Online Marketing & Promotion

Business marketing and promotions could be one of the most important factors when starting a business, since if no one can find you, your service or your product, it really does make it hard to build a successful business.

“important factors when starting a business…”

One of the easiest and most effective ways to market, promote and advertise your business is via a website since the online (virtual) world has grown in leaps and bounds over traditional methods – when was the last time you looked up a business in the Yellow Pages?

Types of website platforms

• WYSWYG: This stands for “What You See Is What You Get” and is probably one of the most easiest ways to to build a website and there seems to be an ever growing list of new WYSWYG website editors with some internet host suppliers offering an inbuilt website builder. Depending on your type of computer (PC or Mac) will limit your choice of program available for your computer system.
• Blogging Platforms: Although not officially a “website” they are a being utilised more and more as a website or a way to purvey information about a product or service with Blogger or WordPress being very popular blogging platforms. The Unemployment.net.au team can definitely recommend WordPress as this is what our website is built with!
• Dreamweaver: For a long time, Dreamweaver was the king 0f building websites with the hardcore website builders still using the program which enables a website to be built from scratch, which is probably the main reason it is being used less and less.
• Flash: Flash based websites are very popular with any service or product which revolves around design or the latest sleek-must-have item, such as interior design, photography, wedding dresses sales etc. A main advantage of a Flash based website is that they seem to really give a product that sleek look with moving images, colour changing buttons that seem to leap off the page, but the downside to this is that Flash websites are not all the good for SEO (search engine optimization), which is crucial to be found on Google.

The above is only but a few website platforms, but whichever one you use or commission someone to build a website for you, your website is nothing more than a tool in your business bag or arsenal to help you get people to use your services or buy your product.

“step in the right direction to getting your business off the ground…”

A lot of people make the mistake that their brand new will do all the work and they’ll have to do nothing more than have their hand hover over the phone for when it rings in any second from when the website goes live, but sadly, this is NOT the case although it is definitely a step in the right direction to getting your business off the ground and on your way to success.

Once your website is built, it is now time to work on getting traffic to your website – a challenge for just about everyone business and/or website owner.

So, just how do you get traffic to your website? Well, firstly one should know that there are 2 forms of website traffic – “paid traffic” and “organic traffic“.

Paid Website Traffic: As the name states, this form of traffic comes from paid ads with the most common form being Google’s Adwords, which can be seen on the top  and right hand side of Googles’ search page and on participating private websites. There are other sources of paid traffic such as Yahoo Publish Network (YPN) and Facebook Ads where you can also advertise your product or service. There are no right or wrong ones to chose from as some work better for some than others, although many will say Google’s Adwords is the most popular.

Organic Website Traffic: Organic web traffic is simply traffic gained naturally from people finding your site from either just simply ranking well in a search engine or as a result of being found somewhere else like an article or a link from another site. Many people will say that Organic website traffic is the most important source of traffic, however most true professional website promoters/marketers will use a mixture of both paid and organic traffic.

Starting your own home small business

So you have decided that 9 – 5 employment isn’t for you and “working for the man” is no longer your thing and you are sick of being some pawn in some large Sydney recruitment company, why not look at starting your own home small business?

With today’s internet connection and mobile abilities to take calls and send and receive emails it is now easier than ever to start your own business and with everything being so mobile, it is now possible to start a family business on a vary minimal amount of money that could possibly return you a second income.

“it is now easier than ever to start your own home small business…”

Previously, it took thousands of dollars in start up capital to just get a business off the ground and running which was usually soaked up in paper advertisements that cost a small fortune which are now replaced with online adverts and staffing issues that can now be replaced (to an extent) by computer and computer programs.

For example, with as little as $9, one can buy a domain name and an extra few dollars, web hosting, a new business owner can have a website up and running in an hour. Of course there is a lot more that goes into a website, but this is just to explain the “guts” of it.

Of course once things get going, legal advise, lawyers and accountants should be sought as sometimes a lawyers bill can be a lot cheaper than a law suit just as a few dollars spent on an account can potentially retain a lot more of your hard earned money stay in your pockets – not the tax mans!

