Author Archives: ernie

Web developer for small business

We offer small business web sites for customers who want to write their own content and just need someone to set the infrastructure up for them so they can get started. Many customers prefer this approach because they want to retain control over their content and the look and the feel of the web site. We have the perfect inexpensive suite of services that will match this need. Just check out our services on the top right hand side of the page and click one of the links.

On the other hand if you need more support and really would like to have someone set up your web site and also add your content for you following guidelines supplied by you, we can do that as well for your business. We are a web developer for small business and can provide these services as well.

We may need to understand your business, obtain pictures of your products etc and descriptions of your services. This is still a basic blog since it is really only providing information to people who land on your site and probably will include a call to action suggesting that they get in touch with your business team for more detailed information, products, quotes or to set up an appointment

Attracting Customers to Your Site

Once you have a site set up, the next question is how do people find you online? There are many ways. Most business owners employ several kinds of advertising methods in addition to having a web site.

This includes placing your web sites URL on everything. Include business cards, advertisements on radio, TV or the newspaper as well as flyers etc. Placing your websites URL on all invoices is another method, and any emails that you send out.

More and more customers are using their smart phones to search for products. They also use tablets and iPads. They use one of the search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo to search for various topics. If your web site does not rank well on the index that the search engines establish, these potential customers are never going to find you. Your web page will be ranked well down the list on pages of results that will never be looked at.

How Can a Web Developer Help to Search Engine Optimize Your Site?

There are lots of companies out there advertising all kinds of services and results. From twitter followers to Facebook friends etc. The only real answer to being indexed well is to have high quality content. Content that provides the customer with what he or she is looking for. The content also must discuss the topics that people search for as well.

For example we are a provider of basic web sites that give small business owners and opportunity to manage their own web site. They do not need to make a huge investment in time or money. Some people will search for web site developers. However this page probably would not rank well since we do not use that term very much in the post.

This post is focused on web developer for small business. Hopefully the search engines will pick that up and rank this page well when a search for this term is made. Then the customer has an option to select our link or not from among the top ten results provided.

This is an additional service that we can provide to you in addition to a basic web site for your business . We can bring many more potential customers to your business which can be converted into paying customers. For more information about our service and web developer needs for small business, call us or send an email requesting additional information.

For more about website design, click here.

Simple retirement plan

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Many people wonder if they have saved enough for retirement. They fall prey to financial planners or advisers. They are really only interested in generating more commissions on sales of mutual funds and stocks. It is really tough to know if you have enough. It is even more difficult to know if you are paying too much in fees as well for trades that you might be doing. As well do not forget hidden fees that are charged by many mutual fund companies.

Simple retirement plan

There are some simple guidelines that we have followed. We think they will benefit many people as long as you have patience. If they are willing to read a little bit and keep up with what is going on in the stock markets. My guidelines that I have followed over the past 10 years has benefited us greatly. We wanted to pass this along to our readers. You will be better off with your retirement if you follow these general guidelines.

Retirement Plan Guidelines

Invest in Blue chip companies
That pay dividends
That have a long history of always paying their dividends
That also have a history of increasing their dividends
That allow you to re-invest those dividends into the company at a discount
Diversify your investments across several companies
No more than 10% of your investment in any one investment
Avoid doing trades if at all possible
Constant re-balancing only costs you money
Stay away from mutual funds, they get a management fee every year
Buy good quality corporate bonds
Re-invest the bond income in more stocks
Above all do not touch your investment until it is time to retire

Stay Away from Mutual Funds

The mutual fund industry has done a great job of marketing these products to consumers. they promote professional management and they promote results that are sometimes impressive, but what they do not tell you is that they fall just as fast as the market when there is a downturn. Even if you invest in a dividend income mutual fund, and collect dividends into the mutual fund, they always pay themselves first. For example if your dividend income from all of the stocks in the mutual fund average 5%, your net income to the mutual fund after fees and expenses is going to be well below 4%.

By investing directly in stocks as per the guidelines above, you will collect all of the dividends and they will all be re-invested for you with no fee if you take advantage of the dividend re-investment plans offered by many companies.

