The information superhighway –the internet media – is spreading its wings like never before. The medium offers a level of interactivity and consumer engagement that is incomparable in the industry.

The three live business media include: television, Radio and Internet. All the three have been redefining the world media space in a major way. However, one can’t deny the increasing clout of the internet medium. From being a fringe phenomenon, the internet media has grown into a major force in the recent years. Backed by constant innovations, the industry has been climbing the popularity charts with both big and small businesses zealously trying to climb the internet bandwagon.

When it comes to Radio and Television, their biggest drawback being their geographical restrictions. However, internet marketing medium involves flat marketing, transcending the barriers of location and time. Anyone and everyone running a business can bank on Internet to grow his business. But such is not the case even with Print India. Print media may have ruled the roost a decade back, but today, to put it crudely, newspapers are akin to house flies- here today, gone tomorrow. In fact over 80 percent of the people read it during the first half of the day and then eventually it makes its way to the store room. Magazines, for that matter, have a maximum life-expectancy of one month. Leave alone magazines and newspapers even yellow pages and white pages are considered to be a faded or fading medium.

On the other hand, Internet is being interpreted as hot n’ happening Gen Next medium. It has got all the trappings of a new age business promotional tool. Internet’s growing influence in India is unassailable. According to a recent survey, there are over 60 million net users in India and the count is growing. The most remarkable aspect being: 3 out of 4 internet users (70%) make use of internet on daily basis. The ‘active’ pool of internet users is 32.4 million strong. Another statistics suggest that of the 20 million who read in English, only 5 million are on the net. So there are 15 odd English speaking million Indians who still can be latched on to the internet bandwagon.

The most remarkable aspect being, the popularity of internet media is not confined to just the rich and uber –audience, but it has cut its way across the various socio-economic groups. In fact 55 percent of regular internet users are from the consuming class, 71 percent from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Almost 82 percent fall in the age group of 19-35 years.

Today, Internet is widely used in offices, schools and college. In fact offices today continue to be the single largest destination for accessing the internet, almost by 68 percent. Usage from home comes a close second at 50 percent, followed by cybercafés at 45 percent.

One of the most notable aspects being, home (37%) is the single most preferred place for surfing over and above office(30%) and cybercafé (15%). Another interesting statistics suggest that almost 89 percent of active on-line Indians look for products on-line. Yes, window shopping and internet means one and the same now. Furthermore, communication, social interaction and other leisure activities also form part of the popular online activities. Today, online shoppers in India are around 34.5 million, almost 6.5 million more than the last year’s figure. Google is being considered as the most popular site among online Indians with almost 35 percent of the Indians getting hooked to Google. Yahoo bags the second spot with 28%. Gmail, Orkut, Rediff rank 3rd, 4th and 5th among most used websites in India.

Internet Advertising

Today, Internet is an Rs.650 core industry In India. Banner ads are the most popular form of internet advertising. Initially video ads and high graphic pop ups were considered unviable because of the high bandwidth consumption – for the uninitiated, banner ads consume less bandwidth- nonetheless with broadband revolution picking up pace both in the Tier I and Tier II cities, the on-line marketing and advertising landscape is fast changing.

At present financial services consume the largest chunk of on-line advertising. Around 40-50 percent to be precise. One of the reasons cited being most of the financial services customers are office employees who have access to internet in the office.

Now even FMCG industry seems to be quite interested in climbing on to the internet bandwagon. Recent reports suggest that FMCG online advertising will increase by more than 300 percent in the impending year. Case in point being, Coco-Cola in August 2009, launched its new online brand sprite campaign as on on-line campaign even before its TV ads were released.

According to a recent survey conducted, the current online spends of the FMCG category stand at 160 million and is projected to grow exponentially by almost 720 million in 2009-10, a mind-blogging 353% jump.

Clearly, employing internet media is the best means to shore up the brand image in the minds of the consumers, at least in the current times.

Business consultancy and Business consultants are as varied and dynamic as their client requirements. Business Consultants can be individuals or organisations in the public, private or non-profit sectors and provide professional business consultancy services, skills and in-depth knowledge to solve client problems or meet specific business goals. The expertise of business consultants and business consultancies across many disciplines delivers enhanced economic performance, and in many cases, may have a global impact.

Organizations and companies, big and small, can and should hire services of business consultants for many reasons, including getting external and objective advice, access to the business consultants expertise, or simply as extra one-time temporary assistance during a project, where hiring of permanent and salaried employees is not essential. Due to their exposure to different situations and problems and their relationships with numerous companies and organizations, business consultancies are more aware of an industry’s “Best Practices”.

