January 2009

January 22, 2009

Business Plan Template and Tips

Author: Shankar AVSB

In this note, I want to share my learning on business plans with you. Because I am involved in Venture Capital and Private Equity, I get a lot of business plans. And going by the number of proposals we reviewed or prepared in the last one year, the global economy is doing great! A lot of individual professionals have opened their own companies, and many companies are looking to grow with global demand for their products/services.

The physical location of people is getting less relevant in many industries. The Internet is playing a role in every business plan, across industries: Software Services, Financial services, Media, Healthcare, Café and Retail chains, etc.

One of the most common questions I see is this: How should my business plan look like?

Well, that depends on what your business aims to do, and who you want to approach for capital. While there is no one answer to it, I want to share a good business plan template that has been used with success. You can download it from the link on this page. http://alphaneuron.com/business-plan-template-development-and-review/

From our business plan reviews, I also see a common mistake many people are making - there is a lot of emphasis on how much money is needed and what kind of sales will happen, etc. But there is insufficient information and analysis on the market in which you want to play and the differentiators with respect to competition, and therefore, what makes you think that you will win the sales that you show in your plan. Also, none or very little information is shared on the systems/processes in place for the business to run if you were to go down for some reason. These are important parts of a business plan. And we hope the template we have shared above will help you. Ideally, 20-25 slides are good for any business plan, including references and supporting data.

So please keep the following in mind if you are going to develop a business plan:

1. The purpose is to convince the investor that your plan is practical and that there is a good chance for success.

2. If you send your plan to every VC and investor around, your effort will be high, and also your rejection rate. Therefore, first connect with prospective VCs and check if they are interested at all in what you are proposing. It is often more productive to send customized mails to 20 VCs than the same mail to 200.

3. Be willing to face a lot of NOs. Be ready to start things small with alternate funding arrangements. If you will start only if VC money is available, then your plan is weak.

4. Show options at key decision points, so that different possibilities are visible. For example, what if the demand turns our to be only 50% of what you planned? Or what if it is 200% of what you planned? What if you go down with illness? What if a large company creates similar product? Identify real-life risks and show options for them. This will be received well because many VCs often start from the business risks.

5. There are many useful inputs available on the blog here that you can use while making your business plan: http://alphaneuron.com

About the Author:

Shankar AVSB is CEO of MyOrbit- Online Business Channel and Director of Alpha Neuron- Better Business Decisions with experience in commercializing new products and has worked with 100+ business directors on real-life challenges.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/business-plan-template-and-tips-264829.html

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Edc Diamond - Real Business Opportunity or Scam

Author: Gordon Garza

Creators Craig Garcia & Michael Corcoran established Easy Daily Cash (EDC) in February 2006, whereas EDC Gold was their next launch in November 2006.

Generally, EDC members create their income by marketing software and e-books tools online. These are mainstream products entailing article submission, web templates, blog marketing, email marketing using eBay, Web Audio plus, affiliate programs and website development.

EDC diamond is the latest approach supplemented to EDC. The price to begin this business program is $2497, plus $79.95 fee per month.

EDC Diamond possesses two opportunity calls per week, directed towards fresh potential members of the program. In short, EDC Diamond is a sales driven subject with owners conversing value of generating $1500.00 per sale to the future business members.

Subsequent to the opportunity call, there is an additional top-quality training seminar on the overview of internet marketing in an EDC Diamond program.

The compensation of EDC Diamond product enables a member to earn $1500 straight commission on every sale, with a $50 monthly commission and $500 on every sale made by your members.

Other Reviews:

EDC Diamond has a customized 2-Up pay plan, which signifies that you have to pass up on two sales to your sponsor. This is a complex compensation plan for all online business beginners pertained with the reality that, once the sponsor benefits from these two pass up sales, the new members are freed from them.

While EDC Diamond is not a deception, there are certain stumbling blocks to the program. One major challenging factor is with the compensation plan. Since, 2-Up plan is nonstandard pay plan to form team performance.

Several sponsors desire to have the advantage of training their member and earning from their endeavor. Nevertheless, after the sponsors make money from the first two sales of the members, they tear away from the sponsors. Hence, there is no chance for the sponsor to instruct their members.