This is about the most simple form of retirement plan that most consumers can follow and come out ahead of anything that you could do with a mutual fund investment. Note that if you worry about investment in your retirement plan, you may want to stick to guaranteed investment certificates. Although they do not pay very much they are guaranteed and you will get your money back when you need it. Unfortunately with stocks there is more risk and there is danger that your investments will not be as high as you had hoped when it comes time to retire, but the returns are far greater if you stick to quality investments and avoid the very high risk investments.

Self Employed Retirement

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Self employed individuals must plan their retirement even more so that someone who has a company pension to count on. Even folks with company pensions should not just count on their company pension. It may not be enough to live on comfortably. However, that is the subject of another post. This one is focused on what the self employed individual should be doing to ensure that they have the quality of life they desire. Whether they retire early or late this will give them some flexibility regarding the time of their retirement.

Self Employed Retirement – Your Business is Successful!

Right now your business may be wildly successful and seemingly there is no end in sight. We all know that 20 years, 30 years and 40 years of business can bring a lot of changes. Some positive and some not so positive. The main message we want to provide in this post is that they need to be saving for retirement every year they are working. Whether it is for yourself in a self employment situation or even if you own a small business. We never know what life will bring us. It is always important to plan for the unknown.

Invest a Minimum of 10%

The best way to do that is to lock away a minimum of 10% every year in a retirement plan. If you can do that beginning at age 20 or when you start working, you will have sufficient money by the time you are 50. Provided that it is well invested.Â This approach will allow you to decide what it is you want to do and not have someone else make the decision for you.

Of course, you can keep working if you want. But the real message is that you are free to make your own decision about what you do next. You can have the flexibility to make your own decisions about how you want to continue your life. Just imagine not having to worry about having enough money during retirement. Or even when you are approaching retirement.

Invest Well, Focus on Diversity, Don’t Chase High Risk Stocks

When you invest your retirement savings, focus on blue-chip stocks. Focus on stocks that regularly pay dividends and grow their dividends over time. These blue-chip companies will increase in stock value and the income will be paid every three months. The dividends will be invested in more shares, growing your investments even further. This is by far the best way to increase your retirement savings. Especially if it is in a registered plan that is not taxed until you remove the funds from the plan.

As you build your business, don’t forget to focus on the long term plan for your retirement years so that they are as rewarding and successful as your working years.

Design Business Web Site

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Small Business Web Sites to match your budget

Designing a business web site can be relatively easy with today’s online tools and processes. Chose the domain name. This is the name of your website that you will provide users, customers and acquaintances. This website name is commonly referred to as the URL. It is the name of your online Company website. Then you need storage space and a content management system or CMS.

Storage Space or Web Hosting

Obtain storage space on a server located somewhere in what today is called the cloud. There are many companies that provide storage space. They can be located anywhere in the world. All you need is the IP address of the server which you will use when you are setting up your URL.

Obtain a Domain Name

Once you have your storage space and address you can then point your domain name towards the server. It will provide the storage that you have reserved. You also need to make sure that there is something on the server to respond to customers or browsers of your web site.

Now you have a domain name that is pointing to a server that has no information on it. The next step to design a business web site is to install a content management system. This system manages all of your data including text, images, and any charts, etc. that you might be using on your website.

A typical content management system is WordPress. WordPress is a very popular content management system used by millions of websites around the world. It is user-friendly, easy to install, and once set up is extremely easy to update content and to add new content for your readers.

Design Business Web Site Services

We offer all of these services for you and will install and build your website to your design. Once the website including the content management system is installed and the first few pages created. Business owners have the option of updating their own content at their convenience or having us provide and develop additional content for them.

We like to use information that they provide in terms of pictures, images, videos, and text from your company. This helps ensure that everything is accurate and portrays the image that you’re looking for regarding your online presence.

As we mentioned business owners can update their own content or have us do it for them. These content management systems are easy to use once set up. There is no need to have a lot of IT knowledge. For more information about creating a business website, maintaining a business website please send us an email or give us a call to discuss in more detail.

For small business ideas and suggestions, click here.

Retirement Planning Options

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The baby boomers are retiring by the thousands. Some are retiring of their own free will, while others are being forced out of the door. Some are taking up new hobbies. While others are following hobbies that they gave up while raising a family and following their career. There are many options and activities that consumers who are retiring can consider. We thought we would review a few of these Retirement Planning Options in this post to provide readers with some ideas. If you are following a retirement plan or option that we missed, feel free to leave us a comment and we will add it to the list.