Many management and business consultants or business consultancy may be selected by a company or organization to fulfill certain business requirements that cannot be successfully undertaken by the company due to lack of time and or resources. The company may have more functional expertise than the business consultant, but the consultant or consultancy can provide a powerful benefit and improve their performance. Business Consultants can also use their independence to manage difficult or political situations on behalf of the company or organization, often using expertise in change management and deep knowledge of human resource. In many cases, business consultants or business consultancies may be hired by a company for their technical expertise or to gain independent and innovative overviews to identify areas of improvement and development.

Business consultants or a Business Consultancy provides services across a variety of industries and industrial sectors, with advice in strategy, programme management, operations, human resources, change management. Business Consultants may work within business consultancy firms that specialize in business consulting or may be a part of larger organizations that provide wider services such as accountancy, auditing, and IT development. Services can range from existing business support and development to skills assessment.

Whether you are an existing company, organization, or small business, or an entrepreneur thinking of starting a business, a business consultant or a business consultancy is an invaluable asset. It’s not difficult to find an individual business consultant or a business consultancy firm, you just have to search online and you will find many business consultancy firms, providing a number of services and offering varied expertise. If you are starting a new business or enterprise and require expert advice with cost as a major factor, then an individual business consultant is what you should be looking for. But an established company or organization can afford to hire a business consultancy firm with multiple advisers. There are many sites and companies online which assist you in finding the right business consultancy at the right price – no obligations.

If you require Business Services or require assistance in finding a Manufacturing Consultant Leeds in your area, please do visit our site. Our service is FREE for business owners and Managers.

Business Consulting Services deals with efforts in making business professional, cost effective for the business and information technology communities.

Business consultants are admired for their expertise and relied upon in every industry in every country. No doubt in this that they are the highly paid people and their advice is highly valued.

If one wants to become a business consultant he/she can choose to specialize in a variety of areas, including:

• communications consulting
• e-business consulting
• operations consulting
• marketing consulting
• organizational development consulting
• small business consulting
• human resources consulting (HR consulting)
• strategic planning consulting
• technology consulting (IT consulting)
• any other areas organizations need professional advice

Consultancy Services are categorized into following processes:-

• Optimizing applications and workload – Service where business consultants help their clients in aligning applications to business strategy, prioritize critical work requests and plan internal resources
• Improving productivity – Service where clients are helped in designing a process to work more efficiently.
• Ensuring effective outsourcing – Service where clients are made to assess outsourcing suitability of applications and infrastructure, design governance structure to manage relationship issues in global outsourcing and manage organizational change involved in an outsourcing initiative.

Business consultants provide the following services mentioned below:-

Consulting Services:-

Consultants are always helpful in trying to find new creative ways to market your business products and services.

Research

They provide qualitative and quantitative research to help people to find the proper solutions for the business.

Planning

They provide business planning in all the areas of business to assure your business success. They create simple business plans as well as complex global change and growth strategies.

Training and Seminars

They provide training in all aspects of business & make largest selection of the most comprehensive business seminars available. They also host business conferences and trade shows to address specific business needs.

I believe there is a time when every business consultant should leave a business. The problem is most consultants refuse to recognise it when the time comes. Many consultants get entrenched in a business and are quite happy to cruise along because they need the fees. It doesn’t matter how good or how experienced the business consultant might be, when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. The first red flag is generally when the business owner feels he or she is no longer receiving more value than cost. Frequently the business consultant should be aware of this situation before the client is.

Sometimes it’s the business consultants call on terminating their contract with a client or business. Typically this manifests every time you raise your fees. i.e. You’ll typically lose approximately 15% of your clients. Successful consultants regularly cull the bottom 15% of their client base as part of their growth strategy. This allows the business consultant to reach out and expand the upper levels of their client base. In its simplest format you cannot expect your business to grow if you retain all your paid clients. You will at best plateau and hit the financial tipping point.

Consultants who work on a daily rate or per-diem are generally practicing their trade. Their aim is to maximise short term cash flow. For sure this statement will have consultants across the four corners of the globe cursing under their breath. I have attended business growth seminars where the guru presenter has told the attendees to work out a billable day matrix. I.e. establish how much annual income they require and then divide it to identify your daily billing rate.

