The Owen Lea Foundation…. Let’s Make A Difference! Association of Computer Repair Business Owners…Now over 3,900 members! ACRBO MAG WHAT’S INSIDE Computers, Networking, Websites, Advertising, Marketing & Sales ISSUE 015 | Mar 2013 Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts….Winston Churchill
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Editor’s Note Welcome to the latest edition of the
Association Magazine. I'd like to welcome
our new contributors this month.
We look forward to bringing you more articles this coming year that can help you grow your business. Lastly I’d like to congratulate you for investing your time to educate yourself by reading this magazine. We are proud to be able to help all our readers, and look forward to serving you for many years to come.
Dan ACRBO Keep your valuable feedback coming. I try to reply to every email, I appreciate your input as it helps to make the ACRBO magazine possible. Write to me at: [email protected]
Contribute articles: If you would like to be a contributing author for the magazine then send an email to [email protected] and let us know what you would like to write about. Copyright 2012 ACRBO. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated or converted into machine-readable form or language without the written consent of the publisher. Articles express the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the publisher
IMPLEMENT Do you remember your first day as a business owner? You were probably just like the rest of us... pretty darned happy and a bit on the proud side. Yeah, back then we thought we could conquer the world. Now we're too busy conquering our own little corner of the world to pay a lot of attention to the rest of the world... unless it's to learn a few tips from successful owners.
1. Create a Special Offer
A special offer is exactly that... an offer that is special. Normally, customers would not be able to purchase this product or combination of products, and once the products are gone... sorry!
You don't have to go out and order a bunch of new products to put together a special offer. It doesn’t take a whole lot... just use what you've got. Grab a few items that are related, group them together, discount the price, and your customers will be excited to be getting a good deal. Think about it from your standpoint... you've sold three or four items rather than one. Yeah, combination offers are winning deals for everyone! Could be as simple as a computer tune-up WITH a year of virus software included.
2. Address the Small Customer Groups
Niche markets are everywhere, right under your nose! Within the customer audience that you serve right now are groups of people who share common traits. Think about it... maybe you have a group who speaks Spanish, a group of teens, and a group of middle class family men and women.
Evaluate these classes of people, and discover the unique needs and desires they share. That will set you up to customize your advertising campaign directly to them. It’s not hard to take your current ads, and make a few changes to adjust to the niches. They’ll be impressed that you understand THEM, and the increase in your profits will be the best thanks you can get.
3. Set Up a Winning Referral Program
Successful owners develop the ability to turn their customers into advocates. Often, they don't even have to directly ask customers to refer them to others. Their willingness to go the extra wins customer loyalty and support. Naturally, satisfied customers refer their friends and family to the place that will take good care of them.
Quality service and is the first step toward referrals, but you can easily take it one step further. Studies show that every satisfied customer tells three people about you. What would happen with a little incentive added to the picture? Yeah, a lot more. Give customers who refer friends a thank you - whether it's a discount, special gift item, or a simple thank you card - and watch the referrals spiral!
You can get two birds with one stone by implementing customer surveys. A few quick questions about what the customer does and doesn't like about your product, followed by a request for the names and addresses of friends and family who would benefit from the product, and you're all set to go with the contact information of a prospective customer!
In business time is one commodity that you do not ever have enough of. There will always be enough projects, meetings, loose ends, appointments and more, but never enough time. How to make time for things that you never found time for before.
How to not stress out at the end of each day because you did not finish what you started.
Start Today “Time Is Precious”…www.TimeIsPrecious.info
Generally, social marketing can be defined as a new concept (not so new though) to market or promote an endeavor using the internet and the web2.0 based tools. Started with this small approach, social marketing has now gained a new level as many people across the world are joining the worldwide business chain with several new ideas and strategies. The purpose of social marketing is to provide fast and quality service using the World Wide Web. All the enterprises of online business market are aiming to be part of global economy and take their business to next level with the help of social media marketing. In essence, social marketing is the key word to get a worldwide platform and succeed in business. Apart from this brief definition social marketing has different other wings that needs a proper co-ordination for proper marketing.
Social media sites were basically created an online network of people who wanted to communicate with each other and stay in touch. Business owners and corporate houses used the social media tools for marketing their businesses, services or products. Just from its beginning, social marketing has succeeded to create a difference in the world of business. Businesses houses that made careful and strategic use of social media sites created a revolution in the marketing world but at the same time careless and casual dealing spelled doom for many businesses.
