How to start a Business online ?

Assalamualaikum everyone . How are you today ? Nowadays, we can see that many people do business online as a part time job and to increase their income. So, today i would like to share with you all some of steps that we can use before we start to do business online. I hope this steps will help you all to start a new business online and it will can help you all to become a successful businessman/woman.

There is a proven sequence of steps you can follow to guarantee your success when you're starting a small business online. I've seen thousands of people start and grow successful business by doing the following:

Step 1 : Find a need and fill it
Most people who are just starting out make the mistake of looking for a product first and a market second.To boost your chances of success, start with a market. The trick is to find a group of people who are searching for a solution to a problem, but not finding many results. The internet makes this kind of market research easy:

• visit online forums to see what question people ask and what problems they're trying to solve.

• Do keyword research to find keywords that a lot of people are searching, but for which not many sites are competing.

• Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they're doing to fill the demand. Then you can use what you've learned and create a product for a market that already exist and do it better than the competitors.

Step 2: Write copy that sellsThere's a proven sales copy formula that takes visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive to the moment  they make a purchase:

1. Arouse interest with a compelling headline.
2. Describe the problem your product solves.
3. Establish your credibility as a solver of this problem.
4. Add testimonials from people who have used your product.
5. Talk about the product and how it benefits the user.
6. Make an offer.
7. Make a strong guarantee.
8. Create urgency.
9. Ask for the sale.

Throughout your copy, you need to focus on how your product or service is uniquely able  solve people's problem or make their lives better. Think like a customer and ask "What's in it for me"?

Steps 3: Design and build your website

Once you've got your market and product, and you've nailed down your selling process, now you've ready for your small business web design. Remember to keep it simple. You have fewer than five second to grab someone's attention. Otherwise, they're gone, never to be seen again. Some important tips to keep in mind:

• Choose  one or two plain fonts on a white background.

• Make your navigation clear and simple, and the same on every page.

• Only use graphics, audio, or video if the enhance your message.

• Include on opt-in offer so you can collect email addresses.

• Make it easy to buy no more than two clicks between potential customer and checkout.

• Your website is your online storefront, so make it customer friendly.

Step 4: Use search engines to drive targeted buyers to your sitePay-per-click advertising is the easiest way to get traffic to a brand-new site. It has two advantages over waiting for the traffic to come to you organically. First, PPC ads show up on the search pages immediately, and second, PPC ads allow you to test different keywords, as well as headlines, prices and selling approaches. Not only do you get immediate traffic, but you can also use PPC ads to discover your best, highest-converting keywords. Then you can distribute the keyword throughout your site in your copy and code, which will help your ranking in the organic search result.

Step 5: Establish an expert reputation for yourself

People use the internet to find information. Provide that information for free to other sites, and you'll see more traffic and better search engine rankings. The secret is to always include a link to your site with each tidbit of information.

• Give away free, expert content. Create articles, videos or any other content that people will find useful. Distribute that content through online article directories or social media sites.

• Include "sent to a friend" links on valuable content on your website.

• Become an active expert in industry forums and social networking sites where your target market hangs out.

You'll reach new readers. But even better, every site that posts your content will link back to yours. Search engines love links from relevant sites and will reward you in the rankings.

Step 6: Use the power of email marketing to turn visitors into buyers

When you build an opt-in list, you're creating one of the most valuable assets of your online business. Your Customers and subscribers have given your permission to send them email. That means:

• You're giving them something they've asked for.

• You're developing lifetime relationships with them.

• The response is 100% measurable.

• Email marketing is cheaper and more effective that print, TV or radio because it's highly targeted.

Anyone who visit your site and opts in to your list is a very hot lead and there's no better tool than emails for following up with those leads.

Step 7: Increase your income through back-end sale and up-selling

 One of the most important internet marketing strategies is to develop every customer's lifetime value. At least 36% of people who have purchased from you once will buy from you again if you follow up with them. Closing that first sale is by far the most difficult part not to mention the most expensive. So use back-end selling and up-selling to get them to buy again:

• Offer products that complement their original purchase.