After deducting weekends, bank holidays and individual holidays, approximately 220 billable working days remain in an average year. Deduct 30% of these days for marketing, business promotion and other non revenue generating activities. Then assume a 70% booking rate leaving a total of 154 days to generate revenue. Assume an annual salary requirement of £120,000 which dictates a daily charge out rate of just under £800 per day.

Three things generally happen if you adopt this severely flawed concept. First you’re screwed as far as your daily fee can only decline, and your margins erode. Second you’ve inadvertently capped your potential for growth. Third is if you drop a few days you’ll fail to hit your own required annual salary.

In his Million Dollar Consulting book Alan Weiss mentions, “There are substantial risks in the consulting profession as well as substantial rewards. It is ridiculous to assume the former without capitalising on the latter.”

The only exception I apply to this rule is when I provide business consultancy services to clients who have sourced match funding from grant agencies and you have to work to a per diem schedule.

Over the years I have always approached business consultancy from a perspective of helping my clients to become wealthy, irrespective of what type of relationship or system I adopt. My secondary aim is to establish an enduring relationship with my client. Given I am very selective about who I choose to work with, and that some of my clients still utilise my services after 15 years, I guess my philosophy has been successful.

I believe you grow businesses by exploiting strength, not acclimating to weakness. I work hard and have every expectation that I be suitably rewarded for helping my clients to become wealthy. I operate on a project fee basis only and I always base my fees on the client’s perceived value of my business growth contribution. I make it clear from the outset that even though I am talking to the client, it doesn’t mean I will be working with them. If I get the sense that a prospective client doesn’t recognise me as someone who does outstanding work and someone who requires a high investment then I am always prepared to walk away from the business.

Some business consultants are specialists and some are generalists, then there are specialists who have transitioned into generalists. To become a successful business consultant I advise you to differentiate your services, and then try to identify your unique niche and then commence a very focussed marketing campaign. Never be afraid of failure, because in order to grow you have to fail periodically. These failures will pre-programme you to identify opportunities for improvement. I believe that uninterrupted success, by definition pre-programmes you for failure.

Old school consultancy has maintained a predominant focus on ‘reactive’, whereas my ‘Special Forces’ The Art of Business War is ‘extremely proactive’. I train my associates to respond to emerging trends and fads by collating detailed research and business intelligence. In my experience very few consultants approach business proactively.

When you work in extremely high risk security operations in some of the world’s most terrible theatres of operation, you quickly relate to the concept of ‘practice makes perfect.’ I witnessed world class SWAT instructors screaming at their recruits that ‘practice makes perfect.’ On one occasion I was tasked with running a very dynamic live fire SWAT programme at the Ground Zero tactical facility in Alabama, USA. Some 40 different SWAT firearms instructors attended. Their agencies paid for them to be taught personally by Dr. Mark D. Yates how to clear houses dynamically, in order they could then train their own SWAT officers back at their respective departments. Officers in attendance represented numerous different law enforcement agencies like the FBI, Police, DEA, Sherriff’s dept’ , etc, etc.

At great cost the Ground Zero investors had constructed a ballistically lined 360 degree live fire MATCH Modular Armoured Tactical Combat House. Many of the officers attending had never been through a live fire house, especially with a team of unknown officers before. It’s a very hairy experience which is not for fools or the faint hearted. Sadly one of the Sherriff’s SWAT instructors fell into both the fool and the faint hearted camp.

I caught him inflicting his expertise on a group of officers under my tutorage and I listened as he informed his ‘new team mates’ that he was highly skilled and experienced in live shoot house tactics. He finished his lecture by stating that repetition is the key, as practice makes perfect. After glancing at my fellow instructors we knew straight away he was a bluffer and a bullshitter.

We let him lock and load and placed him where he could cause the least damage, i.e. at the head of a six officer snake formation. He paused outside a door and placed his chin on the muzzle of his upturned 9mm, whilst his finger was locked rigid around his trigger. This was without doubt the single most dangerous incident I have ever witnessed on any shooting range in any of the 41 countries I have visited.

I aborted the exercise and brought the team outside for a safety brief. Sherriff Bubba refused to believe what I assured him he had done. I asked him what fate would befall one of his agency recruits if they made such a fundamental error. “Instant dismissal from the agency… but that would never happen because I train them properly and I’m big on practice makes perfect,” he replied arrogantly. One of my instructors led the team into the class room and played a video of the Sherriff’s Faux Pas. I told the class that practice does not make perfect, and that only perfect practice makes perfect. I also told them that I don’t train people, because we train animals and not humans. I prefer to educate people. For some reason Sherriff Bubba slipped away from the programme never to be seen again. Clearly like some business consultants, the time for him to leave was dictated by external forces.

