I am speaking of the dreaded low-ball, price cutting business – and I don’t mean WalMart. I can’t say this clearly enough: Price cutting is not a method of growing your business. In fact, it’s a surefire way to weaken your business, stunt its growth, and make it more vulnerable to attacks by the competition. This is because you can’t fight perception. And because there is no such thing as good cheap stuff, the perception is that making something cheap automatically cheapens it.

Unfortunately, many people start businesses without a concrete pricing plan – in fact without a business plan or marketing plan at all. Their thinking is “let’s just open up and we’ll figure out the pricing as we go.”

When I started my first company back in 1994, I provided a myriad of computer services – new equipment sales, network design and support, software and hardware repairs, and a full line of web development services. Over the years I have had to adapt to market conditions and evolve the business into what was best for me as an entrepreneur and what is best for the customers I serve. Cutting prices has never been part of that evolution because of the value of the services I provide.

As I’ve grown from a one-man show into an international service provider with a contracted team of 23 trained professionals, the value of my services continues to increase. I have managed to keep overhead at a minimum by closing a 2400+ square foot sales office and training facility, opting to contract for space when needed.

Our goal is to provide clients with the best results – and a cheap website will NEVER accomplish that goal. In fact, in most cases your business would be better off with no website than one that’s poorly designed. Here are a few thoughts and tips when seeking a web designer:

• If a company claims to be top quality, professional grade, expert, or any other adjective, make them prove it with samples of their work and references. Ask for 15-20 samples of their work. Have them show you, not tell you, how they are getting results for their clients.
• If they claim to do SEO – make them show you their techniques. Many supposed SEO specialists participate in practices known as black hat and gray hat techniques. They can and will hurt your business if you employ them.
• Ask them questions. My favorite is what I call the Sarah Palin question. “What industry magazines and publications do you read?” This will show you their commitment to improving their knowledge. Another favorite is “What do you know about Google’s most recent algorithm changes.” If they look at you with that clueless face, you’ve got your answer.
• Look at their own website. Is it complete? Does it look professional. Is it easy to navigate? Can you easily search for it and find it in Google?

In the last 18 years we’ve seen plenty of them come and go. The latest entries to the competitive field have an uphill climb – and cutting prices at the start sets the table for their demise. Proceed with caution.

Contact us with your comments and questions.

The Sod Masters website is built on the award winning WordPress platform, giving them extremely positive search engine exposure and a platform with which they can update their own content easily.

Myles exemplifies forward thinking beyond his years – and that of so many successful entrepreneurs. It’s nice to see such a bright young man turn his expertise into a business that will grow and succeed regardless of the economy. Business owners, you and old, can learn from his risk.

Check out the Sod Masters, Inc. website at www.sodmastersinc.com.

“Sod Masters, Inc. would like to thank John Delaney with Integrity Tech for exceeding all expectations on the website design! We appreciate all your hard work and look forward to building on to the website as Sod Masters, Inc. grows! If you need a website designed, John Delaney is the man to do it!!” — Myles Moulton

Jeff and his team wanted a high-tech professional look, the ability to make site modifications in-house and to post news via a blog.

The end result is the new DMSI site on the award winning WordPress open source platform. We gave the site a much needed makeover focusing on the high-tech nature of their business – including some awesome fonts.

We wanted to thank you for doing such a good job designing our new website. Your due diligence with our staff upfront, to understand who we were and what we were about, allowed you to deliver the website with the look we are hoping for. We requested a leading edge look to match our product portfolio, and you delivered above our expectations.

Thanks again for your timely and professional approach to our needs.  We appreciate the quality of the website you delivered.

Best Regards,

Jeff D’Alonzo
President/CFO
DMSI International

Another event that seems to have fallen to the back of many memories is the murder of Denise Amber Lee – January 17, 2008. Many of the sad memories of that event come back this week as her murderer gets his first Florida Supreme Court Appeal on Friday, September 9, 2011. Nathan Lee will be in attendance at the hearing.

I cannot begin to understand the anguish and pain that the Goff and Lee families have endured during these last three years. But, as a father of three daughters, I certainly can empathize with them. So, as you go through the motions of your busy week, take a minute or two to remember this tragedy and its impact on our community – even as we remember the epic tragedy of 9-11-01.

Keep the Goff and Lee families in the same thoughts and prayers as those who lost loved ones on that faithful day 10 years ago.

In my opinion, the key point in the article is that failure in effectively using social media for business boils down to business owners not taking the time to fully understand how and why people engage on sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

But Joshua’s thoughts on one of the essential rules that resonated with me loudest is this: “Traditional marketing has no place in social media.  Overtly trying to sell a product or service will quickly damage a social media reputation (reputation is quickly damaged and long to repair).”

This is the number one issue that we deal with almost daily. Clients who want the benefits of social media but fail to take the time to fully understand its importance and impact. This usually results in an unsuccessful approach and frustration.

If you own a business and are considering a social media campaign, do yourself a favor. Find someone that knows how to do it. You know your business like I know mine. Don’t try to do something that you don’t get. It rarely works – even if you have a professional marketing team – chances are good that they don’t fully understand social media and will attempt to use traditional marketing techniques to the detriment of your business as a whole.

