Business planning
You NEED to OWN your own Domain Name
Please! I am pleading with any business owner or entrepreneur who is looking to get a website for their business.
You really need to ensure that your domain name is registered and owned by you – the business owner. I cannot stress this enough.
Yes, I know websites are not your forte, if it were you would be in the website design business. But you are not, you are a fabulous entrepreneur doing great business and with a nice website online that someone helped you setup. But, times have changed and now you need to up level and change your entire web presence, so you ask someone like me to work with you and on your website.
Trouble is… you discover really don’t have a lot of access to the site.
This following situation has happened 3 times in the last 2 weeks to people I know. PLEASE DON’T BE # 4.
We start checking into your present website setup only to discover that your other web guy (sorry boys, but 3/3 were guys) registered your domain name and nowhere in that setup is your name listed. This means that you in fact, do not own your own domain name nor have any control over it.
How bad can it be? 
Let’s see…
- The other person has access to the domain registry, not you.
- The other person controls when your domain name gets renewed (hint, no renewal= no website online, also known as “Why is the website not working?”)
- The other person controls changes and access to your Domain Name Servers (which are part of the setup on how/where your account is hosted and with a web hosting system, you will run into the same situation as in # 2 above, people asking: “Why is the website not working?”)
- Worst of all, your website is connected to this! The website that people use daily.
BUY IT YOURSELF
Please make certain when you need to setup a new domain name or website that you take 5 minutes and go to Bluehost or GoDaddy and buy your own domain name. It’s as simple as buying anything else online. Pick out what you want and put it in your shopping cart, the cart with your name on it, then pay for it with your credit card or paypal account.
Guess what – now you own that baby! No one else.
After this you can always give your web person the access in your account. You can give your webperson the technical contact in the account, something you can change anytime. Please buy the darn thing yourself. And no matter what way you do this you remain the Registrant – the person who owns the domain name.
If I now have you scared and not sure if you own your present domain name? You can go to Whois.com and look up your domain name. Be certain whose name it is under and while sill in a good working relationship, get it transferred to your name by your web person! Right now, in all three situations we are having a hard time getting contact to get access and changes made.
You NEED to own your own Domain Name, I cannot say this enough!
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So? How many of you need to have a talk with someone now?
Being on Time says a lot about your Work Ethics
Backlinks on your website explained …
Tech Support is Vital to Small Biz Owners
Who is your Tech Support Department?
I recently did a presentation to the IAAP Halifax Dartmouth Chapter (International Association of Administrative Professionals) on Working Virtually with Clients. Essentially I was giving traditional Admin Professionals a view on what you need to start your own Virtual Assistant Business and how you can work virtually with people.
The essence of the talk is that as a Virtual Assistant (VA) you are a small business owner and now responsible for all things related to your business: operations, sales, marketing, accounting, as well as the main business services you offer and then of course, technical support.
Technical support as a small business owner is not something to be taken lightly. Especially for a business like a Virtual Assistant. Everything we do is on our computers – client files, info are stored here and almost all of our business is done via our computer. Without our computers we could hardly carry on any business. Yet, it is an area that many people take lightly and tend not to weigh as important as it should be.
In my talk to the IAAP, I recall using these exact words when it came to technical support:
You now own your own business and are solely responsible fro Technical Support – there is no longer a helpful person on call when needed to help fix your computer issues or help you when your computer screen goes blank for no reason. There is also no mysterious backup system in place that backs up all your files overnight while you are home sleeping.
You will need reliable tech support and I do NOT mean your friend’s 14 year old son who is “good with computers” .
A friend who owns her own business recently took the plunge and got a computer; prior to this all paperwork had been done by hand or in a spreadsheet: client records, orders, inventory… everything. They have moved into the computer generated world, which is a good step. I learned of this upgrade when I drove my son home from school last week – he mentioned his friend will not be going to Scouts that night because he was going to be setting up his mom’s laptop and computer for her business. His age?? 14. 
Her computer will help run the business in an easier more efficient way and allow clients to make online orders via email from away… a good step forward. Her choice of tech support professional however, is not one I would recommend.
As a business owner you need to make certain you have reliable technical support. Get a professional to help you determine the needs for your computer system, recommendations for firewalls and anti-virus systems and the most important part, your backup system. You need to make certain if your computer crashes that you can be up and running as soon as possible. If you have lost all your files, records, and programs you can be sure that it may take days or even weeks to restore everything you need.
Think about this… and think about what system you have in place. Don’t let a poor choice of support for your business be the cause of days and weeks of lost work and revenue and worst of all – your client’s confidence in your services and abilities.
Getting back on the blogging track
Well… it has been a while since I have posted a blog hasn’t it? I feel like I have totally derailed my blogging efforts and along with it my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Online Visibility.
I have put blogging on the back burner for the last two months and can you ever see what a difference it makes in your website traffic and website rankings.
I look at both of these items every month and check my progress, and I can tell you both have gone down. My website traffic has gone down about 20% and my website Alexa rankings (not exact science I know, but a good gauge) have gone from being in the 720,000 range to 912,000 (lower is better).
So this blog is a short and simple one and is me publicly declaring the value of blogs (as noted by the stats above) and my commitment to continue to keep to a weekly schedule of blog posts here at Time on Task.
I have an editorial calendar planned out and it is time to follow it!
My next blog will be much more informative! Expect it by next Friday – or feel free to remind me with a poke on Facebook!
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