วันศุกร์ที่ 23 ธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2554

Sungwan Wannamoung DBA The Study of the Education for Self-Employed Retirement Plans

                     The Study of the  
        Education for Self-Employed Retirement Plans

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School  of
Rochville University

     in  Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of


                          Doctor of Arts
        in Education Administration and Supervision
                                       by
   
                     SUNGWAN  WANNAMOUNG
                                December 2011


The dissertation  committee  of  Rochville University  has approved  the subject : The Study of Education for Self-Employed Retirement Plans for the degree  of
         Doctor of Arts in Education Administration  and Supervision


Education for Self-Employed Retirement Plans:
Which Is Right for You?
Being self-employed certainly has its benefits. From being able to throw your alarm clock out the window to having the opportunity to take a three day weekend whenever you like, it is easily the best gig out there. However, when it comes to retirement planning, being  self-employed has its drawbacks as well. If you had chosen to work within a larger corporation, the chances are quite good that your company might have set up and contributed to a retirement account for you, thereby absolving you of the responsibility of  handling the situation yourself.  But since you are on your own choosing the right retirement plan early is essential to your financial state of being later in life.
What Are My Options?
There are several kinds of retirement plans available for the self-employed. A Simplified Employee Pension, also known as an SEP, is a fairly simple, basic retirement plan. A Keogh is a bit more complicated, but the benefits can outweigh the related complications. Individual 401K plans offer some of the best self-employment benefits on the market. Roth IRA plans are an excellent secondary retirement savings plan. Spousal deductible
IRAs work well if your spouse has an established retirement plan at work.
Which Option Is Right For Me?
SEP Benefits: If you choose to go with an SEP plan, you are looking at a simple retirement account that accepts contributions of up to $44,000 per year. In general, you can contribute twenty percent of your self-employment earnings to this type of plan without paying any taxes on the money. One of the best benefits of a plan like this one is that they are really easy to set up. They have no real ongoing costs, unlike many of the other self-employment plans,, and they allow some fairly serious contributions each year, helping you prepare for retirement at a much earlier age.
Keogh Plans: As with an SEP plan, you can contribute twenty percent of your earnings to a Keogh plan each year. The goal of this kind of plan is to offer you your desired annual amount of retirement funds, and your level of contribution reflects that each year. As a result, this might be the right option for you if you are a bit behind with your retirement planning. The primary problem with these plans, though, is that they are difficult to set up. In most cases, you need a financial firm or advisor to help you with the details and the IRS will want a detailed report about your plan on a yearly basis.
Individual 401K Plans: The maximum amount that you can contribute, tax-free, per year to a solo 401K plan is $44,000. If, however, you are over the age of 50, that number goes up by five thousand dollars. If you want to be able to stash quite a bit in your  retirement plan without paying taxes on it, this is probably the best way to go, as with the high contribution limits, you could be ready for retirement sooner than you think.
Roth IRA Plans: A Roth IRA cannot be your primary retirement plan. However, if you have a good handle on your current retirement savings plan, and you want to be able to put away additional dollars for your golden years without paying the extra taxes, you can add four thousand dollars to a Roth IRA each year. Eventually, you can withdraw all of the money in this IRA without ever paying any money in taxes on the funds.
Spousal Deductible IRAs: If your spouse works for a company that has a strong retirement plan, you can contribute up to four thousand dollars every year to that plan. This is a good path to take, but in the end, the Roth IRA allows you to pay fewer tax dollars  on your retirement earnings.
Making the Jump to Self-Employment
There may not be a more fulfilling journey than that of making the jump from working for another person to working as your own boss. While the rewards may be numerous, the jump you have to make is not as smooth as you may hope. There are lots of considerations to make in order to find success as a self-employed business owner.
Jump Considerations
Leaping to the independence of being one’s own boss takes a lot more consideration than just what kind of work you will be doing. While that is certainly an important factor, unless you are independently wealthy, there are many other factors to strategize before committing full time.
Here are some considerations about self-employment you need to mull over before making the jump to entrepreneurialism:
Viable Ideas
If you plan to start out on your own as something like a consultant for a cookware company, you need to ensure that the market in your area is not already saturated or that there is a need for such services and products in your vicinity. This is true for any type of self-employment you are considering.
