About Abt Electronics

It's amazing the amount of technology that goes into appliances we use everyday. I didn't even understand what fuzzy logic means until I read it on our waching machine. Searching it on the net, I learnt that by Fuzzy Logic, it means that our waching machine has some advanced electronic stuff that monitors and makes the necessary adjustments automaticlly during the wash.

Talking about washing machine, check out the wide range of washing machines from brands like Whirlpool, Bosch and Frigidaire among others on the Abt Electronics site.



The company has a long history. It was set up in 1936 in Chicago and has grown to become one of the largest single-store operations in the US. They started selling online with the launch of AbtElectronics.com in 1998. Their online site carries high-end electronics products of almost every well known brand names. They are reputed to have one of the best services and pricing policies around.

Go and have a look.

Free business plan course

While I was doing my MBA way back, I took 'Entrepreneurship' as an elective subject. I know some of you are probably laughing as did some of my entrepreneur friends, when I told them that I was studying entrepreneurship. "You can't learn to be an entrepreneur, you are born one", they said. I was not really sure at that time but thinking about it, a lot of entrepreneurs could definitely benefit from learning some formal business skills.

Related to this, I can recall the professor teaching the subject pointing out the high failure rate of entrepreneurs during the first year of operations. Of course most of you might have heard the often used statistic "90 percent of small businesses fail in their first year". I learnt later that this was a myth but the fact is that a large number of newly formed companies DO fail in a year or two of starting operations.

One of the reasons given by the professor was that a lot of entrepreneurs do not have a good business plan to start with when they started the business. It was only later that I realised how true this was. I have a few friends in the banking industry and they were telling us that the main reason that they refused loans to number of entrepreneurs unless they had some collateral was because they had lousy business plans even though some of their products and services sounded great. I am sure all investors feel that way because they don't want to throw their money into some business that didn't have a proper objective and how it plans to get there. And that's the role of the business plan.

If you want to planning to come up with a business plan, do go through the 'How to Write a Business Plan' course offered by Trump University, famous American entrepreneur Donald Trump's online educational company.

Signing up was really easy and it is totally free. The course was developed by Professor Paul Wimer. At first I was bit sceptical but found it to be really informative and useful. Do tell me what you think.

Get online marketing help from the experts

Intelligent Online Marketing Ltd. is a UK online marketing company based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Led by Graham Baylis, Director and "SEO Guru", the Online Marketing Experts, help companies build the right traffic to their sites by covering almost every area of online marketing, namely:

• Keyword Research
• Pay Per Click Management
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Analytics Services
• Linking Strategies
• Articles, Blogs & PR
• Newsletters & Email Marketing

If I were a business and looking for marketing help, I think a track record of the company is very important. I was pleased to learn that the company was formed in 1998 and was originally called "TheWebIsTheWay Ltd". Initially they were involved in producing websites, but totally moved into the present field in 2001.

Their success as listed on their "case studies" page is quite impressive. I would have appreciated it they had provided more detailed information as well as links to the client's sites.

I found the home page to be a bit over crowded with information. There were too many links to news stories and articles on the right side, which some how makes the website look odd because of the empty space on the left hand side. I suggest putting up only a few news titles inside a box, would give the site a more tidy and professional look. Talking about news, the site carries a number of useful and interesting articles on the site related to online marketing. You can also watch Graham in a series of videos on Online Marketing.

I had fun trying out their online quizzes as well. Learnt a couple of new things there while having a laugh at some of the possible answers given.

Command over English crucial for business

An American friend was recounting his encounters with some British clients: "I think they were speaking English but I could hardly understand what they were saying". We all laughed but it's not surprising because even though they all speak English here, there are so many English slangs and British colloquialisms that are unique to each place.

In the highly competitive world of business, good communication and command over language is extremely important. And we have to face that fact that English, is the International language of business. For example, when Malaysians and Japanese businessmen come together to work out a deal, the language they use to communicate is English. A good command over the English language is absolutely essential.

It might be wrong to assume that people in English speaking countries have excellent communication and written skills. Even here in the UK, I was looking through the work of some students at a local University and their papers were full of grammatical and spelling errors.

Anyway, if you are looking for English classes for executives, you might want to consider 'Executive Language Training'. They are said to be the industry leader in providing English language training to executives to companies in the US and around the world. The courses are tailored to your needs and is taught one-on-one or in small groups. Even your schedule and location is based on your individual preferences. Check out the site for more details.

Marketing help for small businesses

I know of a few business owners who handled the marketing of their businesses themselves instead of hiring someone to do it for them. On being asked "why?", the most common reason was that they wanted to save money. A few did mentioned that it was easier as they understood their own business better than any outsider could. It was not surprising that most failed in their objectives especially when it was related to online marketing.

The reason is very simple. Even though they understood their products and services that they were offering as well as the company's strengths and weaknesses, they did not have the required marketing experience. One good example is a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where my sister used to work. They were really doing well and they decided to create a website (on my sister's advice). However their budget for the entire project was only RM400/ (around US$115). This was really sad considering the fact that they spent almost double on flowers every week. Show how much importance they gave to online marketing.

