The 10 Best Credit Cards for Small Businesses
Starting your very own small business can be a very exciting and very stressful time. Even before the doors open, a massive amount of work needs to be done to ensure the business is successful right out of the gate. Too many small businesses fail because they’re unprepared with initial costs and one of the ways to ensure any small business is getting the best bang for their buck is by owning a small business credit card.
Most small business credit cards are geared toward two types of rewards programs; travel and cash back. Here’s a look at the ten top small business credit cards available to business owners today.
The Plum Card® from American Express OPEN
My personal favorite, the Plum Card from American Express OPEN is a charge card which simply means that a small business owner has no pre-set spending limit. This also means the card has no interest rate so purchases are due in full every month. As an added bonus, if you pay 10 days early each month, you’ll receive a 1.5% discount, effectively providing you with a 1.5% cash back rate. There is an annual fee of $185, but it’s waived during the first year.
Ink Cash(SM) Business
The Ink Cash Business offers the biggest up-front incentive on our list, giving new cardholders a $250 cash bonus after they spend $500 in the first three months. 5% cash back is earned on office supply, cellular and cable services, 2% cash back is earned on gasoline and restaurant purchases and 1% cash back is earned on all other purchases. There is a limit of $25,000 spent annually that triggers the 5% and 2% cash back categories (so once you’ve spent $25,000 in gas and at restaurants, you’ll earn 1% for the remainder of the year) but this card also includes a 0% intro APR on purchases for six months AND does not charge an annual fee.
The New Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN
Another one of American Express’s line of charge cards, the new Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN dishes out rewards points in tier levels. 3x points on travel purchases, 2x points on gas, advertising and shipping purchases and 1x points on everything else makes for a very solid rewards program. There is a hefty $175 annual fee which is kindly waived during the first year and every small business owner can expect the full line of AMEX perks.
Capital One® SparkSM Cash for Business
A fairly new credit card, the Cap One Spark Cash for Business is a no-nonsense small business card offering 2% cash back on every purchase. New cardholders will also earn a $100 cash bonus after spending $1,000 in the first three months with another $50 cash bonus coming after an additional employee is added to the account. The $59 annual fee is waived during the first year and this card includes a very low 13.9% variable APR.
TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco and American Express
The best card on our list for the local traveler, the TrueEarnings Business Card from Costco and American Express offers 4% cash back on gasoline purchases (up to $6,000 spent annually), 3% cash back at restaurants, 2% cash back on travel and 1% cash back on everything else. The 1% cash back includes at Costco and there is no annual fee so long as your Costco membership is paid every year. Cardholders will also find a 0% intro APR on purchases for the first six months.
Bank of America® Cash Rewards for Business MasterCard® Card
Another great cash back business card to fill out our list is the Bank of America Cash Rewards for Business MasterCard Card. Cardholders will earn 3% cashback at gas stations, office supply stores and for computer network services, 2% cash back at restaurants and 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is no annual fee to own this credit card and it comes with a 0% intro APR on purchases for the first nine months.
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN
The most powerful of business credit cards, the Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN provides its members the best perks any business card can. Complimentary airport lounge passes, an annual $200 travel reimbursement and 24-hour concierge service are just some of the things every business owner will receive when owning this charge card (remember, payment in full every month). The big downside to having this power and prestige is a $450 annual fee.
Capital One® SparkSM Miles for Business
Similar to the Spark Cash card listed above, the Capital One Spark Miles for Business offers double miles on all purchases. 10,000 bonus miles are provided to businesses that spend at least $1,000 in the first three months of card ownership and another 5,000 miles are awarded when an additional employee is added. A $59 annual fee accompanies this travel themed small business card but Capital One will not charge it for the first year.
SimplyCash® Business Card from American Express OPEN
The least expensive American Express business card to own; the SimplyCash Business Card from American Express OPEN provides cash back on every purchase. It’s earned based on purchase categories; 5% cash back on office supplies and wireless services, 3% cash back on auto gasoline and 1% cash back on everything else. Cardholders can save an additional 3% – 10% on select merchants like FedEx and Hertz and are also offered a 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months. This card is annual fee FREE.
Capital One® SparkSM Classic for Business
The last but not least card to make this list is the Capital One Spark Classic for Business. This is actually the small business card I own, and I chose it because my credit score would be classified as below-average to average. The card offers 1% cash back on all purchases and does not have an annual fee. The upside is that it’s perfect for a small business owner with less than excellent credit … the only card on our list which is offered to mid-600 FICO score consumers.
About the Author: Founded in 2004, CompareCards.com is an online resource that provides expert reviews, tips and tools to find and compare credit cards. Visit CompareCards.com today and review the credit card deals that fit your lifestyle and/or current needs.
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Claim Your Competitive Edge: Always Be First
Lot of ways to make your small company competitive and gain a lead over the other guys battling it out for your clients. One of the best techniques is, when you have an innovation or strategy to offer consumers, be sure you arrive first. You’ll gain a competitive advantage that will be tough to overcome unless your product or service is a failure.
The One That Got Away
As a young guy in my 20s, I’d been going to the beaches in Maryland every summer season looking for useful things to do, like party and pick up chicks (that is girls or women for the mature yet unwashed masses). Most of the time you end up on the beach soaking in the sun and getting as dark as possible because of how intelligent it makes you look. But Houston, I had a problem. My ethnic background is German, Eastern European, and by now you know that if I don’t get the sun block on in a major way, my summer vacation goes up in the flames of red, burned skin– the anti-chick magnet.
Big problem: How do I get sunscreen on my back at the beach to prevent sunburn while being a bit too shy to ask every passing girl? It is an inescapable conclusion that, in public, your buds can NOT apply sunscreen to your back. Anti-cool points to the max, no chance with any women within 5 miles.
No worries, I thought, I am innovative and imaginative. I take a paint stick (untouched) and glue a foam pad to the end of it. I take it to the beach, apply SPF 15 on the pad, and proceed to apply sun block to my back like a champ, preventing the burn and maintaining at arms distance from my male friends. A true win-win.
