How can your business survive in this tough economy? Part 1

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Many people want to know the answer to this question.  They want to know how can they survive in this tough economy.  The answer is not quiet this simple.  However there are different things a business can do to cut back and try to stay afloat in this current economy.  And it does not all have to do with laying off people.  It’s more like being creative with your employees and your finances.

Part 1:  Office Rent.

Many business try to expand too fast and take on a big overhead with high office expenses and rent.  Sometimes having a big glamorous office can run you out of business.  To be frank, if a customer cannot respect you for who you are as a business, then they can go somewhere else.  In our experience, those customers who are stuck on this type of stuff are normally the ones who gives the most trouble.  Also they are normally the ones who don’t even want to pay for your services.

Reality is, more expenses means that you have to raise your price or end up taking from Peter to pay Paul.  Sometimes this also forces us to lay off good workers just to try and “keep up with the Jones.”

Not all customers are like this.  In business you will have a few categories of clients.  The in and out, the stick with you till your doors close, and your average pain in the but clients who are there to make your business atmosphere miserable.  Try to keep away from the last set of people.  Why?  It’s simple.  They are too demanding and time consuming.  And business really breaks down to time.  Time = Money.  And if you are stuck spending your valuable time on clients who will not appreciate it, they degrade you, they devalue your service, then simply ask them in a nice way to go.  You will make a lot more money focusing on your other type of clients rather than wasting time with the bad bunch.

Virtual Assistant

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Virtual Assistant service is a broad service that covers a lot of areas.  Basically what a virtual assistant does is, it’s just like hiring a secretary to come to your office and work everyday but instead they stay at a remote office and work for you at a cheaper rate.  What you get in return is low overhead.

This is something that is good and bad.  Good meaning that you do keep your overhead low, BUT bad meaning that if you do outsource, who are you really hiring to deal with your business?

When you hire a virtual assistant try to hire someone withing american borders so that if anything does go wrong you have some type of leverage.  These days there are many companies outsource to the asian market thinking that they are actually saving money, but in reality they are actually loosing money in many different way.

They loose money with time difference, communication, higher start up cost due to the first two issue listed, plus many more other ways.  They also loose when they take money out of the country to send to another country.  This creates an imbalance in the financial system.  No matter what country you are in, this will create a BIG financial mess.

For more information on this view our article written about Virtual Accountants.

Virtual Accountants

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VIRTUAL ACCOUNTANTS

Virtual Accountants are hard to find these days. There are a lot of companies outsourcing their virtual accounting service to india. The question is how safe is this?  We don’t recommend it due to a difference with the international law. India is in another jurisdiction vs. the U.S.

Next there is a matter of security as far as your personal and company information that is put over into the hands of someone you really don’t know. So as far as privacy, you can kiss that good bye.

Next there is an issue as communication.  How do you communicate with this individual? The fact is they do have your banking information along with other personal information.  Can you pick up the phone and call them and they pick up.  Keep in mind the time difference.

The final issue is economics.  Is it really worth outsourcing to india for virtual accountants? The average person in india who does this type of job ask for about $8 – $9 per hour.  In the U.S. you can find a person in this economy and pay them $10 – $12 per hour.  Yes you may be paying a little more for the U.S. person or company, but you have much more advantages with communication, time difference and the law on your side.

So to summarize, when you plan to hire someone or a company as a virtual accountant, hire someone you can trust and who is not out of the law jurisdiction.

Virtual Assistant Jobs

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Virtual Assistant jobs are very sought out these days, but the issue is where are the jobs really going?  In this economic crisis, there are many Americans who are loosing their jobs to people in Asia while there are companies here in America who think that by putting more jobs overseas will better the economy.

They are as DUMB as they come.  Yes we said it, and if you have an issue with this, contact Nexgen Business Solutions, Inc. head office and we would be kind enough to EDUCATE you on this.

Taking jobs away from the U.S. economy will not make it better, it will make it worst.  Have you ever asked yourself this question, if you take $1 out of the U.S. economy, how much did the U.S. economy actually loose?

Here is a scenerio, and please pay close attention:

There are 4 people in this equation…

John, Amanda, Rachael, Miliano

John is a baker who sold Amanda a slice of cake for $1.  John then went out to the store next door and bought a soda for $1 from Rachael the store owner.  Rachael then walks down the street and paid $1 to get her dress dry cleaned from Miliano.  Milano just got hungry and goes to John for a nice piece of cake for $1.

See in this situation, $1 circulated in so many different ways.  So is $1 really a dollar?  In the hand yes.  In economics, not really.

That $1 needs to circulate.

Now back to the issue, where are the virtual assistant jobs?

Should companies just outsource all their virtual assistant jobs to asia or other countries while there are people loosing their jobs by the thousands?

Our answer is very simple.  “NO.”

It’s time for these companies to spend money back into the U.S. economy.  The funny part to this whole mess is, the very same countries that the jobs get outsourced to, those are the same countries that still look to America for financial support in some way or the other.

