Welcome Back From Summer...

We definitely had a good summer this year. Apparently, it was one of the warmest summers on record. I hope you enjoyed it (frankly, I have never attended so many barbeques in my life). As a busy person running your own business, you owe it to yourselves to take a break. After all, here comes fall and you know it will get busy again.

We all know that it's important to live a balanced life; rest and relaxation prepares us for the onslaught of the work-day, and a productive work-day/week and months contributes to our financial well-being. Williamson Accounting hopes that you're able to find that right balance between your personal and professional lives. But specifically, we're here to help you with achieving balance in the financial part of your life (whether for business or personal reasons).

We are Here to Help

Confer with us, and we'll help you calculate the bottom-line benefits of outsourcing some of the more routine parts of your financial tasks that aren't part of your core activities and strengths. In fact, those financial tasks (mostly bookkeeping and reporting) that take time away from your core strengths and activities, and your personal time, when you like to recharge for focusing on the important things in your life (time with your family, developing new products and services, closing new customers and managing your staff to be more productive).

The economy is rebounding, albeit slowly. It's still challenging for most business to retain market share, and a sustainable level of sales. Cutting and/or controlling costs is still one of the most important priorities for any business. But, you still need to invest in your business to stay competitive:

Develop or take on new products for manufacturing, distribution or direct sales
Upgrade capital equipment or your IT infrastructure
Hire new staff/replace lay offs and terminations (do you employ, or sub- contract?)
Marketing and sales initiatives to maintain (and ideally, to increase) market share

One of the main reasons for providing this newsletter is to keep you abreast of current news, tax changes and time-lines affecting your business. In this issue we will address some technology questions and concerns as well that may prove useful for your marketing efforts.

Prioritizing your needs can be daunting, and always challenging. What to do next? What's important? What activities will bring me short -term success, but also contribute to my long-term growth? So to be of assistance, one area of marketing that we'd like to elaborate on in this issue is "Marketing On The Web."

Andrew Holden of CartaNova Inc. will provide you with some insight on Internet technology tools that can be employed in your business. Highlights of his article include...

Marketing on the Web: What's Different and What Works

You have a great business established, or maybe you're just starting out. And It's time to get noticed. You need to market on the web, but you're lost in an almost unfathomable jungle of shady web design firms and 'SEO' companies? [What is that SEO thing anyway?]

The Web is Made of People

Lost in the shuffle of hyper-complex marketing strategies for the web is the fact that the net is made by, and used by, individuals. That simple truth needs to be the basis of your marketing efforts, otherwise you won't succeed in engaging each unique customer. Step One is to Know Your Customers. A brilliant Facebook-based social platform might make sense for gardening enthusiasts, but specialist plumbers will be too busy and uninterested to bother.

Some of the most important steps in understanding and developing your "web-based" efforts will be to review:

Revisit (or Create) Your Basic Marketing Strategy, and how marketing online fits into it
Website "Usability" (Your own, your competitors', and the "best-in-breed" out there today)
If Blogging Can Help Your Business
If email Marketing makes sense for your business
Will "Social Media Marketing" make sense (from Facebook to LinkedIn, and everything in between)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make sure your [potential customers can find you
The potential for targeted online advertising (Google AdWords and Pay-Per-Click Advertising)

Remember the Golden Rule for Marketing Online Be Accessible. Be Unique. Be Relevant.

To read the entire article by Andrew J. Holden, please click here.