“Hey Karl, that’s a great invention dude, you oughta patent it. Toss me another Bud Lite dude.” And so I tossed the beverage and forgot about guarding the idea. Go forward 5 years later, I am preparing for an adult getaway to the Bahamas in the winter by doing the reasonable thing: going to a tanning booth. I walk in and the first thing I see is “The Back Applicator”, a 18 inch long plastic stick with, get ready, a foam pad at one end to self-apply overpriced tanning salon sun block.
I walked out, kicking myself for not getting rich on being the first guy with this idea, knowing the other guy or gal was a flipping millionaire by this point.
My Wife’s Big Idea
About 3 months ago my spouse presented me with an idea while she was two sheets to the wind on Pinot Grigio. I can’t tell you the suggestion because, in my view, it was a game changer. Virtually, as I told her, something that we’d need venture capital to execute but would change society as we know it if carried out. Stop asking, I can not reveal the idea.
Well, we’ve been talking about it for the past few months. I helped out and did some investigation, and guess what I found? Three other companies are test marketing this very idea, maybe not exactly but close enough for intellectual property sake.
Missed again! We’re talking about a spin on the idea now that includes cell phones. What can potentially go wrong?
Our Little Beach
When my kid was four or five years old, there was a little strip of land about two miles from our waterside home via the river that we would take the Jet ski to and hang out. We’d cruise over with my son in my lap doing about 10 miles an hour to keep his head from getting whiplash and spend the whole day there, wading in the water and drinking non-alcoholic drinks. Since we were the only ones there we named this little venue “Jack’s Beach”, named after said kid.
My spouse Lora gets a mural painter to paint Jack’s room that summer, and she indeed paints Jack’s Beach, with surfboards embedded the sand and a street sign marking the territory. Pretty cool.
Now Jack is ten. We continue to go to Jack’s beach. I am not making up this next part, I swear. We went there this year and there is an 8 foot high wood street sign embedded in the sand on Jack’s Beach, with absolutely nothing on it! We did NOT put this there, but it was just too poetic.
Well what do you imagine I did? I got a can of paint and a small paintbrush, Jet skied over to the sign in broad daylight, and gave it the proper name. You can read my kid’s name from 30 yards in the water.
A couple of weeks down the road we meet a couple of new friends while out for dinner in a neighborhood restaurant. They tell us they take their boat to a private little beach for fun and so do their friends. “Where may that be?” I ask, feigning interest. “Oh, it’s called ‘Jack’s Beach’ over on the other side of the bridge.”
SCORE.
Create Your Own Competitive Advantage
OK, I’m not promoting tickets to Jack’s Beach … yet, but these three little vignettes tell a story. Don’t be the doofus who didn’t safeguard his idea of a back sun block applicator to watch someone else get all of the splendor. If you have a plan, even a little one that helps your consumers or does something in a different way or better, claim it.
Is it patentable? Find out at http://www.uspto.gov/ and doing an investigation. Invent a logo and copyright the artwork. Go get 5 sites that other people might want to copy and promote your concept with. Most significantly, don’t hesitate in taking action if you really think it’s a winning concept.
ASSERT THAT SUCKER FIRST! Be the company that sets the new standard before your rival does. Ask yourself these easy questions:
The Development Acid Test
1. Do I see this out there in the current market? (Internet search)
2. Can this genuinely aid my customers?
3. Is this cool and unequaled?
4. Can I visualize somebody purchasing this?
If your answers are N-Y-Y-Y (as in no-yes-yes-yes) to these questions, go claim that beach my friend! If your concept is awful and no one replicas it, you can still make money at it or at worst, you lost a few bucks and a little time. If you get copycats, you know you’re on to something. If you’ve done it right and yield value on the promise, your opponents will always be behind and you ‘ll be patting yourself on the back, with either your hand or your $10.99 Back Sun block Applicator.
About the Author: Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the SmartShop. Get your FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & Video Course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.
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Photo Credit: The Happy Rower
Why Improving Your Business Signage Is a Must (As Explained By An Award-Winning Orange County Signs Maker)
Having an attention-getting sign is critical for your local businesses – no matter the industry. Your business signage identifies your business and location and it establishes your business image. Your business signage is the core of your brand identity strategy, whether it is proudly mounted on the building, on your booth or display at a trade show, or on your company vehicles.
It’s also the most cost-effective advertising you can do. The Small Business Administration says, “…signs are the most effective, yet least expensive form of advertising for the small business.” Building signage is often taken for granted, but signs are always on the job, advertising 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
How Improved Business Signage Will Help You Brand Your Company, Communicate with a Highly-Mobile Society & Leverage Your Advertising Efforts
1 Your business signage is the only indicator that you exist and would like your prospect’s patronage.
2 A frequently-noticed business sign sends your message to more people per dollar invested than any other form of advertising. For example, if you display a $200 sign for one year at a location where 10,000 cars pass every day, you’ve reached over 3.5 million people (not counting passengers), at a cost per person of less than $.000057. (Less than six hundred-thousandths of a dollar.) Even a high-end, lighted or monument sign that costs $5000, still reaches those people at a cost of $.0014, or a little over a tenth of a cent each.
3 95% of retail business is location-based. As consumers pass by your place of business, an attractive and effective on-premise sign will leave a positive impression. When the time comes to make a decision or purchase, consumers will be attracted to you.
4 About 40 million Americans move annually to a new home, all needing to buy goods and services, and looking for brands that stand out.
5 Enhanced sign technology allows sign faces to be easily changed to match evolving marketing circumstances. New developments in lighting, plastics, digital printing resolution, and color profiling mean signs can now achieve the same visual effect as four-color magazine advertising.
6 Your company does not need to be a national franchise with a major advertising budget to “brand” your site with effective signage. If appropriately designed and placed, your sign can develop top-of-mind awareness of your products and services, no matter the size of your business.
7 Many communities and cities have strict sign codes requiring that signage remains attractive and in harmony with the look and feel of the community, while encouraging business activities. Advances in sign design and technology means that via signage, your company can communicate more effectively to potential customers in a way that enhances both your site and the community at large.