So, once you have a website up and running, you could be selling your product with literally the WORLD as your potential customer base! Imagine having even a fraction of the world’s population who owns a computer and internet connection look at or buy 1 of your products – thats a lot of potential revenue!

Steps to starting your own home small business

So now that you have decided to start your own business and “go your own” there are some things that have to be considered such as what is your current financial status, are you ready to leave your job, what affect will it have on your family, are you and your family or dependants ready to take the risk of starting your own business and what contingency plan do you have if the business doesn’t go the way you intended?

Once you have considered the above and more and you are still willing to proceed to start your own business, with careful planning, it can be calculated bet.

The first thing you may want to consider is what strength and weaknesses do you have and the people you are looking to get involved with. A diversity of strengths is a favoured combination since where one is lacking the other person is strong.

With that in mind, it is a good time to start thinking about what business you would like to start. If you already have something in mind – great! But, for many, this is one of the hardest steps to take. As mentioned in the “starting a home business” page, a technique to help people decide what direction they may like to take is to decide what they do NOT want to do and then narrow down until the choice becomes clear.

So now you’ve decided what business you want to start, a business plan is most likely the next most important step one should take prior to launching the business as this will test out the business feasibility, clearly show and define what your market will be, roles for perspective employees (if necessary), strengths and weaknesses of the product. Effectively, it will be your step by step plan.

There are many  business plan templates which can be downloaded for free in most cases and usually feature an example of a finished business plan.

Most of the templates have a header or topic with a brief description of what should be written under these headings and you only need to write about your chosen field – simple!

“Now that you are armed with the home small business plan…”

Now that you are armed with the home small business plan for success, it is time to get the wheels in motion, but gaining the equipment you need to get the business off the ground.

Most business revolves around product sales or a service and whether it be virtual or physical a website is a great place to start getting your product or service out to the masses.

There are websites for everything imaginable and can vary in price from a few hundred to ten’s of thousands depending on the functionality it will have to have. The amount of SEO (search engine optimisation) can come at a price too, after all, what good is a website that no one can find?

With your bright and shiny new website featuring all of your business goodies, it’s time to get viral! So accompany your website with social media tools like Twitter and Facebook profiles and pages and then get the word out to everyone you already know and then get them to do the same to all of the people they know. You can be amazed at the number of people you have direct and indirect contact with and this can be a great way to spread the word.

At this stage, don’t be afraid to take enquiry calls, even if you do not have your product ready yet – look at it as what to expect once you have your product ready. You can always simply reply with a “we’re still in production” response which most people will understand. However take the opportunity to capture their data (contact details) for when you are ready. Be sure to ask if it ok to call them later when you have samples ready etc.

 ”it is time to consult some profession assistance by speaking with you accountant and lawyer…”

With the first main steps take, it is time to consult some profession assistance by speaking with you accountant and lawyer to ensure that you are compliant by way of tax and taxation issues and that everything you do from now on is by Australian legal standards (or the country in which you are operating).

FREE webtemplate download

FREE fax cover sheet template word

So, you’ve come across a company that is still in the dark ages and insist that they require a fax to be sent through? Well, download our fax layout template, fill in the blanks and your away! Provided you can still access a fax machine somewhere…if not, see our tip for sending a fax instead of using a fax machine below.

free fax cover sheet template word download

Instructions for the fax layout download:

• simply click on the main link above to download your free fax layout template.
• make sure you download the webtemplate somewhere you can easily find it and save it for future reference.
• replace the instruction and example information that is contained between the “[...]” brakets. Don’t forget to delete the actual brackets themselves!
• there are NO watermarks or promotional links on the document and it is 100% yours to KEEP!

