By now, most business owners know just how important it is to be able to reach an online audience. Whatever field you work in, whatever products or services you offer the chances are you will be able to increase your reach and hopefully market share by appealing to potential clients and customers over the Internet.

But for those who are unfamiliar with the how things work in cyberspace, taking a business online can be a daunting prospect. Here we look at a few of the key areas that will need to be addressed if you want to take your interests into cyberspace and reap the rewards of online advertising and operations.

Creating a Wonderful Website

A website is like an online office – you need yours to be welcoming, inviting and easy to use – as well as being clearly signposted so the right people can find you. Things to think about when putting together a website include:

· Design: A good website will be easy on the eye, and users will be able to find the things they need without any problems. Avoid garish colours and huge swathes of text. Make sure menus are logical and keep the number of clicks necessary to reach key pages to a minimum. A website is a big part of your online business so if you are unsure about it then get some professional help and bring on a web designer to help you make the most of this opportunity.
· Search Engine Optimisation: SEO is all about making your website appeal to search engines. You need to make sure that your website is optimised for the keywords your potential clients may be using. SEO starts on your own site, and includes everything from your content to your tags. Getting this right in the early stages can save a lot of time and effort later on.
· Security: If you plan on taking client details or payments online then your site will need to be demonstrably secure in order to be deemed trustworthy. If you are unsure of the options open to you, approach your preferred IT support people for advice on locking down your operation.

Bringing in Business Online

While having a website is a great start, if you want to make a real splash in cyberspace you will need to make sure that people are finding you. There are a number of ways to promote your business online including:

· Blogging: If you have great knowledge in your field then think about sharing it with an online audience through a blog. Well written blog posts with useful and interesting information that have been optimised for your own targeted keywords can be a great way of bringing a new audience to your website.
· Social Networking: Everyone who is anyone is on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so well maintained profiles on these sites are a great way to get word out about your operations. Social networking sites must be regularly updated and must engage with the audience. Join in discussions relevant to your field and elicit others opinions on issues in your industry – social networking is not simply about pushing your own agenda.

Rebecca Jayne Philipson founded of UR-In The Paper Ltd in 2005, aged 21. UR-In The Paper is a site which allows you to customise a newspaper as a gift. The site is the UK’s number one personalised gift newspaper service.

Setting up her own company and not having to work for anyone but herself, was her life’s ambition and in 2005, she suspended her studies (an english & art history degree from University of Northumbria) to pursue her dream.

The idea came about after her granddad mentioned people who made newspapers on Blackpool Pier as presents and how you don’t get them any more. So she decided she would bring them back, modern style!

Rebecca funded the business purely through her savings, family & the local Business link in County Durham. She worked with a local software and web design company, while playing around with different techniques to create the perfect personalised newspaper site she craved. She managed to come up with a system with allowed full automation in the personalisation process and therefore led to great lead times for customers.

After much development the company finalised it’s bulk production methods and the fully automated system now allows UR-In The Paper to offer very fast turn around times to customers. Rebecca realised quickly that customer satisfaction was key and I believe by having a quick turnaround customers will have a better buying experience and are more likely to recommend the product.

The company currently have the capacity to produce over 10,000 bespoke papers per week!

Rebecca Jayne has seen UR-In The Paper gain big deals with Tesco’s, WH Smiths & Manchester United whom saw value in the product. She has even expanded to the US trying to gather a foothold in the massive market across the pond.

The company is headquartered in County Durham near to where she grew up and has seen her staff numbers increase significantly to ensure the best customer satisfaction. Within her first two years of trading turnover for the company had reached £1 million. Quite an achievement I’m sure you would agree, considering the nature of the product.

The young entrepreneur has been recognised for all her achievements with multiple awards including Enterprising Young Brit of the Year 2006, North East Young Entrepreneur of the Year & Natwest Everywoman Artemis Award for entrepreneurs aged 18-25.

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By George Metzger

Articles Source: Become an Internet Entrepreneur

Kulveer Tagger has led an interesting life, much of it due to his determination and ambition. He completed a BA (Hons) degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford in 2005. During his time at Oxford, Kulveer co-founded the Oxford Entrepreneurs society and became the president of the society for a period as well.

In 2004 he was nominated by his peers as FreshMinds one to watch. This was certainly warranted, a young man who always looked to be ‘one to watch’. While in his early uni years he successfully invested in property on three continents. He always had the mindset to make money.

He started his first business, Boso.com, an online marketplace for students, in 2005. This received over 3,000 sellers on the website and received over £300,000 from UK angels before receiving investment from start up venture firm Y-Combinator.

Boso.com became the first non-US firm that Y-Combinator invested in. He also met Evan Williams (founder of Twitter) from whom he was able to seek advice and also became a shareholder.