Special Forces know when to arrive and also when to leave. They never overstay their welcome.

• This article may be reprinted without permission, provided it is utilised in its entirety and is not printed in or posted on any illegal or controversial publications.

Contact Dr. Mark D. Yates Business Consultant if you require Business Consultancy

The discovery of Internet is the most dynamic innovation in the history of mankind. No doubt, as in the case of every other single innovation, there is a flip side to it too. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

A decade back, internet was almost unheard of. But today, it has emerged as the most powerful tool for men (read: businessmen) throughout the world. Though e-mail and World Wide Web are considered to be the most important constituents of the internet; nonetheless it has emerged as the best business promotional tool of the modern world. News, views from all across the world, shopping, ticket purchase, etc anything and everything is now available at the click of a mouse.

Global Village

The term Global Village typically relates to Internet and the World Wide Web. Physical distance matters no more. The openness of the web has led to the creation of on-line communities that fosters the idea of interaction between various individuals sharing same interests and concerns. Furthermore, the rapid speed of online communication and the facility to read about, spread and react to global news very rapidly makes us concerned about one another, notwithstanding the geographical limitations, thus making us take on global responsibilities. Likewise, web-connected computers help people link their web sites together. This lays the foundation of new sociological structures.

Super Information Highway

The term Super Information Highway also relates to the Internet. The internet is referred to as the treasure trove considering the wealth of Information available online. Search engines like Google and Yahoo are always there to help you out in finding the relevant data. Information on any type of data, on almost of kind of subject is available on your fingertips. From, government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas and technical support, the list goes on

Nowadays, students and children are more drawn to internet for the purpose of gathering resources. Teachers give assignments that call for research on internet. Latest researches on medical issues is also posted on a consistent basis. In 1998, more than 20 million students had apparently had surfed the net to procure health information.

Entertainment

Downloading games, visiting chat rooms and surfing the web are some of the special features of Internet. Innumerable games can be downloaded from the internet for free. The industry has the caught the imagination of all the game lovers. Chat rooms are becoming popular as one can strike relationships with new and interesting people. Even marriages are now arranged via internet. News, Music, hobbies more can be found and shared on the internet.

Services

Services such as online banking, job searches, and even tickets could be purchased online for your favourite movies. Even guidance services on every aspect of life and hotel reservations can be found here.

E-Commerce

E-commerce, is yet another concept that is finding favour in business world. It simply means, buying and selling of goods and services on the internet. In practice, e-commerce and e-business are used interchangeably. E-commerce helps in making the product available at your doorsteps. Wide range of goods and services, from household items to technology and entertainment are available online for sales courtesy e-commerce sites.

HOW INSURANCE REALLY WORK AS A BUSINESS RISK

MANAGEMENT TOOL.  

          Businesses are the main source of survival of everybody, for this purpose, one should have an insurance cover for it. 

          There are so many insurance products that business men could buy to secure their business against losses which may have adverse on them.

          If there is insurance cover over any risk in the event of loss, the insurance company would be  quick to restore the affected person to his former position when he makes his claim as long as the risk in under the agree terms.

          For different kind of business, there are insurance products that can cover any kind of risk.

          Fire insurance, burglary insurance, insurance policies that covers damages to goods, are some of the policies that are available for business. In the event of losses or damages, there are insurance products to cater for such so that the organizations don’t go down.

          During the t transportation of good to different locations, losses may occur on the sea or roads. For any losses of such, there are insurance products that bear such risks. There are insurance products that protect business men against losses in business, such that if a person does not make profit, the insurance company will come in at this time of loss to bail out the business from dying. If most people who are now out of business now about these insurance services they will have got the relief of insurance companies through claims settlement and would have remain in business.

          A little premium paid, businessmen stand to give a lot of benefits in the event of the occurrence of losses.

 Conclusively, if some body is working for you and knows that if any thing happens to him, his family will have some thing to fall back on, they will be more motivated to contribute their full capacity. Insurance is relevant to growth and development of any business.

Apart for the risk that insurance companies bears for the business men , the risk advice that insurance  give before they take any risk is also relevant. So it is beneficial to insurance if the event should occur, you don’t need to deep your hand into your saving or capital.

