SBAZ Blog – Home Improvement – Small Business Resources

Mortgage Tips Courtesy: David Krushinsky of WJ Bradley Mortgage

By now, most of you have heard of the $8,000 tax credit available to first time homebuyers purchasing a primary residence before December 1, 2009. The question that seems to be on everyone’s mind is whether or not the money can be obtained sooner and if so, what can it be used towards? There have been many announcements and subsequent revisions that have made it all a little confusing. Here is a breakdown of some of the current policies set forth.

At the end of May 2009, HUD announced that it will allow “monetization” of the tax credit. This simply means that the anticipated tax credit can be applied towards the home purchase immediately rather than waiting to receive the refund. The guidelines authorize the monetization in a few different ways.

For starters, homebuyers that believe they qualify for the credit are permitted to reduce their income tax withholdings. This will allow buyers to accumulate more cash reserves for a down payment by increasing their take home pay. Individuals must be cautious because if the purchase does not occur, the IRS could impose interest and penalty charges on the repayment.

Some state housing finance agencies and other government entities have introduced programs that will provide homebuyers with short-term loans that can be used towards the FHA minimum 3.5% down payment. Longer term loans that are secured by a second lien on the property are also permitted. The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) has compiled a list of such programs that can be found at http://www.ncsha.org/section.cfm/3/34/2920. At this time, Arizona does not have any of these programs available.

In addition, FHA approved lenders are allowed to provide bridge financing to the buyer that is secured by the anticipated tax credit. This amount is permitted to cover closing costs, prepaid expenses and down payments above the FHA minimum of 3.5%. Unfortunately, there are no lenders participating in such programs at this time. The broad consensus in the industry is that these loans are not anticipated to surface in the near future.

Carpet Cleaning
The beauty and life of your carpet depends on the care it receives. Quality carpet that is well-maintained should last 10-15 years. Proper cleaning will keep it looking great for its full lifetime and help improve your indoor air quality. Maintaining your carpet also protects your pocketbook and the environment. The right cleaning helps safeguard your carpet investment by keeping you from having to replace it before its time. Cleaning your carpet the right way is easier than you think. All it takes is a little knowledge about how to select the right carpet cleaner and the right cleaning process. Below are just a few reasons why you should choose Americhem.

Asthma and allergies: Although we might not normally associate carpet with improved indoor air quality, it does have a very positive effect. Gravity causes common household particles, such as dust, pollen and pet and insect dander, to fall to the floor. Carpet fibers trap the particles, reducing their continued circulation in the air. Proper steam cleaning effectively removes dust and allergens from the carpet and helps keep them out of the air we breathe.

Tile & Grout Cleaning
We professionally clean and restore all types of ceramic tile, stone and grouting surfaces including floors, counter tops, vinyl floors and showers/bathroom surfaces. We use state-of-the-art van- powered cleaning methods specially designed for tile and grout.

Our process includes:
Inspection of tile surfaces examining for the best possible cleaning method.
Specialty heated “BioKleen Green Cleaning” tile pre-conditioners and hand brushing, first to loosen embedded soils on the surface of the tile and grout.
Turbo Force cleaning tools used with hot steam and high pressure with rotating head cleaner using only force of steam with “BioKleen Green Cleaning” tile detergents and powerful high velocity extraction of all soil and water. We do not use any type of brushes that can damage or scratch surfaces.

Thoroughly hand dry all surfaces.

Apply an optional Grout Sealer to protect grout from mildew and re-soiling.

Pre-Treatment
First, we apply a mild Alkaline Solution to a section of the floor and allow it to soak for approximately 15 minutes. In severe case of soiling we will use a rotary floor machine to agitate the clearing agents in. This pre-treatment loosens accumulated soil, grease, and contaminants, and prepares the surface for our cleaning process. The alkaline solution does not produce any harmful fumes, and ordinary ventilation removes the mild scent within minutes of completion of the job. If necessary we will use a safe gentle acid to attempt to remove any staining that did not come out with the alkaline cleaning agent.