8 Purchase habits can be influenced with effective signage. Pricing or product information can influence a purchase decision or prompt an unplanned stop, which is critical, since nearly all businesses rely in part on impulse visits.
9 A well-designed sign can provide a positive perception of quality and service and create the image of a leader, even for the smaller business. For the national franchise or chain, on-premise signage reinforces all other media advertising, and maximizes advertising effectiveness at a low cost.
10 By adding your business signage to your car and “wrapping” your company vehicles with striking vinyl, you can generate over 600 visual impressions for every mile driven At about $0.35 per thousand impressions for a typical vehicle wrap, the cost is almost trivial compared to $3.56 for outdoor advertising or over $20.00 for typical magazine advertising.
About the Author: Orange County Business Signs Specialist Martin Neil contributes value to businesses and non-profit organizations across the United States by increasing their brand awareness with the very best sign solutions. He specializes in custom requirements for commercial building signage, vehicle wraps, office inside signage, trade show displays, promotional banners & flags, and large-size wall graphics. Improve your business signage by going to: http://www.Calibersi.com/Building-Signage.html
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Mobile Marketing: Seven Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Small Business Owners in 2012
You’ve heard all the stats and read all the news: smartphones are a big deal, right? But with all that noise out there, how can a small business owner actually get customers and make money from those smartphone junkies? Here are seven tips, tricks and techniques to help any small business owner go mobile without busting the bank.
1. Claim Your Business and Your Location
With smartphones, a consumer searching for a hardware store will automatically be shown the nearest hardware stores relative to their device’s GPS signal. That means you want to be sure your physical facility shows up (even if your office is just the location for people to call).
So what can you do to be “found?” It’s pretty simple really – just be sure that you visit each site such as Yelp, Bing, Yahoo Local, Google Places, Foursquare, and Facebook and “claim” your business and its location.
Cost: Free
2. Mobilize Your Website
Mobile searches have grown 400 percent since 2010, according to Google. And when they find you on their phone – consumers visit (59%) or they call you (61%).
So, be sure you can be found. This means making sure the website you initially launched back in 2000 is accessible by mobile phones, or “mobile-optimized.” There are a number of new and reasonably priced tools to help make your site mobile-optimized. But, before you plunk down any money, check out Google’s “GoMo” site that has a testing tool and resources to help businesses with their websites.
Cost: Free (depending on your site)
3. Make Your Coupons Mobile
Have you ever been in line at a store and watched a clerk refuse to honor a coupon on someone’s phone. Claiming “no, you need to print that before I can accept it” just sets the consumer off even more.
Don’t be that business. The days of clipping coupons has come and gone. Now, most consumers would simply prefer to open an email or webpage with your coupon, flash it to you on their smart phone and get the discount. Make it clear that showing the coupon on your phone is sufficient and consumers will thank you for being mobile-friendly. Plus, you’ll avoid an awkward confrontation with your store clerks.
Cost: Free (other than the cost of your coupons)
4. Monitor Your Reviews
Did you know that 81 percent of consumers say they read reviews before making a purchase and 51 percent of consumers say they’ve used the Internet IN SHOPS before making a purchase? If you have a bevy of negative reviews or poor feedback, that consumer may decide to shop, eat, drink or pay somewhere else.
The first step to keep tabs on your reviews is to set a Google Alert for the name of your business. Watch for any reviews, postings or other news that you might need to address. Then, find out the review-focused sites people use regularly to review your business, like Google Places, Yelp, and Angie’s List. For a more detailed tracking service, try Reputation.com for Business that monitors and provides real-time alerts for your business.
Cost: Free (for Google Alerts); Starting at $34.99/mo. (for Reputation.com)
5. Talk to Your Customers
Guess what? Consumers want to talk with, and hear from, brands they like. In fact, 43 percent of consumers “like” at least one brand on Facebook and 53 percent of individuals with a Twitter account recommend products or services in their tweets. And, more and more consumers are using social media on the go.
Both Facebook and Twitter are free to setup and utilize – so schedule time daily to engage. Put links to your accounts on your website and in your facility (if you have a physical location) and talk to your customers: respond to questions or concerns, and consider offering deals for fans or followers. The most important lesson? Talk like a human not a brand. Remember, as consumers are out and about, they are talking to you, about you and with you – so be a part of the conversation.
You can manage most of these conversations using the standard Facebook or Twitter platforms. If you want something more advanced, try Hootsuite.com which can help you manage your efforts, schedule messages and track conversations from a single interface.
Cost: Free (Hootsuite provides free basic social media plans)
6. Be Able to Take Money Wherever you Are
Quick, how much cash do you have in your wallet? Enough to buy something over $100? Over $50? Over $20? People are becoming more reliant on credit cards for all of their transactions, so rather than force someone to run to the nearest ATM (and pay the enormous fee for withdrawing from a non-bank ATM), consider taking payment right on your mobile device.
With services like Square or Intuit GoPayment, providing a device that plugs into most smartphones to take a credit card on the spot is actually quite simple. Plus, new technologies are coming along to allow you to pay without needing any hardware at all.
Cost: Free (other than the credit card processing fees)
7. Tried Text Messages?
According to the Pew Foundation, 73 percent of cell phone users utilize the text messaging function on their phones. And, 44 percent of Americans have opted into at least one text messaging marketing campaign. So, why not share deals, information and updates with your customers via text.
To get started, check out Tatango’s Beginner’s Guide to SMS Marketing.
Cost: Varies depending on the SMS Marketing Software partner
Conclusion
This year, with more people expected to be using mobile than ever before, business owners must think about how they can interact with these potential customers. With the simple actions and activities listed above, any business can go mobile to create a positive environment for their customers, leads and partners.
About the Author: Eric Koester is the founder and COO of Zaarly, a mobile, real-time marketplace. Eric is a former securities lawyer who has testified before Congress on matters of startup and small business financing, immigration reform and business taxation. Zaarly provides tools for small-businesses and consumers to transact right from their mobile devices. For more information or to sign-up for mobile alerts, visit www.zaarly.com/business.
