Click the BBC team has found a way to steal personal data Facebook users.
Source: BBC
BBC profile team to make fraudulent Bob Smith. He save and keep the most personal details about the profile of people who are not friends on Facebook. Although the team can not get all the details, details of which actually obtained, including name, hometown, school, interests and photos, certainly help us to steal someone's identity.
By using a pair of laptop and the assistance of the application code, the BBC team created a special application for Facebook users or Facebookers. One of the reasons for Facebook to become popular so quickly is a collection of applications that can be added by users to their profile. There are thousands of games, a short quiz based, and simple IQ test available for them. And, once a user adds an application, his friends will be pushed to add. Anyone who has a basic understanding of programming can write a web application.
BBC team to design the application data collector (come Mining) with the name of an evil miner, which, if desired, can masquerade as games, test intelligence, banter and such. The program can be made in less than three hours. However, it seems like any program, in the background, the application can raise the details of personal data users, and send the details-details through e-mail from Facebook to the team.
When you add an application, unless you choose restricting, the program is given access to most of the information in your profile. And, it includes the information you have about your friends even if they think they have chosen the strict security settings.
Currently, many applications that require access to the details so you can function properly. However, the BBC said the team did not know that mishandle applications detailed information Facebook users, in addition to the program that created the team.
However, the fact that the team can easily create applications with many people worrying. People do not need to have such programs for victims. People can become victims if he has friends who have such programs.
Given the application is running on the servers of third parties, not by Facebook, it difficult for companies to check what happened, whether that program has changed, and how long the applications that store data. Although the terms and conditions that apply to load Facebook warning that the situation that may happen in theory, and offer options to prevent the application to access your data, many games and quizzes will not work if this option is used.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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E-Commerce Security: Fact or Fiction?
Reports of holes in companies' e-commerce systems could
convince even the most rational person that thieves are prowling every corner of the Web, waiting to steal victims' credit card numbers, personal data and other sensitive information.
But as any Internet security expert will tell you, e-commerce is actually much more secure than real-world commerce. When you leave your credit card receipt on a restaurant table or give your credit card number to a telephone operator, you're accepting the risk that things you didn't order might appear on next month's bill. Yet when you enter a credit card number on a reputable e-commerce site, you're sending it over a secure connection to a server that's accessible only to authorized personnel and protected against even the most determined intruders.
Yet in the world of e-commerce, perception matters just as much as reality. Small businesses often outsource their e-commerce systems, and many small business owners don't know or care about e-commerce security technology. When your customers start to ask questions, however, it's best to know the answers before they take their business elsewhere.
Here are a few of the most frequently asked e-commerce security questions. This list isn't complete by any means, but it's a good start.
Can cyber thieves intercept a customer's credit card number on the Web?
A properly configured e-commerce system makes it almost impossible to steal a customer's credit card number. The customer's browser uses a secure connection to encrypt their credit card number and other information before it's sent; this data will remain encrypted once it's on the merchant's server. Even if thieves intercept this encrypted data, they have no way to read it. What about the flaws in e-commerce systems that are reported by the media?
These are real problems, sometimes serious enough to compromise an e-commerce system. Almost all of these flaws, however, involve obscure, extremely advanced technical knowledge. Most of them, in fact, are discovered by computer researchers who report the problems to software companies even before they appear in the press. A reputable e-commerce hosting firm will carefully track the latest bugs and security flaws, and they'll fix potential problems before an intruder has the chance to exploit them.
Does that mean that e-commerce sites might not always fix these security flaws or even know they exist?
That might be true — computer security requires constant vigilance, and administrators must know about potential problems and ways to fix them. That's why it's important for a business to use a reputable, experienced hosting service or e-commerce provider. Small firms don't have the expertise to handle these problems on their own, and running a do-it-yourself e-commerce server invites trouble.
What happens if someone does steal a customer's credit card number?
