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Franchising Fees: What You Need To Know and Watch Out For

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The Philippines has been recognized as the Franchising Hub of Asia. It means that franchising as a business model is well accepted in this country. In fact, it is one of the top choices of any enterprising Filipino with money to spare and who wants to be conservative with his venture.

As with any business, franchising has its share of traps and this article discusses that part which involves money.

Fees and Charges Associated with a Franchise Operation

1. Franchise Fee

One of the first things people ask when they consider going into a franchise business is “How much is the Franchise Fee?”

Indeed, it is one most expensive items you have to deal with when buying a franchise business and you will understand why later. Depending on how you look at it, this is money that you basically just throw out the window and into somebody else’s house.

Fees and Charges Assosiated with a Franchise Operation

Fees and Charges in operating a franchise business must be thoroughly understood before embarking into the deal.


Franchise Fee is associated with:

  • The use of the company name and logo. This is very cool. Most of the time, clients and customers will never know that the business is run by the jerk-next-door.
  • The Business System. This is the most valuable assets of a business and one of the most difficult to perfect. This is one area also in which buying a successful franchise business is worthy compared to doing it from scratch. Having a proven business system eliminates a lot of guess work and mistakes that go with running a business. A successful and highly experienced franchisor can tell you the things that work and those that don’t.
  • Training and Support. One of the nice things about joining a franchise is the support system the company offers. A good company should take you seriously as a partner in the business. That is, they should have a stake in your success.

Tips on Franchise Fee: It’s very hard to tell if the Franchisor’s Franchise Fee is fair or not. You have to check what its competitors are offering and make sure that you compare apples to apples. Never, ever buy a franchise just because is it something you can afford. There are more things to consider than just the franchise fee.

( See also: Things to consider before buying a franchise. )

2. Royalty Fee

This is one thing you really have to think about. Royalty fees come in various forms, such as the following.

  • Percentage of gross sales. That is, they get a piece of the pie even before the government gets theirs. Naturally, you — as the operator of the business — get the last piece. The worst royal fee I’ve seen so far in the Philippines is one which is based on the gross sales + VAT.
  • Percentage of purchase. This one is the opposite of the royalty fee mentioned previously. Instead of taking it from the items you sold, they take it from the items you buy from them. Technically, this should be lower compared to the other type of royalty fee.
  • Fixed recurring fee. Which is not really a royalty fee but more like a rental or retainer’s fee.

Tips on Royalty Fee: Take a good hard look at this item before you consider buying a particular franchise. This is one area that causes a lot of franchisee regrets. Franchising is supposed to foster a win-win partnership, right?

3. Marketing / Advertising Fee

This part is a real bomber because it appears to be legitimate. Like the royalty fee above, marketing fee ( or sometimes named advertising fee) is charged on the franchisee on a periodic basis, usually monthly. This is supposed to help your business by driving clients and customers to your doors, right?

But… there are franchisors that collect marketing fee who never run any single ad, ever!

Tip On Marketing Fee: Have you personally seen for yourself a single ad or marketing campaign by that particular franchisor? How often do they run that campaign? Will it benefit your own franchise operation?

4. Renewal Fee

A Franchise Agreement usually has a set time frame and beyond that you need to renew it with the company. The following should be the ideal scenarios when it comes time to renew:

  • You should have recovered your expenses and gained from the past years of operating the franchise business.
  • The renewal fee should be lower than the original franchise fee.

Tip on Renewal Fee: Everything else being equal, you should select a franchise that offers the longest renewal term and with the lowest renewal fee.

( Recommended Reading: Franchise Opportunities From Oil Companies in the Philippines. )

Do the Math

Doing the numbers before embarking on a franchise deal is one of the smartest things you can do to your planned business venture.

The concept of franchising may be old, but its adoption here in the Philippines is relatively new. As such, there are a lot of unscrupulous businesses disguised as legitimate franchises and who are only after the money of unsuspecting clients who don’t know how to evaluate a business opportunity. Here at NegosyoBuilder.com, we want you to steer clear of that situation.

In the next couple of articles, we will be featuring business and franchise opportunities that are available in the Philippines. As usual, we’ll guide you with some tips and point out the traps to avoid.

Can You Really Make Money Online?

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If the answer to that question is no, I don’t have anymore reason and motivation to put up this website.

The NegosyoBuilder.com website is about building and running all aspects of an online business, with a little diversion on traditional businesses occasionally.

