Archive for the 'General' Category

Talk hard with your bank

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on October 21, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Hi

Have a look at the latest article in Smart Company about what SME’s are thinking about the coming 12 months. It’s not looking good.

I did a series of blogs  about what you can do to make sure that your company comes through these tough times. The key is access to ready cash - make sure that you collect all your debtors on a timely basis and keep in good with your banker and/or talking to other bankers.

Having cash is going to make all the difference. Don’t ignore cash from credit cards. It’s certainly not the cheapest money but when it makes the difference between staying alive and failure then it’s not a bad option.

Here’s an interesting story…

I am following my own advice and I called the bank to confirm my credit card details. Low and behold, WITHOUT my asking, they offered to reduce my interest rate by 7.25%. And that’s on a standard card. They probably thought that I was going to cancel the card. The only catch, I had to forgo ‘free’ travel insurance and frequent flyer points.  That’s a pretty good offer.

Now, I am a good customer and I make sure that all is in order with my cards. After all, these cards are my access to emergency cash.

And it gets better…

I have had 2 offers this week to transfer balances to other providers at rates as little as 10.99%. It getting very competitive!

My advice…

- renegotiate your credit limits upwards. But be very disciplined and only use in case of an emergency

- renegotiate all your interest rates. It will take time (you’ll be on hold forever) but at reductions between 7% and 10% it’s worth the wait.

Do it now. If you wait until you need to money you probably won’t get it. Everything is getting tight. You can’t afford to wait.

Banks are starting to be more flexible, take advantage of this opportunity.

Cheers

Have a read

Some relief…but stay tuned in

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on October 14, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Hi

The markets have recovered some of the ground they lost last week. That’s a huge relief. Government action has given business and consumers a higher level of confidence and we’re seeing that flow through.

We’re not out of trouble yet and there may still be surprises in the US. Life is very tough there and both consumers and businesses are going through very difficult financial times. That will continue to impact on our markets. Any further crisis in the US will erode confidence.

In today’s paper I read that China is cutting back on steel production. Not good news for us. We are currently being cushioned by the resources boom with China as a major customer. Changes here will slow our growth.

As well, our PM expects unemployment to increase.

To help get through think about:

- make sure you have access to ready cash. Talk to your banker and make friends with an alternate banker just in case your bank says “NO”

- watch your debtors. Check your Debtor Days at least monthly. Don’t become a banker for your customers.

- reduce your debt as much as possible.

- read the papers. Keep in touch with what’s happening in the markets and review your own financial position.

Business insolvency has increased significantly over the last 3 months. Make sure your name is not on the list.

Cheers

It’s getting very bad

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on October 7, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

What a night it was. Staggering losses on stock markets around the world. And Iceland has frozen bank trading. Who knows what might have happened if the bailout was rejected!

It’s easy to sit back and think that the impact in Australia will be minimal. After all, our 4 major banks are in the top 20 in the world. That’s pretty impressive. Our system is well regulated and  Australian financial institutions did not engage in some of the wreckless lending practices as those in the US.

But, this is not the time for that sort of thinking. The impact will come and it will affect many businesses.

Cash is now more important than ever to get businesses through the tough times ahead. Here’s what you should be thinking about:

- get a few sources of ready cash right now. Before you really need it. Look at increasing your overdraft, get increased limits on your credit card, make friends with a few bankers

- check your debtor days. If your customers are taking longer to pay then that is a bad sign right now. They hold your cash. You are not their banker. Tighten up your debtor controls.

- manage your cash out as well. Look at every conceivable way to retain cash as long as possible.

- check your cash flow weekly. And I don’t mean looking at your bank balance. Work out a simple spreadsheet where you track your debtors and creditors for the next few weeks. Keep it simple. It doesn’t need to be perfect. But you will have a better idea of your cash a few weeks to a month into the future. Update these figures every week. It will take just a short time.

Lack of cash is going to slow growth and/or send a lot of companies broke over the next 12 months. Make sure you do everything you can to so that it doesn’t happen to you.

Cheers.

3 Ways To Get Into the “Good Books” with Google

Published
by
Christian Bowman
on October 3, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

 Google Webmaster Tools

There are lots of things related to Search Engine Optimisation to get good rankings on Google. But sometimes it’s easy to forget the basics. Here are 3 ways very basic ways to ensure your website is in Google’s good books.

1. Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools.