Take my advice. If you need to market your small business, get the professionals to help you, especially if it involves website design. You may very well want to consider a company like Website Pros. Based in Jacksonville, FL, the company specializes in providing full-service website development and consulting services dedicated to small to medium-sized enterprises. Visit their site for more details including the pricing for their services.

Best place to buy storage media and printer inks

I remember the good old days when we used to save our data on big (by today's standard) 5.25-inch floppy discs. It's amazing how fast technology has changed. Just four years ago, I was the only one in my entire department with a 128MB flash drive. Now almost everybody has one, some with capacities of up to 4 GB space.

If you are looking for a reliable and cheap source of blank CD/ DVD media products, then I recommend Supermediastore.com. This major reseller and wholesaler of blank media products is based in Southern California. It was established in 2002. According to their site, they were rated as the #1 preferred online store to buy good media with excellent selection, excellent pricing and fast shipping by DigitalFAQ.com.

Besides blank CD DVD media, their online store also sells CD DVD packaging case, computer hardware, memory as well as ink and toner cartridges. Talking about ink, they are now offering a weekly special - 30% Off on all printer inks. They are also offering extra 5% savings on Brother ink (OEM as well as compatible) cartridges.

Creating customized elearning tools

In today's knowledge based business World, there is a need to constantly update knowledge and skills. Even though, most companies are still using the traditional training methods, several are now chanting the new buzz word - "elearning". A lot of companies now see Computer Based Training (CBT) and web based training as a real practical and effective alternative to training in the classrooms.

If you are interested in creating your own customized training tools, check out the 'Resource Bridge' website. This company, which was founded in 1999, specializes in creating special custom training needs for different businesses. They provide a proprietary suite of eLearning products called ExceLearn LMS with several features. With this Learning Management System, you can thus create web based training tools customized to the requirements and needs of your company.

The site also features articles on how you can deliver customized training and information to your employees, partners and customers effectively.

Affordable web hosting

Now that you got your domain name, you are probably wondering where to host your site. You might want to consider Host208 - Webhosting Services. The service is provided by SC RAISERV SRL, a Romania based company with it's HQ in Bacau. However, their state-of-the-art data center is located in Fremont, California.

They have several hosting plans you may want to consider:
1. Business plan ($4.50 per month - if you pay up annually)
2. Corporate plan ($8.50/ month) and
3. Enterprise plan ($12.50/month)

Those are extremely low prices considering what they have on offer. For example, for the Business plan it works out to $54 for a years hosting. It also comes with 15000 MB Data Storage, 300 GB Data Transfer, hosting for 3 Domains, SiteStudio - website builder, 30 Subdomains, Anti-Virus & Spam protection and much more. Plus you get 30 Days money back guarantee period if you are not satisfied.

Check out their site for more information.

Premier infomercial ad agency

If you are a company looking for someone to handle your media campaign, you would want someone with a proven track record in various marketing areas including direct response television marketing (DRTV).

Hawthorne Direct fits this bill exactly. This company is a leading American full service direct response television advertising agency, specializing in creative/production, media and integrated marketing. They have managed around 600 media campaigns and handled 331 clients since 1986. Some of their cable television advertising clients include entrepreneurs as well as Fortune 500 companies. Some of the big names include among others, Time-Life, Nikon U.S.A., Nissan Motor Corp., Taylor Made Golf, Apple computers, etc.

I have to say I am quite impressed with their philosophy

to openly share as much industry information as possible with our clients and potential clients.

Their "Resources page" carries loads of interesting information on direct response marketing. The founder and chairman of the company Timothy R. Hawthorne, shares his secrets for managing high-quality, successful long and short form campaigns for clients.

The company believes in maintaining long term client relationships. Some of the entrepreneurs that they helped are now today's household brands. So, if you need a company to develop and/or manage your DRTV campaigns, you might want to consider Hawthorne Direct.

Help with starting a business

Starting a business is not an easy task and often it is better to get some help from the professionals. If you plan to start a business in the states, you might want to take a look at IncParadise.com. It is part of EastBiz.com, Inc., which was started by John Vanhara, owner and president and is based in Las Vegas. They have experience with incorporation of businesses since 1996.

Their website offers online filing service to start a corporation in all 50 states. I noted that the top 5 most popular places for incorporation were Nevada, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Illinois.

One of the pages that I really found interesting was that on suggested business structures. They explain differences between different business entities, namely, Limited Liability Company - LLC, S-Corporation and C-Corporation.

Found the charges to be quite reasonable - only $89 + state fees for doing all necessary paperwork to start a corporation in any state. For example, for Delaware corporations, the total cost for incorporation is only $178.00. The incorporation fee includes filing Articles, forms for shareholders, directors meetings and stock certificates.

If you have a website (or blog) you can also join their affiliate program and earn a commission on incorporation services. For more information, click here.