Retirement Planning Options – What to Do?

Volunteer – a lot of people are satisfied financially, but they cherish helping and being with people. Volunteering meets these objectives and gets them out with other people of like-minded ideals. Sometimes a volunteer position leads to a full-time job.

Start a New Career – you may have work in one industry, but have always wanted to try something different. Whether you retire on your own or are forced to retire ahead of their schedule, this is the time to follow and develop that new career.

Start a small Business – some will begin a new business. There are literally thousands of small business ideas to follow and try out. Be careful to manage your money. Avoid sinking all of your retirement funds in a business that does not give the returns you are looking for.

Look after the Grandkids – some parents help their kids by babysitting the grandkids. This keeps them active, they help out their own kids and they may even make a little bit of money out of the activity as well. It is a great time to bond with their grandkids.

Work Part Time – is another situation that provides some extra money. It also keeps you in the workforce and gets you out fairly often. You still have some time to do many of the other things we discuss on this list.

More on Retirement Planning Activities

Travel – can be expensive. However, if you manage the travel costs, make it your job to find the deals and travel smart. You can virtually travel the world without spending a fortune. Don’t put it off, you never know when you will be forced to limit your travel due to health reasons.

Focus on Hobbies – one person we know loved to buy small appliances, repair them, and resell them. It was a hobby at first, but then it turned into a small business opportunity. Which helped to pay for his tools and some of his expenses.

Focus on Your investments – if you have retirement savings, it is important to manage them, rebalance once per year or when major positions change, ensure that you are diverse in your investments, and decide when to use the money during retirement.

Help the Kids – everything from renovations, to helping the kids with moving and odd jobs around the house.

Move to a New Location – many people will downsize and move to another city to be near family etc. Although this is a short term project, it does take a lot of planning and organization to move from one house to another.

Renovate Homes – buy a house at a low price, renovate it and resell it. This sort of project can be risky, however, if you are a handyman at all, money can be made if you purchase a home at the right price, upgrade it and resell it.

Work for your Kids – if your kids have their own business, why not work for them. You can choose to be paid or just help them out. Either way, you will have lots to do and you get to spend more time with your children.

All or Some of the Above

Regardless of what you do it is important to have a plan. Some people will even start out with one idea and then switch to another based on their experience and enjoyment. Many will be doing some or all of the above at the same time. One thing we know for sure is that by taking up some or all of the above, you will never be bored or wonder what to do next. For more information about retirement planning, click here.

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Greening Your Office

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Everyone is concerned about the planet getting warmer, except, of course, some people who are worried about losing money. But the bottom line is that if we do not do our part, our weather is going to change, and not for the better. We all need to do our part in reducing greenhouse gases. There are many green ideas for greening your office that employees may consider.

Go electric
Paper
Lights
furniture
Commute
Dress Right
recycle bins
switch off

Greening Your Office – Go Electric.

Technology is here for a reason — digitalize and dematerialize as much as possible. emails, invites, calendars and files can all be saved onto your computer rather than on paper. Back up all information on an external hard drive — as much as we love technology, computers do tend to crash and burn when loaded with too much information.

Paper

Print only if you must, as most of the time, you can make changes directly on the screen without printing. When you do print, choose a double-sided setting, which will print on both sides instead of just one. When restocking, use recycled paper. Encourage people to use email, etc, and avoid delivering paper reports.

Lights

When you leave the office, turn off all lights, especially desk lights that are smaller yet easily forgettable but still powerful. Switch to LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs, which are more efficient than traditional ones and will last much longer.

Furniture

Choose office furniture — desks, chairs, filing cabinets, made from sustainable wood, recycled metal, and non-toxic waste. If you need to change furniture, donate it so that it can be reused again and again.

Commute

Public transport, such as buses, subways, trains, and cars, is overcrowded and stressful. It also contributes to your carbon footprint and the toxic fumes emitted as you complete your journey. If the work is not long-distance and the weather supports it, either cycle or walk to work. It’s a healthier and cheaper option with minimal impact on the environment.