If you are a newcomer to the world of social media marketing then you need not worry a lot about the results of your efforts because there are thousands of online resources from where you would be able to learn some vital tips and tricks to crack the social networking or social marketing nut. Online reviews, e-books available on "social marketing" would provide you with a comprehensive picture of social media marketing world. The pros and cons of this business and survival strategies are also discussed thoroughly in these books, journals or articles. Here, in this blog we will discuss the two most potential social media - Facebook and Twitter and strategies that would get surprising fast results from.
Facebook:
Let's start with Facebook that has been ranked as the second most popular (Google is still number 1) social media site for its popularity. With the introduction of Facebook, social marketing has taken a new turn and the generation now defines social marketing in a single word, which is Facebook.
Business owners are making the most out of Facebook and taking the opportunity to measure their performance from both positive and negative comments on their products and services. Using Facebook, clients can research on the needs and demands of customers, which changes frequently. At the same time one can provide updates on the upcoming services or products fan pages to keep the visitors engaged. Spending a few extra dollars on Facebook and let visitor's know about your company directly from Facebook.
Twitter:
As a social media site, Twitter has been ranked tenth and is being used widely to deliver short messaincredible speed. A short message of 140 characters reaches the inbox of your consumers in a minute and the tweets will spread to the mass in an explosive manner. There is no other cost-effective and timesaving marketing idea than tweeting about a
Twitter has more preference among the busy users who prefer to get product updates just right to the point. The most important fact about twitter is that it always contains relevant messages, so the customers will read them thoroughly, instead of justhem.
Now, it depends on your business and th
Facebook:
Let's start with Facebook that has been ranked as the second most popular (Google is still number 1) social media site for its popularity. With the introduction of Facebook, social marketing has taken a new turn and the generation now defines social marketing in a single word, which is Facebook.
Business owners are making the most out of Facebook and taking the opportunity to measure their performance from both positive and negative comments on their products and services. Using Facebook, clients can research on the needs and demands of customers, which changes frequently. At the same time one can provide updates on the upcoming services or products fan pages to keep the visitors engaged. Spending a few extra dollars on Facebook and let visitor's know about your company directly from Facebook.
Twitter:
As a social media site, Twitter has been ranked tenth and is being used widely to deliver short messages at incredible speed. A short message of 140 characters reaches the inbox of your consumers in a minute and the tweets will spread to the mass in an explosive manner. There is no other cost-effective and time-saving marketing idea than tweeting about a product.
Twitter has more preference among the busy users who prefer to get product updates just right to the point. The most important fact about twitter is that it always contains relevant messages, so the customers will read them thoroughly, instead of just ignoring them.
Now, it depends on your business and the product when you get down to choosing between Facebook and Twitter - choose the one that suits your business needs perfectly.
ACRBO marketplace
PC Dice Contact: [email protected] A great gift for that tech you know. Or even better take them on site with you and amaze your customers.
Linux For The Rest Of Us
- Do you want to stay ahead of the computer curve so that you don't feel left in the dust?
- Do you want to expand your knowledge so that YOU are that technician who people go to for advice?
- Do you want to learn an operating system so powerful and fun you'll wonder how you lived without it?
Owning and running your own small business is a great thing to do, but it is not always easy. If you want to have success with your small business, there are some ways to do it, though. Here are some small business tips to maximize your profits and minimize your headache, even early on with the business.
The first of the small business tips that you need to remember is that in the early time of the business, you want to keep your profits as high as possible. This is not always an easy thing to do because often, especially when your business has first opened, your customers are pretty low, and therefore your money is pretty low. In order to make this happen, keep your spending as low as you can. Avoid buying anything that is unnecessary in order to keep all the money that you can.
Another of the great small business tips that you can use is about advertising. If you want to get customers, which are necessary for the success of many businesses, you will have to advertise in order to get them. Advertising is something that you should always make room for in your budget. Of course, finding the most affordable methods of advertising early on will make quite a bit of difference. It may take more work, though.
If you want to start your own small business, the market for a business is something you should consider. If there is no market for your business, you will not have any success with it. So, make sure that the people in your area will want to purchase the products or services that you will offer them. This is a very important part of having any sort of success with a business - possibly the most important in some cases, because it can often determine the success or failure of a business.
Another of the great business tips that you can use is to always take advantage of the Internet. Even if your business is not one that would benefit in any way from a website, it is a great idea to advertise on the Internet. This can greatly expand your ability to get customers. And what's even better - Internet advertising is far more affordable than many local newspapers. This is advantageous for additional advertising at a great price, which is especially great for young businesses that don't have a lot of money to spend on advertising.