Turbo Pressure Washing
We use a pressure washing system designed specifically for tile & grout, acrylic, and epoxy surfaces. Our truck mounted cleaning process power washes the floor to extract soil and grease from the pores of the tile and grout or other hard surface floors. The system generates water pressure of 800 to 1,200 P.S.I. and water temperature of approximately 220 degrees to soften and extract years of soil and contaminants. The floor tool connects to a powerful vacuum hose, which sucks the cleaning disk to the floor, and confines the water spray inside the 16-inch disk. There is virtually no splash over to worry about. The vacuum hose draws away the water, along with the dirt, to a containment tank on our truck, and we dispose of the wastes in accordance with EPA regulations. You will find that our process restores the tile & grout to 85 to 90 percent of its original appearance. Some stains, (red wine, mustard, dyes, etc.) will not come out because they dye the grout, but the combination of heat, water pressure, and suction removes most stains.

Optional Sealing
After we clean the floor and allow it to dry, we seal the floor with our impregnating sealer. The tile & grout floor absorbs the sealer into its pores, creating a barrier against future staining. The sealer does not change the appearance of the floors by adding a shine or luster. Instead, it preserves the natural beauty of the surface.

Natural Stone Restoration – Granite, Travertine, Marble
We are one of the few area companies that specalize in the use of diamond abrasives in the restoration of your stone surfaces. The use of diamonds in the grinding and honing phase of restoration will give you better clarity and more reflectivity after polishing. We also provide cleaning, sealing, crack/chip repair and stain removal for marble, granite, travertine, terrazzo and all other natural stone surfaces.

Following are the restoration services we offer and what they entail:

Grinding
To remove deep scratches and remove lippage (uneven tile edges). Done by machine with diamond abrasive pads and water that creates no dust.

Honing
To remove minor scratches and wear from eveyday foot traffic. This process is also done by machine with diamond abrasive pads and water that creates no dust.

Polishing
To give marble or stone the sheen you want, enhance the veining in marble and to protect the marble or stone from everyday traffic and spills. (Utilizing the same compounds that are used in the fabricating process.)

Cleaning
To remove dirt, stains and bacteria and to remove waxes and polymers that have become embedded.

Sealing
To protect and preserve natural stone. (Using penetrating sealers / impregnators.)

Color Enhancing
The use of penetrating sealers / impregnators formulated to enhance or enrich the color of your stone.

Stripping
To remove coatings that block stone’s ability to breathe which causes spalling (when the stones crack, pop and shale). Some examples of common coatings are, crystallization, janitorial waxes, polyurethane, ect.

Grout Cleaning and Sealing
Dirt loves to hide in grout. Brushes cannot penetrate into the micro pores to get all of the contaminants out. We use a patented system to clean your grout to like new and then we seal it to facilitate easier maintenance for the long haul.

Brought to you by Americhem Carpet, Tile & Stone Cleaning and Restoration

by: Todd Helvik

What if you could set up a prominent booth for your business at the biggest shopping mall here in the Valley where over 80% of local residents look for your local services just like yours with thousands upon thousands of potential customers searching your niche per month? Your first thought would be “Where do I sign up” and your second thought would be “how much does it cost”. Well that is exactly what you can accomplish with a successful website ranking high in popular search engines like Google, Yahoo & MSN.

But how do I get listed up there?
Like anything else, to be successful it will take time and don’t expect to be an overnight success but it is not possible and you should be very weary of any company that promises otherwise.

Determining Factors
There are plenty of factors determining what seperates top websites from the rest and the main ingredient is links. I saw a good analogy on another blog that I am going to steal that provided the similarity to how high school students are only as popular as their friends. It is the same way with links. If you have popular or what Google refers to as “relevant” links pointing to your site then it will place you higher in the rankings in response to your fellow “classmates” or websites saying that you are relevant and worthwhile.

Once they show up, then what?
Converting potential customers is what really makes the difference when it comes to internet marketing. You can have the highest ranking website in the world but if potential consumers land on your site and find irrelevant or hard to understand content not driving them in a certain direction you can bet they will not stick around for long. The average web browser makes their decision whether they will stay on a website in 4 seconds or less so it is extremely important to get your point across early and often.

