In my last blog I covered the most important part of business – the Close!  The reason is most people don't understand that what makes a business successful.  They get dollar signs in their eyes and think that either once they get that web designers certificate or open their doors to their business life will change and it will be all down hill from there.

Truth is that is just the beginning.  If you want to start a business then you need to focus more on the business, specifically sales and networking end than the service or product end.  As I said, you can have the best product or service and if  no one knows about it you are going to fail.  On the other hand you can have a poor product or service and if you have a good sales person you can make bank.  And the key to a good sales person is closing.  Getting the deal done.

As I mentioned in my last blog, closing the deal is the most important exercise in business. More important than pitching, even more important than having a quality product or service. Although you want to have a quality product or service people get ripped off all the time because they have been closed by an expert. 

Closing is an art form. Pitching is what most people associate with selling and in all truth it is only about 20% of selling if that. 30% in my opinion is that the persons is likable. And the other 50% is knowing how and not being afraid to close.

This is probably the most important blog in this entire series. The real key to a successful business. If you are thinking of starting a new business or are struggling with yours here is where you might be falling short. 

Let's use a business that sells widgets as an example. You might think that having a great design staff to build the best widget is important. That your widget out performs all the other widgets on the market.

The truth is you can design the best widget. It can do everything a widget is supposed to do and then some. It can be made from the highest grade materials and have a lifetime guarantee. You can sell it for 99 cents and the truth is if you don't have a good marketing plan and sales staff you will be stuck with a warehouse full of great widgets.

In last weeks blog I mentioned Social Networking and that it has an importance in how your website is ranked. One of the key things that social networks offer is dynamic content and the ease to produce it.

Your top 3 social site you must be utilizing are Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. If you are not using these and video to promote your business you are way behind the curve.

My first blog last week was about why in the last few years I've switched to CMS websites.  How the power and flexibility they provide just can't be touched by a traditional HTML website.  This week I'm focusing on what to do with the website once it is up.  If you don't properly market your website it is like a drawer full of business cards.  Useless.

Now when you work with me on your website I do all the things like keywords, descriptions and all that.  Many website builders don't know how or don't bother and you end up having to spend at least a few hundred dollars more on an SEO company.  

There are a lot of other factors that play into SEO.  SEO starts with the website. As I mentioned, you have to have keywords and descriptions put in but one of the most important things is that the copy or words on your website has to reflect what it is that you want to get found for.  If you are a candle making business you better make darn good and sure that candles and candle making are mentioned several times on the first page.  Especially in that first paragraph.

I started in this business back in 1996 when there were no HTML editors and the primary way to connect to the Internet was by AOL.  My how times have changed.  Now there are applications where you can go to a website and with a template generator and a few hours crank out a basic albeit functional website. 

But lets be honest, just like cars, clothes and even homes we want our website to be unique and show not only our venture in the best possible light but reflect our personalities too!  Just some cookie cutter editor that gives you a choice of solid colors and stock pictures isn't going to do that.  And something else really important is that you need to have functionality in the website.  When they first started it was fine to just have them up there providing information but now people expect more.  You expcet more.  You want to interact with the website.  You want it to enhance your internet experience in some way.