Once you have insurance in place, you know that you are going to go to the company that is going to bear your risk for you and return you to your former position.

Omanani patsokari

Utilizing business consulting services is useful, effective and potentially very accessible. But, with so many consultants, publications and vendors weighing in with their own perspective and opinions, it can be very confusing.

Business consulting refers to the industry and the practice of helping businesses improve their performance, usually through the analysis of business problems and development of plans for improvement. Businesses may choose to invest in business consulting services for a number of reasons, including gaining outside objective advice and recommendations, to gain access to the consultants’ specialized expertise, or simply as temporary help.

Because of their exposure to and relationships with numerous organizations, business consulting agencies are also said to be aware of industry ‘best practices.’ However, transferring practices that have successfully improved one business to another is not always practical or feasible.

Business consulting agencies may also provide managed services, development of coaching skills, IT solutions, technology implementation, strategy development, or application management services. Business consulting agencies generally bring their own patented practices or frameworks to identify problems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks.

Many business consulting agencies have expanded in the last few years to provide other services, such as IT solutions, human resource consulting, and other managed services. So-called ’boutique’ consultancies, however, are smaller organizations specializing in one or a few of the above services.

Similar to business consulting, management consulting is becoming more prevalent in non-business related fields as well. As the need for professional, informed and specialized advice grows, other industries such as government and not-for-profit agencies are turning to the same managerial principles that have helped the business sector for years.

One important and recent change in the industry has been the spin-off or separation of the consulting and the accounting units of the large diversified firms. For these firms, which began as accounting firms, business consulting was a new extension to their business. But devastated by a few highly publicized scandals over accounting practices, such as the Enron scandal, accounting firms began splitting from their business consulting units, to more easily focus on and comply with tighter regulatory scrutiny that arose following the scandals.

Business consulting is a fast growing industry, with growth rates surpassing twenty percent in the 1980s and 1990s. As a business service, consulting is highly linked to overall economic conditions. The consulting industry shrank during the 2001-2003 period, but has seen a slowly increasing growth since. In 2007, total global revenues for business consulting are expected to exceed the $300 billion mark.

A few years ago I left the forces after serving a full 22 years. I joined the Army straight after leaving school; it still seems like yesterday when I walked into the careers office in Barnsley as a spotty eek. After numerous test, medicals and a 2 day assessment I was told I was going to be a vehicle mechanic ‘B’ in the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), a right mouthful when I was full of beer and attempting to chat up a young filly. Funnily enough when I enrolled in the REME I was not told I would be spending the first year after basic training in a technical school, if I had known this prior I would defiantly have tried something else.

During my career I became knowledgeable in a host of subjects, some unmentionable, the ones that are printable include; vehicle engineering, health and safety, human resources, general management. During my career I worked in some fantastically well organised, well managed places and unfortunately some not so good places. This leads me to the question; can a business really learn from the military?

Since leaving the forces I have been involved in a few business ventures, generally poor unsuccessful ones. Looking back I honestly believe if the management of these businesses employed a more military type attitude they would have not failed so easily. So what do I mean by a military type attitude? I certainly do not mean acting like the cast of Bad Lads Army.

This is what I mean:

In normal business life the main motivator is money or the fear of the boot. This is probably why so many people nowadays change job so frequently. These should not be the only motivation tools a company employ. The Army uses the best motivation tool there is ‘Time Off’. Of course having your workforce at home most of the time is counter productive.

In the early 90’s I managed a small vehicle workshop in Berlin. I had one military worker and one civilian. During the quiet periods I would call for the dice to be brought out, sometimes as early as 8am. The dice were thrown by all of us, the lowest combined score from 2 throws meant that person had to man the telephone all day, whilst the winners disappeared either home or to the local golf course. This management tactic as well as others ensured I had a happy workforce, production statistics don’t lie they showed an overall output increase. Other methods in different places included production meetings in the local pub, rewarding my hardest worker by giving him 5 days off; this certainly spurred the rest of the lads on and a host of other methods.

Of course there were times when I worked with unmotivated, self opinionated, lazy soldiers, on these occasions I adopted a sterner approach.

I then look at the majority of workers in everyday business life; I see they are generally unmotivated, unless they are self employed. I wonder if this is because they are not well managed. My guess would be they are not managed at all. My cousin works in a very busy establishment as soon as his boss leaves the office, everyone logs on to EBay. How counter productive is that?

To conclude in my opinion many lessons can be learned from the British military in how to manage and run organisations. I should send my article to the BBC maybe they will run a programme on it, now that would be funny.

