My friends, I have told you before, I am here to help you. I am proud to announce that I am offering you tools to use to help you boost thepresence of your business to potential consumers. I must admit, these tools are not my “home-grown” ideas.  These tools are the work of many business innovators.  These tools are what I have used to build my business. It is these tools that lead me to the success I have obtained while operating my business.

As I stated before in my welcome message as well as on the banner above. This is a blog that talks about how to build your business using the power of the Internet. You can bet these tools are Internet tools. The Internet is like an “oil field.” It is a place where you can drill down into the far reaches of cyberspace and find that reservoir of oil you have been looking for. I can bet oil drillers have used the power of the Internet already to find the best drilling spots. My friends I ask you, If drillers can do it, why can’t you? If at first you dont succeed I also say try again. Keep trying till you hit that lucky spot where the oil awaits you.

Over the next several days, you will see a sidebar appear along the right side of this blog that will offer several tools that will bring success to your business if they are used, and used correctly. Each tool will come with extensive video tutorials on how to use it. As always, I am available to help you learn to use the tools correctly to acheive success for your business. Let’s just take a moment and we review what they can offer you.

Many business leaders will tell you that there are two major aspects of marketing that require much attention to detail in order acquire prospects for your business. Even though these are major areas of concentration that bring about business success, they are often overlooked. These aspects are trivial at best, but even the most successful business professional will often neglect to pay enough attention to detail when it comes to these two marketing aspects. These two aspects are classified advertising and lead generation.

Classified Advertising

Statistics have shown that classified advertising has proven to be both a strategic and tactical tool for business entrepreneurs around the world in effort to acheive success in their business. In 2003, the market for classified advertising in the United States was $15.9 billion (newspapers), $14.1 billion (online) according to market researcher Classified Intelligence. The Kelsey Research Group lists online classified ads as being worth $13.3 billion, while Jupiter Research provides a conservative appraisal of $2.6 billion (2005) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau lists the net worth of online classified revenue at $2.1 billion (April 2006). Even though it is a tedious task, and a task I might add that has to be done daily, marketing commonly forget to follow up and follow through. The tools I will provide you will harness the full power and effeciency to acquire prospects for your business through classified advertising. 

Lead Generation

As you may know, lead generation is the process of bringing about interested prospects to look at what you are offering. The tools I will provide you will send the most targeted and exclusive leads your direction to help improve your marketing efforts, shorten your growth cycle and grow your business.

As always I wish you the best in your business endevors. I am always available to help. I want to hear your success story. I want you to be an inspriation to me. Most of all my friends, I want you to live the life you want when you want. Success and your dreams await you. The question I will leave you with  is, how bad do you want your dreams to come true?

About the Author

My friends, there are many days working as a business entrepreneur where events occur that I can’t even imagine. In regards to my business experience, the unthinkable always seems to happen. Situations always occur when running a business. Situations can always bring about positive and negative effects to your business. To what effect this situations have on your business is really how you perceive them.  Honestly I believe that all situations are good in many respects, and often every situation contains a silver-lining. Like I said before, how the situation personally impacts you is all a matter of perception. It is that perception that has influence on how you make decisions and proceed forward down your career path as a business entrepreneur. Let me tell you a story to help put this topic in perspective.

In a welcome message to my readers, written on May 25, 2009, I stated the purpose of this blog. The article can recalled by visiting the articles section of this blog. I indicated that I have created this blog to help business entrepreneurs achieve success working their business using the internet. I believe that it is my calling to help others. I created my business Augustine Enterprises for this purpose.

My friends, it is a honor serving you. working my business for many years has lead to many rewarding events that have occurred throughout the life of my business. Recently I just received the surprise of a lifetime.

When building a business or employed by someone else, I firmly believe that success comes from building relationships and not from what you know. I realize this may be a controversial statement to make, but honesty, I have seen unqualified people take positions due to strong relationship building. This is not a matter of opinion, this is fact. As a manager during my years of employment, I have personally interviewed many applicants for many positions. I have declined many job seekers desiring employment or advancement to a new more challenging position due to their qualifications not meeting the requirements laid forth by the job description. My choice to decline such applicants was overturned by upper management for various personal reasons such as, the applicant’s “blood” relationship to the boss, or the outstanding nightly social skills of the applicant at the local bar or pub. My friends, as I said, it is not about what you know it is who you know.

