Internet advertising gives you the ability to reach a wide audience for a low cost. Unlike television and radio your audience chooses to visit your site at their convenience so you have their full attention. It’s dynamic nature allows you to quickly make important changes, such as a new phone or fax number, without printing new brochures. Furthermore, your potential customers get the information they want as soon as they want it.

Your visibility on the internet is increasing daily. A Nielson survey showed in 1999 that 24 million people in the U.S. and Canada alone used the internet. And 55% of the World Wide Web users at that time have used the web to search for information on products and services. Since then the usage of the internet is increasing at a rate of 5 times daily more than any other media.

An effective website makes sure that in addition to providing your product with a home, it makes it easier for clients to find your site and therefore your product. After all, this is why you advertise. Your website is actively working to make sure you can be found any time of day or night. If you are diligent in responding it is the best sales and marketing tool you have at your disposal.

Think about how you use the internet. I myself check online before I do anything either virtually or physically. I make at least 50 percent of my purchases on line and I compare before I go out to shop in person. I prefer to contact prospective suppliers on line and am very happy when I encounter a website that answers my questions and responds quickly to my query.

It is only a matter of time and not a great deal of time before it is possible to do everything on line. You can order your groceries on line, buy books, clothing, banking, research, visit the library, book a flight. And all of this without the aggravation caused by commutes, line-ups and the necessity to work within someone else’s schedule.

Should you be one of the lucky entrepreneurs who are advertising or selling your wares on line you are in the perfect position to expand your business without a great deal of overhead and to sit on the crest of the wave as we surf into the 2nd decade of the world wide web.

Copyright © 2009
Pinksky Productions is a leading PHP Development Company Toronto and also Toronto Web Design and Developers offers Professional Web Design and Development services across the world

Between work and life and family and friends. It is something that is brought to our attention in the New Year, possibly inspired by the holidays and reflections on the changes of the year just past.

Being self employed and running a business is a very time consuming effort. It is easy to think that it will give you more freedom to spend time with family and friends, and that may very well be true after five years or so, but the first years are all consuming. So at which point do you become selfish enough to devote the time needed to make your business the success it should be.

Defining the important needs of others as opposed to the selfish needs of others is an important part of that decision. Nobody intentionally selfishly demands of your time, but often they do it unknowingly. Ok so say, your sister gets hit by a truck, your best friend’s husband leaves her, and your family needs you. All valid reasons for you to neglect your own affairs and do the right thing. Your business suffers, your sister gets better, your best friend recovers from her loss to continue to maintain the business you helped her keep going through her time of need and your family moves on with their own lives.

Now you are left to pick up the pieces of your own venture, try and restore the momentum you had before these crises.

Now If you ‘selfishly’ continue to maintain your own business and say no to offering up all of your time and efforts to help those you love, then are you a bad person or are you being true to yourself. Its all about balance and what makes you comfortable and what is important to you. I will continue to struggle with this query for some time I am sure and hopefully find a balance that makes sense to me.

As a business owner Time is one of our most valuable commodities.   This wonderful age of technology, although meant to create more time and make out lives easier it often does the exact the opposite.  Keeping up with hardware and software changes, organizing and maintaining our (paperless) office can be extremely time consuming, creating the need to readdress exactly how we manage our time.

The first thing to do is to prioritize and value your time.  What is important to you, what are your strength’s and what are your weaknesses.  Once you have taken this step the next challenge is how to ensure that all of your necessary tasks get dealt with.  Assuming that your strength is your chosen profession, some of the more time consuming tasks in running your business can be accomplished by outsourcing and subcontracting.  If it is more important to you to ensure the time for you to manage your business and create your vision, then consider hiring a Virtual Assistant.    A virtual assistant, or VA, is a highly skilled professional who provides administrative support and other specialized services to businesses, entrepreneurs, executives, and others who have more work to do than time to do it.

If you value your time at 100.00 an hour it makes more sense to pay someone 20.00/ an hour to clean your house or 40.00/hour to handle some of the more menial tasks of office administration.  If you have a website, it needs maintenance and upkeep.  So many business owners today want to try and maintain their own website but it is not necessarily their best use of time.  It can be complicated and frustrating if you don’t know what you are doing.  It may seem like a high expense to hire someone to maintain your site for you but in the long run it is a wiser use of your time and money.

In managing your time and your business it often makes more sense to let others do what they are good at, incur the cost,  take the business write off and use your time on something more productive and profitable in your world.

There are many creative ways to get everything done without having a huge staff, be creative…do some research and decide what is important to you.  Create more time to spend with your family or a good book.

Joan Culbert
Pinksky Productions

It is so very important today that we get back to basics. Simplicity, Truth and common sense can keep us grounded and help to direct our proper path in life and in business. By living honestly and simply many of our issues today can be eliminated. The Natural Environment will explore the mistakes we have made, by getting away from the simple honest life we once had. In this way we are hoping to build a path to a healthier and happier future, for us and for our environment.
Sometimes in our feverish desire to achieve material success and to live up to certain expectations, we forget the fundamental principals that contribute to happiness and beauty.