Having to juggle a job in the city while maintaining a business was no mean feat and in February 2006 Kulveer bravely took the step of leaving his city job, where he had a steady income, to becoming a full time entrepreneur.

He took the risk in the hope of achieving greater success and the life that comes with it. His continued hard work led to him achieving this, a now he is able to enjoy (or not) the Vuvuzelas in South Africa, having been able to afford the best tickets all the way to the World Cup final.

Later in 2007 Kulveer launched the Y-Combinator funded, Auctomatic, an online eBay selling utility. Seven months on, Auctomatic was sold to Canadian firm Live Current Media for a staggering $5 million.

He founded Auctomatic alongside his cousin Harjeet who at 22 was a successful entrepreneur and Law graduate of Oxford University. So much success, so early in his career has not dampened the hunger to grow in business and in mind.

Sarah is a successful business woman who set up her internet company, 1st for Furniture, when she was 18 years old.

After the second year of trading, she was expected to have a turnover of almost £400,000.
Started on her journey by mowing her neighbours’ lawns at 14, earning her £50 a week.

Although she later went on to study to be accountant in college, but eventually left to work in a furniture dealing shop in Stevenage, Her hometown.

She was then made redundant, which kick-started Sarah’s entrepreneurial life once again, she used money from her redundancy to set up her own business, 1st for furniture.

After three months of setting up her business, she was seeing progress and was able to furnish a showroom in Hertfordshire and after the first year, she had around £95,000 turnover, which she said I thought that was quite good for a one-person business in the middle of nowhere,”
Using her accounting knowledge from college, she was able to do her own bookkeeping and also kept costs low.

She currently has three employees and her own fleet of vans (two owned and one rented) to make deliveries within a 100-mile radius, she also offers a delivery service to other local businesses.

Tom Darlow is a web designer and marketer living in Bath, UK.

Tom is also a student at the University of Liverpool Management School finishing a BA Marketing, A Degree which he says will provides him with the ability to comprehend and apply successful approaches to marketing organisations.

He’s the founder of the tiny, popular web-marketing company Online Expansions.

Online Expansions is a popular web marketing, design and development company situated in Bath. Focusing on strategic web marketing strategies, it supports clients in leveraging their online presence to grow customer bases, establish online communities, improve customer experiences, and drive operational efficiency in addition to stimulating brand loyalty.

His Business has a turnover of about £30,000, not bad for someone who hasn’t finished university yet.

Tom has since gone from glory to glory;

Winning the 2007 Bath Website Designer of the Year Award
Establishing a prestigious client base across private and public sectors – including a National Council.

Tom has also been invited to meet Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson, Yvette Cooper and Sam Laidlaw to discuss entrepreneurial achievements whilst voicing his opinion on support for young enterprise.

Tom said he received a huge helping hand by flyingstart

The 3 days at the Flyingstart seminar went on to shape the future of Online Expansions. In addition, Flyingstart instilled motivation, delivered a number of tools to help build my business, introduced me to the concept of speed-networking, reviewed and refined my future expansion ideas, provided important commercial and personal evaluation, in addition to organising inspirational guest speakers.’

Hey Guys, Today i have a young entrepreneur who decided to take his love for yoyo and turn it into a business, this just means you can pretty much find a way in turning your hobby into a business or something profitable.

Enjoy

Hello Mike, How are you doing today?

I’m doing great! I’m getting really close to releasing my company’s new yo-yo the BassBoost for pre-ordering.

Can you please give us some background information about yourself?

I’m a pure-bred entrepreneur through and through, I’ve been into creating money by providing value since I was in my early teens. I’ve been yo-yoing since I was 13 and have now built my company into a yo-yo company.

Tell us about your companies? What inspired you to start them and what do you do there?

I own two companies, the first one I started is called Montgomery Enterprises LLC, its the umbrella to all my other projects. The only thing I do under that name is vending machines, of which I have three around my home town. My main focus is Double-Take Industries, which originally started as a humorous t-shirt company; I recently transitioned it into a yo-yo company by publishing a book on how to yo-yo called Learn to Throw (which is part of a 5 book course I’m still writing) and by manufacturing an aluminium, competition grade yo-yo called the BassBoost. I started DTI because I wanted to make funny shirts and have a way to raise funds to support local causes I believed in, now I use it to support the yo-yoing community.

How did you raise capital for your business?

As a general rule I’ve always used part time employment to raise funds for my projects, however a year into developing DTI I did get an investment from my grandparents to acquire screen printing equipment to reduce costs.

Describe/outline your typical day?