Phoenix Seo Questions
If you have any questions about the current state of your site or want some free tips or pointers that can help you along in the rankings or customer conversion process go ahead and shoot me an email or give me a call and we can talk about it. There’s no better time than now to start the SEO process, the customers are out there looking, make sure they find you.

Submitted by: David Krushinsky of State Mortgage

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have just released details on how they will handle refinance transactions authorized by the Home Affordable Refinance program. The complete details of both programs can be found by accessing the program guides from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but we will discuss some of the highlights below.

You probably have seen already that lenders and investors are in a holding pattern, as they determine if, when and how they will accept these transactions. Even though this legislation has passed – they are not all required to participate. For right now, your very first step is to contact your existing servicer, and get information from them as to their participation.

In the case of all loans, they have to be delivered back to the existing owner of the loan today. Meaning, if Fannie Mae is the owner of the loan, the loan must be delivered to Fannie Mae and underwritten according to their guidelines. The same is true for Freddie Mac.

You must determine who owns the loan. A borrower has the ability to do this by contacting their servicer and asking…or by using the links below. Note that the property address must be entered exactly as the agency has it on file, or it may not be found (ie: Rd or Road? St or Street? You may want check how it appears on your statement.)

Let’s look at the guidelines for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and point out some of the key factors we see that will impact or enhance your ability to participate.

One key point to remember is that these are the guides as they are originating from the agencies. And just as participation in the programs is voluntary, individual investors and servicers may choose to implement constraints that deviate from the guidelines, much in the same manner that we are seeing additional underwriting overlays in the processing of loan files today.

Fannie Mae

Let’s look at the difference between the types of refinancing available from Fannie. The primary difference for originators is as follows between the two programs..

DU Refi Plus

Available to all Fannie Mae approved lenders using DU; borrower must credit qualify.
Available across all lending channels (retail, wholesale and correspondent).

Refi Plus

If a client does NOT qualify for DU Refi Plus, they may still be able to refinance, but would have to work directly with the current servicer, or one of the servicer’s affiliates or retail channels.

Many of the guidelines are similar for both DU Refi Plus and Refi Plus. Similarities include:

That the borrower must be receiving either a lower mortgage payment or moving to a more stable type of product like an ARM to a Fixed-Rate. ARM programs are available but must have initial fixed periods of five years or greater.
The maximum LTV is 105%. There is no limitation on CLTV, but 2nd lien holders will need to re-subordinate.
If PMI does not exist on the loan today, it will not be required on the new loan, regardless of LTV. If PMI does exist on the loan, the loan will be required to be re-insured through the existing PMI company.
LLPA’s (loan level pricing adjustments) exist for both loans, see guides for details or consult your investors.
The availability for appraisal waivers will exist in limited situations.
Freddie Mac
The Freddie Mac guidelines are somewhat similar to Fannie Mae’s, but if you go through the detailed guidelines linked above, you will see they are a bit more vague at this time. Although Freddie Mac initially stated that these refinances may ONLY be originated by the servicer or one of their retail or affiliate channels, right as this article of the release of this article, we have learned from a source at Freddie Mac that they are looking at options that could enable more originators to be involved in refinances under this program.

One potential area that could cause a problem is that while no cash out is allowed, funds extended to cover closing costs may not exceed $2,500.

Additional Resources:

Does Fannie Mae Own Your Mortgage?

Does Freddie Mac Own Your Mortgage?

Article Written by:  Mick Bernard a Certified Credit Restoration Expert and President of Credit Strategies, a credit consulting firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Credit Strategies works with Mortgage Companies, Realtors and Bankers to help their borrowers with less than perfect credit increase their credit scores so they can qualify for the best possible financing.