One major factor for new internet marketing promoters to be successful is to pick the correct mentor for the trainee marketer. Nevertheless, after the new member breaks away from sponsor in a 2-Up plan, the supervision and training is more likely to draw to a close.

At such time, the new marketer is straightaway contending with its supporter, and it is apparent, who will have the advantage of this circumstance.

About the Author:

Gordon Garza is a professional Internet Marketer and Mentor. Working with entrepreneurs around the world. Visit BigTicket-To-Wealth or GordonTheMentor to learn more.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/edc-diamond-real-business-opportunity-or-scam-339409.html

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Finding The Right Hosting Plan With Web Hosting Reviews

Author: MIKE SELVON

Reviews on products have long been relied on to help people make wise shopping choices and in today’s environment of ecommerce, reviews are relied on more than ever. Since so much is purchased online without being able to "handle the merchandise” first, people can learn about the quality of a product from the experience of others. This is also true when it comes to intangible services, and many web entrepreneurs rely on hosting reviews to help them choose the best web hosting provider.

There are many different choices in web server hosting services and it seems that there are brand new web hosting companies cropping up every single day. This often makes it very difficult to choose a domain web hosting provider because the different plans that are offered can seem complicated and can easily be confusing, especially to someone who is new to the internet and does not know much about how to choose a web hosting plan. This is when reviews about hosting can be especially beneficial.

Web server hosting reviews can help people who are new to internet businesses and websites to make sense of the many different hosting options and packages that are available. The comparisons from the reviews on the different hosting companies can often make it easier to quickly size up the offerings.

One of the primary things that should be covered in good reviews of hosting services is the reliability, or the uptime, of the various web server hosting companies. High quality hosting providers will have a guaranteed 100% uptime because they have redundant servers in secondary locations to assure that access to the sites, which are being hosted, is uninterrupted, even in the case of equipment failure or some type of emergency or disaster. In general, the medium and low cost hosting services will have an uptime of 99% plus, while free webhosting services can be less reliable.

Another important aspect of web server hosting that should be checked out thoroughly through web reviews is the quality and responsiveness of the customer service and technical support department. If your website stops working properly or if you run into problems configuring a script that you need to run, then you want to be sure that you are going to get a fast response to your problem.

It is also important to know if the hosting company has support 24 hours a day, and if their clients, who are not experienced in the technical aspects of web site hosting, will be treated with a professional attitude.

While reviews about hosting services, such as free webhosting, low cost web hosting and dedicated server hosting, can be very helpful to determine the quality and reliability of a hosting service, people must also be aware that reviews can be skewed to favor a certain company and can be misleading. This is because there are many affiliates who will promote a particular web server hosting provider and write glowing reviews about the company, hoping that the review helps them to earn a commission.

With this in mind, it is very wise to spend a little extra time and look for at least a few different web hosting reviews in order to get a balanced and full picture of the various web hosting plan companies. With information from a range of reviews, it should be possible for even a person who is new to hosting to choose a plan that is easy on the budget, yet will still provide all of the needed services.

About the Author:

A free gift awaits you at our portal site, where you can enrich your knowledge further about web hosting reviews. Your comment is much appreciated at our dedicated server hosting blog.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/finding-the-right-hosting-plan-with-web-hosting-reviews-444189.html

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January 21, 2009

Great Plains Reseller News: Advanced Odbc Integration Review

Author: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP has pretty cool and end user friendly integrating module: Great Plains Integration Manager.  With Dynamics GP version 10.0, IM got revolutionary improvements in the form of eConnect connectors.  Now, where these connectors are available, IM performance issue virtually evaporated and you can integrate thousand of SOP invoices per minute, as eConnect deploys SQL stored procedures, versus OLE server for old IM connectors.  However we often see the problem of finding GP programmer, who is a maestro with advanced ODBC query to make integration manager work with pretty rigid and cumbersome text file, produced from your legacy MRP or EDI application.  Let’s move to the bullets:

 

1.       Microsoft Text ODBC Driver.  Unfortunately for Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Vista, this driver has known bugs and they are not fixed by service packs.  The work around is to restrain from defining fields format and allowing the driver to guess

