Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Small Business - below Rs.25.00 lakh investment

The first generation business ventures are started or proposed by:

(a) Individuals who have put up around 10 years experience in a particular profession and would like to start a venture.
(b) A Group of freshers who intend to experiment their skills and talent
(c) Individuals who have support of parents in terms of investment
(d) Individuals who lost their job and unable to bear the prolonged gap of unemployment

The investment capacity of these people would generally be around Rs.25.00 lakhs to start a small business excepting the one supported by parents.

The options to be judged before starting a venture:

(i) Manufacturing the proposed product
(ii) Acquisition - acquiring a sick unit or any industry engaged in similar activity
(iii) Trading the proposed product
(iv) Retail - setting up a retail shop

The above activity should be taken up with thorough market research with the help of a consultant or personally.

Let us again discuss on the small business opportunities in the next posting.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Power Wheels

Possession of controlling influence denotes power. Power is a powerful intoxicant that people who control it would effort everything to retain it. The fact that the globe revolves around itself is a vintage fact today. The globe revolves today on the power wheels of politics. The power wheels greased and rotated with the power of money. Individuals, politicians, elders, children and even a beggar who doesn't know how to enjoy the money would want money. Because money has evolved to be an axis for the power wheels.

I am also fond of power. But I never thought about the wrong means to achieve it or exercise power just for survival. I want power to empower disadvantaged. I want power to empower the helpless. I want power to distribute power to ensure power of equality. But would there be a value to power when it is equally distributed. We know money has its value in the market because 90% is hold by 10% of the people. That means 90% of the population survive every day to earn money. It is the only commodity required by every one to take birth, to breath, to survive and to extinct. Yes, even death demands money. We can't bid bye to a deceased without a penny in our hand.

The above situation amply makes it clear the power of power.

Domain Name Registration Facts and Shocks

Domain Name Registration Facts and Shocks:

Today business is achieved more through online. We may be selling farm equipment, software, domains, pizza, or movie tickets. We achieve global and local business through Internet traffic. The most important backbone for online marketing is domain. A domain name which is named after a top ranked keyword or combination of such keywords. The domain names can be one word, two words or even three word name. The most essential metric is to choose keyword which would reflect our proposed business. When we name our domain we also need to consider the domain search parameters. That is if the domain name is coined with two or three words, it helps to research the consolidated traffic and the traffic generated by each keyword individually.

Many organizations go for domain registration without considering any of the above factors. For them a web domain is just a name to host their company data or company information. Also mostly the domain name registration is done by the web hosting or website designing company. Thus, the business owner would hardly exercise his discretion in identifying right domain name. Another factor involved in the context is unawareness of business owner about the various optional TLDs available in the domain name registration and domain register. They buy domain at times without considering the relevance of their business and the TLD. For example, a charity organization may buy domain name with dotcom TLD without realizing that dot Org TLD would be a right option for them. More significantly, the local domain reseller would always don't suggest such preference. It could be that he is cool about it as he was not approached for suggestions. I find another glaring trend when I check who is domain. Many domain names are registered in the name of the domain reseller or web hosting company. In fact all the contacts whether domain registrant details, technical contact of the domain or administrative contact of the domain. At times the domain name is registered in the name and personal email ID of the network admin in the organization. We can find these deficiencies when we go for domain name search and who is domain database.

Another important observation is that domain registration is done for the minimum duration i.e. one year. The registrant mail ID is that of the domain reseller or network admin. In such a situation, the business owner goes for a shock when he find his website is down upon expiry of the domain period. A big business loss indeed which is difficult to imagine. I know similar thing that happened to one of the renowned News Daily. The domain when they lost was quite aged with more than 175 back links, Page rank 9 and Alexa rank in the range of three thousand. Business owners loose such eminent domain names owing to lack of education about online marketing and Internet presence. At times such domain names are registered by a shrewd individual who offers the domain for sale if the owner wants the domain name back. Going for dispute would only prove major time and money loss if the new registrant happens to be a common man who hardly could bear even the travel cost to attend domain Attorney.

When all the important keyword domain names are exhausted, what should a business owner do?

Let us look at the most famous Internet based businesses today. Hotmail, Yahoo, Google, Youtube, eBay and many more. These businesses wont carry a prominent or eminent keyword based domain name. Still they are the top rankers from every aspect of Internet popularity metric. What is essential in the present scenario is find a domain name which is close to your business type, business name, and things you buy or sell. Prefer dotcom. If not go for your country TLD. Then how will you achieve popularity and how will you get business traffic to your website. Go for SEO. You need a strong SEO vendor who understand your business well and who can research your online competitors thoroughly. You should start with very good content which contains your business keywords and the major keywords used by your competitor. It is not that you should make your website content just a keyword jungle. You should use appropriate keywords reasonably highlighting the business or contextual relevance in the content. After all, the content is not to invite traffic to your website. The purpose of website content is to present the business services that you offer and the mode and model that you approach. The content thus should be enlightening to the visitor meeting his query requirement as well business requirement. The following domains comes with keyword and business concept based domain name. Please choose the one that suits your business. Good luck