Dress Right

Summers are warm, and winters are cold. Dress appropriately so that you don’t turn the heater or air conditioning on full blast as you step foot in the office. Bring an extra jumper or pair of tights to cozy up in the cold, and if it’s too hot, buy water spray or a small fan.

Recycle bins

Have one main recycling bin where everyone can throw paper, cardboard, and plastic waste. Place it somewhere obvious with easy access. Although you may not save money, you will at least be helping to protect the environment.

Switch off

Leaving your computer on overnight will eventually burn out its battery, which is unnecessary. Set up your system so that hard drives switch off after a certain number of minutes, and your screen protector activates and shuts down the screen when not in use. This will extend the life of your computer significantly.

For more lifestyle ideas, click here.

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Your estate and family money

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Prepare your family for what’s coming. The first time that your family finds out how much money they’re getting should not really be at the time that your will is read. It Should not be a surprise, you should be able to plan for this transition so that taxes are minimized and expenses associated with your state are well managed and maintained during the transition. Manage your estate and family money.

Give them some practice managing money

You may want to give them a little bit of practice managing money. If they have not already had this kind of situation to deal with. All children should have already savings set up for retirement. Your estate will just add to the retirement. In the event that they are not very good at managing money, you may want to give them a chance. Providing them with say $10,000 to give them a feel for what it’s like to have some money. Some will blow it spending the money on frivolous things, and then wonder what you’re going to do.

It can be a good lesson to find out what it’s like to have received some money. They may spend it and then realize that it’s gone. When you provide practice money for them you may want to also include some guidelines for how they should manage this money. Another approach is to help your children out when they most need it. For example if they need help paying off a loan, paying down the mortgage. Or paying for a car this might be a good time to provide them with these funds. You will get some of the benefit but seeing how much they appreciate the money that you’re helping them with.

Your estate and family money

Put your trust in a trustee

If you have a large estate, or feel that you need someone independently managing your estate, you may want to employ a trustee. Yes it will cost you some money which the estate will pay for. But you will have the satisfaction and confidence of knowing that your estate is well-managed> It will be managed along the guidelines that you provided.

Attach some guidelines with your estate

By all means provide some guidelines with your estate. Which either your children must follow or your trustees must implement. If your children are under 21 you may require an estate trustee to manage the estate. Provide the appropriate guidelines of how you want your estate managed. On the other hand if you may want to wait until your children are older and more mature. Let’s say 35 years, you can place your money in a trust. Arrange to have it managed by a trustee again according to the guidelines that you provide.

Building Your Own Web site vs. Low Cost SEO Services in Ottawa

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You are small business owner contemplating designing and Building Your Own Web site. If you have some basic technology and IT knowledge there’s no question that you can figure out how to build your own website. The question is this the best use of your time?

As a small business owner you have many challenges every day to keep your business running, to drive sales, to produce and deliver the services that your company provides and solve many customer issues that you have. Every day is a busy day and everything must be prioritized to ensure that you focus on the most important things to your business. Cash flow is king.

As with all of your business activities, some of the things that need to be done will be contracted out to contractors, or you may even hire employees to focus on specific aspects of your business.

Building Your Own Web site

Building and designing your own website falls into exactly the same category. Why would you not hire a contractor, or an IT company to build and design your website for you following the guidelines that you provide?

Assume that you have made this decision to hire an IT company to build the website for you. The next question is what kind of website should you build and how much did you want to pay? If you’re new to this we suggest you start with the basic website that documents and tells your visitors a little bit about your company, the services or products that you provide and how best to get in touch with you.

You may even want to allow visitors to leave comments on your website for later follow-up by yourself or one of your employees. There is a commitment implied that spans several areas. One is the cost to develop and implement the web site. Another is to maintain it and keep the information current on the side. Finally there is the need to support your customers on your site in terms of providing them with current information. This can be a lot of work depending on the business.

A Viable Alternative to Building Your Own Web site

We can provide you with the basic website. It will contain five or six pages with both text and images that you choose. You have an option of being able to update these pages on your own once they are created. Customers can also add new pages based on topics that you would like to provide. We can also add pages for you based on input and requirements that you specify.