Having a viable business idea may take some trial and error, but overall you need to start out with a workable idea that can be planned out through a business plan. For potential entrepreneurs, a solid business plan is a necessity and if you feel the plan’s concept overwhelms you, consider the operation of the actual business will be far more overwhelming.
Bootstrapping Financials
If you are planning to go full time right out of the gate, you better be sure your finances are in order to support your endeavors. You’ll need to have enough cash in the bank to not only cover necessary business expenses but also to accommodate living expenses for several months, likely years, until your business pulls in a profit. Don’t forget as an entrepreneur you’ll be responsible for paying relevant taxes in addition to other expenses. You need to pre-plan how much you’ll need to have on hand to survive and grow the business until it becomes profitable. Then you’ll need a back up plan in case success does not come in a timely manner. Many business models do not generate actual profits for the first few years of business, and is exactly why many people start a business while working part time to keep a steady income coming in.
Planning for the Future
Ideally, you’ll want to create a business plan that somewhat determines where the business should be headed and how money factors into that plan. Even if you are young when you start out on your own, you’ll need to consider how you’ll save for the immediate future’s needs, like health insurance, and for long-term needs, like retirement. Married couples may be able to organize a plan using the employment benefits of those still in a 9-5 job, but it is essential to see the big picture when planning to start your journey of self-employment.
Coordinate a Starting Point
Because the financial ramifications of a failure can be too costly to consider, you may want to consider attempting a solo venture on a part-time basis. While you still receive a steady income from your employment, you can experiment with different business concepts until you feel secure enough to let go of the reliable job and its income. If part time is your choice, be sure to remain discreet as some employers may not be appreciative of your perceived moonlighting and may be apt to terminate your reliable income.
Weigh the Pros/Cons
If you do plan on going part-time, make sure you consider that investment of time away from other things in your life (ie: family) as you work to manage two jobs. If you choose full time over a trial run, you will still be deeply involved in the start up process which may require significant sacrifices of your ‘normal’ life. Weigh the pros and cons of handling all aspects of the business and the entrepreneurial life before making the commitment.
Self-employment takes dedication and effort if you plan for success. There are many more opportunities today for those who want to work independently and earn a living doing something they genuinely enjoy. With the right amount of planning and attention to details, especially the financial ones, you can find a new career and a new way of life.
Evaluating a Business Idea
When you are looking to start a new business venture, it is essential that you not only have a good business idea ready, but you must also explore that idea to determine whether it will be a viable one. There are so many opportunities for a person to move forward with a start-up business idea and see their way though to success. But without proper forethought on the business idea, success may be harder to come by.
While there is no single way to evaluate an idea, there are some things everyone should consider when starting the process. Here are a few ways to evaluate a business idea that is brewing in your mind:
Construct a Business Plan
While many people want to skip the creation of a business plan and just jump in head first, it is one of the most beneficial tools a person can use to test their idea for a business – especially on a personal commitment level. A business plan essentially outlines how everything works, how profits are made, and where the business can go in the short-term and the long-term. For those who find a business plan too complicated to undertake, it may be the first sign that the business idea is not as viable as once thought.
Test Your Thoughts
Your most critical audience may be the same people you surround yourself with daily. Your family and friends want what is best for you and you can use their information for your benefit. Consider what kind of business you’d like to start and start discussing ideas with those around you. Other people that you are close with likely known you well and can give insightful perspectives about the viability of the idea as well as your ability to handle it.
Start Networking
Outside your close friends and family, you can enlist your neighbors, acquaintances, and co-workers about your plans to start a certain business. Find the demographic of people you know that will patronize such a business and get their immediate thoughts about their need for such services or products you are considering. This group of people will likely be your first go-to group when you are ready to open the doors for business so take their words under advisement when it comes to pricing, products, and marketing concepts. You don’t have to give away your whole plan but active investigations with relevant people can be productive.
Do Your Homework
Since the advent of the Internet, perspective business owners have an added advantage of being able to explore similar businesses in the area. It is wise to check out what others are doing in similar or relevant businesses. It can certainly help to contact such businesses outside of your area and ask real questions you need answers to before committing to a business idea. Those business owners closer to home base may be more reluctant to share information with potential competition. If accessible, ask about shadowing a business owner in your area that doesn’t trigger business conflict. Getting a hands-on look at running a show on your own may be all you need to make or break a business idea.