About the author – Peter Arkwright recently retired from the military, he is now the Managing Director of www.bizseller4u.com
A new portal that allows people to list their Business for Sale

This article is free for republishing

Significance of business email marketing

Billed as the most powerful medium of internet marketing, business e-mail marketing is considered crucial for lead generations. However, most of the businesses are yet to derive maximum leverage from this medium. Here, we have underscored some points which can help businesses make most use of the e-mail marketing services. r />
While conjuring up an e-mail marketing campaign, pay heed to the human element as well. People normally shy away from excessive promotion or over-hyped mass-produced content. Also, avoid flash, because flash makes the mail look like a mass-marketing content.

The content designed for a b2b email marketing should be both interesting and informative. A bland, banal, boring content would naturally shoo away the visitors. But definitely, to add that touch of extra elegance, dash of colours coupled with different fonts, might probably give you the desired edge.

Targeted email marketing is no doubt high impact, high visibility advertising, however personalizing the emails will take your marketing campaign a notch further. Say, if you know the readers by their names, then start addressing them by their names. It builds an emotional connect and appears decent too. However, avoid repeating the names, as it might be annoying.

Once could even opt for email marketing that target new start up organizations or small organizations, as the probability of receiving optimistic responses is relatively higher.

As far as length of the on-line mail marketing content is concerned, there are two viewpoints. Some are in favour of having longish mailers because according to them they can flesh out a little more on the features and other plus points, and in the process leave a lasting impression on the minds of the readers. Conversely, a short mailer, yet creative mailer is also considered a potent business promotional tool, considering the fact that people hardly find time to read long mailers and probably may end up trashing long mails. Usage of graphics and data might work as well as it enhances the mailers efficiency as well as factuality.

The Internet market can be a complex landscape for the novice entrepreneur. However, in this age of advanced technology, and with the services sector expanding at a phenomenal pace, one can find a consultant for almost all business related requirements, including the increasingly popular e-business of today. E-business consultants take it upon themselves to help you to understand the intricacies of the e-business world, so that you are equipped to develop and implement winning marketing ideas, to make your business venture a success.

There are mainly two forms of e-business consultants available: paid or free e-guides, or e-business consultants, online and books. Both these provide very useful insights about handling various e-business related issues. Let us check out both, beginning with e-business consultants.

E-business Consultants:

They will help you with practically everything, from advising you on your choice of system to providing help with the installation process. The main advantage of these consultants that they reduce your workload. The consultants will share a lot of your burden. All you need to do is specify your requirements, giving the details of your choices and your budget, and the consultant will help you to acquire it.

Good e-business consultants help you to analyze your specifications and then devise a workable technical design accordingly, plus installing all the required software, hardware and network requirements, in addition to identifying the most cost-effective solutions. They also offer training, or arrange for it, and provide on-going support.

The only disadvantage of e-business consultants is the cost. The consulting fee varies anywhere from $25 to $250 per hour, depending upon the experience and the skills of the consultant. They also quote per-project based fixed fee as an alternative option to the hourly rate. Before you choose any of the options, you need to compare both carefully, and make sure that the one you choose is clearly mentioned in the contract you make with them.

E-business guidebooks:

E-business guidebooks are inanimate consultants that help in handling all kinds of issues related to an e-business. Apart from helping entrepreneurs by way of developing a business plan, you can also consult them to design and operate your website, find out how to get the website registered, find a suitable Internet service provider, and what computer equipment would be required for operating a website.

These guides also help budding entrepreneurs to avoid quick-rich schemes on the Internet and posting the privacy policies on the website. They also provide tips of how to market your business in the best possible manner, in order to differentiate your company from that of your competitors, including the various methods of advertising like making use of online communities, chats, blogs and forums, or banner advertising and podcasting.

Some guides also help entrepreneurs to find safe order solutions. They also provide tips on how to use the website to accept purchase requests, and sell software or other downloadable items. This module also includes tips to fight against viruses, and how to protect the website and computers with anti-virus software. However, of course, they can only solve common problems. If unique problems crop up, these guides would be of little help.

Both the consultants have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is up to each entrepreneur which consultant they select. The size of the business can help in making the decision. If the business involves more than 50 PCs, then it is probably a better idea to involve a human consultant, rather than a book, so that a round-the-clock support system is available. And if the business has only two to three PCs, a guidebook can be more cost-effective and informative.