All major credit card companies provide the same consumer protection they offer with brick and mortar transactions. In most cases, this means the consumer is liable for no more than $50 as long as they report the unauthorized use in a timely manner. The consequences can be far worse for the business from which the number was stolen — such incidents can ruin a company's reputation and possibly expose it to legal liability. This is another good reason why you should entrust your company's e-commerce system to a reputable provider with a solid track record.
arrow for pagination - left Previous Page 1 2 3
Get Free E-Commerce Design Quotes
In addition, make sure to read these articles:
* The Internet as Sales Tool
* How Do I Handle Credit Cards Securely on My E-Commerce Site?
* How Do I Encrypt My E-Mail Messages?
* Should I Get a Firewall?
View More
Sponsored Results
* Sage MAS CRM Software Solutions
* Sage CRM Solutions: CRM Software
* CRM Solutions in Colorado
More Related Topics:
Industries:
* Software Services & Applications (301)
* , Secure Online Transactions
* , Internet & WWW
* , Media & Telecommunications
* , Data Processing Services
* , Restaurants
Subjects:
* Small Business
* , Cybercrime
* , Globalization
* , Outsourcing
T T T
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convince even the most rational person that thieves are prowling every corner of the Web, waiting to steal victims' credit card numbers, personal data and other sensitive information.
But as any Internet security expert will tell you, e-commerce is actually much more secure than real-world commerce. When you leave your credit card receipt on a restaurant table or give your credit card number to a telephone operator, you're accepting the risk that things you didn't order might appear on next month's bill. Yet when you enter a credit card number on a reputable e-commerce site, you're sending it over a secure connection to a server that's accessible only to authorized personnel and protected against even the most determined intruders.
Yet in the world of e-commerce, perception matters just as much as reality. Small businesses often outsource their e-commerce systems, and many small business owners don't know or care about e-commerce security technology. When your customers start to ask questions, however, it's best to know the answers before they take their business elsewhere.
Here are a few of the most frequently asked e-commerce security questions. This list isn't complete by any means, but it's a good start.
Can cyber thieves intercept a customer's credit card number on the Web?
A properly configured e-commerce system makes it almost impossible to steal a customer's credit card number. The customer's browser uses a secure connection to encrypt their credit card number and other information before it's sent; this data will remain encrypted once it's on the merchant's server. Even if thieves intercept this encrypted data, they have no way to read it. What about the flaws in e-commerce systems that are reported by the media?
These are real problems, sometimes serious enough to compromise an e-commerce system. Almost all of these flaws, however, involve obscure, extremely advanced technical knowledge. Most of them, in fact, are discovered by computer researchers who report the problems to software companies even before they appear in the press. A reputable e-commerce hosting firm will carefully track the latest bugs and security flaws, and they'll fix potential problems before an intruder has the chance to exploit them.
Does that mean that e-commerce sites might not always fix these security flaws or even know they exist?
That might be true — computer security requires constant vigilance, and administrators must know about potential problems and ways to fix them. That's why it's important for a business to use a reputable, experienced hosting service or e-commerce provider. Small firms don't have the expertise to handle these problems on their own, and running a do-it-yourself e-commerce server invites trouble.
What happens if someone does steal a customer's credit card number?
All major credit card companies provide the same consumer protection they offer with brick and mortar transactions. In most cases, this means the consumer is liable for no more than $50 as long as they report the unauthorized use in a timely manner. The consequences can be far worse for the business from which the number was stolen — such incidents can ruin a company's reputation and possibly expose it to legal liability. This is another good reason why you should entrust your company's e-commerce system to a reputable provider with a solid track record.
arrow for pagination - left Previous Page 1 2 3
Get Free E-Commerce Design Quotes
In addition, make sure to read these articles:
* The Internet as Sales Tool
* How Do I Handle Credit Cards Securely on My E-Commerce Site?
* How Do I Encrypt My E-Mail Messages?
* Should I Get a Firewall?
View More
Sponsored Results
* Sage MAS CRM Software Solutions
* Sage CRM Solutions: CRM Software
* CRM Solutions in Colorado
More Related Topics:
Industries:
* Software Services & Applications (301)
* , Secure Online Transactions
* , Internet & WWW
* , Media & Telecommunications
* , Data Processing Services
* , Restaurants
Subjects:
* Small Business
* , Cybercrime
* , Globalization
* , Outsourcing
T T T
art_print Printart_email Email 16x16-digg-guy Digg It delicious-small del.icio.us
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icon - related resources - pen
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matt sarrel_80
The Internet as Sales Tool
Everyone knows that you can use the Internet for Marketing. Here's the way to use it to get the inside track when prepping for a ...