In closing, since that’s the case.. how can you pick up someone if you are also on the ground?

I’m looking for an answer from the savvy businesses men who are educated in GREED with degrees so high they go beyond a Pd.D.

Affiliate Marketing?

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I’m just signed up for an affiliating marketing program. I was wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with this type of business. Is this a good business? I would like to hear the good as well as the bad. Maybe some good advice on some niches to foucus on. Any tips would be great. I’ve tried some home business opportunities before but they all were scams. I really want to succeed with this. Thanks to all.

Computer Repair?

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I’m having trouble booting up my computer. I can’t get past the post screen. I’ve tried everything but keep getting the PXE-E61 error. If I were to take my comp to Fry’s to get it repaired how much would it cost. I’ve tried everything on the net that people said to try but nothing works. How much would Fry’s cost to repair this problem?

Bitdefender vs. Spybot Search & Destroy

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In another recent case study, this time between Bitdefender Internet Security Suite and Spybot Search & Destroy.  There was a case where a machine was infected by a trojan virus and Bitdefender kept overlooking the virus.  We did notice some fishy behavior on the machine and decided to put on good old Spybot Search & Destroy (a free software).  After about an hour of doing scan with Spybot Search & Destroy, we found that nasty malware exploit (XP Police Virus) and a few other unwanted items that Bitdefender overlooked for over three months.

Sometimes you cannot put a price tag on free.  Not because it’s free means it’s not good.  Spybot Search & Destroy WORKS.   🙂

Norton vs. Bitdefender

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In recent comparison we did some test between Norton Antivirus and Bitdefender Antivirus and got some surprizing results.  In this years pcworld review on top antivirus softwares Norton outranked Bitdefender.  However in our test, Bitdefender out performs Norton. 

We basically put a machine to run with suspected viruses and had Bitdefender Total Security and Norton 360 do a scan.  Norton overlooked some trojans while Bitdefender picked them up.

In this run, Bitdefender Total Security Suite won.  Also, since we are comparing two apples… Bitdefender was also more configurable than Norton.  Norton 360 is made for rookies and Bitdefender has a nice GUI but don’t let that fool you.

Affiliate Marketing SCAMS

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Since the down turn of the economy, many people are trying to look for other ways of making a side income.  These days people are getting more involved with affiliate marketing.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is when you sign up with a company and try to sell their products and or services on your website.  Each sale “normally” qualifies for a commission.  Notice the emphasis on normally.  The reason for this is some affiliate companies cheat their affiliates from commissions. 

Even big companies like commission junction cheat their affiliates at times.  The funny thing is according to the terms and agreements that you sign, they’re supposed to give you your commission, but they don’t always do this.  They find excuses at times NOT TO PAY you. 

They come up with excuses like technical excuses:

  • There was a java script error.
  • The cookie was deleted prior to the transaction being completed.
  • The confirmation page on the advertiser’s page timed out and this prevented our tracking from picking up the transaction.
  • Your customer’s computer may not have allowed the cookie to be dropped due to not accepting cookies or the security settings on the users computer are so high it is preventing CJ cookies from being dropped.
  • Contact the vendor who is supposed to pay you.

All these are poor excuses and are perfect ways of shady business.  At times affiliate marketing can make money, but you’re always in playing the role of depending on someone else to be fair.

Having said this, this is why other affilites turn to “black hat”.  I guess they may have possibly got tired of being robbed by some of these companies.  Black Hat affiliate marketing is NOT THE WAY TO GO.  The way to go is to find companies that you can do clean business with.  Better yet, find products that you can sell yourself and make money by yourself.  Basically this puts you in a role where you make the rules and how are you going to rob comissions from yourself?

Are Spywares & Viruses Getting Out of Control?

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Reality these days is most adware and spyware don’t go away from your PC with just a click of a button as these so-called software vendors claim. To make matters worst, a lot of the top anti-virus software vendors DON’T REMOVE all the viruses from the machine.

We ran tests in our Lab and found that there is NO ONE anti-virus or spyware adware removal software to do the complete job. Most of these software vendors just take your money and give you FALSE HOPE in thinking that their software did the job.

You can NEVER CIRCUMVENT a real computer technician. No matter how much softwares you buy to do the job. There are many people who try to do the jobs themselves, and just make things worst. The easy solution to all the virus and security threats out there is to simply find a GOOD TECH COMPANY and have them do a PROFESSIONAL SECURITY AUDIT on your PC.

We tried Norton on our lab machines, and found out that they find SOME viruses, not all.

We did the same with AVG, Bit Defender, Kaspersky, PC Cillin.. and many more.

As far as spyware softwares go, a lot of these anti spyware softwares out there give you spyware. There are a few good ones out there, but most of them are just a waste of time and money.

To summarise, leave the hard stuff to the professionals. Let them do the work while you relax.

As consumers and computer consultants, we would say that experience is the greatest teacher.

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