This is a great way to get started with your own company’s website at very little cost. You can later add to on your own or have one of your employees do it for you. Or have us add the pages describing your services and products. There is lots of flexibility which allows you to meet your own business goals. Give us a call or send us an email at your convenience for more information.

How much income will you need in retirement?

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Many consumers want to know the answer to the question, “how much income will you need in retirement”? The common guideline for the amount of money or income that you will need during retirement has been an average of 70%. Most advisers will aim for that number. This is based on the fact that most people will not need as much money to live on during retirement. After all they do not have the expenses of going to work. Their mortgage should be paid off. All of their debt including car loans should also be reduced to zero. They also have less expenses for getting to and from work, less clothes etc.

How much income will you need in retirement – Spending More ?

They may have objectives of going on a vacation, visiting grandchildren, perhaps a once in a time life vacation. For many consumers this number of 70% is probably quite realistic. However it may not work for everyone. It is important to understand what your situation is and how much money you will need once you retire.

For example the couple that is spending to the level of their paycheck each month just before retirement may have difficulty surviving on 30% less than they currently make. Unless they reduce their expenses they will quickly go into the hole. They may run up debt that they probably will not be able to pay for. They may be required to take another job, sell their home to cover expenses etc. This is not something that you want to find yourself needing to do.

Plan for Retirement

If you are nearing retirement now is the time to complete an assessment of how much income you will actually have during your retirement taking into account employment pensions, government pensions and income from savings. At the same time evaluate all of your expenses to understand which ones will continue during retirement and those that will be reduced.

Once you have these two numbers you will be able to quickly understand weather 70% of your income is realistic or not. Don’t forget to include one of a time expenses such as vacation, supporting children, and health issues that may increase the 70% requirement of your income. There is also an age factor to take into account as well. When you initially retire and have your health, there are more opportunities to spend your money on the fun things you like to do. As you age, you may have to gove some things up and switch to others that actually cost less. The big unknown is what will your health care cost and how much will you need to pay for the level of care that you need?

For more information about retirement income and how much you will need in retirement, click here.

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Basic small business website strategy

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All websites, regardless of whether they are for large companies or small businesses should always have a set of objectives. They should have a strategy for achieving those objectives. The objective should be geared towards whatever it is that they’re trying to achieve with the website. It should support your objectives to increase sales or to drive business to the company.

One area the web developer should pay particular attention to is the quality of the content, the freshness of the content, and the ability for the search engines to index their content.

We have all encountered websites where the content is almost next to useless. These have been written just to obtain search engine results. But they do not offer anything to the consumer or anyone searching on the Internet for a particular topic.

The search engines are trying to de-index these websites and this is the main reason why a website should have excellent content and why the content should be kept fresh.

Old content can quickly become out of date and as far as the search engines are concerned will be given a lower index rating as a result. In addition, if this content is about your products or services, business owners will want to ensure that the content is kept up-to-date and currently reflects the services and products that you offer.

We have developed the following strategy for keeping our content up-to-date on our own websites. Our websites are principally aimed at providing information to the consumer and therefore we recognize the value of that content is kept up-to-date and accurately reflecting current issues as well as information that consumers are looking for. Here’s our strategy.

Small Business Website Strategy – New Content

Depending on the subject of the website and reader interest, new content will be added at least twice a month and in some cases once a week to provide readers with new information about the subjects they are interested in. This also tells the search engines that new content is available to be indexed for consumers conducting searches on these particular topics on a regular basis.

Update Content

Older content should be reviewed and updated on regular basis to keep it current and fresh. There are several ways to do this. Our decision has been to focus on older content that is short duration. We also focus on older content that has not been touched for some time.

Posts are sorted based on size from smallest to largest. The smallest post is updated by adding more content. We increase it in size compared to the next smallest post. On average our posts will become larger overtime. At the same time, all punctuation and grammatical errors are corrected.

Tweak Content

Some of our posts already pretty good and just need to be updated. We want to show that they are still current to the search engine crawlers that crawl websites every second of every minute of every day. All posts are sorted based on the last time that they were updated. We then update the oldest post. We may add a few comments or improve the content of the post in some manner.

All of this work is aimed at keeping our website current. We are following these steps typically once a week or once every two weeks depending on the website.