Frequently Asked Questions

How can a web site help my business?
Honestly, a web site is like a business card of old. You must have one to appear legitimate. But, just like a business card, what it looks like and what it says determines its effectiveness.

A web site must describe your services and/or products to potential clients in a way that they can understand how you can help them. The web site needs the appropriate images and navigation that allows potential clients to quickly find what they are looking for.

Another potential facet a web site can enhance your business is by adding convenience for your existing clients. For example, if existing clients can self-help themselves they will more pleased with your services, and it reduces your overhead costs by reducing incoming calls. Many people feel doing this will remove the person to person touch of your business, but we have not found this to be the case. After improving numerous business web sites, we have found that self-service increases the ability for a company to communicate with its clients due to its convenience to the existing clients.

What is involved in creating a successful web site
To have a successful web site, several crucial steps are required. The following list will highlight the steps required to construct a successful business site:
  • Determine how your company can help a client
  • Find a Copy Writer that understands your potential client’s buying psychology
  • Have the Copy Writer generate copy that describes what you do in the lingo of your potential clients
  • Find a graphics designer to come up with a consistent look and feel for printed and online material
  • Find a web designer to create the web site
  • Have the web site hosted
Many companies will do all of this for you, but you might not have as much control of each step as you would like.

In our opinion, you should leverage outsourcing here. This allows you to focus on what you do best, running your company and serving your clients.

Once the web site is up and running, you will need to market your business and site. Marketing your web site will require you:
  • Have other web sites link to you
  • Have one or more landing pages
  • Leverage viral technologies, (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, ...)
  • Have your site contain appropriate tags and phrases that will help you rank well across various search engines, called Search Engine Optimizations [SEO]
  • Have a newsletter and/or newsfeed available for subscription
  • etc..
Is my outsourced IT doing what they are supposed to?
I have unfortunately experienced a wide spectrum of IT service. I’ve seen companies that truly administered each and every desktop at a facility honestly and were truly a “partner” to the business. But, I’ve witnessed such poor service as all desktops not having valid Windows license. This illegal licensing not only made each machine illegal, it made each machine extremely vulnerable to viruses and Trojans since Windows Security Patches where not installed for over a year and a half. I’ve witnessed companies being charged double to triple of what a computer is truly worth. I’ve witnessed companies charging a client every month for a software subscription when it should have been a once a year charge.

After helping companies resolve these issues, we feel it is very important to review what you are paying for, what you should be receiving, and what you need.

As a guideline, your IT resource should be at least performing the following tasks for you:
  • Creating a back up procedure that backs up critical data daily that has the tapes, CDs,... off site
  • Applying up to date device driver patches to every desktop and laptop every month
  • Applying up to date Windows Security patches to every desktop and laptop every month
  • Creating a Ghost image of all machines that are extremely critical to your business function
  • Every computer have up to date Virus protection that is updated monthly
  • If you have a wireless network, it must be secured
  • Your firewall should be regularly administered and patched, looking for security compromises