This will enable you or your website techy to see what Google sees on your website.  Why do this? Well using webmaster tools allows you to identify broken links, broken pages but more importantly tell Google what it should index to increase your visibility in the search results.

I worked with a client who had a website which was coming up as  “Warning, do not view this page” in the Google search link to their site. By using webmaster tools, it was identified that there was a vulnerability with  their CMS software from not updating it. I could then use Google webmaster tools to check and verify all of the links and connections of the site with Google’s “Goggles” so to speak. I was even then, via the webmaster tool console, able to contact a Google admin to review the site after I had patched the CMS software.

I also use Google webmaster tools to ensure Google uses the primary link achaeus.com.au opposed to www.achaeus.com.au. What’s the difference? I’ll write up a blog post about that next week.

2. Use relevant descriptive titles for your page headlines, page names and Heading (H1,H2 etc) tags.

It’s fairly basic in terms of making sure Google gets what it wants from your website. It’s all about consistency. If you have a title of a page about your company’s services with the name untitled.htm instead of services.htm then page is less relevant than another site. This applies to page titles and headline titles.

Here is an example of your site structure should look like for a page called Company Services:

Page name: “services.htm” (depending on if you’re using html site, could be .php, .asp etc)

Page title: “Company Services - ABC Company” (Have the name of your page before your company name in the page title)

Headline name: “Company Services” (Make sure its a H heading tag instead just paragraph made bold and bigger)

These seem very basic, but it can be so easily to just put aside for “next time”.

3.  Don’t make your site a “dead end”.

Whilst it’s great to get heaps of relevant sites linking to you, it’s also good practice to link to other sites. The web is about sharing information, and if you don’t want to engage and share then the web doesn’t want to know about you. From a Google point of view, they can see if you are a “dead end”. And like driving through the back streets of the City, nobody likes trying to navigate through roads dominated by signs with “No through road” on them.

If there is anything you reference, whether it be venue, event, or something that may not be in your audience’s vocab, help them out. If you’re scared they won’t come back, make the link appear in a new window. Your techy will know how to do this. Otherwise people will appreciate showing them the way, and they too will keep you on their “Good Books”.

If you want to take this further and enter the world of Search Engine Optimisation, then sign up for the weekly newsletter at SiteProNews, I’ve been on their mailing list for over 6 years.

What’s Going to Happen Now!

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on September 30, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Hi everyone

Earlier it was announced that Congress had rejected the Wall St Bailout. And sharemarkets around the world crashed. The Nasdaq was down just over 9% in a few hours.

What does it all mean for us?

First, money will be very tight so make sure you have access to enough cash to see you through in the next 12 months. Have a few options up your sleeve just in case your banker gets a little nervous and decides to no longer provide you with the funding you need. Talk to other banks and have a store of ready cash handy.

It will get worse before it gets better so don’t even think about riding out the storm. It will be a long wait and you just might drown.

Think twice about any major expenditure right now. Access to cash is going to be critical. The banks will certainly be getting very careful about the loans they make in the coming months.

I agree with many commentators who suggest that the system in Australia is better controlled but it will not save us from the economic fallout. It will probably be less than what the Americans experience but it will be felt.

China is still predicting about 8% growth and that will certainly help our economy. But I wonder about the state of their banking system. It is relatively new and was established in the boom times. Do they have the rigorous regulation in place to ensure the soundness of their banking system? I’ve not read much about that and there is a little warning bell in the back of my mind. Then again, perhaps I’m too cynical.

For now, batten down the hatches, don’t be too adventurous and take your bank manager out to a very nice lunch.

Cheers

The Minefield of Metrics

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on September 24, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Minefield of Website Metrics

Hi

I’m doing lots of work on fine tuning our metrics for online marketing.

What I really love about online marketing is that you can measure everything. But the trouble is you need to sort out what the key measures are to help work out what makes money and wha doesn’t.

So we’ve come from not being able to get the metrics we want to being overloaded with numbers that don’t make a lot of sense.

And the next job is to put together a simple report that doesn’t take forever to compile and tells the story at a glance. It’s a huge balancing act.

I’ve come across lots of resources, so that’s good. Now to reduce the complexity to simplicity. That’s hard.

And then working out the benchmarks is the next step. What is a good open rate? What should be the target for bounce rates? How many unique visitors should I aim for?

I know that there are lots of variables to consider in answering these questions. The trouble with online is that it’s all very new and most people are still sorting their way through the maze of numbers.