But for someone to be asking, “How do you make money online?” I think he is looking for an answer that is easier to digest.

Mind you, it’s not a stupid question. It’s a curious beginner’s question which deserves a straight-forward, but intelligent answer.

Here is my attempt to answer the question in a way that any sixth grader would understand. Here’s how you can make money online.

1. Sell Your Products and Services

In a traditional business, you make money by selling products, services or a combination of the two. The same thing happens when you go online.

In a traditional business, you have a physical store sitting on a specific location – that’s why they also call it bricks-and-mortar – where people can go and buy your products. If it’s a physical product, they can touch it, smell it, or even kiss it.

Online, your prospects (also called suspects if they are not buyers yet) can browse from the Products Catalog that you put from your website. With a few clicks, they are all set to place their orders and buy from you.

(See also : How To Setup A PayPal Account In The Philippines.)

I’m talking about selling products. Your job now is to imagine how it would be in the case of services.

And by the way, here are some business ideas (offering products or services) you can implement if you wanted to run a pure, virtual business online:

  • Become an author and write your own ebooks. See lulu.com for details.
  • Run a membership website where only paid, subscribed members can have access to specific contents.
  • Offer Webinars on topics where you have expert knowledge.

These are just a few examples.

( Shameless Promotion: Discover how NegosyoBuilder.com Services can turn your website from nothing into something. )

2. Sell Advertising Space On Your Website

‎”It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot harder to make a difference.” –Tom Brokaw

I’m not sure if it is still the case today, but my favorite local newspaper company, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, at one point once admitted that the cost of producing a particular issue was actually greater than the price they were selling it to. Meaning, they were actually selling at a loss. But how do you think they survive until now?

Here’s the secret: They don’t make money by selling newspapers. That’s the newspaper boy’s business. They make money – and lots of it – by selling advertising spaces at various places in the paper.

Still wonder why bad news is everywhere whether in print, radio, TV and the Internet? Hint: Bad news is the real news.

If you have a website, you too can act like a small media company and deliver ads your web pages. It’s one of the quickest and easiest monetization strategies that anyone can do. You can contact an advertising agency’s website and simply sign-up for their program.

Here are some of my recommendations if you want to explore this option:

Tip: One of the mistakes new publishers make is they get too excited with this concept and immediately rush to fill their websites with various ads. This is not advisable if your website is relatively new with only a few pages to show. It’s best to work on your content first. Make lots of articles so that you can have a sizable base of audience who keeps coming back. Once you start developing your fans, that is when you should start populating your content with ads and put those ads only in strategic locations of your website.

3. Become A Middleman

“The shortest distance between two points is not a straight line – it’s a middleman.” –Ayn Rand

Here’s a sampling of the familiar middle men: real estate brokers, stock brokers, and insurance agents.

There are people who hate the middle man. But I’m here to tell you that the middle man – if you know how to pick the right one – could make your business transaction faster and your success easier.

People may criticize him for his lack of boxing skills, but Bob Arum is one of the finest businessmen in the world of boxing. As a promoter, he simply gets things done and makes millions of dollars happen – for everybody.

So don’t be afraid of the middleman. Instead, learn how to make use of his talents, skills and services to your advantage.

how to make money online

One of the ways you can make money online is by helping businesses sell their products and services. The image above is courtesy of Wealthy Affiliate Open Education Program. It shows how you can make money by referring products from Amazon.

In the online world, there are various names given to the middleman, including the following: affiliate, referral agent, leads generator and sales partner. But basically, here is how they make money:

  1. The referror sends traffic (site visitors) to the merchant’s website. This can be initiated in different ways like links from a website, emails, Facebook, Twitter or online ads campaign.
  2. When the visitor takes action like he buys the recommended stuff or signs up for a subscription, the referral agent gets compensated by the merchant. Think of it as the merchant’s way of saying, “Thank you for sending us the traffic.” In the online world where every business is hungry for attention, the modern middleman could save the day for the merchant.

The nice thing about building an online business around this concept is that it doesn’t require much financial capital to start with, therefore you minimize the risk of going bankrupt with the venture.

So there you have it, the three ways you can make money online. Which one do you think is a best fit for you? Do you see yourself implementing all three in one website? Well, that’s possible, too.

How To Build A Profitable Website With No Programming Skills

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A website is your main doorway to the world of online business.

Is your business already online?