Exploring a business venture in your area may require additional steps before you can feel confident enough to give it a go. The important part is to keep things simple in the beginning and build on a basic concept. Often people get too bogged down with complex ideas that are too complicated to orchestrate and end up abandoning otherwise great and truly viable ideas.
Mom & Pop Entrepreneur Success Stories
For many people, the dream of owning their own business and becoming their own boss motivates them to take action. Some turn to the internet and technology-based business plans while others seek more traditional paths to entrepreneurship. Here’s a sampling of success stories from a variety of entrepreneurs:
Killer Aces Media – Community Blogging Publishers
Three young adults who had been friends since high school decided to create an internet publishing company. Will, Lynn and Greg established Killer Aces Media, and the very successful Wisebread.com was created in December 2006. The concept of Wisebread, and several other internet entities they own, is to provide quality content by multiple bloggers – while paying the contributing bloggers a competitive compensation for their efforts. Wisebread.com is ranked #10,455 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings as of August 2011.
Andrew and Daryl Grant – Internet Marketing Experts
Andrew and Daryl Grant of Australia started out as over-worked employees of large corporations. They were making a lot of money, but they were working all the time. They started thinking about ways to make money without having to work as many hours and tried a number of different business models across several different industries from real estate to finance to business consulting. At one point, they tried using their existing skills and consulting for businesses, and while they were great at what they did and were still able to bring in a lot of money – they were still directly trading their time for money. They later discovered how to generate passive income through selling ebooks and other information products online, and through the creation of membership sites.
Income earned through selling information products and receiving membership fees from website visitors is considered passive income because the products are created once – listed for sale – and then can be sold over and over again without the need for doing additional work. Orders are filled automatically through technology and the couple spends their time setting up marketing strategies to bring new potential buyers to each of their product websites.
Their first year selling ebooks resulted in $250,000 in sales. Once they fine tuned their processes, they began showing other internet marketing wanna-be’s their step-by-step processes. The Grant’s often joint venture with potential business owners- and in exchange for their experience and assistance in setting up an internet business – the joint venture partners pay the Grant’s a fee for the training and then a percentage of all sales their newly started businesses generate.
David and Erin Oliveira – Franchise Owners
David and Erin Oliveira – a Massachusetts couple currently living in upstate New York, decided to take a more traditional route to entrepreneurship. Instead of looking to the internet for a business opportunity, the couple decided to purchase a Dunkin’ Donuts Franchise.
The husband and wife team worked as general managers, store managers and bakery managers within an existing operation of Dunkin’ Donuts shops – to gain experience under a man who owns 14 Dunkin’ locations in upstate NY and is the owner or partial owner of several more in the Massachusetts area. Once they learned the business operations inside and out, the couple purchased half ownership of their own Dunkin’ Donuts shop from the man they had been working for; and will later buy out the rest as the store continues to generate income.
Sources of Inspiration: Entrepreneur Success Stories
Quitting your day job and spending your life savings to become an entrepreneur is no easy task, especially in today’s turbulent economic environment. In this classic high-risk high-reward situation, you could stand to lose your principal and even end up in debt, but the rewards are boundless. We all know the stories of the most famous, trailblazing entrepreneurs – Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ray Kroc or H. Ross Perot. However, these storied names have become so legendary and larger than life that it’s hard for the average Joe to relate to their success. Let’s focus on a few lesser-known, but just as relevant, entrepreneur success stories.
Two guys, with only $8,000 in savings and a $4,000 loan, rented an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont – a college town without a proper ice cream shop – and opened an ice cream shop. Their only formal training had been a correspondence course in the art of ice cream making. They purchased equipment and came up with “unique flavors” – such as “Red Velvet Cake” and “Late Night Snack” – which differed from the standard flavors offered by large chains like Baskin-Robbins. Twenty years later, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield’s ice cream business, Ben & Jerry’s, brings in $237 million in annual revenue.