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What an MBA Won’t Teach About Starting a Business
There is much discussion about how beneficial an MBA education is for entrepreneurs starting a business. The debate is about whether the skills required for success as an entrepreneur can be taught and whether the current MBA curriculum allows its graduates to succeed in today’s business landscape. Entrepreneurs must decide whether to invest in a top Online MBA as a prerequisite for starting a business, or rather instead to invest that money directly into a new business.
According to the article, “Seven Essential Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur” published in the Wall Street Journal, having a vision and being passionate about pursuing that vision are believed to be key requirements for entrepreneurial success. Given that most entrepreneurs accept this driving force as a critical component for entrepreneurs, the question germane to the MBA debate is whether you can teach a student how to think in an innovative manner and to come up with a new idea that they are willing to pursue with an intense and ongoing commitment. Considering the enormous commitment and sacrifice that most new companies require, if an entrepreneur does not make a business dream a top priority in the beginning, it will be very difficult to stick with it when the big challenges arrive.
Education Cannot Teach Passion or Innovation
Considering the large number of highly successful entrepreneurs without formal MBA training, a persuasive argument can be made that entrepreneurs do not need an MBA to succeed when they have a good idea and are willing to pursue it against all odds. Some of the better-known entrepreneurs who are recognized as high-profile contributors to society without an MBA include Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple computer is another entrepreneur that must be recognized as one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs without an advanced education. These visionaries created technologies that have directly impacted the lives of most people in technology-savvy cultures. The problem with MBAs is that its curriculum teaches students what’s worked for businesses in the past; it doesn’t teach them what being innovative and determined are.
People Skills
While many innovative entrepreneurs in the technology industry have not suffered from a lack of people skills, in many other industries this lack could prove a block to success. We’ve all heard the saying that it is not what you know, but whom you know that makes you successful. If this is true for most entrepreneurs, then it is easy to understand why so many people who are well liked do so well in business.
Networking is promoted as a plausible way to find business partners and key employees. An entrepreneur must be able to depend on talent and commitment to make up for a lack of other resources to compete. This is where leadership and charisma play a key role in recruiting the talent necessary for success.
Conclusion
The debate will continue about whether an entrepreneur needs an MBA to succeed as an entrepreneur. Some questions that any new entrepreneur must consider is whether they can commit for the long-term, and whether they can withstand the pressure to compete under duress. Some of the considerations to think about are financial demands and a support system. Entrepreneurs’ challenges are often not limited to business competition, but also include family concerns. Having a spouse or partner who is also committed to an entrepreneur’s dream can make a substantial difference in whether an entrepreneur succeeds.
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How Your Business Will Benefit From A Loyalty Card Program
It seems like almost every business has jumped on the loyalty card program bandwagon. From grocery stores to pharmacies and restaurants, retailers everywhere are launching customer rewards programs.
Have you ever wondered why?
Sure, customers stand to benefit from participating in loyalty card programs. They get discounts, special offers and cash-back opportunities. But the benefits for retailers are just as great, if not better. Even with the cost of a loyalty gift card program, you still end up being a winner in the end.
If you’re considering launching a loyalty card program, here are some of the many benefits you’ll pick up along the way:
1. Better Data Tracking
Every time a customer swipes a rewards card, you’ll get a clearer picture of who is buying what. The data will allow you to examine shopping patterns and use the information to make better business decisions. For example, use the information to make better choices about product selections and inventory supply.
2. Improved Marketing
Armed with all the data you’ll collect from customers who fill out a rewards program application, you’ll be able to develop marketing campaigns tailored to specific groups. Offer customers special, personalized deals based on their age, interests or previous purchases.
3. Better Customer Retention
A few incentives go a long way in creating loyal customers. If your customers believe there’s something to gain from giving you their repeat business, they’ll come back time and time again. Simply by offering a coupon for $2 off the next purchase, you’re dramatically increasingly the likelihood that a customer will come back.
4. More Frequent Business
With a loyalty program, the more often a customer shops, the faster they can start claiming rewards. A customer who’s just $5 away from earning a $25 gift certificate might find an excuse to stop by your store. Customers who used to come in once a month might start coming twice a month or once a week.
5. Increased Product Awareness
Do you offer a valuable product that – for one reason or another – is simply sitting on the shelves? Maybe you’re a retail shop that specializes in handmade goods, but the greeting cards in the back of the store just aren’t selling. By offering items like these as incentives, you can promote items customers may not know you have.
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Four Benefits of Payroll Software for Small Business
In these current testing economic times many small firms will be looking to streamline their company and reduce unnecessary costs. One way to do this is to introduce new procedures into their organisations.
A key area in any company that should always be done quickly and accurately is payroll – because ensuring that employees get their wages paid on time, and correctly, can improve staff morale. It also means that the taxman is getting his fair share and reduces the likelihood of receiving a fine from HMRC for late returns.
So, what options are available? Well nowadays there are numerous software programmes that businesses can adopt and here are some of the benefits.
1) Time Saving
If a company invests in payroll software it can reduce the amount of man hours spent on this particular area – because the system is automated. This means that once a clerk inputs the initial data it will work out individual employee tax deductions automatically, until the original information is altered.
2) Recordkeeping
For firms that adopt this small business software it also means that they can keep on top of employee sick leave, holidays and personal time very efficiently. Furthermore, it means that those working in the accounts department can make reports with extremely accurate data rather than sifting through hand-written ledgers, allowing them to do their job more effectively.
3) Planning and reporting
This in turn means that company owners and managers are provided with the best data about their organisations’ funds. It also means that they can forecast labour costs that interact with budgeting and accounting programmes that allows them to make more calculated decisions on where to take the business in the future.
4) Saving money
Sometimes it’s important to save the best till last, and this is one of those instances. By adopting payroll software small firms can reduce the amount of positions needed in payroll as the system is automated – but because the technology is so efficient it means that money isn’t lost through paying the incorrect amount of tax or not paying staff on time.
It also allows businesses to streamline their procedures and processes, which can be an extremely important aspect during these troubled economic times.
About the Author: IRIS is a UK-based specialist business software provider that aims to improve the efficiency and performance of various processes for clients.