*TIP: So you cannot get your hands on a fax machine but you have to fax off that document? If you have a smart phone with a relatively good camera on it, simply get in a spot where the lighting is good, position your document to be faxed so that it fill up the frame (while making sure you’re not leaving any part of it out of the picture) and take a photo. Then attach that picture in an email and send it off in an email. They’ll never know the difference and just think you scanned the document instead!

unemployment | centerlink unemployment help | recruitment agencies other than centerlink | applying for a job | creating professional resume | unemployment and relationships | unemployment finance and debt issues | income protection insurance | dealing with aggressive employers | | employee rights | employer rights | sexual harassment at work | unemployment disclaimer | unemployment privacy policy | unemployment site map

FREE webtemplate download

Business letter format template download

Writing a formal letter can seem easy enough, until you start second guessing yourself as to how the letter should be formatted. So what we’ve done here is all the hard work for you!

FREE business letter format template download

All you need to do is fill out the blank spaces and writing a formal letter has never been so easy.

The free business letter format template download is simple design and because it is simplistic, it is also great for general purpose uses.

There are a few things you may need to keep in mind when you are writing a formal letter and that is proper grammer and to double check your spelling, oh and did i mention “proper grammer”?! Nothing will kill the intensity of a letter than if it reads wrong or it littered with spelling mistake, especially if your potential, future career is depending on it.

Instructions for your free webtemplate download:

• simply click on the link to download your formal letter format template
• When you being filling out the body section of the letter template, don’t forget to space out your sentences and/or paragraphs
• the letter template is currently formated in a dark grey and easy to read font which can be change easily if so desired
• there are no watermarks or promotional footers – its 100% yours

unemployment | centerlink unemployment help | recruitment agencies other than centerlink | applying for a job | creating professional resume | unemployment and relationships | unemployment finance and debt issues | income protection insurance | dealing with aggressive employers | | employee rights | employer rights | sexual harassment at work | unemployment disclaimer | unemployment privacy policy | unemployment site map

FREE webtemplate download

Be your own professional resume writer

In this unemployment blog post, we have had a professional resume writer create a FREE webtemplate for you to download so you can apply for that next job in confidence.

The professional resume writer has created the webtemplate in Microsoft Word so it is easy to fill in YOUR details along with simple and easy to understand instructions as to what to writing in each resume heading.

download your FREE resume webtemplate!

Also, the professional resume writer has designed the webtemplate in a simplistic form so that it is useful for the most professional of job opportunities such as a pilot resume, financial analyst resume or a software developer resume etc right down to your more common office assistant type job roles.

Recruitment agencies will always recommend a simple resume/CV over a more complexed and difficult to read resume. A lot of potential employees make the mistake of thinking a professional resume must be complex which only makes the resume hard to follow and overwhelming.

Follow the KISS method – Keep It Simple Silly!

Click here to download your free Resume Webtemplate!

*Instructions to note:

• If you notice that the right hand column is out of line which can happen on different computers and operating systems, you can easily amend this by using your “tab” key to re-position.
• notes in have been placed in between “[  ]” brakets – Do not forget to delete these brakets.
• special notes have been placed in “italics“. Do not forget to either erase the special notes that are in italics or un-italics them if you have place your information in that area.

unemployment | centerlink unemployment help | recruitment agencies other than centerlink | applying for a job | creating professional resume | unemployment and relationships | unemployment finance and debt issues | income protection insurance | dealing with aggressive employers | | employee rights | employer rights | sexual harassment at work | unemployment disclaimer | unemployment privacy policy | unemployment site map

Unemployment News – bank employees say goodbye to weekends

The Commonwealth, ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Bank), GE Capital Finance and Westpac banks have all applied to the Fair Work Australia to have the banking hours extended to a full day on Saturday and also Sunday.

All appealing as this may be to the general public, there are no such things as a free lunch and the question on many minds is will this affect the current bank fees, since the majority of a financial institutions nett profits are acquired by the interest component of a load product (ie home loan / mortgage).

“the majority of a financial institutions nett profits are acquired by the interest component of a load product (ie home loan / mortgage)…”

So even though there will be those praising the banks onpening on a Sunday, I am sure there will be a few grumbles when they see there banking account fees increase somewhat to cover the cost of staff on penalty rates and other costs associated with longer operating, business hours.