If you have a successful small business,
then you will experience all of the great
advantages of it. But, you have to have
a successful small business in order for
that to happen. These small business
tips will help you make your business
more successful so that you will actually
make money. Keep all of these in mind
when you buy a business or when you
start one of your own. They will be
helpful in both cases to get your
business established and help you
actually make money.
The Industry
Site: www.TechNibble.com
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Technibble is a free resource for Computer Technicians and Computer Business Owners.
Technibble helps computer technicians with information and how-to-articles published a few times
a week and has a strong community of Computer Technicians to help one another.
Technibble helps you by covering topics such as:
- How to start a Computer Business
- Advertising, how to get clients and keep them
- Business and legal issues
- Streamline your computer repair work
- Technician related product reviews and discounts
- New opportunities to look out for
- Stories from “the trenches” from your fellow Computer Techs
Technibble also has a large database of Computer Repair tools and adds a new on to its database
every week.
Be sure to check out the Archives, Computer Repair Tools section and the Computer
In recent months the programming language Java has been
in the news a lot, mostly because of its association with
virus infections. By most reliable accounts, over one-half of
all recent malware infections have been accomplished by
exploiting vulnerabilities in Java.
Java was first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995, which
was subsequently acquired by database software company
Oracle. According to the Oracle web site, “Java runs on
more than 850 million personal computers worldwide, and
on billions of devices worldwide, including mobile and TV
devices.
Contrary to a widely-held belief, Apple computers are not
immune to virus infection. In fact, the most widespread
infection of Macs to date involved 670,000 infected
computers that unwittingly became members of a botnet
known as Flashback.
The Flashback virus was actually a Trojan Horse, installed
as a “drive-by download,” without the user’s knowledge or
permission. The virus accomplished this objective by taking
advantage of known security holes in Java, adjusting its
behavior as necessary to fit the environment of the target
computer.
These vulnerabilities are commonly exploited on Windows-
based PCs, and many IT professionals question whether
Java will ever be secure enough to be trusted on the
average user’s computer. As much as Oracle tries to find
and patch all the holes in Java, the bad guys keep finding
more of them.
Further complicating the issue is the fact that some
applications are incompatible with Java 7 altogether and still
require the older Java Version 6. Oracle has continued to
update Java 6 as well as Java 7, with the latest update
being Java 6 Update 41. But they have announced that
there will be no new public updates of Java 6 after
February, 2013.
So, what should you and your users do about Java? You
will hear various opinions on the subject. The right answer,
of course, is “it depends.”
The unfortunate reality is that many programs, devices, and
web sites use Java in one form or another. While some
experts recommend removing Java from your computers
altogether, that approach may not be practical in some
cases. But a reasonable first step might be to uninstall Java
from your computer and see whether you lose any
functionality.
.
Do all of the programs you normally use continue to run
normally without Java installed? If so, that’s a promising
sign. What about web sites? Any of your favorites quit
working when Java isn’t there? Here’s a hint –
GoToWebinar won’t work without Java. And there are many
others.
One of the improvements in the recent Java updates is a
wider range of options related to security. There is now a
Security tab in the Java dashboard, with a slider that allows
you to select a Security Level from Low to Very High. The
default setting is High (recommended), and an Advanced
option gives you more granularity in the detailed settings.
There is also an option to “Enable Java content in the
browser,” with a check-mark in that box by default.
Deselecting that option will greatly improve the security of
that computer, albeit at the risk of breaking some web
pages. But this is a prudent step for you to take if possible.
Another new option allows you to specify how often to have
Java check for updates. The default was originally once per
month and has since been increased to once per week. But
now you can set it to check for updates every day if you like.
Considering how frequently new exploits are discovered,
you may want to set all of your computers to check for Java
updates daily. The increased overhead is minimal, and the
potential for keeping the computer secure against Java-
based attacks is significant.
It’s important to note that there is no option to install Java
updates automatically, only to notify the user that a new
version is available. So be sure your users know to look in
the System Tray on a regular basis and allow a Java update
to install any time it is offered.
Keeping Java up to date is every bit as important to security
as a serious, commercial-grade (not free, in other words)
anti-virus program and Windows Updates. Disabling or
removing it altogether is a more secure solution, but one
that may not be practical for many users.
What To Do About Java?
Copyright 2013 by Ken Dwight, “The Virus Doctor™,” Houston, Texas. All rights reserved. Ken is a Computer Consultant, Speaker, and Trainer, and creator of the Virus Remediation Training workshop for computer support technicians. For reprint rights, information about upcoming workshops, or to inquire about booking Ken for your next Conference, Convention, or Company Meeting, contact us at www.thevirusdoc.com or phone (281) 537-0252.