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An Introduction to Color Theory and Web Design
Color Theory, or in our case Color Psychology, is a field dedicated to unraveling the relationships between pure colors and their meaning to us. Its use has become widely spread throughout the design industry in everything ranging from photography to web design. If you’ve ever noticed how fast food restaurants are almost always red and yellow themed then you’ve begun to notice some color theory at work. Although you don’t need to be a color theory professional to design a web page correctly; knowing some of the basics is sure to help.
The first “rule” of color theory is that there aren’t any absolutes in term of color relationships. The emotions associated with any particular color or combination is subjective. While typical Westerners will think of white as a symbol of purity or innocence, it can also be perceived as a color for mourning in many Eastern countries.
When considering your web page’s color scheme and layout, it’s often best to consider what kind of feeling you wish to create from your audience. Do you want them to feel calm and secure, excited and energetic, confident, trusting, etc.? Determining which of these attributes you wish your website to exude is the first step in laying out your color pallet.
The “Big 4” Groups
Cool Colors – Blue, Green, White, Grey
Cool colors tend to have a calming effect and set off a tone of relaxation most often. Obviously not a website related example, but if you walk into a spa you’re most likely to see these colors because of the calming connotation they carry. Blue, in its various shades, is used very often as a color for corporations trying to relax a customer and make them feel at ease about the company at hand. Blue can also send a message of confidence depending on the vibrancy of it. If you were looking to associate your website’s feel with a vibrant, young, youthful premise then you might use a brighter blue. However, for an older, experienced feel you might consider using either a pale blue or a dark blue. Case and point from the 2008 election. Mr. Obama’s blue was used as a message to say that his campaign and consequently he himself are vibrant and full of change. Mr. McCain’s blue was chosen as a dark blue to say to voters that he is the time tested, experienced candidate that is capable of the job.
Warm Colors – Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow
The counterpart of cool colors, the warm variety, is usually used to excite a particular emotion or rouse a response. Most often a use of red is meant to draw your attention to a particular point that is trying to be made in plain sight, such as a discount or special sale. Because red easily overpowers cool colors, on the whole it isn’t used very widely in web design. A great example of the use of red is found at chromebagstore.com. It is the only color on the page and it is used specifically to create a sense of vibrancy for their product and direct your attention to particular areas on the site.
Mixed Warm and Cools – Purple, some Greens, Lavender, Turquoise
Mixed Warm and Cools can be the hardest colors to implement because their feeling is particularly ambiguous most of the time unless used in conjunction with other colors to solidify their meaning. These colors can easily take on the role of excitation of relaxation and it’s mostly dependent on the amount of colors that go into the mix. If for example a green had much more blue in it than yellow, as a forest green, this would be a good color to use both on a website that wanted a “natural” feel and to varying degrees for use in a calming setting. Its counterpart, a more yellow tinted green like “neon green” is explicitly an excitation type of color. Unfortunately, it rarely shows up in web design because as you move towards the yellow end of this color combination it becomes harder and harder to look at such a vibrant color on the screen.
Neutrals – White, Black, Brown, Beige, Ivory, Grey
If the previous three sets of colors are used to set various moods, the neutrals are the colors that pull the whole package together. Neutrals are best used as a unifying color to tie your entire color palette together and the majority of your site will be set in neutrals. In street terms it is simply annoying to look at a site splashed with color everywhere, but in all reality it is annoying because there is too much information being given to a user when too many colors populate a page. Some times, such is the case with Apple’s site; no colors are used in the layout of the site itself. This choice is coherent with their product’s zen-like minimalist aesthetic and makes for a consistent company image; however that is a topic for another time.
In practical terms, white, ivory and grey are often used to dictate the majority of web layouts because we are most familiar with reading black text on a white background. Some particular schools of thought suggest using grey text instead of black on white to break the contrast between the two and make the text softer on the eyes. Either way, this is more a product of our upbringing rather than explicit color theory itself.
What to choose?
While this article has attempted to give you an introduction to color theory, it is certainly not an end all be all of articles on the topic. Colors being as subjective as they are will evoke emotions from various crowds in ways you might not have imagined. When in doubt about the color palette you want to choose for your website, it’s not a bad idea to check out other websites that you like the color of and modify on a “theme” from there.
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About the Author: Jesse Funk is a long-time artist, designer, teacher and student of many things art. He currently is working on helping people design websites with a video series found at www.scholastechinstitute.com
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Reach Success: 5 Easy Ways to Increase Your Clientele
Establishing a solid customer-base is crucial for any start up or small business owner—after all, without any customers/clients, you make no money and without any money your small business will crash and burn. While hiring a strong marketing team can help you acquire a good number of costumers, this route can be pretty expensive. And naturally with any small business owner, funds are tight. But there are few things you can do on your own to help build your number of customers that is relatively cheap or even better, free. To learn how you can increase your clientele and help ensure the success of your business, continue reading below.
1. Do Research
First and foremost you need to get in touch with the needs of your target audience. You could be selling the most innovative product or service known to man but if you don’t know how to appeal and relate to your target audience’s wants and needs, your campaign may fall flat. For example, could your audience be hesitant about taking a chance on you because they are hard up for cash? If this is the case you need to directly state how your product or service is beneficial to your customer despite their economic hardship, which leads us to out next tip—
2. Offer Exclusive Deals
The truth of the matter is that consumers are always looking for a good bargain, especially now (during the holidays). To appeal to the masses, offer some discounts and exclusive deals to new customers or offer a promotional limited time-only offer to people already on your email list serve for example. You can offer an immediate discount or a next-purchase discount, you can offer a 2-for-1 deal, offer free shipping and handling, or even offer a free consultation or an introductory class. The goal is to find a way to persuade new costumers to try your product or service because the deal is irresistible (and of course superior than your competitors.)
3. Get on the Social Media Map
This is crucial. If you do not know how to use popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to self-market your business it’s time you learn now. Right now. The power of social medial isn’t going to dwindle anytime soon and these free tools are a great way to reach your target audience and establish your brand free of cost. In fact, even those that refused to give-in to social media in the past will be jumping on the bandwagon come the New Year. According to statistics, 40 % of surveyed small business owners said they finally plan on using social media in 2012.