Shortly after putting up this blog and writing a post. I received a comment from a high school sweetheart from years back. It was a shock to me, because i always believed that after failed relationships like this one, we both went our separate ways  never to communicate again. She had been searching for me for many years with no success. She tried to find my address, phone number etc., with hopes of reconnecting. Recently she turned to Google. With one search on my name “Michael Augustine,” she came across this blog. It was as simple as that.

My friends, we had a incredible reunion, she found me to tell me the incredible difference I have made in her life, and to take my business and continue the trend to serve as many as possible. Through the power of the internet and business marketing, I was able to rebuild a tarnished relationship, and turn it into a powerful entity to empower my business to the next level. Our reunion also gave me the strength to keep moving forward and serve as many people as I can, helping them acheive success.

Never underestimate the power of “relationship building”. Having a business and marketing online can be very rewarding as I previously mentioned. Microsoft said it best with their slogon, “Where Do You Want To Go Today?” If your thinking about running a business I encourage you to do so. Even in the troubling enconomy, businesses can still have success such as my business.   All it took was learning to harness the power of a Google search along with having a good search to help me acquire customers.  This can happen to you!  Having a business and building relationships have opened the door to other opportunites and dreams that I never thought I could make reality.  All due to the power of relationship building!!

During my time working as a business entrepreneur, I cannot tell you how many other people I have met who operate their business without the focus of customer satisfaction in their minds. It is very important to attract customers as every knows, but how many business owners have taken the time to thank their customers for their purchases? How many business professionals even thank their customers for just visiting their prospective sites. A0ccording to a survey conducted by Careerbuilder.com in 2005 entitled “How to Get in the Front Door,” 33% of job applicants actually send thank-you letters. 15% of managers have indicated in the survey that they would not considering hiring someone who did not send in a thank-you letter.

Now I realize that what i stated above applies to job searching and the typical job interview process, but the fact is, sending a thank-you note applies to many more life experiences then just going through the typical job interview process. Thank-you letters can help increase sales volume by giving your customers the peace of mind to know that you are a business owner who cares about them. Thank-you letters can provide for a positive experience when the customer interacts with you, and the products you are offering. Thank you letters can even lead to more referrals. The fact of the matter is that thank-you notes can produce positive results. Let’s take a look at what I believe to be the most effective form of a thank-you note referred to as, “The Greeting Card.”

According to the Greeting Card Association(CGA), in the early 1400’s greeting cards where used by the Chinese and the Egyptians, in the form of ancient scrolls, to exchange messages of good will among each other. It was not until the 1850’s, when the greeting card was transformed into what we know of it today. Greeting cards have even transformed into electronic format so that users can customize the card themselves by adding their own pictures and text.

The standard way of sending greeting has been proven to be a more effective way of reaching out to the customer according to the CGA. The standard type of greeting card exhibits the promise of guaranteed delivery, as well as providing something that can be held within two hands and opened with a smile almost always following after reading it. The electronic version of the greeting card does not exhibit guaranteed delivery due to the possibility of the card being hacked into. Hackers use electronic greeting cards to capture sensitive information such as account numbers and social security numbers.

With the invention of spam programs, electronic cards are often trapped inside the spam filters set by the Internet Service Provider of the recipient, thus never arriving to its destination. Electronic greeting cards are a great way to send cards without having to go to the store and spend hours looking for a card one likes that fits the personality of the person who the card is intended for. 

I love to provide customer satisfaction to all of those visitors who come across my website and purchase my products and services. In a way though, I am rather lazy about finding a card and physically sending it out. I decided to try and find a way in which I could have the best of both worlds, a perfect solution involving sending out a printed, customized card, pay for it online, and most of all a cheaper price then any competitor. Ladies and gentleman I belive I have found the solution.

