Supporting Businesses
“Startups are about the future,” writes author and entrepreneur John Nesheim. “They are about the promise of tomorrow. Like children with eager parents, they are excited about what they can become. Meanwhile the struggle of daily life goes on. As you execute your company plan, it will include inventing the future. When you can both do and dream in your startup, you will have made a great contribution to your unfair competitive advantage.” In this recession, a number of smart thinkers have decided to branch out and form their own supporting businesses or consulting firms to provide large companies with the tools they need to succeed. Often times, the right answers are within a company — with its frontline workers — but no one listens and groups consume the organization. By outsourcing crucial tasks, a business can face forward and get a good, honest, third-party opinion.
Today, copywriters are forming their own supporting businesses to offer their services to larger corporations. Finding the right “voice” for the company isn’t always easy. Sure, you could have your secretary write up a newsletter for you, but her degree is in Business Administration, not English, Journalism or Copywriting. These writers can maintain your company blog, bringing timely research and a vivacious tone to your enterprise. They can also publish top news with a press release, promote your article on a third party site with a link back to your homepage, or rewrite some of your site’s stale content. Adding more internal pages with valuable information for visitors is one thing that has been proven to attract web traffic.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is another area where supporting businesses thrive. Every homepage internet design should have searchable keywords, image tags and web copy that attracts visitors to the site. Professional SEO experts use a variety of analytic programs that let them know what industry-related terms people are looking up, what the most competitive search terms are and what words are best incorporated into a business’s homepage. By effectively designing your homepage with these factors in mind, your site will become a magnet for web traffic, thus increasing sales. Of course, some webpages have fundamental problems that send prospective clients fleeing. An SEO expert can let you know how many people are visiting, what pages they’re looking at, how long they’re browsing, which pages are sending clients elsewhere and where these dissatisfied visitors are going next. This research can be invaluable to a business.
Sometimes you may find you need supporting businesses to do your dirty work. The debt collecting business is one that seems recession-proof. Even though you end up paying the firm 10 to 60% of the outstanding debt, it’s better than getting nothing. Before you hire debt settlement or collecting help, be sure to contact the Better Business Bureau or the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators to make sure they’re legitimate. Similarly, banks have been calling in mortgage and foreclosure rescue companies to save nearly 1.7 million homes from foreclosure in 2006-2007. Before hiring a foreclosure assistance company, be sure to check with the Federal Trade Commission to be sure the company isn’t stewing in legal trouble.
Beth Kaminski is the co-author of Curing Your Anxiety And Panic Attacks which detailed treat anxiety attacks as well as tips on the various anxiety attack medications available at anxietydisordercure.com.