Our 26th Review our Blog entry comes thanks to Deb Halmay from AskMax. You can read what she had to say about us in her blog post: YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog.

AskMax provides the support services that entrepreneurs need to start up and run their small business. Some examples of services we provide to our clients are:

• Marketing materials: including web sites, pamphlets and business cards.
• Research projects: helping our clients prepare business plans, identify new markets, find suppliers and product lines, and source the best places to advertise in order to reach their target market.
• Administrative support: organizing events, creating documents and presentations, and book-keeping.

Thanks for the review Deb!

If you are interested in doing a review, check out our Review Our Blog initiative for instructions.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Are you spending too much time on the “busy work” of setting up a company and not actually getting out there and selling? So far the number one response from our Young Entrepreneur Poll on What’s The Best Way For a Startup To Earn Revenue is: nothing happens until somebody sells something. Stop wasting time figuring out your business cards and other spending endless hours planning and go out and sell something.

This makes me wonder again if young entrepreneurs are afraid of selling?

Some of the other responses so far have been:

• Don’t borrow money until you have customers
• Rent adspace on your website with tools like AdSense
• It’s easier to earn money online than offline
• Cut expenses, spend less on everything
• Put back any profits back into the business
• Use a business plan to give solutions to what people need
• Launch into marketing as soon as your business plan is done
• You have to spend money - Advertise!

What do you think?

Is the best way to earn revenue to forget everything else and just go out and start selling?

Have your say by replying to this post or replying in our forums at this post: New Poll - What’s The Best Way For A Startup To Earn Revenue?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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This week Google discussed in their blog the difference between dynamic URLs and static URLs.

What is a static URL?

A static URL is one that does not change, so it typically does not contain any url parameters. It can look like this: http://www.example.com/archive/january.htm. You can search for static URLs on Google by typing filetype:htm in the search field. Updating these kinds of pages can be time consuming, especially if the amount of information grows quickly, since every single page has to be hard-coded. This is why webmasters who deal with large, frequently updated sites like online shops, forum communities, blogs or content management systems may use dynamic URLs.

What is a dynamic URL?

If the content of a site is stored in a database and pulled for display on pages on demand, dynamic URLs maybe used. In that case the site serves basically as a template for the content. Usually, a dynamic URL would look something like this: http://code.google.com/p/google-checkout-php-sample-code/issues/detail?id=31. You can spot dynamic URLs by looking for characters like: ? = &. Dynamic URLs have the disadvantage that different URLs can have the same content. So different users might link to URLs with different parameters which have the same content. That’s one reason why webmasters sometimes want to rewrite their URLs to static ones.

Why does this matter?

It used to be difficult for Google and the other search engines to crawl dynamic URLs. Early on in my web career I had to painfully rewrite my site code to make the pages static so they could be picked up properly.

The good news is now Google can pick it up properly. There still are, however, a number of downsides with using dynamic over static URLs including:

• Lower click through rate through search engine results (and other campaigns like newsletters, emails, etc)
• Not usable in branding campaigns as people won’t remember the link
• Lower relevancy scores because your keywords are not in your URLs
• Lower likelihood that you’ll get linked to with the anchor text you’re looking for

Many content management systems like the forums software phpbb automatically create dynamic urls and changing them to static can be quite challenging. Google is recommending that you not change the links because it won’t make a difference because they can still crawl your pages.

My recommendation would still be to move to static links but make sure you do it properly and don’t crash your pages. Hire someone to do it for you if you don’t know what you’re doing. It may be true that Google can crawl the pages but without your keywords in your urls you won’t rank as prominently and you won’t get as many clicks on your links if you’re using a dynamic structure.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Adam put me on to a new website called BizEquity.

It’s a company that helps you determine how much your (or your competitor’s!) business is worth.

Here is what BizEquity promises to give you:

• Easily search approximately 10 million estimated business valuations.
• Get valuations based on publicly available data and industry-specific rules of thumb.
• Compare how companies stack up against their competition.
• Get helpful reports and charts on industry trends.
• And it’s free! (the best part for entrepreneurs)

You can search for an industry, a category, or a company in a given geographic area (choose your city, state, zip code). You’ll then see a Google Map which shows you a list of all the potential businesses that meet your criteria. From there you can click through to see a detailed valuation about that business, its location and the industry.

On top of the free public valuation service, the company also offers a custom valuation tool where you can enter in specific financial information about your business and receive a custom valuation report telling you how much your business is worth.