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What are some of the successful online marketing tactics being implemented now and into 2008? Below is a list of 35 such tactics that may ...
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* How to Listen to Market Demand and Create a $100 Million Company
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* The Importance of Viral Marketing
AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution.
icon - related resources -forms
Forms and Agreements
* Web Site Development Agreement
* Web Kit
* Sample Privacy Policy
* Web Linking Agreement
* All Forms
Business Directory Listings
* Sage MAS CRM Software Solutions
Sage MAS customer relationship management software. Retain customers & lower overhead costs. See how with Sage MAS!
* Sage CRM Solutions: CRM Software
Complete Software Customizable For Your Business. Get Info, Free Trial
* Restaurant Software & Systems
Business Plus Accounting Restaurant Pro 8.0 is a fully integrated restaurant POS management software and system. More complete than any other package.
* Customer Relationship Management Software Directory
Compare customer relationship management software using Capterra's free, comprehensive directory.
Search the Business Directory:
Hiring Employees Who Follow the Rules
Host Hattie Bryant of Small Business School interviews Anne Beiler of Pennsylvania-based Auntie Anne's Pretzel Company.
What to look for in an online promotion company
At Grantastic Designs, we see an overwhelming, recurring problem when we give site evaluations. Many of the web sites we evaluate are not designed for optimum search engine and directory placement. What makes us uneasy is that many of these sites were already coded and submitted (to search engines) previously. We hate to see people and companies lose hundreds of dollars because they put trust in a group of people that do not know what they are doing.
If you hire anyone (a submission service, a web hosting and/or design service, an online promotion service, etc.) to do online web promotion services, the persons in charge of your site promotion must have the following qualifications:
* HTML and graphic design/layout experience
* General knowledge of search engines and directories
* Online marketing and submission experience, and
* Excellent web copywriting skills
Ask a lot of questions about the promotion service before handing over any money. For example, why can it be a bad idea to include an image map at the top of your web pages? A good online marketing company will be able to tell you that (a) many search engines cannot follow links in an image map, so the site has to have links elsewhere as well, and (b) image maps tend to be rather large images, thus increasing your site's download time (too much download time means less people navigating your site).
A good online marketing company will also know how to code your site and get it indexed well if it is a framed site. Ask the marketing company how they would get a framed site indexed well on Google. Google does not use meta-tag content to determine relevancy. Some possible answers are (a) having a new entry page, or (b) including text and links in the noframes tag. If the online marketing company gives these answers, have the online marketing professional explain to you how and why these (or other) layout strategies will work for your web site.
Can the online marketing company tell you the most popular search engines and their affiliations? Most of your traffic will probably come from AltaVista, Google, Lycos, FAST Search, MSN Search, HotBot, or AOL Search. If you are listed in Yahoo (which is a directory, not a search engine — quiz them on that, too), you might find a significant amount of your traffic comes from both the main Yahoo and, if applicable, a regional Yahoo. How will your marketing company get you listed in Yahoo?
That's just the beginning. You do not want your web site to be permanently banned from a search engine or directory due to ignorance or lack of copywriting experience. Beware the promotion company that GUARANTEES a Top 10 or 20 listing. They are probably spammers and their efforts will get your site permanently banned from search engines. No one can guarantee a top search engine position without spamming. A good web site title is descriptive BUT also accurately reflects the content of your site. A good 10-50 word description (for the meta tag and the description submitted to directories) also contains strategic keywords and accurately reflects the content of your site. Good copywriting is a necessary element of both online and offline marketing.
A good web promotion company will also teach you how to monitor your site reports and help you modify your own site when site traffic diminishes.
A good web promotion company will also admit when they don't specialize in any aspect of web promotion (banner advertising is quite different from site submission, for example) and should be able to refer you to a company that can help you.