Meanwhile, two ladies, Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash Taylor, took $200 in cash and a revolving line of credit and started a tiny clothing line with a “girlish appeal”. Neither woman took a salary for two years as they worked to popularize their brand. Their signature velour tracksuits eventually caught the public eye, and were soon adopted by the likes of Madonna, who turned the tracksuit into a public trend in the 1990s. The limited supply of the product increased its affordable luxury appeal, and soon its brand was available at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman-Marcus and Bloomingdales. The company, Juicy Couture, posted $47 million in annual revenue by 2002, prior to being acquired by fashion giant Liz Claiborne for an undisclosed amount.
Whereas the first two examples needed capital (although not much) to get started, Dana Levy’s story is even more amazing as it started with nothing more than a computer with an Internet connection. Levy started an e-mail newsletter, Daily Candy, which informed New Yorkers of the latest restaurant openings, hip hangouts, events and great deals around the city, all written in an informal “Gossip Girl” style. The first newsletter was sent in March 2000 to a mailing list of 700 members. The newsletter soon became a trendsetter, and led to its expansion into a dozen other cities. Levy eventually sold the newsletter to a venture capital group for $3 million in 2003, which in turn was sold to Comcast for $125 million in 2008.
These three success stories show that impossible dreams can come true – not through miracles but through a combination of hard work, determination, luck and good judgement. If you hope to join their ranks as a successful entrepreneur, remember the old adage, “even the longest journey starts with a single step”.
Case study: 4 Tips to Becoming an Outrageously Cool Entrepreneur **
The reason why we talk about being an entrepreneur is that we are actually in car heading up to Saint Louis and I am going to meet David Siteman Garland who has the website The Rise to The Top. He has awesome video blog, he has got some great shows, and is a soon to be an author. He just really inspired me which is obvious since we are on the way to Saint Louis on a Wednesday. So I am taking time of work but I am going to meet him and get inspired by him and some of the people he has been inspired by. I am going to share some of my tips and some of my experiences of being an entrepreneur and hope that you get something out of it.
1. Follow Your Passion (and mean it)
 So the first tip that I will share with you is that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to follow your passion. You have to find out what that is. For me, I have been a numbers guy for pretty much of my life so it is natural fit to get into investments.
I did not consider myself to be an entrepreneur until ‘O7 and when I left my previous firm and me and 3 others started Alliance Investment Planning Group. That was my first taste of being an entrepreneur. Then I started my blog Goodfinancialcents.com and right now I am also working on my book and some of other projects. That first step really gave me the entrepreneur bug. If you don’t want to do numbers is not your thing then you don’t need to be in my profession. You need to find out what your passion is, follow your passion and just crush it.  You might start down path and maybe your path changes. That’s OK. That is the beauty of being an entrepreneur. You have to shift and be agile enough to move on to the next thing.
2. Dive Right In
The second step that I will say is dive right in. I have a lot of people, I talked to them that if they want to be an entrepreneur?
They talk about being an entrepreneur and all they do is just talk. If you are going to do it, you can talk about that all day long but until you actually take that first step, until you put yourself out there, you will never going to know what it is and if you have what it takes. That was with us when we stepped out and started our own firm. It was a huge risk. We had a big name behind us and we just let that go.
We took a huge step.
I was lucky in the sense that I had a good client base already but it did not mean that it had to follow me. So that was a huge risk and one of the best risk that I have taken.
Another risk was I put myself with the blog. I read an article in early part of O8 about blogging and how you need to have a blog. I have no idea what a blog was. I am sure if you read this at the site. My interpretation of blog was getting on my space and hearing hip hop music and looking pictures of people, I really did not get it. I started just reading and researching and looking at blogs. It took me months to figure out. Lot of late nights, giving some time from weekends to learn the blog and just don’t ride in. Have I not done it, I still not be talking about it. Here it is almost two years later, the blog is an awesome thing. First thing is follow your passion and second thing is dive right in.
3. Cut Out The Crap
Third thing is cut out the crap. What I mean by this was that I was listening to a podcast of someone that was a consulting another individual that wanted to be an entrepreneur.  They could never set up the time because the guy, the “wannabe”  entrepreneur, could not schedule the time because he did not want to miss the show Wipeout. He couldn’t schedule his consulting session to take him to the next level because he couldn’t workout the time that didn’t allow him to miss Wipeout. Really?