If not yet, that’s understandable. A lot of small business owners — I’m talking about traditional, offline businesses — are still taken aback when the thought of going online comes up.

The following are some of the most common hesitations for putting up an Internet presence:

  1. They don’t know how or where to start.
  2. They have no technical background such as programming, HTML, CSS and all that stuff.
  3. It’s expensive.

The last reason is the easiest to solve or justify. I believe that no matter how frugal the entrepreneur is in handling the financial resources of the business, once it’s demonstrated that a website can contribute positively to the bottom-line numbers, he would be convinced to jump right in and invest in having a website.

The Easy Way To Build a Website

SBI has all the right tools you need in building a successful online business.
Click here to see for yourself.

So I think the very first task of the entrepreneur before he embarks on having a website is to really asses the significance of having it in the first place. One of the ways you can do this is to look at your competitors, especially those who are run by the younger breed of entrepreneurs. Are they online already? If so, how was the effect of having that website on their business versus not having it? If you are eating their leftovers as a result of that website, maybe you should be online now before it’s too late already.

As to the first two reasons, consider this: What if I can show you a tool that allows you to build, not just a website, but a real online business, without any programming skills required on your end, would you give it a try?

And if you are concerned about the price, worry no more! Your monthly investment is only less than 1 USD per day!

This tool simply works! Believe me, I’ve never seen anything that compares to this product.

The only requirements on your end, so you can get started, are the following:

  • You can use email. You need an email address and you have to know how you use an email software.
  • You can pay online. That means having a credit card or a debit card. But I highly recommend that you get a PayPal account for better protection.

Enter Site Build It

Site Build It (or simply SBI from now on) is a complete set of online tools that you can use to create a successful online business. SBI is not just your usual online Site Builder. With SBI all the right ingredients are already there at your disposal.

Here are some of the good stuff that comes with the package:

  • Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting
  • Keyword Research Tool
  • Market Research and Competitor Analysis Tool
  • Newsletter management
  • Form Generators
  • Point-and-Click Page Builder
  • Search Engine Optimization

I bet you can’t find those tools bundled in WordPress or Joomla or Drupal!

Click here to compare WordPress with SBI.

SBI is simply amazing!

It works. Period.

And by the way, those are just a few of my favorite tools in the package. There are a lot more. I think you should take a video tour of the product to see what’s in store for you at SBI.


( Click here to watch the Video Tour.)

Perfect for the Newbies and Pros Alike

One of the reasons why SBI is successful as a product is that it is so easy to use. You don’t need any prior knowledge of HTML, CSS, FTP, Scripting, SQL and all those technical stuff just to be able to use the product.

With SBI, you focus on the content: your articles and your message. These are the stuff that cement your online relationship with your clients and customers. SBI takes care of the rest.

It’s really like driving a car. If you step on the brake pedal, you know that the car slows down until it stops moving. You don’t care about the exact mechanism of brake system like the auto-mechanics do. You just know it works.

Priceless: Online Business Education

SBI! CTPM Process

I think this is the most important part of the package.
SBI is loaded with educational materials and videos called Action Guide that help you in building a successful online business.

It’s like having an online mentor who will guide you every step of the way.

SBI also follows a proven and tested formula to ensure your success online. If you follow this system, you not only minimize errors, your chances of success also increases.

No Risk To Try: 90-Day Money Back Guarantee

Think about this: your monthly investment with SBI is less than 1 USD per day!

90-Day Money Back Guarantee On top of that, the company also gives you a 90-day money-back guarantee. That gives you three months to try it and study it yourself. If within that time-frame you realize that it’s not the tool for you, you can claim your money back!

When you sign up for SBI, you will be getting a free domain name, too. If you decide to stop using the tool within the 90-day period, the domain name is your… you can do whatever you want to do with it. That’s the company’s way of saying thank you for trying the product!

In conclusion

I am a firm believer in idea that the entrepreneur should not be wasting his time doing the dirty works (e.g.: clerical works, sending fax, etc) of the business, but instead shift his focus on the bigger picture and the overall direction of the business.

When it comes to making a website for your business, you may want to outsource that task to a more capable service provider. That is, if you are willing to invest some money also.

But if you are on a tight-budget, there is a tool that can help you do it and it’s very effective. I would even venture to say that in a lot of times, using SBI is even more effective than hiring a web professional.

I love SBI and once you begin using it, you will love it too!