I can see this being a useful tool to:

1. Figure out which industries are making money and are worth starting a new business in
2. Look for local competitors. Do you have an untapped opportunity or are competitors all around you?
3. See how your industry is doing. Is it profitable? Which geographic markets are making the most?
4. Know who are the top dogs in your industry and how close are they to your location
5. Understand how much is your business worth if you’re trying to sell it or raise equity capital
6. Determine how much is a business worth if you’re trying to buy it from someone else

What do you think of this service? Has anybody used BizEquity before?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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At 74 years old, he is still busy making people look good. Giorgio Armani is one of the preeminent Italian fashion designers in the world, still going strong after 33 years in the industry. Known for his classically tailored, sleek power suits and clean, high quality fabrics, everyone from the who’s who of Hollywood to the bankers on Wall Street have fallen in love with the Armani brand. Now, with over $1.5 billion in revenue and a retail empire that extends to more than 35 countries, Armani himself continues to maintain full control over his business. However, it has been a long, uphill journey for the designer to get where he is today.

“In this business you can’t have a destination, an arrival point,” says Armani. “Otherwise your competitors will overtake you, or you become complacent.” With over $1.5 billion in revenue, Armani remains Chairman, President and CEO of the company he started over thirty years ago. The mere mention of the designer’s name – first or last – and consumers the world over know not only who you are talking about, but also of the luxury product lines for which he has become famous. How did this once-poor boy, hiding from war bombs in a small town in Italy, go on to become one of the world’s leading and most successful experts on fashion and design? 

“Our house was bombed and destroyed and my father didn’t make enough money to support us. There were five of us. Looking back, I realize that we didn’t even have enough to eat, just like many Italian families back then.

My mother was the main reason I developed an interest in fashion. Though we grew up in post-war Italy and were very poor, she always ensured that my brother, sister and myself were immaculately dressed. She was herself an innately elegant woman. In memory of her I named my yacht Mariu, which is the southern Italian dialect for Maria.

My mother dressed in her best clothes, which were always simple but so elegant and sophisticated There were planes flying over us and we were under bombs all of the time. Our parents used to wake us up at night to take us to the shelter.

Remain true to yourself and your philosophy. Changing in the face of adversity will in fact diminish your credibility with your customers. You have to think of the future. If not, we would close down!  My work is my life. Even though it is good to take a holiday, after two vacations it is boring.

The long and short of it for me is that the entrepreneur is the one who at the end decides yes or no and I like that even though it’s a lot of responsibility. It would be very hard for me to do things somebody else’s way. At this point I think of myself more as an entrepreneur than a designer. This is my life’s work and I’m more passionate about it than ever.

Remember that, in the end, the customer doesn’t know, or care, if you are small or large as an organization - she or he only focuses on the garment hanging on the rail in the store.“

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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This week’s Entrepreneur University comes thanks to Stephanie Calahan. Stephanie L.H. Calahan of Calahan Solutions, Inc. is a dynamic entrepreneur, nationally known speaker, media personality, author, publisher, productivity/ organization consultant, & business start-up coach. She focuses on conducting presentations, personal coaching, productivity assessments & organizing services.

Stephanie shares her advice on how to organize your business:

“According to the Small Business Administration small businesses make up more than 99.7 percent of all employees. Add to that the latest figures that show small businesses create 75% of the net new jobs in our economy and you can see how important small businesses are.

Small Business Owners have a very challenging job. Many small business owners go into an industry because it matches their passion or is something that they are really good at. What many start up business owners do not realize is that it takes a LOT more than being good in a particular industry to successfully run a business.

Most of the time, small business owners need to wear many hats - visionary, product developer, marketer, bookkeeper, secretary, janitor and more! Overwhelm is easily around most corners!

Develop a Team!

Even the most organized business owner needs help. That help can come in the form of employees or other outsourced help. You cannot be an expert in everything, and if you try; you will loose focus on why you started your business in the first place! Make sure that you have a team of knowledgeable people to help you run your business. It is worth the expense to have it done right the first time.

If you are not sure how to figure out what you need, start by listing the activities in your business that you

* don’t want to do
* don’t know how to do
* know how to do but don’t have time to do

Yesterday I asked you how organized your business was. Did you consider your answer? Today I’ll share a thought on how you can move yourself to a business more organized. Write Your Processes Down!

Write Your Processes Down

Small businesses can sometimes turn into BIG business. Did you know that Ford and Apple both started out as small home-based businesses? Make sure that you are ready for any growth that your company may experience.

Review the processes and procedures that everyone in your organization performs and then write them down. By writing them down, you will

* be able to see any gaps or improvement areas that need to be addressed. Also, having written procedures and policies ensures consistency.