Short Sale vs. Foreclosure

This debate is racing across our nation.  It is one of the questions I am asked the most, “Should I let my house go into foreclosure or should I do a short sale?”  Everyone seems to understand a foreclosure will not only demolish their credit score , but it will also ruin their chance of getting a decent interest rate on any new financing they want to get in the next few years.  A foreclosure is considered a major incident by the credit bureaus.  Any major incident can have a devastating impact on your credit score.  Other examples of major derogatory credit incidents are bankruptcies, charge offs, judgments and short sales, which are normally accompanied by the term “account settled.”  Anytime your credit report has the term, “Settled or Settled for Less than Full Amount,” it is considered a major derogatory incident and can have a major negative impact to your scores.  How much it will reduce your score is determined by many reasons some of which we can discuss and some that are kept a secret by Fair Isaac, the inventors of the FICO credit scoring system.  We do know the higher your credit score, the more damaging a major derogatory incident will be.  In other words, a major incident affects the people that have the furthest to fall.

Foreclosure

Most people know what this is.  A foreclosure is when the bank takes back a home because the homeowner doesn’t make the payments on their home loan or mortgage.  In most cases a home doesn’t go into foreclosure until a homeowner is several months behind on the mortgage.  A foreclosure can have a double negative impact on a consumer’s credit score.  In addition to a foreclosure listing being a major derogatory incident, there are also normally a significant number of late payments reported by the lender to the credit bureaus.  These late payments vary in severity from “30–days” late to the much more damaging “90-days” late incident.   In many cases there are additional late payments more severe than 90 days being reported, such as the 120 and 150-day late payments.   The number of the late payments and the severity of those payments will all contribute to the damage done to your credit scores.

Short Sale

Short sales are more of a mystery to consumers because there is some confusion regarding the impact they have on their credit scores.  Fair Isaac has confirmed that they consider a short sale to be a major derogatory item because of it being listed as a “settled account.”  Major derogatory incidents can have a severe negative impact on your credit scores.  Most of the cases I’ve been involved with, the main difference between a foreclosure and a short sale is communication.  During the foreclosure process the homeowner tends to be more invisible during the process.  During a short -sale transaction there is constant communication between the bank and the homeowner.  During that time the homeowner or the homeowner’s representative has the opportunity to negotiate with the lender.  In addition to negotiating a reduced loan pay-off they could also be negotiating what the lender will report to the three credit bureaus when the transaction is closed.   If the lender reports, “Settled or Settled for Less than Full Loan Amount,” the short sale will be considered a major derogatory incident.  If the lender doesn’t report the short sale as “Settled or Settled for Less than Full Loan Amount,” then this will not be considered a major derogatory incident and will not have the negative impact.  The homeowner may also choose to remain current on their home loan during the short sale process.  If they remain current then they will not have the added negative impact of the late payments affecting their score.

Affects on Credit Score 

The effect a foreclosure or a short sale has on your credit score is impossible to predict because of the variety of other variables impacting the scores.  If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of not being able to make your mortgage payment, do your research.  Call your lender to see what options they have available before making any decisions.  Call a professional; there are many different professionals that specialize in these types of transactions. The decision you make could have the largest impact on your credit score than any decision you have ever made.

Need more information?  Mick can be reached by e-mail:  mick@onlinecreditstrategies.com

Credit Strategies – 480-502-5554 – www.onlinecreditstrategies.com

by: Todd Helvik

This is a very popular question I cannot help to ask local business owners as well as my personal friends, colleagues and pretty much everyone else. So what is the general answer I get? No.

In the defense of the print directories the general demographic I talk to is under 40 years of age and are familiar with technology and more specifically searching for any and everything they could possible need online. I would like to tackle this topic from both a consumer and business owner standpoint and see what kind of conclusion I come up with.