We have watched clients miss Christmas gift-buying rushes and other date-targeted sales promotions because they placed trust in a group of programmers and designers who claimed to know Java and HTML, but not online promotion. They just hear, "We submit your site to 200+ search engines!" If people asked intelligent, educated questions and spend more time educating themselves on web site promotion, rip-off artists would not be making money on the web.
Top
If you hire anyone (a submission service, a web hosting and/or design service, an online promotion service, etc.) to do online web promotion services, the persons in charge of your site promotion must have the following qualifications:
* HTML and graphic design/layout experience
* General knowledge of search engines and directories
* Online marketing and submission experience, and
* Excellent web copywriting skills
Ask a lot of questions about the promotion service before handing over any money. For example, why can it be a bad idea to include an image map at the top of your web pages? A good online marketing company will be able to tell you that (a) many search engines cannot follow links in an image map, so the site has to have links elsewhere as well, and (b) image maps tend to be rather large images, thus increasing your site's download time (too much download time means less people navigating your site).
A good online marketing company will also know how to code your site and get it indexed well if it is a framed site. Ask the marketing company how they would get a framed site indexed well on Google. Google does not use meta-tag content to determine relevancy. Some possible answers are (a) having a new entry page, or (b) including text and links in the noframes tag. If the online marketing company gives these answers, have the online marketing professional explain to you how and why these (or other) layout strategies will work for your web site.
Can the online marketing company tell you the most popular search engines and their affiliations? Most of your traffic will probably come from AltaVista, Google, Lycos, FAST Search, MSN Search, HotBot, or AOL Search. If you are listed in Yahoo (which is a directory, not a search engine — quiz them on that, too), you might find a significant amount of your traffic comes from both the main Yahoo and, if applicable, a regional Yahoo. How will your marketing company get you listed in Yahoo?
That's just the beginning. You do not want your web site to be permanently banned from a search engine or directory due to ignorance or lack of copywriting experience. Beware the promotion company that GUARANTEES a Top 10 or 20 listing. They are probably spammers and their efforts will get your site permanently banned from search engines. No one can guarantee a top search engine position without spamming. A good web site title is descriptive BUT also accurately reflects the content of your site. A good 10-50 word description (for the meta tag and the description submitted to directories) also contains strategic keywords and accurately reflects the content of your site. Good copywriting is a necessary element of both online and offline marketing.
A good web promotion company will also teach you how to monitor your site reports and help you modify your own site when site traffic diminishes.
A good web promotion company will also admit when they don't specialize in any aspect of web promotion (banner advertising is quite different from site submission, for example) and should be able to refer you to a company that can help you.
We have watched clients miss Christmas gift-buying rushes and other date-targeted sales promotions because they placed trust in a group of programmers and designers who claimed to know Java and HTML, but not online promotion. They just hear, "We submit your site to 200+ search engines!" If people asked intelligent, educated questions and spend more time educating themselves on web site promotion, rip-off artists would not be making money on the web.
Top
How to build eCommerce.
Russian Federation (Press Release) November 17, 2008 -- A website of any company is just an instrument to get benefits. There are two kind of profit which a site can get. Direct and Indirect.
Direct income is internet commerce income when you are organizing the sales using the internet webpage. The most obvious case of the internet commerce is e-shops or shopping carts all over the world. This principle is also used by the pictures, melodies and java-pictures’ sales for cellular phones.
Indirect income is the company’s income who get the profit by involving more and more people to the business. They also make a new image for the company, develop the websites, the advertisement of the trademarks etc. The value of the indirect income can be empirical and it depends on the business processes’ results.
The profit and the expenses must be valued before the project had been started what is the most important part of the internet commerce.
Any commercial project needs economical effectiveness preliminary estimation. You have to get domain name, shopping cart software and hosting.
Then you should do something to let people know about your shopping cart. Beside the regular methods of the advertising you may have an effective method of attracting the attention, like Affiliate PRO Script which can help you without any additional efforts. This very affiliate software will help you to create your affiliate network easily. It will grow larger everyday and as a result you will get your online sales increased.
