The Best Website Colors to Attract Your Target Market

“You can make your visitors feel excited, engaged, and even inspired by the visual design of your website, which is the key to turning visitors into customers.” There is one thing that everyone designing a website needs to have a firm grasp on–the use of color and the response that it provokes in the viewer. Once you know the function of each color, you can deliberately design your website around the responses you want your visitors to have. Using Color Deliberately Firstly, you have to appreciate something that artists and designers have known for a long time: The use of colors in art, as well as practical design for things such as a business website, is not based on arbitrary choices. If one does choose colors for specific functions on a website based subjectively on what seems to look best, then the result will be aesthetically pleasing (at least to …

Does My Domain Name Really Matter?

“An effective domain name must be clear, simple, directed, and intuitively applicable to your business.” Choosing a domain name for your website should take some careful consideration. To be sure, you would probably not decide to use a non-specific title for your website, even without knowing the science behind this, but it is more important than business owners realize. An effective domain name must be clear, simple, directed, and intuitively applicable to your business. .Com, and The Other Guys Of course, .com is the most recognized, and this is the extension you need. Speaking of the consumer’s instinct, you want a web address that people automatically expect to see: www.yourbusiness.com. The .net or .org extensions (and there are many more) are okay, as long as you have a good name; however, we all generally assume that a web address will have .com on the end of it. If it comes …

What’s in My Briefcase? 6 Tools Used by Successful Home Business Owners

“If you are going to work smart, and not hard, these tools are a step in the right direction.”   A wise man once said, “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” You may have no trouble setting up shop in your bedroom, but effectively running a business out of your home is about more than putting in a desk and buying some pens and sticky notes. Here are some very helpful tips for those of you who are striving to improve on your home business.   Intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is one of the most indispensable tools for any business. The software includes comprehensive features that give you solutions to all of your bookkeeping needs. You can connect your bank accounts and company credit cards to track income and expenses, create professional invoices, view various reports such as balance sheets or profit and loss, sync to your PayPal …

What Type of Website is Right for Your Business?

“A great business website is one that accomplishes a primary goal.” Hopefully, you realize how important it is to have a website for your business—and if you need convincing, check out our post from last week, Why Your Business Needs a Great Website. Just like the front window in a store is used to encourage walk-in traffic, a website is your virtual window and front door. For some businesses, this is the only front door that they will ever have. The key to making your site effective is to take a look at the needs of your business, and decide which of the various types will help you meet those needs. A great business website is one that accomplishes a primary goal. This may be getting customers to sign up for your service, selling products online, or merely providing your customers with a window into who you are and what …

5 Ways to Efficiently Run Your Business Out of Your Home

“Working from a home office can be great, but it can also test your sanity, at times.” So you are pretty sure you have all your ducks in a row, and you feel ready to push out of your home and into a separate space. Though having a professional, dedicated space is usually better for business, it is not the only way to do business. Consider this move carefully. There are certainly advantages to securing a conventional, brick-and-mortar office. You can comfortably entertain and meet with clients in-house; your wife, husband, kids, and roommates are not there to take away from your focus; and you will not be distracted with household projects while at work. At the same time, office expenses can really cut into the budget. If you are a new business with high growth potential, you could end up signing a lease on a space that you outgrow …

Why Your Business Needs a Great Website

“Web sales have increased by an average of 15% for the past 5 years, and at the end of 2014, consumers in the U.S. spent $304.91 billion online.” In this article, we will introduce and define the nature of good web design and why now, at the precipice of the digital age, entering the online space is absolutely necessary to reclaiming all the customers whom you would otherwise alienate forever. Not to worry; this is merely the first in a series of following articles, in which we will walk through various essential elements of web design, such as: conversion rate optimization (CRO) and call-to-action (CTA), effective landing pages, domain names and types, color and site aesthetics, and A/B testing. Hopefully this discussion will paint for you a clearer picture of the importance of internet presence, and how to make it work for your business. The New World of Online Business …

Promote Your Small Business with a Company T-shirt

“…95% of all Americans wear T-shirts.” No matter what service a business provides, it needs to get the word out and show the public that it exists. Whether it be a franchise, community group, charitable foundation, small business, or even a single or recurring event, there is good reason why every sort of organization uses T-shirts to promote themselves. According to a survey conducted by CustomInk, a company producing custom designs for T-shirts, 95% of all Americans wear T-shirts. The survey also revealed that 76% of Americans derive “a stronger emotional connection with a shirt that they or someone they knew custom-designed.” This is a simple way to advertise your company, inspire conversations about what you are offering, and visually connect with customers. Advertise with Little Effort Whoever first decided to print a few words or graphics on a T-shirt and pass it around to promote their business was on …

find co founder

Finding the Right Co-Founder & Business Partner

“You want a partner who is forward-thinking—not one who is just looking for a meal ticket, or otherwise not overly concerned with achieving greater success.” Finding a good partner is one of the most propitious and profitable moves you can make for your business. Of the few basic types of people in the world, there are those who have the motivation, wherewithal, and even resources to help you get to where you are going. Others only excel at pointing you in the right direction by lending advice and insight, and the fact of it is that some will not even be able to wrap their heads around the idea behind your business venture. The road to bringing your vision into tangible reality is a complete mystery to this kind of person, which means that they cannot be an asset to your business. Your ability to discern who is who and …

small business funding

What Type of Small Business Funding is Right for You?

“The key is to find an investor that is on the same page as you, who will work with you, and who will not take away from the direction you have in mind for your business.” There is one persistent question on the mind of any small business owner: Where is the money coming from? Whether your new business requires that initial chunk of capital to get things started, or you are simply looking for a little extra money to maintain smooth operations, it is good to have reliable resources for funding when the need arises. You have a variety of options to consider when looking for working capital or startup funding. Being a small business like any other, Talkroute is sympathetic to the concerns of companies who are driven to be successful. This blog exists to provide sound advice and to promote the highest standard of business for startups, …

talkroute incorporate business

Why You Should Incorporate Your Business

“Having corporate status implies credit worthiness, reliability, and longevity.” In this day and age, when technology and information are readily available and accessible, the prospect of running a home-based business is well within reach. A growing number of small businesses are opening every day, and many of the people running them are deciding to operate out of their homes. You may be doing just fine as a sole proprietor, but incorporating your business offers advantages and protections which you may not even know are available to you. With the proper guidance, becoming a corporate entity can open the door to a new level of success and allow you to expand farther than you previously could. A Corporation Protects You from Personal Liability A “corporation”, as defined by Merriam Webster, is “a body formed and authorized by law to act as a single person”. No matter what sort of business you …