6-27-2016, Entrepreneur.com -- You work hard to get traffic to your website. You pay for advertising. You optimize for the search engines. You work it on social media. And it pays off! Traffic comes. People arrive. They look at what you have to offer. And -- they hesitate. It takes just a moment’s hesitation to create doubt. In that moment, you can lose a customer. They find you -- but do they trust you? In the real world, people do business face to face. They meet the waitress, the sales clerk, the serviceman. They make a judgment call instinctively as to whether they like you, whether they trust you and whether they want to do business with you. I’ve walked out of stores that felt too pushy. I’ve walked out of car dealerships. Your website visitors can walk out, too. Does your website say “Trust me!" so that a customer never doubts? Let’s consider three types of business websites: Local business: Your website is an extension of a real business, where you come face to face with your customers in the flesh (store, theatre, trades). Service business: You interact with your customers, but not always in the same city (accountant, coach, translator). Ecommerce: Your entire process is automated. If all your customers were pink fairy armadillos, you would never…

Forbes, 6-26-2016 -- Everybody has a favourite book, a tome that has been a source of inspiration or influence, and entrepreneurs are no different, except that their top reads tend to be business books that have often helped guide them through their start-up journey. Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends & Influence People’, Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great’, and The E-Myth Revisited Michael E. Gerber, are among the most popular, if not the most predictable titles adorning a founder’s bookshelf, but many others have proved equally insightful and impactful in shaping the business lives of some successful entrepreneurs. Nikki Hollier gave up a successful career in IT to go it alone with her garden design business Styling Homes and Gardens, and the book that helped her through the transition is ‘The Breakthrough Experience’ by John Demartini.   She says: “It helped define my business by clarifying my thoughts, ambitions and values, but mainly it helped me to deal with the emotional side of being my own boss after being in the corporate world of IT for 20 years, and to handle the highs and lows and understand the balance between the two.” Hollier, who became an award-winning garden designer within a year of starting…

6-27-2016, June Issue Tech Feature -- We have covered a number of technical and fabrication related topics so far in this series. Moving from the idea of fitting a subwoofer in a footwell space, we are now going to look at another stealth way to integrate audio equipment: the false floor. I have the privilege of working with a master of false floor building, Bing Xu. Rather than share with you the details of building a false floor that I have learned over the years from Bing, I thought I would have him share it directly. Bing does a masterful job of fitting equipment into the confined space of a spare tire well. He has a lot to share on the subject, so enjoy part one of this two-part article. Introduction I still vividly remember my first ever experience with aftermarket car audio. It was the summer of 1995 and I—along with most of my friends—had just gotten my driver’s license and obtained my first vehicle. One day, a good buddy showed me a catalog. In it were all kinds of gadgets and doodads that I had never seen before. From speakers and subwoofers, to amplifiers and even—gasp! Compact Disc…

6/22/2016, Forbes -- Buying a franchise can be a great move for a would-be entrepreneur who doesn’t want to create a new business from scratch. In theory, franchisees acquire a model that already works on every level, from branding to pricing to marketing. A ready clientele eagerly spends on Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s and 7-11. The market has tested the best recipes for glazed crullers, Egg McMuffins and the right combo of energy drinks to stock next to the register. But making a go as a successful franchisee can be a lot more complicated than simply finding an appealing brand and plunking down some cash. For a taste of what can go wrong, see Forbes’ piece about the problems at sandwich franchise Quiznos, which paid $206 million to settle a suit brought by franchisees who claimed the chain had oversold its markets and excessively marked up supplies. If you’re thinking of becoming a franchisee, how should you prepare yourself? We asked three professionals with extensive knowledge of the franchising world. Ed Teixeira is both a former franchisor and former franchisee, and the author of two books on franchising, including The Franchise Buyer’s Manual. Josh Brown is a Carmel, Indiana lawyer who specializes in franchising, and Sean…