4. Be Mobile and Tablet Compatible
If you’ve created a website or blog to get your name out there that’s a great start but it isn’t enough—it’s the age of the smartphone and the tablet and consumers must be able to access your website/blog through these devices. Your site has to be compatible. While some platforms will automatically convert, others do not and you may need to download a special plug-in like WpTap to make your blog compatible. And you’re going to want to make your site convert. After all, some experts predict smartphones and tablets will replace the laptop one day and since the latest figures say one-third of the U.S. population owns a smartphone and uses it for its remote mobile access, you don’t want to risk missing out on a pool of smartphone/tablet- using costumers.
5. Hire Ambassadors
Lastly you can hire someone to utilize the traditional “word-of-mouth” marketing technique by hiring someone closely related to your target audience. For example, if you created a product that is specifically tailored to college-aged students, then you can hire a few students at the campus nearest to you and get them to tell their friends and other students how great your products or service is. You wouldn’t have to pay them much (or you could offer free merchandise instead for example), but it’s a great way to dig in deeper and go straight to the source.
Of course these aren’t the only things you can do to expand your costumer-base, but it’s a start. Do some research and investigate all of the other resources that are available to you to ensure that you find costumers and keep them coming back.
About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes for online universities blog. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.
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Guest Posting To Help Grow Your Online Business
Guest posting is one of the fastest and most effective way to get a sudden increase in targeted traffic to your website when done correctly. There are two different sides to approach this from. One is from the point of getting others write guest posts on your blog or website and provide your readers high quality content that they will enjoy and the other approach is when you want to be you the one who provides content to other blogs or websites in exchange for links to your own website or blog. This is the prospective that we will be discussing here. This brings us to a very simple question.
What are the benefits of guest posting ?
The most important benefits are the following :
1.) Targeted traffic to your blog or website
2.) More opt-ins for your email list
3.) High quality back-links to your blog or website
4.) More name or brand recognition in your niche or market place.
As I said guest posting is probably the most effective marketing and traffic generation strategy that will not only help you get more targeted traffic, but it can also help you build your email list much faster than any other marketing strategy and become recognizable as an expert in your field.
The reason why guest posting can work so well is because if you do it correctly then you will be borrowing the influence, traffic and pagerank of an already established authority blog on your niche
Before you start using guest posting as a part of your marketing strategy you should first
make sure that your blog, website or offer converts. If you are just starting out and have not made any sales yet, then you may not be ready for this marketing strategy yet. The reason for this is that you have to be able to provide proven value to the readers and the blog owner that you worth to contribue on his/her blog.
Once you have proof that your blog or website is providing high value content and that your offer converts (at least some percentage of your visitors into buyers) then you are ready to look for other blog owners to work with. Your goal in working with another blog or website owner should be to give them a unique, high quality article that will provide something of value to their target audience.
This is what you will be offering them and in exchange you should be planning on receiving some of the above mentioned benefits of guest posting.
The way to go about guest posting is simple. Here are the steps that you should follow
Research
Select blogs or websites in your niche that complement what you offer without being in direct competition. For example if you are in the weight loss niche and you promote a weight loss product then you will want to target other health or fitness related websites that promote a different type of health or fitness product.
In addition you should also make sure that the blogs that you select are well established and get good steady amounts of traffic. One way of checking this is by using alexa to check a websites ranking and traffic volume.
Contact
When you decide which blogs you want to write a guest post for do not hesitate and contact the blog owner. Most blogs that accept guest posts have a page (usually the name of this page is “write for us”) with a form where you can submit your guest post and ask the blogger to review it and if he/she likes it to publish it. If there is no “write for us” page you can send an email using his contact information. Once you contact them and they are interested in using your guest post, you will then want to verify when the post will be published and how long it will remain on their site.
Promote your Guest Post
After your guest post has been published and you verify that there is no problem, you should start promoting it thru your social media networks, blog or even your email list in order to generate as much traffic to this your guest post as possible. Bloggers love to see their post being shared and will certainly apreciate your effort. Another thing you should do in order to get the most of your guest posts is to respond to any comment readers write, in that way you will get even more traffic and backlinks.
Once you have successfully implemented these steps you can repeat the process as often as needed to help you continue to grow your business and income as well.
About The Author: Kostas Chiotis is an economist and entrepreneur both in the online and offline world. You can find his blog at OpportunitiesPlanet.com where you will discover a lot of useful information about freelancing, internet marketing, online opportunities, guest posting and much more by subscribing to OpportunitiesPlanet.com RSS Feeds…
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How to Run Your Small Business (Instead of Having Your Small Business Run You)
Owning your own business is like going on a new adventure every day, without knowing where it will take you, what dangers you’ll face along the way, or even whether you’ll make it out alive. That last part depends mostly on the business you’re in, but hey, it can certainly feel like your small business is going to kill you, or at least get the better of you on any given day.
A very close friend of mine, who happens to own his own apparel company, came to me recently, shaken, unshaven, and obviously stressed. He began telling me how he was missing meetings, losing track of time, neglecting personal relationships, and generally forming more bad habits than he could keep up with, on account of his business was taking over his life.
I definitely related to his situation, and then started thinking about ways to help him (and other small business owner like him, myself included).
Here’s what I came up with:
Know How (and When) to Say No
Small business owners should have four legs, we scramble so much. And while the world appreciates our hustle, we often agree very hastily to much more than we can actually take on, in the hopes that we can cut a better deal here, or get more funding there.
Much of this hustle is necessary, but much of it is not. Yes, it is important to make contacts, to pitch your product, and to get funding, but missing meetings because you have too much on your plate is much more damaging to your reputation than saying no ahead of time. If you are feeling like your business is running you instead of the other way around, than examine your current commitments to see which are essential, acknowledge to yourself that it is OK to say no, and then, in the future, say no to the things that aren’t.