From a consumer standpoint:What is it you look for when searching for a local business or service, is it just the first name that comes up, the biggest ad or the cheapest price? From my personal experience when using a phone book some 8 or 9 years ago I would generally call the biggest ad as I felt they could be the most trusted and established company. In this day and economic climate, consumers are relying now more than ever on price and will do whatever it takes to get what they feel is the best deal and as we all know, cheapest price doesn’t always mean the best deal. Those are both still very popular ways local consumers find businesses but the new overwhelming favorite has to be reviews. The continuing growth of sites like Yelp! prove that people will eat dirt off the ground if their neighbor says it tastes good and is nutritious. Seeing 10 wonderfully glowing reviews about a company will make a consumer not even hesitate to pick up the phone and use that service. Why shop around to find another quote on your project if everyone else has nothing but good things to say about this business? This can be just as true for bad reviews about a business. If you receive literally 1 bad review out of say 5 from your clients and the next business in line is 3 for 3 on the positive side who do you think will get the job? In my opinion, online reviews and recommendations will not only be the rise and fall of particular local businesses but also the fall and elimination of phone books as people will live and die by reviews from their neighbors and why shouldn’t they?

For business owners: Virtually every business owner I talk to is migrating, some faster than others, strictly to online marketing. Statistics are definitely in their favor as online searches for local goods and services are constantly on the rise and showing no signs of slowing down. Does that mean that phone books are dead? My answer here is not yet but we’ll just say they’re standing on one leg and it is only a matter of time before the other one is knocked out from under them. Many people feel that the baby boomers are the only source keeping phone book directories afloat. Various cities throughout the US are not even distributing white pages any longer to local residents but rather a cd and request form to fill out if they wish to have one delivered at a later date. So with this downward trend wouldn’t you think the advertising rates would go along with it? If you could be so lucky. A full page advertisement costs up to $5,000…..per month, ya per month in certain local directories and I want to take a minute to put that in perspective. If you are a carpet cleaning company for instance how many jobs and carpets would you have to clean to sustain this type of advertising medium? The answer is more than you will receive without question. Convert that money into the right online advertising and the sky is the limit. In conclusion, I would just like to pose this question to you; when was the last time you used your phone book to search for a local business or service? Please provide examples and thanks again for reading…

When small business financial problems arise, we sometimes forget what has worked for years and years – factoring.

Factoring is selling your accounts receivable, or invoices for money that is owed to you from commercial customers, in order to get the money sooner than the 30 to 60 days companies are taking to pay. Factors speed up the realization of money from your receivables; they are not a collection agency; they don’t buy bad debt.

Standard accounts receivable factoring has been around for more than 4,000 years. IFG begins the single invoice factoring process with due diligence that typically takes one to two business days. Once completed the client is at liberty to offer invoices to IFG for purchase. Upon receipt of invoices, IFG checks the credit of the debtor named on the invoice and makes sure that the sale represented has been satisfactorily completed. Once this is done the debtor is advised of the purchase by IFG and the client receives their funding. At the end of the credit period, the debtor pays IFG directly completing the transaction.

Factoring companies like IFG are experiencing an increase in the number of small businesses that are taking advantage of single invoice factoring solutions that can help them stay afloat during these tough economic times. Payments are running later than ever, and many businesses are finding themselves strapped for cash for the first time. The reality is that bank loans take a long time to process while factoring is a 24 hour turnaround.

Courtesy: Phyllis Rector of The Interface Financial Group

Article Written by: Mick Bernard a Certified Credit Restoration Expert and President of Credit Strategies, a credit consulting firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Credit Strategies works with Mortgage Companies, Realtors and Bankers to help their borrowers with less than perfect credit increase their credit scores so they can qualify for the best possible financing.

A lot of consumers have the mindset that making payments on time automatically equates to a good credit score. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Paying your bills on time is an important ingredient of your credit score; however, there is a lot more to having a high score. Making your payments on time only makes up about 1/3 of the points in your credit score. The other 2/3 of your credit score has nothing to do with making your payments on time.

Making your Payments on Time is the most important ingredient of having a good credit score. Likewise, if you have a history of late payments, collections or charge offs you will not do well in this category. The more negative items you have on your report, the more your score will suffer. The more recent your delinquencies, the more they will impact your score. Time will heal in this category.