I recently learned about a company online known as “SendoutCards.” A Utah based company that sends out thousands of cards per day.   all of the cards come  with custom designs, glossy finishes, as low as $0.31 cents in some cases, plus postage. I can create, customize, and pay for the card online as well as offer a free gift. SendoutCards will print the card, and send the card along with the gift to the receipt. Now, how cool is that my friends?

With SendoutCards, I have been able to reduce expenses, raise customer satisfaction, as well as increase sales and referrals. There is just something about sending a physical card along with enjoyment of getting it in the mail and opening it. It seems the be the perfect antidote for any situation.

My friends, I recommend this great service to you. If you own your own business and have many customers, or have friends and family, or maybe a special occasion is coming. SendoutCards is a excellent way to communicate with each other in a cost effective, yet efficient way.

As a special gift for taking the time to visit my blog and review its content, I welcome you to visit http://www.sendoutcards.com/73044and send yourself a card on me. That is correct, you read me right, on me, I will pick up the tab on the cost of the card, plus postage. Send yourself a free card by signing up for a free account and sending yourself a free card. Click on the “Send a free card” icon once you click the link above to get started. Making someones day special by sending a card is a feeling I cannot explain.

My friends, never underestimate the power of thoughtfulness and giving. It can really lead you down the path to having a successful business. I hope that every business professional considers the well-being of the customer from here on out. Just as the management of SendoutCards believe on improving lives one card at a time, I belive of improving lives one step at a time.

Footnotes

“How to Get in the Front Door,” was a survey  conducted  by CareerBuilder.com during the period of May 17 to May 27, 2005. survey responses where collected from over 650 hiring managers.  Survey participated were approached via an e-mail invitation, which asked them to participate in a short online survey. The results  are statistically accurate to within 3.84 percentage points (19 times out of 20).

Founded in 1941, GCA serves as the industry’s collective voice in promoting the tradition and value of exchanging greetings cards. GCA also represents the industry before key governmental and regulatory bodies, and monitors trends and developments of interest.  The Greeting Card Association (GCA) is the industry trade organization representing publishers of greeting cards and other stationery products, as well as suppliers to the industry.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my personal online blog!  for those of you who do not know who I am, I am a computer programmer, web designer, online computer instructor, internet marketing specialist,  strategist, and more.  For over 5 years I been working on the the internet to improve my business Augustine Enterprises and I am proud to say I have been very successful doing so.

Now, you may be asking yourself, why am I reading this blog post or looking at this blog and who is this guy really?   Well I am a person who currently spends 40 hour weeks working away trying to make a living. Honestly, I realized after some time, it just was not going to happen. It was a hard pill to swallow.   Now, here is why I feel this way. and in my personal opinion, I recommend that everyone take a long hard at their life situation and think somewhat about your future.  I realize that the future is unpredictable, but there are some areas of your life that you can control which will help shape your future the way you want it.

When I spent time evaluating my future, several factors and situations occurred in my life that lead me to decision about becoming a business entrepreneur.  I am not going to list them all, or you may find this post boring, but I believe there are 3 factors that I think sum up the decision   several other business entrepreneurs and myself have made.  I have summarized these three factors below:

Quality of Life and Retirement

As I work my current job as a computer programmer, I have witnessed a poor quality of life shared by my co-workers.  Every day when i walk into my office I hear how people do not want to come to work, how bad the money is,  even how great it will be to retire.  My co-workers are always complaining something and what I listed above in the previous sentence   are just some of the reasons I hear about constantly.    Working has produced great stress, I understand that, but there are is always a silver-lining to the work concept.  It all begins with attitude,  I believe every problem is a opportunity in disguise.

After personally listening to my co-workers long enough, I decided to do some research and figure out just why people are this way, i just did not feel comfortable being around such folks.  I was raised to appreciate life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Not trying to promote religion here, and I am sorry to offend anyone, but I thought one day, if Adam and Eve had just a garden, they lived well for themselves without complaining.  Noah lasted 40 days and 40 nights in a arc without complaining.  I realized from these thoughts, (although they are strange thoughts indeed you may say), that if these folks lived their lives despite their life circumstances and did well.