Domain Name Selection Tips

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It’s possible that you can strike it rich in the Internet with just a domain name alone. Some people called, domainer, are making serious money with domain names: creating them, holding on to them like prime real estate, or trading them for top dollars to interested parties.

Consider the following domains and their corresponding price tags:

  • Sex.com. This is perhaps the most controversial domain name ever. It made it to the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive domain name when it sold for 13M USD in 2007.
  • Insurance.com. Not as sexy as the first, but it sold for 16M USD in 2010. The domain is currently in the good hands of Quin Street.

There are a lot of other examples, but as you can see, a good domain name is already a valuable asset by itself. In fact, it is the single most important resource for your presence in the Internet. Whether it’s for a business website or for your personal use, when crafting your domain name, make it worth your while.
Listed below are some tips to consider.

Tip 1: Domain Name Extension Tips

Domain Name SelectionFirst, get the .com. Make it a priority to get the .com extension first before you get the other extensions. If you are saving a little bit, you can stick with just the .com.

Optionally, buy other extensions also especially .net, .org and other domain extensions which your competitor might try to get and use against you.

Tip 2: On Strings and Characters

Stick with Alphabetic characters. Though it is now possible to use other strange characters from the UNICODE system, you are better off just using the letters of the English alphabet.

Avoid hyphens. I was guilty of violating this one. I own the Davao-Real-Estate.com domain, which I still maintain up to this day. What makes it stupid is when I share this domain verbally to someone: it sounds awkward saying “dash” two times. Note, however, that that is an SEO-value in doing this, which was what I wanted back then.

Avoid Numeric Characters. Numbers on domain names are another things you want to avoid. It makes it difficult to type, especially on Internet-enabled mobile devices.

Tip 3: More Than Words

Keep It Short. They say two heads are better than one. But when it comes to domain names, one word is better than two. As a matter of fact, a single word domain is a rarity these days. I suspect all of the words in the English dictionary have their corresponding domains already. You have to be really creative in crafting one.

Mean what it says. If your domain name includes the word job, make sure your site is related to career and job opportunities. If it has travels in it, then your website should deliver travel-related contents.

Tip 4: Think Branding

Make it sticky. It should not only be easy to remember. It must be difficult to forget also.

Make it easy to type also. Think about users who might be browsing your website using their tablets and smart phones. Some users of these devices don’t know how to switch between QWERTY Keypad and Numeric Pad modes; others are simply too lazy to make the switch

Keep the above tips in mind as you begin to think about the possible domain names for your next online project. You may not be in for domain speculations like the domainers do, but remembering these pointers at least gives your useful insights in coming up with a valuable Internet asset.

Related Links

  1. Learn how to create your own website in 5 easy steps.
  2. Check out my recommended Domain Name Registrars: GoDaddy and NameCheap
  3. Get free domain name when you host with Fatcow. Click here to know their on-going promos.

The Money Business in the Philippines

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Upon reading the title of this article, what automatically came to your mind?

A 5-6 business? For those who don’t know it yet, 5-6 refers to the art and science of lending money to someone for 30 days — plus or minus 5 days — at 20% interest. If you do the Math, that means in a span of 5 months you double your money.

Wanna try? Oh, no… not so fast. Perhaps I should warn you first that it is a very risky proposition that you better leave it up to your friendly neighborhood Bombays, who are the true masters at that business.

And oh, by the way, contrary to popular belief, 5-6 won’t get you cancer. But not getting your money back, probably would. Hmm… Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.

How about Lotto? We’ve already shown you that it is one of the ways you can get rich here in this country. On top of that, through the PCSO, you are also helping your fellow countrymen who are in dire need of money.

Time deposit, perhaps? It offers a lousy return, but at least your money is a little safer at the bank.

If you are thinking along those lines, I guess you already know that money can be used to make money.

3 Ways You Can Make Money From Money

There are many ways to go about this, but for this article, we’ll focus on three money businesses that you can set up on your own or with your business partners. They are the following:

  1. Pawnshop
  2. Money Remittance
  3. Micro-finance institution (MFI)

“The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket.” –Will Rogers

Pawnshop Business

The Pawnshop Business is as old as mankind itself. And in the Philippines they are all over the place – from the remote parts of the provinces to the most crowded corners in the cities. For many Filipinos, a pawnshop is one place they can rely on as a source of quick money normally used for emergencies or immediate needs. That is, given the right collateral (something of value) the pawnbroker (the company or the individual running the pawnshop business) lends them money for a set period of time and for a given interest. The beauty of this process is that it is very fast, with no complicated document requirements like you would encounter when applying for a loan from a bank.