The Amount of Debt you carry is by far the second most important ingredient. Your mortgages and auto loans (installment debt) are included in this part of your score, but it’s the credit card debt you carry that is really the most important part of this ingredient. This includes anything from MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and any other revolving account you have like gas cards and even department store charge cards. The balances you carry on your cards versus your available credit calculates your “revolving utilization percentage.” The higher your utilization percentage is, the more of a negative impact on your credit scores. You can calculate your “utilization percentage” by adding up all of your charge card balances and dividing them by the total credit card limits you have available, then multiply that number by 100.

The Age of your credit history is a secondary ingredient. Don’t confuse this with your age. The longer your accounts have been open, the more points you’ll earn for your score. Never try to remove old, good accounts from your credit report because that will shorten the history of your credit file. As your accounts get older, you will gradually (automatically) earn more points.

Credit Mix is another secondary ingredient. What types of accounts do you have? You will do well in this category if you have a diverse list of accounts on your credit report. The ideal mix is 3-5 revolving accounts, a mortgage account and an auto loan. You can have a really high credit score if you don’t have this exact mixture because this is a secondary category. DO NOT START CLOSING ACCOUNTS IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN 5 REVOLVOING ACCOUNTS. Remember the category we discussed in the previous paragraph? Closing established accounts with a good, lengthy history can potential have a much more devastating impact on your score than having the proper mix of credit. Best advice here: if you have less than 3 revolving accounts, open a new account. If you have more than 5, only close an account if it has been opened for a short period of time.

New Credit Inquiries is the last ingredient and it also is a secondary ingredient. When you apply for credit you are giving the lender permission to check your credit history and credit scores. Each time this happens your credit report will reflect an “inquiry.” To maximize your score in this category, only apply for credit when you really need it.

Now you have the recipe for an ideal credit score.
Want more information about how to maximize your credit score? Call Mick today 480-502-5554 for a complimentary credit evaluation.

Check out some more info on our website:
www.onlinecreditstrategies.com

Noisy Pipes Courtesy of Christian Brothers Plumbing and Air Conditioning
Pipe noises range from loud hammering sounds to high-pitched squeaks. The causes may be loose pipes, water logged air chambers, or water pressure that’s too high. Anchoring exposed pipes is a simple solution; other remedies such as anchoring pipes concealed inside walls, floors or ceilings, may call for a professional.

Banging
Pipes are usually anchored with pipe straps every 6 to 8 feet for horizontal runs, 8 to 10 feet for vertical.

If your pipes bang when you turn on the water, you may need to add straps, cushion the pipes with a rubber blanket, or both.
When you anchor a pipe-especially a plastic one-leave room for expansion. Don’t use galvanized straps on copper pipes.

Squeaking
Only hot water pipes squeak. As the pipe expands, it moves in its strap, and friction causes the squeak.

Solution: Cushion it as you would a banging pipe.

Water Hammer
This noise occurs when you turn off the water at a faucet or an appliance quickly. The water flowing through the pipes slams to a stop, causing a hammering noise.

Check for:Loose Pipes
Remedy:Anchor the pipes.

Check for: Faulty air chambers. These lengths of pipe, installed behind fixtures and appliances, hold air that cushions the shock when flowing water is shut off. They can get filled with water and lose their effectiveness.

Remedy: To restore air to the chambers, turn off the water at the main shutoff valve. Open all the faucets to drain the system. Close the faucets and turn the water on again. The air chambers should fill with air.

Check for:Water pressure that’s above 80 psi (pounds per square inch).

Remedy:To lower the pressure, install a pressure-reducing valve (you can call in a plumber to do the work if this is a job you don’t want to do yourself).

Yes. I’ll start off by just throwing some statistics at you to get the ball rolling.

* 97% of American internet users use the internet to shop
* 90% of online commercial searches result in offline bricks and mortar purchases
* 82% of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit, phone call or purchase
* 80% of budgets are spent within 50 miles of the home
* 66% of American use online local search, like Google local search to locate local businesses
* 61% of local searches result in purchases
* 54% of Americans have substituted the internet and local search for phone books
* 25% of internet searches have a purely local, commercial focus

As a business owner you should be asking yourself 2 questions at this point.
- Am I maximizing my online visibility to convert all these customers into potential clients?