My point in all of this is that no matter what, our lives can be controlled in any way we want, even though life throws us curve balls.  This world is full of opportunity, everyone just needs to open their minds and act on the prompting when it appears in front of you.  Most people do not see opportunity when it happens thus they miss the chance.  this world is full of opportunity and gifts, we must be thankful for all we have even in dire circumstances.  This is one reason why I think people are always depressed in some  form or another, because they forget, they have the opportunity to change their lives, and to be thankful for all they have. Just as Adam and Eve and Noah  where appreciative.  Despite how bad things may be, there is always room to improve, and it all starts with attitude and willingness to improve your current situation.

When I looked at the retirement aspect of working 40 hour weeks.  I found it wasn’t worth it.  Due to the slumping economy, retirement accounts are being emptied out, with no opportunity to replenish the funds.  I also found that “retirement-life” has become short-lived.  I have seen friends who have retired, suddenly die within months or weeks.  I certainly want to enjoy my retirement not prepare for my death if that is in the cards for me to die  right after I retire many years from now.  Lets look at my next factor, “being your own boss.”

Being your own boss

That is right, you probably heard this many times or read about this many times from the various articles on the internet.   I will tell you, this concept was what I think drove home the decision for me to become a business entrepreneur.  Is it possible to be your own boss?  Yes you can be your own boss.  Is it worth all the time and trouble to build your own business?  the answer is absolutely it is worth it.  Again, you may have heard many reasons why one should be his/her own boss, but let me share with you a prospective that may or may not strike you as it did me.

I have spent many years working “for the man,” if you will, instead of being “the man.”  This was all in hopes of getting promoted, earning a bigger salary, and being in charge making a difference in the lives of others.  My dreams where dashed, when I found out that regardless how good I was at programming, or how I was told I was the top worker in my organization,  my boss always felt different and always told me “You are not good enough to get promoted in my eyes.”  This statement came from a person who lacked a college education and managerial skills on paper for the career he currently holds.  After hearing this, I conducted an investigation and found that my boss was hired because of his association with a high ranking employee within the organization.

My friends, the point is this, not only is it not what you know and its who you know. It comes down to who you work for,  whether he/she is qualified for their job or not, and he/she knows your good, your boss can control your career.  ”The man” can stop you from getting ahead in life, all because he/she personally feels you do not deserve to succeed regardless how good you are.  Being your own boss rids you of any obstacle of achieving success.  Lets take a look at the final factor I call “controlling your own destiny.”

Controlling your own destiny

Controlling your own destiny goes hand in hand with being your own destiny.  You will be able to live the life you want when you want to.  Think about the opportunity to wake up in the morning drinking a fresh pot of coffee, spending time with family in a beautiful home.  You can take your own vacations and stay as long as you want.  You can have your own personal servants waiting on you hand and foot.  You can drive around in your own fancy Porsche or any car that you like.  These are one of the many perks you can receive when you control your own destiny.

What I described above my friends is not fiction, it is reality.  Yes I still do work a regular job, but if what i described above was not true, I would not have made extra income or been able to afford things I want, or most of all, be able to work part time.  My friends I am on my way to achieving the life that I want.  That so-called life I am talking about is the life of living with my family and doing what I want, when I want every day of my life.

What is the purpose of this blog you may ask, well one of the most important things I want to do is make a difference in the lives of many people all across the world.  I feel it is a calling that I must fulfill.  This blog is designed to share with the inspiring business men and women out there all of my knowledge on what it takes to become successful like I have become.  This blog will also provide you many tools and tips on what it takes to become the best at what you do, as well as establish you as the front-runner of business leaders all over the world.

In closing, I ask you all to come back often, for this blog will be frequently updated with new information.  I open the floor to you my dear readers to share with the others reading this blog post your secrets and tools to success.  I am like all of you who are trying to achieve success working their respective businesses.  Let us all work together and climb the mountain of success one step at a time.

May god bless you and all your endeavors!!

About the Author