On the business side, there are three ways a pawnshop makes money:

  1. From service charges.
  2. From interest charges.
  3. From the sale of unredeemed items that served as collateral for the loaned money.

But remember that the real business of pawnshops is from the two items aforementioned. As Jean Henri Lhuillier (from the Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop Companies) said in one of this his interviews with the Inquirer, “Our business is out there as a bridge financing service. We are not into the business of buying. We are in the business of lending.”

Money Remittance Business

Money Transfer to the Philippines

Money Transfer to the Philippines

In the Global Money Transfer scene, the Philippines is the third largest country that sends money back home from abroad. The first two spots are taken by India and Mexico. Data from the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP) shows that the average amount sent by an overseas Filipino to his family in the Philippines is 300 USD per month. Last year alone, the total money sent to the Philippines from abroad reached 20 Billion USD.

That’s a lot of money. And some say, they help keep the Philippine economy afloat and made the Peso Currency strong against the US Dollar. No wonder, the Overseas Filipino Workers are considered as heroes of the nation.

The Money Remittance Market in the Philippines used to be dominated by commercial banks. But thanks to the improving telecommunications technology, smaller players are now competing with the banks offering lower service charges and reaching wider areas of coverage.

(See also: Send and receive money using Paypal in the Philippines.)

If you wish to run a money transfer business, keep in mind the following:

  • You are required to register with the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP), for local money transfers.
  • If you have an operation in another country, requirements differ from one country to another. Usually you will be required to place a cash bond and present your operating manual.
  • It is important that you are aware of our local Anti-Money Laundering Law or similar laws if you have branches abroad.
  • Equipping your premises with security systems, CCTV and alarms would be of help.
  • Important to setup a continuity plan in case the computerized system goes offline.

A money remittance business has two ways of earning money:

  • Service charge when someone sends money.
  • Foreign exchange when a foreign currency is converted to the local currency when money is claimed.

Microfinance Institution

The concept of microfinance is nothing new. But it became really popular with the success of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

For an overview of Microfinance, take a look at this inspiring short video presenting Dr Muhammad Yunus, known as the banker to the poor.

You may also want to buy Dr Yunus’ book, “Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty”, from Amazon by clicking on the image below.

In the Philippines, no less than Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas has “declared microfinance as its flagship program for poverty alleviation.” The BSP defined microfinance this way:

Microfinance is the provision of a broad range of financial services such as deposits, loans, payment services, money transfers and insurance products to the poor and low-income households and their microenterprises. By definition, it is important to note that Microfinance is NOT subsidized credit, NOT a dole-out, NOT salary or consumption loans, and a cure-all for poverty.

The entrepreneurial poor

We all know them. They are the hardworking mom-and-pop (and perhaps kids, too) vendors in the local market. They are the sari-sari store owners serving the community in your subdivision. They are the small-time farmers raising poultry and other animals in their backyard in some remote countryside. Their original sin: They are deemed too risky by the banks to able to deserve a business loan.

Well, I hope you already get the picture of who I am referring to.

Essentially, microfinance is meant to help fund the entrepreneurial and business ventures of these poor entrepreneurs. According to the BSP, “If provided on a sustainable basis, microfinance can help increase income, build viable businesses, reduce vulnerability to external shocks, empower the client, and improve the quality of their lives.”

(Related article: How to fund a startup.)

How to setup a Microfinance Venture in the Philippines

Quite ironically, microfinance services are already available in some rural and thrift banks. These are smaller banks usually serving the countryside. Savings and Credit Cooperatives are also among the most active providers micro-financial services.

So, if you are planning to setup this kind of venture, you can either form a bank or a cooperative.

5 PR Techniques for Small Businesses

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PR For Small Business

Cultivate A Good Public Image

Getting publicity is one of the most effective marketing tools you can take advantage to get the word out about your business. However, not all entrepreneurs have the talent or the knowledge of how to use it properly.

Think of this article as PR 101 for Small Businesses. Here are some practical ideas you can use right away — even cheaply – and make the most out of publicity stints.

1. Sweet Talk Your Way To Your Costumers. Media tools are often read or heard of and they are effective that way. Words and “sweet talk” can still set you apart from your competitors. Keep everything light and polite while not sacrificing quality of content. Hire a good creative writer or team for this.