If you are an entrepreneur (or want to become one), you can miss Wipeout. So cut out the crap. If you watch hours of reality television per week, cut it out. Any other noise, just cut it out because this is your dream, this is your passion. If you really want to do it then you need to focus 150% or 1050% whatever, put everything into it and that’s the way that you grow. That’s the way you build your dream and your vision.
4. Support Please
Last thing I say is all about the support system. Two things. One is having an awesome spouse that is going to support you throughout the whole process. Somebody holding a video cam while you are a driving a car is awesome. So having that to support you and motivate you and sometime may be even second guess and ask, “hey is that a really a good idea?’ This may be that your driving force to push it hard and to really show that person that YES this is my vision and this is my dream and I’m going pull it off no matter what it takes.
The other thing is to surround yourself by people who have similar drive and that have similar vision. If you have friends who are always just complaining about having hard times to make ends meet but then they are not doing anything about it. I am not saying to cut them out but just cut and reduce that time because if you go out and you start showing them that hey this is me, and you are fired up and super motivated eventually I hope that you will be contagious.
Cut these people out of your life and have people that have the similar vision. That is one of the reason that I am heading towards Saint Louis to meet David Siteman Garland. I met him on twitter. This guy got such huge followers in a short period of time. This guy knows what is going on. I am going there and hope that I will meet some great people that have similar vision, similar drive and similar passion. So find those people. I had the hardest time finding people locally, I will say that I found more lately. If you are having hard time finding someone locally that have same vision, same drive then head online. Start a blog, go on twitter, find people that have similar interest you do and you will be amazed. David is one of the 100 people I found online that just have “it”.
(**Entrepreneur Recap:Ref- Jeff Rose
So just as a recap if you really want to become an entrepreneur to make your dream your vision blossom what you want it to see. Number 1 is find your passion, find what it is that gets you going because if it is your passion it will not be a job, It will be a hobby a fun hobby. Number two is dive right in. Just dive right in and then you learn so much. With blogging, I did not know anything about it but I just said that I am going to do it and I am going to figure it out as I go. Sure enough I did that. There were a lot of trials but it all worked out. Number three is cut out the crap. Cut out television, cut out things, the basic takeaways of putting time and energies to focus. Last thing is have a good support system.  So this is Jeff Rose goodfinancialcents.com. Thanks for bearing with us and I hope that you enjoyed it.)
Being a Savvy Investor AND a Small Business Owner
Investing as a small business owner is not always as easy as it might be if you weren’t the entrepreneur you are. There are a number of things that should be looked at carefully as a small business owner that you might get to overlook if you are simply part of a more typical work arrangement. Without careful attention to each issue, you might find yourself in more trouble than traditional investors.
One of the first things you must be aware of is the level of risk that you, as a small business owner, can take on. Keep in mind that your personality as an entrepreneur might make you more likely to be a risk taker, but that attitude simply cannot carry over into your investment strategies. Your business is actually a part of your investment portfolio, not just something that you handle on the side. As a result, making too many risky investments within the larger context of your portfolio as a whole can jeopardize your business too. Unlike larger corporations, small businesses are more likely to feel the pressure of the natural economic patterns. As competition increases or prices inflate, small businesses tend to suffer more than others simply based on the fact that they are so much smaller. As a result, a small business owner’s portfolio must be structured around a philosophy of preserving the investment rather than large scale growth.While a lot of growth might seem like a good thing, it could potentially harm what you’ve been working so hard to build. Realizing this fact can be beneficial to small business owners during those tougher times, because the portfolio can be relied on to support the business. If, on the other had, the portfolio is built around the idea that growth is the major factor, the portfolio and the business could collapse during rough times.
Another thing to watch for as a small business owner is where you place your investments. Small business owners are often single-minded individuals. They tend to keep the bulk of the money within their industry interests. While this might seem like a good idea, if problems within that industry begin to occur, the small business owner’s portfolio could crash rather quickly, as could the small business, leaving the entrepreneur with some real problems. To remedy this issue, diversity in the portfolio is especially important.. In this manner, the portfolio will be protected if problems in the industry begin to occur.
What Are The Best Investments For Small Business Owners?