 

2.       SQL Query.  Assuming that you have Microsoft Text Driver connection, see #1 issues, next step is to produce complex SQL select statement.  Let us give you some examples.  Imagine the situation, when you are given Purchase Expense accounts only and you need to alter GL distribution in AP vendor invoice integration.  Yes, of course, what you need is Accounts Payable account distribution counterpart.  In order to achieve this you create union clause in GP IM Integration query.  AP is typically sent on single Accounts Payable account, for you this means that you have to group together Purchasing lines and use SUM construction to create single Payables distribution line

 

3.       Text Driver Limitations.  To give you good example – if you have exactly identical GL distribution lines in the case described in the bullet #2, text driver will fail in distinguishing of those two lines and it will skip one of them.  What you need to do is to provide unique parameter, which will restore the lines uniqueness.  Also you need to be aware that Advanced ODBC option in IM should allow you to deploy Standard SQL constructions: group, union, having and others

 

4.       Additional Consideration for eConnect, related to E-commerce web integration and development.  eConnect is in essence SDK or Software Development Kit, opening GP object for manipulation to Microsoft Visual Studio C# and VB.Net developer, who is familiar with XML and SQL encrypted stored procedures.  eConnect will do the job when you have established ecommerce website, written in PHP, .Net, EJB and other open technologies and you need to integrate it with Microsoft Dynamics GP accounting back office

About the Author:

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving Great Plains USA and Canada nationwide. Local service in Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Diego. Please visit our information portal Pegas Planet: http://www.pegasplanet.com . If you need custom programming for GP, we are happy to help you with Dexterity, eConnect, VBA/Modifier, SQL Stored Procedures, Crystal Reports. We also provide instant support to new and existing clients via web sessions for the customers in CA, IL, WI, NY, FL, IN, MI, TX, GA, NE, NM, AI, NC, SC, OR, WA, DC, DE, PA, VI, AZ, LA

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/great-plains-reseller-news-advanced-odbc-integration-review-529679.html

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January 20, 2009

Vonage Telephone VOIP Customer Review

I’m a Vonage telephone service user. I have used Vonage for about two years now. In that period I have saved at least several hundred dollars using Vonage phone service. Vonage is a VOIP which means voice over IP address. This means it uses you pre-existing high speed internet connection to attach to the Vonage servers and get phone calls to your home.

My review will focus in on the benefits of Vonage service as well as some of the drawbacks. You’ll also see my final analyses on this service.

What I have liked about Vonage is the price. You pay under $25 bucks per month for a phone full of services. Services that include unlimited long distance phone service in the whole USA and Canada with no additional charges. Basically you are getting free long distance service nationally. Now if you are the kind of person that makes international phone calls you’ll also see a benefit. The charges to call overseas are significant. My old long distance phone carrier charged $.35 per minute to a certain area I called. With Vonage the charge was only $.04 per minute.

I also have a business line that only costs me $14.99 per month since it only has 600 minutes on the plan. But that’s enough for the few calls I make and receive from my business line per month.

The one fault I find with Vonage is that sometimes calls are choppy. This occurs during periods when your internet connection is slower or interrupted for some reason. This is not due to anything that Vonage is doing but the status of your own internet connection.

My final analyses is that we are mostly using our cell phones to make calls. We hardly use land phone lines anymore. Vonage cuts down on the price of your phone bill every month on a service we are using less and less of. I definitely recommend Vonage.

Get one free month of Vonage service when you use this special link here.

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January 19, 2009

A Review of MLM Management Software Sugar CRM  

Whether you are doing research in your field or you are simply trying to understand your client base a lot better, one of the things that you can use to help you is MLM management software. If you are in a position where learning about your customers is as valuable getting them in the first place you will find that having the right tools to further your understanding of the field in general is a great way to make progress, but the important thing to remember is that your software needs to be about as unique as your client base! When you are looking for good MLM management software, there is a lot to keep in mind.

Sugar CRM provides a lot of what you might be looking for in terms of MLM management software. First, Sugar CRM’s background is fairly impeccable. As an open source software, it guarantees that it is not one of those companies that spends about seventy cents out of every dollar on marketing. In fact, all of the money that is spent on this software is used directly to improve the content and to make sure that it continues to be behave in a way that creates a great deal more revenue and accessibility for the people involved.