Besides you should find the target audience and work hard to create and then to support the website. Of course you may use the trading centre in the internet and set up the right price for the product. You will find out that pricing policy is the same everywhere and makes only several insignificant differences.
Now let’s look through the most interesting side of the shopping cart. Profit. It can be counted according to the planned quantity of the consumers per month and the interest you get from one sale. Continuing you may widen the profit source by showing the advertising demo clips. However until you get your regular customers do not think about these expenses.
As you may see the expenses are no more little and you can ask a question: How shall I economize? We will not speak about bonus programs or whatever here because we have to solve the technological principles of the process.
First of all you should decrease the work hours of the staff and because of it you should decrease the quantity and increase the quality.
Secondly you should plan each step and all the expenses. Find the optimized variant which suits your demands (price=quality) and be sure it does not include the additional functions but has everything to run the business correctly.
Eventually there are several ways to increase your sales volume. However the easiest one is to use the affiliate tracking software which will solve the most frequent problems of the online sales.
Direct income is internet commerce income when you are organizing the sales using the internet webpage. The most obvious case of the internet commerce is e-shops or shopping carts all over the world. This principle is also used by the pictures, melodies and java-pictures’ sales for cellular phones.
Indirect income is the company’s income who get the profit by involving more and more people to the business. They also make a new image for the company, develop the websites, the advertisement of the trademarks etc. The value of the indirect income can be empirical and it depends on the business processes’ results.
The profit and the expenses must be valued before the project had been started what is the most important part of the internet commerce.
Any commercial project needs economical effectiveness preliminary estimation. You have to get domain name, shopping cart software and hosting.
Then you should do something to let people know about your shopping cart. Beside the regular methods of the advertising you may have an effective method of attracting the attention, like Affiliate PRO Script which can help you without any additional efforts. This very affiliate software will help you to create your affiliate network easily. It will grow larger everyday and as a result you will get your online sales increased.
Besides you should find the target audience and work hard to create and then to support the website. Of course you may use the trading centre in the internet and set up the right price for the product. You will find out that pricing policy is the same everywhere and makes only several insignificant differences.
Now let’s look through the most interesting side of the shopping cart. Profit. It can be counted according to the planned quantity of the consumers per month and the interest you get from one sale. Continuing you may widen the profit source by showing the advertising demo clips. However until you get your regular customers do not think about these expenses.
As you may see the expenses are no more little and you can ask a question: How shall I economize? We will not speak about bonus programs or whatever here because we have to solve the technological principles of the process.
First of all you should decrease the work hours of the staff and because of it you should decrease the quantity and increase the quality.
Secondly you should plan each step and all the expenses. Find the optimized variant which suits your demands (price=quality) and be sure it does not include the additional functions but has everything to run the business correctly.
Eventually there are several ways to increase your sales volume. However the easiest one is to use the affiliate tracking software which will solve the most frequent problems of the online sales.
HOW TO CHOOSE A SHOPPING CART
If you have opted to use a shopping cart, you will find that there are several hundred to choose from. Which cart you ultimately choose will depend on the size of your business, your sales and marketing methods, and the degree of programming and design expertise possessed by you or your staff.
Before examining your choices, let's discuss exactly what a shopping cart is and what one does.
What Is A Shopping Cart?
A shopping cart normally consists of three major components:
The first component is a catalog area where visitors may view your products. The catalog is often divided into categories.
The second component is a check-out area, where visitors provide you with payment and shipping information for the products they wish to purchase.
The third area is an Administrator area where you manage the shopping cart.
When a visitor wishes to purchase a product from your catalog, they add that product to their "cart" by clicking on a button or link next to that product.
This adds the product to a "cart" - which is actually just a running list of products the visitor wants to purchase.
The "cart" concept exists to help the visitor visualize a shopping experience they would be familiar with in the real world.
Once the visitor has selected all of the products they wish to purchase - by adding them to the cart - they click on a "Check Out" button or link, and are taken to the checkout area.
In the checkout area, the visitor selects his shipping method, and provides a shipping address and payment information.