• Send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit.

• Offer related products on your "Thank You" page after they purchase,

Reward your customer for their loyalty and they'll become even more loyal.The internet changes so fast that one year online equals about five years in the real world. But the principles of how to start and grow a successful online business haven't changed all. If you''re just starting a small business online, stick to this sequence. If you've been online a while, do a quick review and see if there's step you're neglecting, or never got around to doing in the first place. You can't go wrong with the basics.

That all from me to you all. I hope everyone that want to start a new business online can follow this step by step. I hope everyone can be a successful businessman/woman for future. May Allah easier all the thing in our life and May Allah bless our life . Aamiin, Thank you to everyone that read my post that i have share today.

Let's build our confident to become a millionaire

Being confident at oneself is one of the key criteria to become a millionaire. Look at the confidence aura exuded by Warren Buffet when he expresses the sentence above. It is not a coincidence that he can make it as big as he is today. Today’s question is, how do we build up our confidence level to propel us to our millionaire goal?

Firstly, set smaller and achievable goals for yourself at the beginning of your path to the millions. No, we are not thinking small. In fact we should think BIG! The point of doing this is so that you can achieve all your initial goals. Imagine in a new business venture, you set your target profit at RM 100 000 in the first three months. What happens if you profit ends up lower than that? Your confidence would hit the rock bottom and it would take you some time to recover your confidence. It would be more practical to set your target profit at say RM 5000 , one which you are more likely to hit. After all it could be your first venture and you might have no prior experience running such business. Your confidence grows as your hit your first target, then set a bigger one for yourself. As your continuously hit higher and higher goals, your confidence will also skyrocket!!

Secondly, keep a record of all your past successes. One way you can do this is by creating a Confidence Box. Put all the inspiring stories, any accomplishments, testimonials, thank you letters from customers (everything positive!) into the box. Alternatively, you can also keep a Success Diary where you record all your successes daily, regardless of how small or how big they are. Go through the items in the box or the Diary when you need motivation as we tend to forget how far we have come at difficult moments. A Confidence Box and a Success Diary are the proofs of our capabilities and will show us how awesome we have been.

Thirdly, mingle with like-minded people who are also working to achieve their millions. It is essential to put ourselves in an environment conducive to grow our confidence and to keep us motivated. There is no better place to put ourselves other than among the crowd who are also trying to achieve the same thing as us – to become a millionaire. Join social and networking events to meet more people like you! Not only will you be able to exchange ideas, you will also be able to motivate each other.

Success will come more easily when we are confident at each step we are taking to achieve our goal to become a millionaire!

Business Ethics in Islamic Perpective

                                                           بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Hello everybody? How are you today? Thanks to Allah for today we still raised to enjoy all the blessings of the world that provided by Him. Today I want to share to u all one of the knowledge that i have read in the other blog. I think this is very important to us all as a Muslim that want to do the business for our future. In doing the business we not only think about the profit that we will get but we should think also that the business we do get the bless from Allah or not. So because of this, we should have the business ethics to. What is business ethics?

THE term ‘business ethics’ refers to the behavior that a business organization is supposed to adhere to in its interaction with society, transactions with customers and in its internal affairs. The concept of business ethics is as old as business itself.

Initially, different cultures and regions had different ethics of business. With increasing globalization, the various sets of business ethics are continuously acquiring common values and forms. Islam has given guiding principles for all human activities and also prescribes and explains the ethics of business.

However, the Quran is not the only divine text that lays down such instructions and Muslim thinkers were not the first to conceive this idea. The Bible, for instance, also has many notions that can be and have been applied to commercial activities.Hammurabi, in his famous code, addressed various commercial issues. Plato discussed justice in The Republic, and Aristotle explicitly discussed economic relations, trade and commerce in his Politics. Many Muslims are unaware that Aristotle too condemned usury. Also, he gave the classic definition of justice as giving each his due, treating equals equally and trading equals for equals.