In our rush to make things easier and convenient we neglect  the ease and simplicity that exists in our natural environment. We all have the ability to make the right choices when it comes to maintaining and preserving our environment, it is really a matter of taking the harder path and making the right choice.

Ultimately, the rewards are far greater than the short lived and immediate gratification of our hurried society.

Take a walk,  listen to your heart and do the right thing, you will be rewarded as will the environment you live in, physically and emotionally.

Joan Culbert
Pinksky Productions

Spending ten hours a day in front of a computer is not always conducive to staying fit, and squeezing in the time to maintain a fitness regime although important can be difficult. And so enter Beverley Coburn, of Active Age Fitness.
After much procrastination and many excuses I finally approached Bev and asked her about her services as a personal trainer. Its one of those things when considering expenses at the start of a business, it is easy to think perhaps it would be better to put those dollars to use elsewhere.
I took the hard path and jumped in, sort of, and signed on with Bev. She was very patient with me, I had excuses to postpone our workouts, I had discouragement in progress, but she stuck by me, was understanding but still aggressive in keeping me on track without being pushy.
Bev has been a wonderful inspiration to me and even though for the first eight weeks I was sure there was no change, she kept me at it. We are now in week thirteen and yes I am noticing a difference, and now look forward to our sessions. I stand taller, feel better and am gaining confidence.
It is not only important to present an image on your website but the image you present in person is pretty serious also. Thanks to Bev my image is improving daily.
Maintaining your body’s physical health is as important as your mental health and together they make the day to day operations of business easier to maintain. 

So Yea to Bev.

Joan Culbert
Pinksky Productions

I am  home safely nestled in my office with all computers and internet on the go.  I really am going to work on that whole relaxing thing…maybe after I get a rogers stick.

J

Day 2 and I am in complete and total internet withdrawal. 
I have a couple of clients Northwest of the city and and have a few meetings set up in the next few days. In an effort to minimize my driving, I decided to try and set up an office at my Dad’s cottage. Not to mention I had the thought that I would have some wonderful quiet time undisturbed to get work done on a few projects I am working on, most specifically thenaturalenvironment.ca. I mean what better place to focus on the environment and rebuilding it than a beautiful lake surrounded by mother nature.
Now technically this should not be a problem at all. So I got my self an internet stick, my cell phone, computer, of course, got in the jeep and drove. I had no problem getting online my first day, so was feeling pretty good, about this idea. The next morning no such luck. Needless to say finding the internet is still relatively easy, just finding it in the comfort of your own space is a challenge up here. I drove to the nearest town got online at the local internet café. My cell phone still works so I am still in touch.
I gave the Telus internet stick another try this morning and still not working, so I am thinking despite our differences I might have to give Rogers a try. I am truly getting a lot of work done, but I am determined to find a way to get out of that drive to town.
Joan Culbert
Pinksky Productions

A Website is a must Today If you are in business

Many years ago when I started designing web pages and learning html, a website was a really something  of a novelty for those who liked to learn and explore and the odd visionary who saw the benefits of the www.  Those with a geeky side (of which I have) and the technical savvy (pretty good at that too) would build  pages on the internet with all kinds of flashy, tacky letters and graphics, that led to family photographs, lists of favourite rock bands and any other number of lists of things that were on their mind at the time.

I was working in the media at the time and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work for a company who saw the advantage of website advertising and let me explore the possibilities.   Since then those possibilities have increased more rapidly than any technological development in the past.  Publisher revenue from online advertising in Canada has more than quadrupled over the past  five  years –   from 237 Million in 2003 to the 1.2 billion mark in 2007.  As it quickly closes in on more established mediums and due to the fact that the industry is growing at such a fast pace  it will be necessary to move forward in a creative and untried way. 

Considering the growth of the internet over the past fifteen years the fact that businesses are still in denial about the necessity of a website is baffling.  A website today is as important as your business card. You will rarely see an advertisement in print or on television that does not include a www.com, or one of the more than 50 extensions available today.  
 
A website is not only an  effective marketing tool, but  it has  become essential to keep your business flourishing and reach new client bases. A web presence is no longer a frivolity. Eager buyers and potential client’s, expect you to have a web presence! The internet is an incredibly powerful tool and resource.  With so many websites in our evolving digital age, building a web site that stands out and sells is only part of the equation. Chances are if you’re going to buy almost anything, (service or product) you check it out on-line first by doing a simple search. Think about your own search habits– You read the results quickly and don’t go far past the first couple of result pages. Neither does anyone else! Attaining and keeping a high rank is an ongoing process, but a very important  step to maintain the success of your site.

Be open minded and think outside the box,  the possibilities are  endless when designing a website, find a designer  you are comfortable with and communicate your needs as clearly as possible.

Joan Culbert
Pinksky Productions