Once the visitor has entered all of the required information, and finishes the checkout process, an order is generated.
Some carts will email the order to the cart administrator, others make them available for viewing in the Administrators Area.
Hosted Shopping Carts vs. Installable Shopping Carts
There are, literally, hundreds of shopping carts to choose from.
All carts, however, fall into two basic categories:
Hosted shopping carts and installable shopping carts.
Hosted shopping carts (or turnkey carts) are already installed on a server. You pay a monthly fee and are provided with a username and password to log into the administrators area.
Inside of the admin area, you may configure the look and feel of the cart, add products to your catalog, specify shipping options and configure your payment options.
The advantages of a hosted shopping cart are ease of setup, and the time savings in setting up your cart. Hosted shopping carts will, often, allow you to use pre-designed templates - which they provide - for your storefront.
An installable shopping cart is a piece of software which must be installed on your own website. You must already have a website hosted by a webhosting company in order to use an installable shopping cart.
Some installable carts are very easy to install, while others are quite treacherous. If you lack programming experience, it's best to hire an experienced web developer for this task.
Free Shopping Carts vs. Licensed Shopping Carts
If you are using an installable cart, you have yet another choice to make. Will you purchase a licensed cart or use a free (open source) shopping cart?
A licensed cart usually has the advantage of having technical support provided by the software vendor. Quality of the support may vary from vendor to vendor, so do your homework!
On the other hand - an open source cart may have a large community of developers who may assist you, as well as a wider variety of add-on components available.
Before examining your choices, let's discuss exactly what a shopping cart is and what one does.
What Is A Shopping Cart?
A shopping cart normally consists of three major components:
The first component is a catalog area where visitors may view your products. The catalog is often divided into categories.
The second component is a check-out area, where visitors provide you with payment and shipping information for the products they wish to purchase.
The third area is an Administrator area where you manage the shopping cart.
When a visitor wishes to purchase a product from your catalog, they add that product to their "cart" by clicking on a button or link next to that product.
This adds the product to a "cart" - which is actually just a running list of products the visitor wants to purchase.
The "cart" concept exists to help the visitor visualize a shopping experience they would be familiar with in the real world.
Once the visitor has selected all of the products they wish to purchase - by adding them to the cart - they click on a "Check Out" button or link, and are taken to the checkout area.
In the checkout area, the visitor selects his shipping method, and provides a shipping address and payment information.
Once the visitor has entered all of the required information, and finishes the checkout process, an order is generated.
Some carts will email the order to the cart administrator, others make them available for viewing in the Administrators Area.
Hosted Shopping Carts vs. Installable Shopping Carts
There are, literally, hundreds of shopping carts to choose from.
All carts, however, fall into two basic categories:
Hosted shopping carts and installable shopping carts.
Hosted shopping carts (or turnkey carts) are already installed on a server. You pay a monthly fee and are provided with a username and password to log into the administrators area.
Inside of the admin area, you may configure the look and feel of the cart, add products to your catalog, specify shipping options and configure your payment options.
The advantages of a hosted shopping cart are ease of setup, and the time savings in setting up your cart. Hosted shopping carts will, often, allow you to use pre-designed templates - which they provide - for your storefront.
An installable shopping cart is a piece of software which must be installed on your own website. You must already have a website hosted by a webhosting company in order to use an installable shopping cart.
Some installable carts are very easy to install, while others are quite treacherous. If you lack programming experience, it's best to hire an experienced web developer for this task.
Free Shopping Carts vs. Licensed Shopping Carts
If you are using an installable cart, you have yet another choice to make. Will you purchase a licensed cart or use a free (open source) shopping cart?
A licensed cart usually has the advantage of having technical support provided by the software vendor. Quality of the support may vary from vendor to vendor, so do your homework!
On the other hand - an open source cart may have a large community of developers who may assist you, as well as a wider variety of add-on components available.
How To Generate Unique Business Ideas That Make Money?
Every money making opportunity that you see boils down to one common thing: idea. As you know the best ideas pay. The most creative ideas pay.
The best thing about ideas is it's free and everybody has the capability to think of ideas.