* have the ability to manage someone that leaves when you least expect it.

* be able to cross-train people to strengthen your business

* grow the value of your business. Did you know that most business investors do not want to purchase a business if all of the information is in the head of the owner? If you have solid systems that are written down, you significantly increase the value of your business.

Take Care of Yourself

Burn out is easy to achieve when you run a small business. Make sure that you take time for yourself. The most successful business owners ensure that they take vacations and time off to “recharge.”

Are you saying to yourself “How can I take time off? There is too much to do!!” True, every business owner has more than enough things to do and the list never ends. However, do you get the feeling that things are stagnant? Is output the same all of the time or is it growing?

As a recovering work-a-holic, I have had hard times taking vacation time or relaxation time myself. When I left my corporate job (before Calahan Solutions) I had over 2.5 weeks of vacation that had rolled from year to year.

A good friend and mentor, however, told me that I was not going to be able to grow my business if I kept up that “crazy” timing. He reminded me that my business was largely creative and involved out-of-the-box thinking. If you don’t give your brain and body time to recharge, the things you come up with are not nearly as good.

Since I received that hard message (essentially he said that I was not as serious about my business unless I gave everything I could for great ideas — including rest) I have practiced what I was taught and have taught it to clients too. Some of my best ideas pop into my mind when I am either relaxing or have come back from a break. By giving my mind time to focus in a different way, it energizes and inspires me!

So how do I take time for me? I do a lot of different things. They are things that work for me. I suggest that you find what works for you too!

* I play with my son and read to him - we laugh a LOT — laughter is a great de-stress for me.

* I play with my puppy (he turned 2 this month) I get really excited when I see that he has been able to complete a new trick successfully.

* I go to my NAWBO activities — the National Association of Woman Business Owners. I build relationships with other woman business owners that are there for me when I need help.

* I go fishing with my dad.

* I read a great book.

* I go on weekend trips.

* etc.

When was the last time that you took time for yourself? What do you to recharge? Do you agree with what I said? If not, why? Let us know by commenting below in the blog comment section.”

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Our 25th Review our Blog entry comes thanks to Chris Palko from YoungBusinessOwner.com. You can read what he had to say about us in his blog post: YoungEntrepreneur.com Review.

YoungBusinessOwner.com was established in 2008 in order to provide aspiring entrepreneurs the information they are looking for without all the extras.

The information provided on Chris’ site is not like other “business” sites. Other business sites talk of $100,000 business loans and leasing giant warehouses and office buildings. This kind of information is simply out of the question for the majority of those looking to start their own business. The information Chris provides is exactly what the young (and not so young) entrepreneur is looking for; simply how and where to get the appropriate licenses, low-cost start-ups, cost-effective advertising strategies, and much more.

Thanks for the review Chris!

If you are interested in doing a review, check out our Review Our Blog initiative for instructions.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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We recently had a request to do a sponsored review of BPOVIA, a Virtual Assistant Service. Their main selling point is the ability to cut your costs by 60%. How do they figure?

They assume that an In House, Full Time Employee will cost:

• $30,000 base salary
• $6,120 benefits (15% of salary)
• $5,304 vacation, sick time (13% of salary)
• $4,896 payroll taxes (12% of salary)
• $2,856 administrative costs
• $3,600 equipment, maintenance
• $2,100 space and equipment

The total therefore is $54,876 to hire a full time employee in house.

By comparison, their full time virtual assistants cost $950 per month. There are no benefits, vacation or sick time, payroll taxes, admin costs, equipment or maintenance costs, or space and equipment costs. The total you would have to pay on an annual basis is therefore $11,400.

More on BPOVIA:

BPOVIA is the largest virtual assistant service provider in China.

BPOVIA’s primary business objective is to provide small and growing companies with an on-demand and one-stop solution of essential business services varies from data entry, word processing to the tasks require more advanced skills like website design, graphic design, internet research, etc.

BPOVIA believes tapping into cheaper labor overseas isn’t just for large companies, but for mid-sized and small companies as well. Smaller businesses can achieve the same benefits from outsourcing as larger ones. BPOVIA’s major target customer is small and medium sized companies.

I’m not sure how they justify putting maintenance in the cost calculation twice and if all the additional cost assumptions are actually fair representations but even if you cut those extra costs in half, you’re still experiencing significant savings.

This is the first I’ve heard of Chinese virtual assistants - most of the companies I’ve seen are from India or other Asian countries - but it only makes sense that the service would expand to China.