2. Develop A Positive Press Network. For a small business entrepreneur, the idea that “bad publicity is still publicity” does not apply. It instead causes the consumers to get away from the business as far as possible. One way to gain good publicity instead of bad ones is to have positive relations with the press people. They have gained the trust of the customers and are often asked for advices on what products to choose. Better get on their side to earn a few recommendations here and there.

With the rise of social media and social media influencers, you’re lucky this part doesn’t need to be very costly; more on that later.

3. Your Own Press Release. Get someone who can write and distribute this efficiently. This step makes a great way for any small business to get noticed immediately. A virtual assistant who can write the press release articles and at the same time handle the distribution is very helpful with this PR task. Hire one that knows where it is best to submit your press releases and observe how it can help in gaining more clients and better sales.

4. Social Media Is In. It’s not just a fad, it’s here to stay and you can learn it in no time. Learn the ins and outs of online social media marketing. Nowadays, more people hang out on social networking sites rather than get together for real. This makes it easier to focus on creating catchy adverts intended to be posted on those sites for the people to get noticed. Know what’s trending and focus on the interest of the people to keep their eyes glued to your posts.

5. Interact with customers often. Nothing makes a customer want to come back for more than having a unique personal experience during the business transaction. Making customers feel that they are special — not just another number — will have them looking only for you whenever they need your services.

This PR 101 for Small Business guide intends to help any small- scale entrepreneur gain a share of the limelight. It does not matter how small a business is, as long as it is well advertised and get positive feedback from the media and the consumers, it will have a good chance of succeeding.

Your Business Website: How To Do It Right (Part 2 of 2)

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In the previous article on this series, I mentioned about some of the benefits your business can derive by having a website. You can reap those benefits if you know how to do it right.

However, not all entrepreneurs are technology savvy. Some of them have only a basic understanding of the Internet technology and how to take advantage of this. If you belong to this group, you need not worry. This website is created for business owners just like you who want to learn how to utilize the Internet and related technologies and who don’t want to be bothered by the lesser important details.

It’s true that technology is getting more and more complicated as it advances forward. On the other hand, companies that offer high-tech products and services to their clients are also striving to make it as simple to use and possible for users to be able to adopt and take full advantage of the features and benefits. I’m not sure if you have observed it, but most tech products that thrive in the marketplace are those that are also the most user-friendly even your non-techie grandma can use. Building a basic website is about the same: it’s becoming simpler than ever. Given the right tools and with proper guidance, you can be up to speed in no time.

I believe that there are only three primary skills you need to have for you to be able to utilize these Internet-related technologies into your business. These skills are the following:

  1. Using Email.
  2. Using Desktop Applications.
  3. Ability to Read English.

That’s it. Once you have developed those skills, you are in a position to follow what we are about to show you here. That is, how to develop your business website and how to do it right.

Note: You don’t have to do the actual website building yourself. You can hire other professionals to do it for you or you can buy those off-the-shelf packages. I believe that as a business owner, you should only focus on the core competencies of your business, and leave the nitty-gritty stuff to other people.

So ready? Read the rest of the topic.

What You Need To Get Started

The first two items are a little bit technical, but they are easy to understand. It’s important to remember that you should be the one to buy, control and manage these two important resources. We’ll have more of that in other articles, but right now you all you need is a short introduction to know what they are. The third item is the simplest and easiest to understand.

1. A domain name. It’s the one that appears on the Browser’s Address box as http://www.yourdomain.com. This is your online identity, your address in cyberspace, your single most important online resource.

It’s your name. How good does it sound?

Like your business name, your domain name should also be sticky: Easy to remember and hard to forget.

2. A Web Hosting Account. Remember disk drives, USD flash drive and DVDs? They are digital devices that you primarily use to store files. A web hosting account is a lot like those file storage devices, but it’s actually a whole lot of package which includes, a database server, web server, lot of software, and more. You access it over the Internet and located in a place called the data center, which your web host provider maintains. When it comes to web hosting, you need to get it from a reliable company. You can’t afford a down time.

3. Text, Graphics, Audios and Videos. From your visitors’ point of view, these are the stuff that they see, read or hear. Once assembled together, it’s the doorway to your online business. It’s your chance to make an impression. Make every page count.