These issues were also analyzed by Christian scholars. For instance, Thomas Aquinas discussed business in the context of justice and honesty, and condemned usury. Luther, Calvin and John Wesley, among other personalities of the Reformation, discussed trade and commerce, and led the development of the Protestant work ethic. However, in the modern West, economic activity has been divorced from religion just as politics has been separated from the church.Still, if we compare Islamic business ethics with present-day western business ethics, we find numerous similarities. For instance, workplace harassment, discrimination in hiring and promotion, employment benefits, layoffs, conflict of interest, quality control, misuse of business assets, environmental pollution, etc., are matters on which Islamic and western approaches are more or less similar.

In fact, regarding such matters of common approach, Islam often lays down more benevolent provisions and puts more stress on their observance. For example, about employee-employer relationship, Islam very clearly declares that both enjoy the same dignity socially and legally. As a general rule, Muslims are instructed to choose for their fellow men what they choose for themselves. The Prophet (PBUH), in his farewell sermon, instructed Muslims not only to feed and clothe their slaves just like themselves, but also not to treat them harshly even if they committed a fault. Applying this to employees, one can imagine the standard of the working environment and employment benefits that Islam entails.

Just as there are differences between other aspects of Islamic and western practices, Islamic and western business ethics too have certain differences. The most important discerning features are their sources and nature. While western business ethics are secular, Islamic business ethics originate from revelation and the traditions of the Prophet (PBUH), the Quran and Sunnah.A breach of western business ethics never results in the violator incurring a sin. In the case of Islamic business ethics, a breach always causes divine displeasure. Consequently, Muslims must abide by these instructions not only for the betterment of society, but also to secure their afterlife.

This also means that even if there is no supervisory authority, a Muslim is still bound to comply with the norms of fair business practices. For instance, Islam does not allow an entity to deal in alcohol, drugs, gambling, gharar, pork, pornography, prostitution and riba. In jurisdictions where all or some of these are allowed, Muslims there must avoid them because Islam has prohibited these trades.

In other words, Islamic business ethics must be observed by the believers in Muslim and non-Muslim jurisdictions alike. Thus, a true Muslim must never neglect the welfare of employees, performance of business covenants, quality standards, the environment, social responsibilities of the enterprise, etc., whether he is running a venture in Pakistan or in the US.

Unfortunately, present-day Muslims mostly just talk about the Islamic way of life without actually practicing it. Ask a Muslim entrepreneur about Islamic business ethics and he will gladly give a lengthy sermon on the instructions given in the Quran and Sunnah on the topic and will accurately narrate numerous examples set by early Muslim businessmen regarding honesty in trade and employee welfare. However, his real conduct will be the opposite. Unfortunately, this is the general rule.

No wonder, in a report recently published in Financial Times, some Islamic financial experts openly criticized Islamic financial institutions for resorting to “juristic engineering” to bypass Islamic restrictions in order to maximize profits. Thus, Islamic financial products and services, in most of the cases, are Islamic only in form, not substance.

Does this mean that Islam makes hypocrites or that the provisions given in the Quran and Sunnah are no more practical? Not at all. Can we say that Christianity makes thieves just because there are thieves who happen to be Christian? Does the Quran not say that revelation is valid for all times?

The fault lies with corrupt and selfish Muslim businessmen who disregard Islamic injunctions for worldly enrichment. By growing a beard, praying five times a day and fasting in Ramadhan, they believe it is enough to fulfil their obligations to God.Can the beard, prayers and fasting really absolve them from ignoring their duties to their employees, clients, competitors, consumers and society as a whole? Is it possible to deceive God?

The writer is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the director of the Centre for Law and Policy, University of Management and Technology, Lahore.

syed.asad@umt.edu.pk

FROM THE NEWSPAPER — PUBLISHED JUL 21, 2011 09:30