“grumbles when they see there banking account fees…”

Other possible complaints could come from the bank employees as well, as the much longed after “weekend” could become non existant for the employees who are rostered on to work the weekend.

Normally, this was accepted by other industries like new and used car dealerships where people entered jobs knowing full well that they would be saying goodbye to at least 3 out of 4 weekends, but the current employees in the banking industries have been enjoying their weekends off and the sudden change may have see a lot of them leave for other office jobs where they’d continue to enjoy a Saturday and Sunday to themselves and their families.

Employment benefits

Recently, an IT manager from Sydney Uni gave a friend a job which has now lead to an ICAC investigation. This can be taken in a number of ways, but as this has made the Sydney Morning Herald, it has certainly been made out to be something serious.

 ”IT manager from Sydney Uni gave a friend a job…”

However, when you break it down, who wouldn’t expect to give another friend preferential treatment for a employment position. Since when would the boyfriend of a sucessful business man’s daughter not be given the first opportunity for the new job positon in the company? Are we really going here?

In this case investicated by ICAC, it is said that the recruitment agency that employed the friend of the Sydney Uni I.T. manager had took more than 1.7 million in fees over the past 5 years, however what was NOT mentioned was the total costs the took to turn over that 1.7 million, after all, it is the nett that is the important aspect of any business.

“the recruitment agency that employed the friend of the Sydney Uni I.T….”

While not trying to side-ball the main point of the SMH’s article, I cant help but feel that the real point of what i am trying to say is that since when in Australia do we not look after a mate? When it comes down to the boiling point where 2 people stand for a job with equally capable employment skills, who would not chose the well known and loved friend over the total stranger?

Is this wrong? Please feel free to let us know by writing a blog response below.

2,700 businesses go out of business December 2011

2,700 businesses going out of business is a stagering amount of businesses closing down and if you multiple the average number of employees a typical business may have and that would equate for thousand of employees now joining the unemployment line and adding to those who are already looking for jobs.

“small businesses that closed their doors for the final time went up 48 %!…”

Throughout the December quarter 2011, the number of small businesses that closed their doors for the final time went up 48 %!

Along with the fall of so many of small businesses, fewer enterprises were opening their doors in the same period making start-ups businesses down by 95%.

“start-ups businesses down by 95%…”

To add to the above figures an even larger number of businesses downsized with many employees being laid off and many remaining positions outsourced to off shore where cheaper labour could be acquired compounding the unemployment problem.

Correct unemployment rates

Currently Australia is experiencing a lot of job losses and the unemployment rates are being tossed around the media in a negative sense while the our Prime minister talks up how the Australian unemployment rate is one of the best comparatively, but just what is the actual unemployment rate?

One has to ask, “what is the unemployment rate based on?”.

Australia has a lot of high income earners how were on large salaries who have lost their jobs and do not fit the Centrelink eligibility test, so are they counted in on the current unemployment rate?

What about all those Australians who are to proud to apply at a Centrelink office to receive Centrelink payments or unemployment benefits – are they counted on the currently unemployment rate figures?

Banking industry job losses

Hearing about more job losses is becoming daily news and the banking industry seems to be making the biggest headlines as banks are cutting hundreds of Australian jobs and out source them overseas in a bid to cut costs while the banking sector takes a financial hit.

“Westpac banks recently cut approximately 700 jobs…”

Westpac banks recently cut approximately 700 jobs which were mainly in the administration level with more to come while the ANZ banks would leave another 700 staff unemployed.

“ANZ banks would leave another 700 staff unemployed…”

The Australian banking industry as a whole could cut over 7000 job positions leaving adding to the already increasing unemployment rate.

What is soon comes to mind is that there will be 7000 unemployed people joining those who are currently looking for jobs in Australia that is now 7000 employment positions less compounding the unemployment problem.

“7000 employment positions less compounding the unemployment problem…”