” its hard enough operating offline”
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If that small sample is indicative of the larger population then the digital divide, which I mentioned in my Special Report, is a lot wider than anticipated. As a marketer, that translates into more education, more information, a longer learning curve and ultimately more expensive market to penetrate.

The good news is that with creative guerilla marketing coupled with the intellectual level of the population and the invasiveness of the internet; it is not impossible to forecast that the observed trend could be reversed within 48 months. The business class in most societies has always been the innovators, the leaders in driving the citizenry to adopt new mediums it will be no different here.

Even with no guerilla marketing action Trinidad and Tobago will reach the level of internet sophistication. To a large extent it depends on how soon the business community adopts a more aggressive embraced of this new medium.

It will come to pass one way or the other; in four, five or ten years but it will. That depends.

Are You Always Open For Business?

Why Every Offline Business Must Have An Internet Presence

Find purpose, the means will follow. -Gandhi


Traditional business entrepreneurs globally and especially in developing countries like Trinidad and Tobago, still justify and rationalize not having a website.

Many of these businesses were started by successful entrepreneurs who never used the Internet and cannot see any reason to change. To be sure, many are not computer literate. they would readily admit the importance of a computer to their business but the internet, that’s different basket of flowers. The reality is that without a website many of these businesses will not survive, every business need to have a web presence. Fact is that if they are successful without a site, they have the potential of exponentially increasing their success with a well managed website.

With the downturn in the economy many traditional businesses models are being challenged, they are no longer working. Yet these traditional entrepreneurs still resist establishing a web presence. The real problem is that they do not understand the internet and how it could be used to reinvent their business. It’s the old adage about not being able to think outside of the box. Their business models worked for them before and maybe are still working; so why fix it? The simple answer is that the world was changed by an innovative information reservoir, it's so unlike what existed 20 to 30 years ago. The Internet cannot be ignored.

Granted, it can be challenging for some offline businesses to conceive of a model that will work for them online but there is one thing that every business needs and wants; that is 24/7 advertising. The internet affords businesses the ability to present their products and services to anyone at any time of the day or night. For this reason alone every business should have a web presence, even if it’s a brochure site identifying what the business does or sells. It does not have to be an information product that customers can purchase directly on line and download. It can be any product or service.

For example, in the mid eighties I worked for a large automobile dealership in Boston Massachusetts that did not have a web presence. I suggested building a web site and ended up managing one of the largest automobile dealership’s Internet departments in the Boston metropolitan area. This dealership did not need to sell more cars, they were selling over 200 new and used units every month. The biggest question for the dealers was; How can we sell a car online?

The way the automobile business operated at the time, it really took some thinking outside the box but the business developed. Soon the dealership was selling over $250,000 more in gross revenue in a month. Today, every large car dealer in Metropolitan Boston has a website. A dealership websites provided exposure, information about the dealership, the makes, models and the potential deals available. The result was that the dealership developed its own leads and avoided the usually high cost of third party lead providers like Autobytel.

Although we never changed our business model offline we had to develop another, complete with pricing and operational change to accommodate the internet customers. For example, it was not unusual to accept a $100 profit on a vehicle for an internet customer. If that same customer found an ad in the newspaper normal offline prices and operating procedures applied. The rationale was that the internet customer had all the information on the vehicle at their finger tips. They knew the invoice price the dealer paid and they also had a long list of dealers they could purchase the vehicle from. Price in this case was not the selling factor, location i.e. proximity to their home and the importance of after purchase service were the selling points for internet customers.

The challenge for offline business, therefore, is to develop an online business model that works for the business.

What is important to note here is that the website provided leads that purchased vehicles offline, a web site can only provide information like makes, models, people, process and even a map to the dealership. Truly, there is no other advertising medium that matches the ability of the internet to share detailed information to potential customers. As was said before, access to your business information is the primary reason for your business should be online but there is more:

1.New users come to the net every month by the millions some of them are definitely your customers, if you not online, your chances of getting their business is nil.

2.The investment for a business to get online has been gradually been reduced. In some cases its free, web sites or free blog like blogger or wordpress, Even without site build building abilities user can use drag and drop technology to build their own free site like yola.

3.Because the internet is now one big reservoir of information, whatever you put online stay there. For example take a look at one of the first sites I ever published on the net in March 2000, I am not proud of it and don’t use it anymore but the point is that it still exist on the net on today WayBackMachine see here.

A mentor once said to me, “Boy”, (I didn’t mind, because at the time, I was a boy). He said: “Boy, if you want to be good at anything, it takes time.” He went on to say; “for example, it takes about 1000 hours to know anything really well. That is, you would have to put in at least that amount of time to really know the in and out of a skill, topic, idea or discipline". He went on to say that if I really wanted to become an expert I would need to put at least 10,000 hours into it.

I responded with a loud, “OUCH”, but he was right.

Not everyone can jump in and do it, there is a learning curve. If your business is still not on the internet, any marketer would recommend that you give it serious consideration. This is one case of, not if but when. The longer you take to get there, the longer it will take for your content, your business information to establish a real presence on the net. Remember as an independently owned business, you set the rules, you decide what you will like to present to the public and how you will present it to maximize the potential profits to your offline business. You may even have to tweak your offline business model but the bottom line is to generate more business.

Unfortunately, there are web designers and web developer who quote ridiculous prices for building a simple 3-5 page web site. As a rule most expensive web designers are not internet marketers, they know how to build websites not market them. Consequently, many small businesses become disillusioned when their huge investment in a web site quickly finds itself in the internet cemetery. A lack of internet marketing ability is the main reason why most small businesses shy away from establishing a web presence. To be completely honest, I agree with their rationale. Why spend money to build a site when it generates no significant ROI?

If that’s how it works out, like them, I would just stay offline.

The internet has always been a free medium, the spoils though, go to the entrepreneurs who understand how it works. It is an incomprehensible reservoir of information that astounds the imagination. There is so much information that if your business is not online, someone, somewhere with a business just like yours’; is online. Dominating the online market locally or globally, but put this in your pipe and smoke it, if you have a small business and you are not on the internet you are losing money.

Tony Puckerin is an Internet Marketing Consultant that can help you put your offline business on line, He uses time tested offline Guerilla Marketing strategies and tactics to improve your business performance. Find out more about Tony Puckerin

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