In order to be creative and innovative about ideas, you have to have knowledge. Knowledge is important. You need to know thousands of things to be creative.
Below are steps that you can take to come up with profitable innovative ideas:
1) Read and study as many things as possible about your industry or product. You need to investigate specific information of what you are going to sell. For example, if you want to be involved in real estate, you study everything about the subject matter in details. If you want to start a business, you have to know what's going on in your industry, what sells and at what price, etc.
2) Improve general knowledge. Don't limit yourself to only learn about things in your own industry. Learn as many topics as possible from other industries. It can be any topic. This enables you to think out of your own industry.
3) Mix and match ideas from cross industry. Once you investigate and research enough, your mind is the
storehouse of all the ideas you have studied. And this is the main source to your creative ideas. All the knowledge you have learned so far is the raw materials to produce new ideas.
4) Thinking of raw idea. After you have done your study, think hard about the solutions you want to your problem. Then stop and relax. Get a cup of coffee or go for a movie. Do something relaxing and let your subconscious mind work for you. The idea or solution will come to you at a much unexpected moment. For me, ideas always come to me before I sleep. My mind will be bombarded with ideas that I can't stop.
5) Refine your raw idea until it's up to your satisfaction. You can always do your own research on the raw idea by asking questions to target market to test the feasibility of the idea and how to improve the idea further.
Basically new idea is a combination of old ideas. You need to have enough old ideas to come up with new ideas. That's why constant reading and observation are important.
Sometimes when someone has launched a new product, you would say, "Hey! I thought about that before. That's my idea." You might have had thought about the idea but you didn't capitalize on it. Someone has done it before you.
It's always good that you have an ideas book. Whenever you think of a good idea, write it down. You can always work on it or improve it later. Bring along the ideas book wherever you go. It doesn't need to be fancy. It can be a normal pocket-sized spiral notebook.
With the method outlined above, I hope that you will be the next person who makes fortunes with unprecedented ideas that people can never think of.
Abel Cheng is publisher of Abel Cheng's Business Diary, a free publication that provides unorthodox home and small business success tips, tools and resources. Get instant access to his publication at http://www.abelcheng.com/diary.html
The best thing about ideas is it's free and everybody has the capability to think of ideas.
In order to be creative and innovative about ideas, you have to have knowledge. Knowledge is important. You need to know thousands of things to be creative.
Below are steps that you can take to come up with profitable innovative ideas:
1) Read and study as many things as possible about your industry or product. You need to investigate specific information of what you are going to sell. For example, if you want to be involved in real estate, you study everything about the subject matter in details. If you want to start a business, you have to know what's going on in your industry, what sells and at what price, etc.
2) Improve general knowledge. Don't limit yourself to only learn about things in your own industry. Learn as many topics as possible from other industries. It can be any topic. This enables you to think out of your own industry.
3) Mix and match ideas from cross industry. Once you investigate and research enough, your mind is the
storehouse of all the ideas you have studied. And this is the main source to your creative ideas. All the knowledge you have learned so far is the raw materials to produce new ideas.
4) Thinking of raw idea. After you have done your study, think hard about the solutions you want to your problem. Then stop and relax. Get a cup of coffee or go for a movie. Do something relaxing and let your subconscious mind work for you. The idea or solution will come to you at a much unexpected moment. For me, ideas always come to me before I sleep. My mind will be bombarded with ideas that I can't stop.
5) Refine your raw idea until it's up to your satisfaction. You can always do your own research on the raw idea by asking questions to target market to test the feasibility of the idea and how to improve the idea further.
Basically new idea is a combination of old ideas. You need to have enough old ideas to come up with new ideas. That's why constant reading and observation are important.
Sometimes when someone has launched a new product, you would say, "Hey! I thought about that before. That's my idea." You might have had thought about the idea but you didn't capitalize on it. Someone has done it before you.
It's always good that you have an ideas book. Whenever you think of a good idea, write it down. You can always work on it or improve it later. Bring along the ideas book wherever you go. It doesn't need to be fancy. It can be a normal pocket-sized spiral notebook.