Depending on the task I believe you can hire workers outside of the office to work remotely. I currently have two people (Americans) who work for me on a part time basis every month who I’ve never met before and I found through elance. It’s been a wonderful experience working with them but there are many tasks I would never outsource.

If you are considering outsourcing, make sure that:

1. The tasks are clearly defined and easy to do. If it requires your constant input and having to explain things dozens of times then it’s going to be very difficult to make it work.
2. They can communicate properly in English. I once called one of the largest virtual assistant companies in India and I couldn’t understand the person who picked up the phone. She couldn’t understand my questions either and ended up just telling me to email the company’s help line.
3. They are responsive. With that same Indian company, I did email them thinking that perhaps my experience with the woman on the phone was not necessarily representative of what their other workers were like. I never got a response from my email. Needless to say, I didn’t hire them!

BPOVIA looks ok on paper. The real test will be if they can actually deliver on their promises like the other virtual assistant companies are failing to do.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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It’s time for another poll here at Young Entrepreneur! This time we’re asking “What is the best way for a startup to earn revenue?”

Most startups are full of passion and great ideas but their businesses fizzle out because they can’t bring in enough money to keep themselves afloat. If you only have 3 to 6 months to start making enough to live off of, what is the best way to do it?

As always, your answers will be shared with the Young Entrepreneur community and will help inspire other new businesses owners to get started. Your answers can help make the difference to help a new startup make it and not have to close down shop.

Looking forward to your comments!

You can reply below in the blog or also at the post I created in the Young Entrepreneur Forums: New Poll - What’s The Best Way For A Startup To Earn Revenue?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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In July I did a review of a SpyFu, a keyword analysis tool, and ever since I’ve included some SpyFu suggestions as part of my regular SEO Advice series. One issue I’ve noticed is that some of the websites that I reviewed had no data showing up for them on SpyFu.

Sidra Condron from SpyFu also noticed and took the time to write to me:

“Hi, Evan

I just wanted to check in and see how your SpyFu trial was working for you.

It’s great that you’ve incorporated SpyFu into giving a many entrepreneurs insight into their site’s performance or position.  I’ve noticed that a few have come up as SpyFu not showing any data on their site.  Just in case there is a question about that, this is generally the rule:

SpyFu searches over 2 million terms in Google.  We capture data on the domains that rank in the Top 50 for each one of those terms.  If a domain is not recognized, it was not in the Top 50 for any of those terms, or, we didn’t find any ads that domain hosted.

I hope all is going well.

Best regards,

Sidra Condron”

I didn’t realize that their algorithms looked at the top 50 sites ranking for 2 million different terms. What it means is that if you don’t rank in the top 50 for any of their keywords then your site won’t be listed in SpyFu. I wrote back to Sidra asking for some advice on what valuable advice I could offer through SpyFu for those websites that do not rank quite yet.

She gave an interesting response:

“Hi, Evan

I was ready to point out that SpyFu can reveal where the action is when it comes to your readers’ industries.  However, it looks like you have a good grasp of that considering your advice regarding Sounds Of Rock.  Comparing keywords where he/she could improve is exactly where I was going.

But since you asked, here’s where I would take it a step further.  Google the terms that he would like to be associated with, (I went with “guitar lessons”) and pick out a handful of domains that rank well there.

Enter those domains into SpyFu. (I went with the top-ranked guitartricks.com)

Take a cue from those sites and collect not only their organic keywords, but also their paid ads.

With guitartricks.com’s results, there are dozens of paths to take for further research:

First, the organic results spotlight new terms that Brenn might never had considered.  “7 string guitar lessons” anyone?

Onto the paid ads section, I can generate new keyword ideas like with the organic results.  What’s more, I clicked on the pie icon to see a chart of its ad position distribution.  There seems to be a varying spread of guitartricks.com’s keywords’ effectiveness when it comes to ad positions.  Let’s say I want to exploit areas where they do not show up as strong in ad results.  I can download this list of keywords to Excel, sort by ad position, and focus on mid-range positioned words.  Or, maybe I use the sort function to rank by cost-per-click and/or clicks per day to help me understand where I might want to focus a campaign that I can best afford.

Those steps are basic, and many sharp SpyFu users find gold in the tiniest details revealed to them  Much like Tribbles, the information offered seems to replicate into more.  One search opens up to dozens of new ideas that lead to yet another search.  We open the door to a wealth of information, and it’s what subscribers do with it that sets them apart.”

Thank you Sidra for takign the time to write and provide me with new ways of using SpyFu. I’ll try to implement some of these strategies for future SEO Advice posts.

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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