Plan Every Second of Your Life
No, I’m not exaggerating. What kills many small business owners is ambiguity in their schedules. Don’t allow this to happen. Get a planner, a journal, a piece of notebook paper, or a napkin — whatever it takes — and write down exactly what you have to do that week, and when you will be doing it. Zero in as microscopically as possible, to the point that you include such details as “eating ham sandwich alone at 12:05,” or “meeting with (x) investor at Starbucks on 1234 Main at 1:39pm.” Specificity in activity and time count. Don’t leave any “wiggle room”; free time is time that is unaccounted for, unless, that is, you schedule it in. See how that works? You can’t feel guilty about free time if you knew you were taking it.
This should go without saying, but often we small business owners need to hear what goes without saying, so: DO NOT VARY FROM THE SCHEDULE. Once it is written, DO IT.
Take Free Time
This is extremely important. There’s a reason the normal work week is only Monday to Friday: Neither the human body nor the human mind were designed to work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With that in mind, plan some free time, and even some vacation time, into your week. You will be able to focus better, and will feel more in control of your life if you do things outside of running your business, and, best of all, you will be able to run your business better when you are refreshed and thinking clearly.
By the way, after I presented my friend with these strategies, he adopted them, and while I can’t vouch for his business, I can vouch for his health and happiness, and I can say that after following my advice for a few weeks, he looked like a million dollars, and felt like it, too. And you can’t run a business if you feel like anything less.
About the Author: This is a guest post by Eliza Morgan who is a full time blogger. She specializes in writing about business credit cards. You can reach her at: elizamorgan856 at gmail dot com.
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5 Biggest Website Mistakes That Too Many Small Businesses Make
Let’s face it – your company needs a website. For many customers, your website will provide their first impression of your business. A simple, well designed website can go a long way, but watch out for these common errors that can turn customers off.
1. Making your Customers Work to Find You
For me, the most common reason I visit a business website is to get their phone number or address. I’m of the opinion that contact information should be on the header or footer of every page of your website. Unless you are doing online sales, the ultimate goal is to get customers in your door, right? Don’t make them work so hard.
2. Burying the Lead
Ever click on a business website and think ‘what are they even selling?’ Every page of your website should give a strong indication of your product or service. This can be as simple as throwing a picture of a truck on every page is you’re a trucking company. A strong company name and logo can also do the trick. But if your company name is “Dynamic Systems Enterprises”, you’ll need to be clear of what your website is about, and remind your customer on every page why they are there.
3. Out of Date Content
It seems pretty basic: keep your contact information and prices up to date on your website, but too many small business owners forget it. Changing prices and disconnected phone numbers can immediately kill a new lead. But also watch for old information in other parts of your content. If I see a website advertising an event from 6 months ago, or running a promotion that ended last season, I don’t trust that ANY information is current. I might even think you’ve gone out of business.
4. Goofy Stock Photos
Stock photos are inevitable, but some of them are downright ridiculous. These photos have even sparked the new trend of “stocking”, or imitating stock photos.
Sure, visuals are a must for your website, and if you don’t have high quality photos of your business, products, and employees buying or getting free stock images can be a quick and cheap alternative. But really look at the picture before you put it up there, is this really how your employees look when celebrating a success?
5. Too Many Gimmicks
Skip the crazy animation and graphics; the last thing you want is for your website to take a long time to load. This can lead to instant click off. Small business owners also can’t seem to resist the allure of Hit Counters. Not only will it reveal if you have low traffic to every person who visits your site, it just looks tacky.
Avoid these mistakes by remembering that your website should match your business. If you are an upscale restaurant, your website should feel upscale as well. If the client services your store is relaxed and personable, that’s how your website should feel too.
Approach designing your website like you would designing your store front. Would you put those two colors together? Would you have a photo like that hanging up? Would you have any information out of date? Use these questions as your guide when setting up your online presence as well.
Having a website for your business is essential to staying competitive in today’s marketplace, make sure it’s bringing new customers in rather than making them “click off”.
About the Author: Becky Canary-King is an Account Manager and Press Contact at Direct Incorporation, a company focused on providing a more economical and efficient alternative to using a law firm for common legal/entrepreneurial issues. She blogs for Direct Incorporation’s Blog, offering tips for the first 6 months of your small business.
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Guide to Renting Desk Space for Small Business
When you’re starting out in business, or even if you’re already up and running, then the cost of office space is often one of the biggest headaches facing any venture. Little wonder then that so many people simply decide to work from home, because this can be a great way to cut costs and keep overheads to an absolute minimum.
However, for anyone who has even gone down this route, or who is thinking of giving it a try, working from home comes with a whole array of cons that stack firmly up against the pros. Sure, there’s no commute, you’ve got creature comforts all around you and it’s cheap and easy.
The downsides can soon pile up though, because working from home can be solitary. There are also the interruptions that you’ll probably get from well-meaning loved ones. And working from a spare bedroom, study or even the garage soon loses its appeal. In fact, when you weigh it all up, the working from home scenario can be a double-edged sword.
Moving on up
It’s not suprising therefore to find that many small businesses are biting the bullet and moving into rented desk space locations. This can actually be a great way to go, and if you’re already leasing an office, then it makes sense to consider this angle too. One of the main benefits is that contracts are invariably on a short-term rolling basis and highly competitive.
With landlords keen to maximise profits from their dead space, you’ll find that many locations in inner cities and prestigious business parks are often way more affordable than you might have ever imagined. Of course, if you enter this desk space rental market with just a desk and chair option then there will be precious little in the way of frills. But, if you’ve got a desire to keep it simple and dip in and out of the office, then this may be all you need.
Saving cash
Cost saving will be instantaneous, because the landlord takes care of all the upkeep, the cleaning and all the rest of it. Desk space rentals often come with broadband internet but almost everything else will be absent. But the plus side to that is you just need to turn up, plug in your laptop and get working. Then, at the end of the day, simply unplug and head off home.
The added benefit of all this is that it’s highly flexible and you can be in and sitting at your desk in a matter of days or even hours. There’s certainly none of the protracted legal stuff to go through when you’re considering something like a traditional office lease. The same goes for when you want to leave or move on, with those rolling contracts providing much more freedom for people who don’t want to be tied into a contract or lease for years on end. With the current business climate proving to be tricky to say the least, then this sort of flexible working approach suits many people, both start-ups and those in an existing venture.