When you are looking for an MLM management tool, you will realize that some of the point and click capabilities of Sugar CRM have a great deal to offer in terms of customization. One of the marks of good software is that t can be easily adjusted into what you need it to be, and this is one of the main selling points of this software. Sugar CRM will also offer access to the source code that works as the underpinning to the program in question. You'll find that it this level of customization is very important when you consider the needs of your business.

When you are looking for MLM management software, the first thing that you need to think about is the needs of your business. What do you need to get out of your software? Will it mostly be used for invoicing, or are you hoping to give it a more organizational role in your structure? The first thing to think about before you start looking around for software is what you hope to accomplish with it. By having a list of goals as well as some things that are more negotiable will help you make a good decision.

If you are not alone in your networking venture (and more and more people are getting involved cooperatively) you will realize that you need to get software that will work for all of you. Because this is something that you will be using together, talk about what you need and think about individual needs as well as those of the business.

Sugar CRM is one program that is very user-friendly, and no matter the level of the user, can be formatted accordingly. Take some time with your decision and make sure that the MLM management software you find is something that precisely meets your needs.

Learn more about Brian Garvin and Jeff West at Internet Marketing Review Kings and MLM Review Kings today. Use this article freely but please leave Resource Box intact.

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Hypervre Gold Software Review

Author: L Chan

HyperVRE GOLD is software that creates keyword based niche content websites that generate passive affiliate income streams for its owners.

Matt Callen designed HyperVRE, which means "Hyper Virtual Real Estate,” for newbies and experienced -- but busy Internet marketers.

Internet marketing guru John Reese coined the term "Virtual Real Estate.” It’s a comparison to staking a claim to land back in America’s early days. Those who got apiece early became wealthy. Here is the same opportunity today, but in the cyber world via building niche topic websites and the early birds are locking in their positions now before the masses catch on.

Newbies will love the fact that this software is easy to use. They don’t need to know any difficult to understand web-programming language. It eliminates the time consuming manual labor normally required to build profitable niche websites.

It includes a built-in keyword suggestion tool. By typing in a main keyword, this tool searches for related keywords to create targeted keyword rich content web pages that search engines and people like.

Having relevant content on websites is important to give visitors what they want and to rank better in the search engines. Many newbies and experience affiliate marketers understand this but just don’t have the time or desire to write article content to grow their websites. Matt’s software solves this dilemma by searching the web to find free to reprint targeted keyword rich articles and then creates individual web pages from these articles.

Users can also import their PLR – Private Label Rights membership articles or manually enter articles written by themselves or by hired ghostwriters.

Experienced Internet or affiliate marketers will appreciate the way this application automatically integrates commission-paying links from Amazon, ClickBank and PayDotCom into surrounding content via "contextual ad links.” When visitors move their mouse over underlined keywords within articles, popup ads will appear that contain their affiliate link to a related commission-paying product.

Users can play with the Affiliate Product Selection tool and find the keyword related products from within these affiliate networks.

For people addicted to the passive income generating power of Google Adsense Ads, Matt developed his software to include them on strategic sections of each web page that gets high click thru rates.

With this website generating application, there isn’t a need to purchase anything else. It includes a set of web page templates to make sites look unique. Users who want extra customization only need to do a minimum amount of tweaking.

With this website generator, there are no monthly subscription fees to pay to continue using it. The current total price is $167, which includes free updates and a private forum to exchange tips, stories, request new features and get general support.

Its license allows users to build an unlimited number of websites, either large or small without any additional costs.

This HyperVRE GOLD has the potential of drastically reducing the time and effort it would normally take for online entrepreneurs to create a market niche dominating virtual real estate empire.

About the Author:

See how fast and easy it is to create a content rich passive affiliate income generating website with only a few clicks of the mouse... Watch as HyperVRE GOLD completes a site in under fifteen minutes – less time than it takes to view this entire video… Visit: http://www.UltraVRE.com/HyperVRE-Video

Copyright © 2008 by Leroy Chan

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/hypervre-gold-software-review-407191.html

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