Web Pages That Count

Business Website Guide

Your Online Business: Do It Right The First Time

Your actual website should contain as many text and informative articles as possible. But for a start, the following pages should be considered as essential:

  • Home Page – When people visit you from your URL, say www.yourbusiness.com, the home page is very page that they see. Otherwise called as the main page, it should provide links to the most important pages on the website.
  • About – This section should have the essential info about your business or your organization. Highlight the following: Company Background and History, Management Team, Vision and Mission Statement, etc.
  • Products And Services – What do you have to offer? Put them here and make this module very accessible from the main navigation.
  • Contact – Put your contact information here. Email Address or Contact Form, Physical Office Address with Map, Phone and Fax numbers are among the most important information visitors will be looking for.
  • Blog – Blogging is not just for kids who are ranting about everything there is to rant. It’s an effective way of giving your faceless company some form of personality. Here’s a two-way communication medium between you and the customer.

Common Sense Web Design Tips

In closing, I’d like to share two timeless web design tips that you can implement anytime.

First, keep it simple. Make it easy for your visitors to navigate your contents. The website is not a showcase of the graphical abilities of the designer. It is a means of delivering your message across. Your important pages should be accessible from any page of your website. Remember to put your audience first. Give them what they are looking. Your website is not for you to visit every day. It’s for your visitors so they can do business with you. Observe that the most popular websites also have the simplest designs.

Finally, make it fast. Avoid fancy graphics and flash animations like you would a contagious disease. I know and I regret it that most website owners love to have kinds of flashy stuff. Do you really think your visitors are there on your website so they can be entertained by your flash animations and to watch your photos? Think about it.

Your Business Website: How To Do It Right (Part 1 of 2)

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During the Internet Boom one of the most hard-to-forget marketing pitches I’ve ever come across went like this: “If your business is not in the Internet, your business will soon be out of business.” The message, of course, is over-exaggerated, but it is an invitation for businesses to go online and claim their respective spot in virtual space by putting up a website. Essentially, the message is saying, “get your website now before the competitor gets there first.”

build a website or online business

Building a website can be fun.

Here’s my take: The part where it says, “being out of business if you’re not online”, that’s not true at all. From the period covering of the dot-coms-turned-dot-gones to the when everyone was talking about Web 2.0 (whatever that means) and until now when mobile apps are the “in things”, there are businesses which never had an online presence. Quite surprisingly here in the Philippines, a good number of these businesses are doing just fine and some are remarkably thriving even without having their own websites. What I’m trying to say is, if you are a business owner, you don’t have to jump to the Internet-bandwagon. In fact you should NOT get a website under the following circumstances:

  1. If it’s not essential to the operations of your business
  2. If it can’t bring in the money to your business.
  3. If you can’t do it right.

I can’t help you with the first item. You have to figure it out for yourself.

NegosyoBuilder.com is here to help you with the second item. So I’d like to invite you to subscribe to our email list (thanks to Google Feedburner) or like us on Facebook or connect with us on Google+.

This article is intended to address the third item. When it comes to your online business, your attitude should be: “Do it right, OR don’t do it at all.”

Read the rest of the material if you want to have a business website and do it right.

The Benefits of Having A Website

First, let’s put things in proper order. It’s always good to have an attitude that goes like this: “A website? What’s in it for my business?

It’s good that you ask. But, you should also ask why you are in business in the first place.

Here’s how your business benefits by taking your dose of online multi-vitamins:

1. It’s good for your image. Your website serves as an electronic equivalent of your printed brochures and people can view them anytime, anywhere. It means you are keeping up with times and you are at pace with technology. It reinforces your reputation and enhances your credibility.

2. It makes you visible. A business is no good if your customers and clients can’t find you. Having a website is like passing out your business card to several people. And since most website visitors come to a website through search engines, it would be good if you rank high in Web search results.

3. It communicates your message. A website can be a powerful and cost-effective communication tool. You can send out updates, good news, special promotions, product introductions, and similar information to your target audience.

4. It’s a feedback tool. You can hear from your customers and how they feel about your business.

5. It makes you money. Depending on how good you are at turning site visitors into paying customers, your website indeed can positively affect your bottom-line. If you believe that your business can make you rich, your website only makes it a little bit easier.

We’re only talking about a simple website here. Bear in mind that not all websites are created equal. Some have a lot of advanced features like those e-commerce websites that accept online payments, or those from the banks that allow you to perform Internet Banking 24/7.

Stay tuned for part 2 where we discuss main ingredients you need to prepare so you can have a killer website.

Update: Part 2 of this series of articles is now ready. Click here to read it.