About the author: Rob Clymo writes on behalf of office space site www.officegenie.co.uk, the online marketplace for serviced offices and shared office space in the UK.
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How to Not Lose Money on Groupon
Groupon is not some scam. The deals, which they present on their site, are legitimately discounted. This issue, however, is not for consumers who take advantage of the service, but for businesses who see Groupon as a viable way to advertise their business.
In order to be featured on Groupon, businesses have to discount their services by 50%. In addition to that, they have to give Groupon another 50% off of whatever is left over. This means that a product normally selling for $100 will be sold for $50 on Groupon, leaving an extra $25 for Groupon and $25 for the business owner. In other words, to be featured on Groupon, you have to be willing to discount your products by 75%! If you sell hundreds or thousands of your product or service, your business stands to lose a lot of money! As such, if you plan on using Groupon, you have to think of the following before taking advantage of their service…
Return Rate
Groupon users are looking for bargain discounts and have very little brand loyalty. As such, if want your Groupon campaign to be profitable, you have to do something that makes the discount users wanting to come back. For example, you can upsell your Groupon customers by offering an additional product or service that you can actually make money off of. You can also form long term relationships with customers by collecting their contact information, asking them to follow you on social networks such as Facebook, and offering them a future incentive (in the form of a coupon) to come back without having to pay Groupon 25% of the discounted price.
Variable Costs
If you’re, say, the owner of a massage parlor that sells $30 massages, losing $5 on a redeemed Groupon is not that big of a deal. If, however, you offer $500 helicopter tours, your business simply cannot afford to take a 75% cut off the original price. A third of businesses who’ve used Groupon say that they’ve lost money, meaning that many business owners are too lazy to do the math before accepting a Groupon promotion. Groupon’s promise of charging you for guaranteed revenue may seem appealing, but that revenue may very well come at a heavy loss to your business.
Online Reviews
A massive amount of new Groupon customers will also bring in a massive amount of reviews to your business on sites such as Yelp.com. Although the amount of reviews may help your business in the search engines, a study claims that Groupon reviewers often leave negative comments about your business, which may negatively influence purchase decisions of future prospects.
Your business may also suffer negative publicity from your current customers, who may get agitated if they see you discounting your products. Long term, this may harm your brand.
Like with any form of advertising, you, as a business owner, have to do your homework. If you feel that you can get a high return rate, sell products or services whose variable cost is low, and can please your Groupon customers so that they write favorably of your business, Groupon is a viable option. Otherwise, you stand to lose a lot of money if your business uses Groupon.
About the Author: Nickolay Lamm protects individuals from invention promotion company fraud at InventHelp.
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How Cloud Hosting Could Grow Your Business
Times are tough economically and especially so for small and medium sized businesses, many of which are looking to cut costs wherever they can. But there is a saying that in order to make money you have to spend it, trouble is where should you be spending it? Most business owners would look to enlarging stock levels or adding to their marketing budgets, but in fact investment in your business infrastructure could actually save you money whilst helping you to make it.
The Importance of Efficiency
Improving efficiency with internal systems and practises is often a high priority for many businesses no matter what their size. Finding more efficient ways of working has never been more important, especially when looking to make cost savings. And whilst outsourcing some areas of administration is a good start, it is actually your IT needs that could offer the best means of cutting costs and improving efficiency.
I began thinking about this after a conversation with my younger sister. She works in recruitment, specializing in placing employees with job providers and offering on-the-job training placements. She currently works from home, taking in referrals and finding suitable job placements. But her working process is flawed. She spends around 10 hours per day processing referrals, something which I initially said was a good thing, it surely meant business was thriving. But she pointed to the fact that all referrals come to her over the phone, not via email because of security concerns over sending this kind of sensitive data.
She went on to explain that as each referral comes in she is contacted by phone and has to manually write down all the details, a practice that takes around 20 minutes. Not a very efficient process. I asked why they were not using a secure email server and was told they were saving money by using a free hosting service which was not particularly secure. I suggested a move to cloud hosting but was told her boss had turned this idea down as being too expensive.
When Free Isn’t Really Free
And therein is the flaw. You may think that a ‘free service’ is the ultimate cost cutter, but this can be counterintuitive as rarely are such things efficient, reliable or even productive, especially when talking in terms of IT. Taking down referrals ‘by hand’ over the phone will often lead to mistakes as well as being time consuming. Receiving them electronically will mean a faster, more efficient means of working with placements being filled quicker and fewer billable hours. Surely that means a better service for all concerned?
Why cloud hosting?
Cloud hosting is enjoying strong growth and it is a sector that will continue to grow as businesses realize it’s potential. By switching to this form of virtual hosting businesses will save money on their IT requirements and negate the need to invest in their own internal server and staff to maintain it.
But is it secure?
Security within cloud environments has been a hot topic of debate over the last few months, however, industry experts point to cloud hosting via an established provider with a data center as being as secure, if not more so, than most in-house setups. Security providers are working pro-actively to instil confidence in the market and attract more businesses to sign up. The signs are it is beginning to work as some high profile companies are now switching their IT needs to cloud hosting environments in a bid to cut costs but maintain services.
For any business to grow there has to be inward investment in the infrastructure of the firm. Everything from administration to stock control is computerized these days which can mean large scale investment in IT equipment and software. Cloud hosting can offer businesses a means of incorporating the hardware and applications they need whilst making significant savings on the cost of installing their own in-house. In turn the provider will maintain and manage the environment within the data center meaning businesses will not need to hire in additional staff.
In these times of austerity cuts and uncertainty within global markets businesses need to look at ways to cut their costs, maintain services and improve efficiency. Rather than looking at ‘front of house’ operations it is the back office that can most often provide the best opportunities to save money, increase productivity and ultimately grow the business. Cloud hosting offers a tremendous opportunity to achieve all of these for minimal investment and within a short period of time.
About the Author: Article by Georgina Clatworthy, a freelance writer of five years producing articles about technology, business and marketing. I am not associated with Quality Tech but can recommend them for cloud hosting services.
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