Some of the best investments for small business owners are those that promise steady, slow growth. Things like mutual funds are a good idea, as they do tend growth steadily. Most individual stocks, though, should be avoided. While Wall Street would like to believe that stocks always gain in the end, some stocks simply don’t, and having a string of losses or simply a lack of gains in the long run isn’t going to be good for your or your business.
Important Business Valuation Metrics
New investors are often bewildered and confused by the financial jargon of business valuation. Confusing, strangely named ratios can simply be Greek to a newcomer to the market. Here are three of the most basic business valuation metrics used by investors that you should know.
Market Capitalization
Market capitalization is the value of a publicly traded company based on current market prices. It is calculated by multiplying all outstanding shares by the share price. For example, you start up a company called XYZ, and you divide your company into 100 publicly traded shares. One share of XYZ costs $5 per share. Therefore, your market capitalization would be $500.
There are four categories for market capitalization:
· Large Cap companies have a market cap of over $10 billion.
· Mid Cap companies have one between $2 to $10 billion.
· Small Cap companies have one between $300 million to $2 billion.
· Micro Cap companies have one under $300 million.
Market capitalization can be deceiving and must be measured in correlation to other important business metrics. Just because a company’s market cap is soaring doesn’t necessarily mean that it is justified – it just means that the stock price is increasing at a rapid pace, thus increasing the company’s weight.
Price-to-Book Ratio
Let’s say your company, XYZ, has $500 in available cash. Remember that you issued 100 shares at $5 each. In this situation, the price-to-book ratio is now 1. That means that for each outstanding share, there is $5 in cash to back it up. It is calculated by dividing the share price by the cash (book) value per share. Let’s say your company’s shares increase in value to $10, but you still only have $500 in cash. Dividing $10 by $5 would now give the company a price-to-book ratio of 2.
Legendary investors such as Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett have been followers of the book value principle. Graham famously taught that if a company is fundamentally sound and its price-to-book ratio falls below 1.0, then it is a good value investment, since logically, barring other capital losses, a company’s stock price should be worth at least its book value, if not higher.
Price-to-Earnings Ratio
Price-to-Earnings, or P/E ratio, is the most frequently used valuation technique for businesses. It is calculated by dividing the share price by its annual earnings (profit) per share. Let’s pretend your XYZ company, which now trades at $10, survived for a year, and at the end of the year you earned profits (revenue – expenses) of $50. Remember that you still have 100 total outstanding shares, currently worth $10 each.
Divide $50 by 100 and you have an EPS (earnings per share) of $0.50. Now let’s divide the share price of $10 by $0.50 = 20. 20 is now your current P/E ratio, which from now on will be referred to as a trailing P/E ratio.
Now your company will provide the public with a forecast, or guidance, of what your next 12 months are going to look like. You declare with certainty that your company will earn $100 next year and double your profits from this year. Divide that $100 by 100 and now you have an estimated EPS of $1. Dividing the share price of $10 by $1 now gives you a new P/E ratio – 10. This is now regarded as your forward P/E, or a forecast of how your stock will perform, based on your current promises.
Now, investors get really excited about the prospects of your business, so they bid your shares up to $20 per share. Your trailing P/E has now increased to 40, while your forward P/E has now risen to 20 – a fairly top-heavy situation. This is the reason stock prices increase and are ultimately throttled by P/E multiples.
Value investors will seek out stocks with low P/Es – usually under 20, but it can be higher in a high-growth industry such as tech – and declare that they are “cheap”. These stocks will tend to move slowly or not at all, but with limited downside risk.
Meanwhile, growth investors will search for stocks with high P/Es – some higher than 50, depending on the sector – in an effort to find stocks with the most momentum and driven by the most hype. These stocks can move very fast – see any Chinese Internet stock – but can also crash the fastest, due to the lack of fundamental scaffolding.
Other Valuation Metrics
These three are but the tip of a very big iceberg, but understanding these three valuation metrics will make it far easier to understand other important metrics, such as P/S (price-to-sales) and RoE (return-on-equity), and make it far easier to gauge the value and profitability of a business.
Tips for Starting a Successful Business Website
In this day and age, a business website is a prerequisite for even the most basic of services. It also serves as a valuable first impression to potential customers – sloppy website designs lead to negative assumptions about the professionalism of your business. Overly designed, memory-intensive flash websites filled with background music and tiny text frustrate visitors with haughty pompousness. How can you decide which approach is the best for your company? What are the steps necessary to establish a coherent, appropriate website?