Wake up, shower, eat/drink coffee, get on the computer, check emails, check social sites/forums, read/write blogs, eat lunch, drive to town for errands/work, return home, recheck computer stuff, read 30min-1hr of books, work on DTI, practice yo-yoing for 1-2hrs (usually scattered throughout the day), eat dinner, go to sleep.

Do you have a favourite business tool or resource?

I like reading business books and watching video blogs by Gary Vaynerchuk to get motivated.

How many hours do you work a day on average?

Hard to say, I scatter work and play throughout the day.

What qualities have you developed as a result of running your business?

I’ve gotten very social because of my business, I’ve met a lot of cool people, role models, and mentors. I’ve gotten really good at conveying thoughts concisely and lately have gotten pretty good at teaching others through video blogs.

In your opinion, what is the most important quality an entrepreneur should possess?

An insatiable thirst for knowledge and experience

How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?

I market by not marketing. I connect with people on a personal level and get to know them without any intention of ever selling to them (something I’ve learned from the Go-Giver). I use social media to make this easier on me and it’s paying off. If they ask about my business I’ll tell them but for the most part I like to let people find me by word of mouth. Occasionally I’ll use forums to spread the word about a new blog but I never spread the word about something I’m selling in that way, if I go through the trouble of posting to 5 different web forums in hopes of getting views it will be about something that is valuable and free for the viewer.

Do you have any personal experience that has changed your life?

I had an opportunity last year to go on a tour with a handful of entrepreneurs to meet the author of the Go-Giver (Bob Burg) at his event in Florida called Extreme Business Makeover. Because of that I’ve been connected to many amazing people and have learned so much about the power of social media to connect talented people from around the world who otherwise would have no knowledge of each other.

How far are you willing to go to succeed?

Hard question to answer, I do what needs to be done to finish a project.

How do you define success?

To me success is learning from whatever life throws at me, regardless of a project being completed successfully or failing, as long as I learn from the situation and grow because of it; that’s a success in my book.

What advices would like to give to young entrepreneurs starting their business?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and to work in a group. Learn from those who have achieved something you want to achieve and ignore those who give advice or try to discourage you. Read the Go-Giver, Crush It!, the Four Hr. Work Week, If you think you can, you can!, and Rich Dad Poor Dad and keep an open mind about what you take in. You don’t have to use everything you learn, but definitely take the time and keep an open mind about the information; you CAN and should adapt it to fit your lifestyle. And remember to have fun with it! If you can build a business around your passion you’ll have a hard time losing your motivation to continue.

Thanks for your time Mike

Connect with Mike on his website and twitter

Name: Martina Butler
Age: 19
Location: Burlingame, California
Business: Podcast.

Miss Butler entered the business world at 15, presently at 19 with strong and big ambitions for the future. At 15, she secured a corporate sponsorship.

Presently acing her present career as a podcaster, but also with the desire to become a TV Host. In order for her dream to become reality – she is presently a host for the music network at Mevio.com, one of the top 10 music sites in the world.

Her idea of podcasting began from her inspiration – her role model….Daddy. Mr Butler encouraged her first step within the business world, as she comes as a guest speaker on his Podcasting shows. Her guest appearance drew audience and was loved by many. This gave Martina the push to create a podcast for young teenage girls.

The podcast show is base on Girls doing what they do best. Talk…however not only about the hottest guys, but also about the environment and tips on “going green. She also plays music by various indie/rock/emo artists/bands.

A different podcast station with the aim to draw many and encourage many youngsters within the category of “emo”, that there is a future.

Don’t be deceived at her success within the media alone, she is still a student. College and podcasting is shown to be her life, as she loves to be kept busy.

Martina is an inspirational figure to many young females in particular, she hopes hope that her success paves the way for more teens to have their voices heard and that more companies will recognize us as an important consumer force. Money isn’t her main drive in running a podcast….reaching out to those who needs someone to talk to someone who needs help or to those that just want to be appreciated, is her goal.

Check out our Interview with Martina

Rosemary Port, a blogger who called model Liskula Cohen a “skank” and a “ho” on her ‘Skanks in NYC’ website has threatened to sue Google.

Port is angry that Google revealed her identity – the site was run anonymously – and wants to file a $15m (around £9.1m) lawsuit against the company.

However, Google only revealed Port’s identity after receiving a court order when Cohen took legal action after being made aware of the slurs.

Read more

Li Ka-Shing, Asia’s richest man and arguably the most powerful person in the Asian telecom market, has confirmed that it has invested in online streaming music service, Spotify.

According to Forbes business magazine, Li Ka-Shing, who is worth around $15 billion, is rumoured to have invested up to $50 million to take a minority stake in the service as Spotify seeks to expand worldwide and offer more premium services.

Read more: ITPROPORTAL