With the method outlined above, I hope that you will be the next person who makes fortunes with unprecedented ideas that people can never think of.
Abel Cheng is publisher of Abel Cheng's Business Diary, a free publication that provides unorthodox home and small business success tips, tools and resources. Get instant access to his publication at http://www.abelcheng.com/diary.html
Monday, December 22, 2008
Business Plan Format
The Business Plan format is a systematic assessment of all the factors critical to your business purpose and goals.
Here are some suggested topics you can tailor into your plan:
- A Vision Statement: This will be a concise outline of your business purpose and goals.
- The People: By far, the most important ingredient for your success will be yourself. Focus on how your prior experiences will be applicable to your new business. Prepare a résumé of yourself and one for each person who will be involved with you in starting the business. Be factual and avoid hype. This part of your Business Plan will be read very carefully by those with whom you will be having relationships, including lenders, investors and vendors. Templates for preparing résumés are available in your library, Kinko's, bookstores and the Internet under "résumés."
However, you cannot be someone who you are not. If you lack the ability to perform a key function, include this in your business plan. For example, if you lack the ability to train staff, include an explanation how you will compensate for this deficiency. You could add a partner to your plan (discussed in Section 4) or plan to hire key people who will provide skills you don't have. Include biographies of all your intended management.
- Your Business Profile: Define and describe your intended business and exactly how you plan to go about it. Try to stay focused on the specialized market you intend to serve.
- Economic Assessment: Provide a complete assessment of the economic environment in which your business will become a part. Explain how your business will be appropriate for the regulatory agencies and demographics with which you will be dealing. If appropriate, provide demographic studies and traffic flow data normally available from local planning departments.
- Cash flow assessment: Include a one-year cash flow that will incorporate your capital requirements (covered in Session 8). Include your assessment of what could go wrong and how you would plan to handle problems.
- Include your marketing plan and expansion plans.
- Refer to helpful government Web sites such as the Small Business Administration. See "Resources" on the home page of this Web site.
Do I Need a Business Plan?
If you are approaching a banker for a loan for a startup business, your loan officer may suggest a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan, which will require a business plan. If you have an existing business and are approaching a bank for capital to expand the business, they often will not require a business plan, but they may look more favorably on your application if you have one.
Reasons for writing a business plan include:
- Define a new business
- Support a loan application
- Raise equity funding
- Define objectives and describe programs to achieve those objectives
- Evaluate a new product line, promotion, or expansion
- Create a regular business review and course correction process
- Define agreements between partners
- Set a value on a business for sale or legal purposes
What’s in a business plan?
A business plan should prove that your business will generate enough revenue to cover your expenses, but a business plan may vary depending on your audience. If you are writing a plan for your colleagues and partners to expand an existing business, then the focus of that plan may be more operational than financial. If you are writing a plan for a bank, the most important aspect to the bank manager will be your financials. Are your assumptions realistic? Will the cash flow be enough that you can make the monthly payments for the loan you have requested? If your business is making $1,000 a month and your payments are $1,200 a month, the bank is likely to turn you away.
If you are writing a plan for a venture capitalist, the most important factor in a decision to invest in a company is the quality of the people. In real estate, where the three biggest criteria are “location, location and location,” the venture capital axiom is “people, people and people.” VCs will ask, how experienced are the people that are going to run this business? Do they have knowledge of the industry? Have they started successful ventures in the past?
What makes a successful business plan?
- Presents a well thought out idea
- Contains clear and concise writing
- Has a logical structure
- Illustrates management’s ability to make the business a success
- Shows profitability
Bringing it all together…
Your business plan is like your calling card; it will get you in the door where you’ll have to convince investors and loan officers that you can put your plan into action. You want your calling card to look impressive, so make sure your business plan is printed out on good quality paper, you have checked the spelling and grammar, and that your numbers add up. Anyone who sees errors while reading your plan will wonder whether you are going to make similar errors in running your business.
A great business plan is the best way to show bankers, venture capitalists, and other investors that you are worthy of financial support. Make sure that your plan is clear, focused and realistic. Then show them that you have the tools, talent and team to make it happen.
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