Leo Sun on August 19th, 2011 Photo by dakno
Getting Started
In the late 1990s, most website design only required a simple knowledge of HTML and Javascript. Since then, websites have evolved greatly, and a working knowledge of Flash and HTML 5.0 are required for the most professional of websites. Most website designers use publishing software such as Adobe Dreamweaver to simplify tasks considerably. Fortunately, most publishing suites have simple templates for a basic site and may prove enough for most small businesses seeking a simple web presence. At the bare minimum, your website should consist of the following:
· Contact information – your phone number, e-mail and address clearly visible on the first page.
· For eCommerce sites:
oA clearly designed product catalog, with your most current, news-worthy products on the first page. Promotions should also be clearly visible on the first page.
oAn online shopping cart system.
oIf pertinent to your products, you should add downloadable content – such as software or PDF manuals.
· For corporate or events sites, a clear company calendar with upcoming events, which can also be synced to the iCal standard or Google Calendar.
There are also some common pitfalls to avoid.
· Garish or common clip art – these make your website appear unprofessional and outdated. Use made from scratch graphic designs, if possible.
· Tiny text in an attempt to create a minimalistic look. This can often be unreadable on some smaller displays.
· Overly extravagant Flash introductions with background music. These often slow down older computers and frustrate customers who are only seeking basic information about the company. Create launch pages which give the user the option of selecting a HTML or Flash version of the site.
· Poor frequency of updates. When a visitor to your site sees the last update occurring half a year ago, what does that say about your response time to customer issues?
Upgrading a Basic Website for the New Web
Now, with a basic foundation, your website should be spruced up further. Visitors these days expect a certain degree of interaction with the website. These are some things you can add to your website to enhance the user’s experience.
· Real-time tech support – many websites now offer Java or AJAX based web chat with tech support. Of course this means you need to have several members of your staff assigned to field these questions. These can be connected to their work stations. Some websites also offer real-time chat via Windows Messenger.
· Social networking integration via Facebook or Twitter. These allow your company to bring your customers closer without the use of old-time mailing lists.
· A wise use of multimedia. For example, Apple’s website uses Quicktime VR to allow the user to grab and rotate the product in any way they desire to mimic a physical shopping experience.
· RSS feeds, to allow users to subscribe to your company’s posts or updates.
Tweaking Your Design Sensibilities
Bear in mind that websites should be designed to reflect their businesses. Hotels and restaurants should not look like electronics websites, and vice versa. If your staff lacks the artistic eye for cohesion, it may be wise to hire a contract web designer in order to achieve this. However, here are some simple tips to maintain a clean design.
· Fonts – many websites are created with the simple Times New Roman font in garish colors over clip art backgrounds. These are ugly and discourage customers from purchasing your products. Professionally made banners and cleaner fonts such as Lucida Grande or Arial reflect well on your business.
· Use CSS or AJAX in order to keep your site looking lean and modern; without these your website will appear clunky, loading like a 1990s website being viewed on Netscape.
· Use cross-browser compatible standards which can be viewed on the widest assortment of browsers and operating systems. Many designers make the mistake of making fancy websites without the consideration that many customers may be using outdated browsers without Flash.
Finishing Touches
The important thing to remember about starting a business website is that design should be clear, to the point and informative. Cross-compatibility is much more important than aesthetic beauty. Each customer who can’t load your site or find the pertinent contact information is a lost customer. Here are some final things to consider.
· Does your website have a mobile version? With the increasing adoption of smartphones, mobile-optimized websites can help widen your company’s exposure and promote a forward-thinking image.
· Has your company launched mobile applications, as many companies have done, to allow easier, one-click access to your website and services?
· Is your website search engine optimized? There are many articles instructing web designers in the proper way to phrase search terms to increase hits from major search engines.
· Will your website use advertising as a means to gain revenue? If so, you can consider using Google AdSense as a free way to gain extra funds from page views and click-thrus.
These are some ideas to help you get started. In business web design, your first impression upon the customer can often be your last if your website is poorly designed, so be sensible with your approach.

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