- Can I really afford not to be apart of the ever-growing marketplace which is the internet? (and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon)

Many business owners think that by simply jumping on the net and building their own website with 1 of the many website builders out there that they are doing their part in joining the online community and their phones should start ringing. If you are one of those business owners you know from experience that it doesn’t work like that. The internet is the most competitive marketplace out there and rightfully so as it is also the most populated. What that means is that you need to differentiate yourself from the competition and as it is very doable, it is not an overnight process or something that can be accomplished with minimal effort.

Start off by doing some research on your own and determine some realistic goals for yourself and business. Google is an extremely powerful source of knowledge so I encourage you to use it. Search for businesses similar to yours and see what you like and don’t like. As a consumer yourself, you know what you like to see when you go to a website and that is more times than not a professional representation with very clear concise information and content. When a user does navigate to your site you have about 4-5 seconds to convince them to stay and click through your pages so get your message out there in front of their face and show and tell them why they should stay or choose your business to work with. I hate to be a spoiler for some businesses out there but consumers don’t want to read your 4 paragraph introduction about how you started your business, family, history, etc. They would much rather see a flashy banner with an open ended catch phrase or slideshow that catches their attention right away. It’s simple, get someone’s attention right away and they’re going to want to see more so always have that in mind when thinking about creative development. Once you have an idea of your general design characterisitics you can move forward to actually developing these ideas into an actual web presence.

Now you’re ready to “Start the Design Process”. My first suggestion here is to hire someone. Everyone has tried to build, fix or repair something with no real knowledge of the project and by the end they always say, “It probably would have been a lot less of a headache if I just hired someone that knew what they were doing”. Now comes the time to do some more research about who should turn your ideas into reality. You’ll start by asking friends or relatives and usually come up with someone but in the event you don’t then you can always visit your friend Google who always has plenty of recommendations.

I’m going to skip over the process of choosing your design company and get right to what you should do after your site is up and running.

People do not show up to stores or call businesses without something or someone telling them to go there. So let’s talk about getting some visitors and potential clients to your site. I’m going to choose 3 very common advertising mediums and give you my opinions of each.

1. Phonebooks - Save your money. I talk to many business owners shelling out hundreds upon thousands of dollars for this type of advertising and this medium is growing less and less popular by the day as the internet is becoming the major marketing force of this generation and as stated earlier, it is showing no signs of slowing down.

2. Direct Mail – (i.e. postcards, magazines, door hangers, etc) This can be a powerful medium if utilized correctly. I get plenty of advertisements on my door that look like the business owner jumped into Microsoft Paint and made up his advertisement. This comes back to the same point made about web design, DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! Don’t waste your time providing a half-ass representation of your company as it usually does more harm than good, excuse my french. Those advertisements make it to the trash quicker than the bulky envelopes of coupons I receive nearly every month, of course the recycle trash . I do receive advertisements however, that are worth looking at providing quality information and professional images and in most cases I will navigate to their website if for nothing more than to see if their representation is translated online and 9 times out of 10 it is. In conclusion, do this right and it WILL translate into business and website traffic. May not be enough to write home about but stay consistent and good things will happen with direct mail advertising.

3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – My personal favorite. Find a quality SEO Company and they will change the way you do business. The keyword in that last sentence is quality. Everyone out there that has built a website thinks they know about SEO and is an industry professional. The good thing about this is that you can weed them out very easily simply by asking for examples. If they provide multiple examples of work they have completed that are represented with prominant results(first page) for popular keywords then they may know what they are doing. I cannot stress how important and beneficial this could be for any business. In conclusion, if you decide to go this route make sure you are in it for the long haul. There is no person or company that can get you to the top of organic search rankings in a week for competitive keywords and if they say they can, steer clear. This process is ongoing and never finished even once you’re on top.

There is my rant for the day and I hope you found some useful information in there that will benefit you is some form or another. If you have any questions pertaining to any information I provided above feel free to shoot me an email @ todd@smallbusinessaz.com or give me a call @ 602.705.6050 and I’d be happy to chat with you. Have a great Monday!

-Todd Helvik