In today’s tough economic times, that could be catastrophic for your business!

Take a look at the article and then do your homework before hiring a social media pro that can help you grow your business in spite of the economy.

Restaurant websites are notoriously bad.

As we head toward the end of 2011 and the upcoming seasonal bump in business, it still amazes me that restaurant owners are leaving themselves vulnerable to quirky and cost conscious diners viewing their restaurants website. Those diners will ultimately decide whether to visit the establishment within 3 to 7 seconds of viewing the website. And, if the site is not accessible by mobile devices, they risk losing more potential business.

For designers and users, the emphasis is now on accessibility. Websites have to be easy to navigate for computer users as well as people on smartphones and tablets. This isn’t news to restaurateurs, who are as attached to their gadgets as the rest of us. Their websites just have to catch up.

What is people’s first impression of a restaurant these days? It’s usually their website. People make purchasing decisions based on that. A good restaurant website doesn’t just exist to communicate information, it’s a marketing tool that helps create an atmosphere where you are connecting with people on an emotional level. It helps drive their decision to go to that restaurant.

Then there’s a matter of money. Restaurants have tight budgets even at the best of times. Often, there is simply not the budget to create a great website, especially when many web development companies charge anywhere from $5,000 to $12,000. Then there are the “shortcut” websites like MenuPal, that charge restaurants to develop a cookie cutter website that is as bad as it is uninspiring. And buying into this poorly planned and badly executed program makes your restaurant look even worse.

So where do you need help? Do you have a budget of under $2,000 and don’t think an effective, professional web presence can be developed on that kind of budget? Are you funding a marketing tool that doesn’t work?

If you want to lighten up your day, visit “Never Said About Restaurant Websites” for a few giggles. And let us know what we can do to help make your establishment look awesome on the internet.

Small business owners all over are rushing to get on the social media bandwagon.

The biggest problem is most small business owners don’t know how to create/manage a Facebook page, or have to the time or inclination to learn. They know Facebook is huge and their customers want to connect with them through it. But, because they lack the knowledge to do it right, they are making equally huge mistakes.

The primary mistake comes in the form of creating a Facebook profile for their business rather than a Facebook business page. Aside from violating the Facebook terms of service, creating a profile for your business limits the number of connections you can make and also limits access to only those who you have “friended” using the profile.

If you are a small business owner reading this article, let me share some important details with you so you can get the most from your business Facebook presence.

Businesses are only allowed to open pages – not profiles. A business which opens a Facebook profile page is in direct violation of Facebook’s terms of service. Facebook profiles are desgned to represent a single individual. Using personal site features for professional promotion may result in your account being warned or disabled.

There are a several benefits to having a Facebook Business/Fan Page vs. a Facebook Personal Profile:

• You’re not limited to the number of followers you can have per page.
• You can email everyone in your fan base (Profiles limit you to sending 20 emails at a time).
• Fan Pages automatically accept “Like” requests (Profiles require you to manually accept new friend requests).
• There are a variety of 3rd party applications that you can add/customize on your Facebook Page.
• Status updates appear in your fan’s homepages and photo/event/video content also appears in the hi-lights section (much like regular profiles).

From a branding standpoint, your business page can be renamed for marketing purposes once you reach 25 followers (Likes), and pages are accessible by everyone on Facebook, not just those who are friends.

If you have already created a business page using the personal profile setup, there is hope. In March 2011, Facebook rolled out a tool for converting those “terms of service” offending profiles into business pages.

Here are a few final thoughts on how your business can benefit from having a Facebook Business Page.

• A Facebook Page Can Be More Effective Than A Website.
• Your Customers Want To Connect With You Through Facebook.
• Google Loves Facebook.
• It’s Word of Mouth and Viral Marketing At It’s Best.
• Facebook Places Can Offer Check-ins and Deals for Your Establishment.
• You Can Survey Your Customers and Create More Loyalty.
• You Can Promote Your Events and Invite Your Fans.

If you want more details on how your business can benefit from Facebook – or if you need help converting your profile to a business page, contact us to arrange for a free consultation today.

Integrity Tech Group
sales@integritytechgroup.com
941.584.7417
800.622.9896

Russ had a vision of integrating a blog into a static website – so our web design process began with the award winning WordPress web delivery platform. The site was built using a minimalist approach – adding all of R.E.A.L. Men’s static content and integrating prior blog posts into the powerful WordPress blogging system. The end result is a easily navigable, search engine friendly website that delivers its content cleanly and effectively.

Go to http://realmenministry.com to see our work.

REAL Men Ministry Before Makeover

We have been blessed by the opportunity to help put the puzzle back together and to help the foundation continue its work, its commitment to Denise’s memory, and to its efforts to help prevent a similar tragedy.

The new website is developed on the award winning Joomla CMS platform – a powerful content management system that will allow multiple volunteer site editors to keep its content fresh and current.

With the upcoming re-airing of the Dateline NBC show of Denise’s story, the site is now ready to deal with the traffic and will soon be equipped to accept online donations from those wishing to help the foundation continue its efforts.

See our work by visiting http://deniseamberlee.org