We are constantly improving out metrics and you should be doing that as well. The better you measure the better the results from your campaigns.

I’ll keep you posted on how we progress. I’d love to hear how you are managing your metrics.

Gail Geronimos

Scary Economy in Europe

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on September 9, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Hi everyone

I was in Europe for 7 weeks, longest holiday since I started my business. It was great. It went from the sublimely relaxing to extreme mountain stuff. The Austrians call it walking but it went far beyond that in my book.  We were in the Alps between Austria and Italy. I’ve climbed mountains in this region a few years ago but this was harder!

When we climbed we were roped up so if I fell I’d be OK. On this so called ‘walk’ over the mountains there was no rope and it got veeeery dangerous. I can tell you from first hand experience that fear does overcome exhaustion! It was 12 hours a day, up and down the mountains (max altitude was 2,450 metres) mostly above the tree line, sleeping in the huts (they are great) and then on our way early next morning.

But the scenary was just magnificant - from the high peaks, to alpine meadows, to dense forests and the wildflowers were endless in colour and variety. So the rewards were there.

Now to the economy…

The ‘relaxing part’ was spent in Sperl Cafe (Vienna) reading the papers and eating too much of that freshly baked Austrian cake.

The papers are full of doom and gloom, much more so than in Australia. The Georgia situation has re-ignited very negative feelings about Russia. That hasn’t helped. Perhaps the mood is best summed up by a comment from an equity investor that I met, ‘I’m advising my clients and colleagues to buy gold. Not the shares but actual gold. Even though prices may go down I still think that they’d be better off in the longer term.’

With a US election in November and the uncertainty in Europe we all need to monitor the implications for the Australian economy. This will impact on both business and personal financial positions. My advice, read the Financial Review and the more reputable commentators in the next 6 months. You might just save some money.

Cheers

Higher Renewal Fees

Published
by
Christian Bowman
on September 9, 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Last month I got a renewal notice for our security certificate for our website, and I thought ok, we are up for another $15, no problems right? Wrong. It’s now $85 to renew! At no time during that initial sign up process did they mention that 1 year fee is significantly less than subsequent year fees. I mean imagine if they had credit cards where you have a significantly smaller interest rate the first period than subsequent periods? Or imagine if they had printers where the ink costs more than the whole printer.. oh wait. That actually happens…

Anyway after letting that experience digest, I went to renew a domain name today, and again the price to renew is more than the initial price. What is worse is that they tried to get me to buy another domain name in the 4 pages of upselling before I was allowed to press “submit” and the price to buy the new domain was half the price of my renewal order.More and more I felt ripped off for renewal for such a high price.

So, the lesson for today - check to see what the renewal fees for SSL and domain names before you order. If you can’t find any information about it, then contact them and don’t order until you know for sure. Chances are the reason the information is not readily available is because it will be a lot higher than the initial fee.

Easter Competition - Win a place at our 2 day workshop!

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on March 13, 2008
in Events and General
. 13 Comments

Join our Easter Competition and Win

For the best internet marketing ideas submitted to us we will give away 5 places for ‘How to Turbo-Boost your Company using Internet Marketing’. A great Easter prize valued at $995 per place. Enter now to be one of our lucky winners.

To read more about ‘How to Turbo-Boost your Company using Internet Marketing’ click here.

To enter the competition…
Tell us about the best internet marketing story that you’ve come across or a successful internet marketing tactic that you have used. Continue reading ‘Easter Competition - Win a place at our 2 day workshop!’

The Devil Is In The Detail

Published
by
Gail Geronimos
on January 24, 2008
in General
. 3 Comments

Hi Everyone

You know by now that I’m mad keen on the internet. It’s going to be one of the biggest influencers in 2008. And we are well into gearing up to build a strong internet side of Achaeus.

InfusionCRM (our CRM system) is working - thank heavens! That was a difficult decision but it has paid off. It’s done everything that we needed it to do. If you don’t get the technology right in this business life will be traumatic.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that you simply set up your systems and marketing and just collect the money. It doesn’t work like that. The devil is in the detail and it can drive you mad. Make sure you have a good techie on staff to plough through the technology maze.

We are planning a big internet workshop to share with all our colleagues and clients what we’ve learnt - warts and all. Some of the best internet marketers in Australia will be there.

Anyway, we’ll be covering all you need to know at our workshop. Contact me if you want more information.

Cheers

Gail

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