The Towing Path

Accomplished IT and business entrepreneur Naveen Jain is best known for owning and managing two companies based in Washington. In 1996, he formed metasearch technology provider InfoSpace and in 2003, he put up Intelius Incorporated, an online information service supplier.

The former Forbes 400 listee currently resides in Washington, particularly in Bellevue. His wife Anu, with whom he has three children, has also taken part in his business ventures as the vice president of the companies’ community relations department.

Earlier, Naveen Jain lived in India, his native country, where he was raised by his father who was a civil engineer. In the 1970s, after graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology (Roorkee) and XLRI (Jamshedpur), he was offered and gladly accepted a business exchange program that let him explore the US information technology market.

Initially residing in New Jersey, he moved to Seattle where he worked under Bill Gates’ Microsoft Corp. There, he was among those who helped develop operating systems Windows 95, Windows NT and MS-DOS. Later on, he was appointed manager, supporting the launch of Microsoft’s online service, MSN.

He later resigned to put up InfoSpace Inc during the dot-com boom. The company was so well known at that time that even Microsoft’s co-establisher Paul Allen was interested in its stock performances. At its peak, the company had a value of $31 billion and Naveen Jain, as its chief executive officer, was worth $2.2 billion. With that, various online properties like AOL (America Online), Lycos, MSN (Microsoft Network) availed of InfoSpace’s services.

At present, he is the chief executive officer as well as the president of Intellius Inc. While the company is enjoying success as among the prominent IT businesses in the industry, its founder takes time to do philanthropy work, giving back to the community that has provided him with so much opportunity. A portion of what he has earned at Intelius benefits various Washington and India-based aid groups that promote education and the youth.

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Affiliate marketing is very much like e-bay. Merchandise is featured on your web pages for this, every sale or enquiry nets you commission. There isn’t as much work needed, very few operating costs, it sells twenty four hours a day, and what is even better, it is comparatively simple to master.

At the start, you need to decide what merchandise or market you’d like to work in. A effective way to do this is, you need to find out what a unique customer profile is suffering from, and then which solutions will assist them. An effective way of doing this is looking for groups of narrow keywords; there are less internet searches for these generally, however they convert far more.

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The Internet based information company Intelius gauges its success not only on mere entrepreneurial progress alone. The company also bases its success on the amount of effort and difference it has contributed in making the society a more livable place.

The company was founded by one of America’s most talked about entrepreneurs, Naveen Jain. Intelius is the realization of his vision of forming a venue that would integrate the power of relevant and accurate information with state-of-the-art technology in order to ensure security while providing convenience. Intelius is known for providing detailed yet correct information that protects the security of consumers and businesses while also offering insights and choices that makes daily decision making easier. Individuals and businesses can easily gain access to critical information through the company’s wide range of business, information, verification products and services, as well as its award winning ID protection product called IDWatch. Intelius continuously creates groundbreaking and high quality products in order to meet the increasing demands of its growing customer base.

However, the company’s objectives embrace more areas. Aside from its tremendous financial success, Intelius also goes beyond the borders of the business world and reaches out to the society. Driven by a collective passion for philanthropy, Intelius engages in a number of various charitable groups and nonprofit organizations. With the participation of its leaders, Intelius has contributed more than $480,000 worth of donations to several aid organizations that are mainly advocates of children, education, healthcare, and the welfare of families.

For 2008, the company created a new record in corporate giving by donating around $210,000 to numerous national and local charity aid groups. The effort was too valuable and remarkable for the Puget Sound Business Journal to miss, so much so that they recognized Intelius as one of the Top 15 Corporate Philanthropists.

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Sheffield Chamber of Commerce has launched a new scheme through the Property Assist Programme, which is focussed on supporting young members of the Chamber in starting their new businesses.

Paul Reeves, the present Director of Business Development for the Chamber, said that the scheme has been made possible because of the impressive property database that the Chamber has been able to create. He however stressed that the database needed further expansion so that more and more members could be helped through such schemes.

The scheme involves leasing out of office space in two locations, the new Omnia One and the Quadrant, which are not only easily accessible because of their strategic location in Sheffield City Centre, but also claim to provide all the important services that a budding business could seek.

The two locations offer good meeting room and conferencing facilities. They have impressive hot desking and telephone answering services and have all the necessary security measures in place. If hot desking is of particular interest, then click on Desk Space Genie, a fairly new site with loads of desk space and office space rental places.

In words of Seb Brown, Omnia manager, they are the best choice for any new entrepreneur looking for a quality office and good facilities. The location of the offices is excellent and given the all round good quality, by going with this option, the entrepreneurs would save a lot of time, which they would have otherwise spent in looking for offices.

The scheme is all set to draw the attention of young entrepreneurs, who are looking forward to launching their businesses. The adaptable leases are expected to attract a large number of entrepreneurs.

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Every major city in the country is now trying to find ways to entice foreign business to relocate into its empty office spaces. The unfortunate fact is that during the boom years when building was an epidemic resulting in too many large residential houses and a glut of expensive office blocks.

The price is now being paid as people live in houses that they can’t afford to sell and office rental rates are at almost giveaway prices. Whatever the cause of the problem a solution must be found. With over half a million square feet of offices vacant the situation could get much worse before the recession recedes. One glimmer in the office rental market however has been a rise in those workers, specifically freelance workers and small businesses wanting to rent a desk. This new phenomenon has seen a surge in the demand for desk space rental.

Some companies, like the Maersk Group have utilised the weak pound and lowering of the cost of living to move into this great sea faring port. But Liverpool will have to work hard to make sure others will follow because there only a limited amount of ship-owning companies out there.

Even those offices that have long term occupants need to be wary that other European cities do not tempt them away by offering lucrative packages and ever more attractive benefits. This is a global market place and everyone must up their game to compete and succeed.

Liverpool, the home of the fab four has seen a lot of investment poured into it in recent years and it is now a vibrant modern city. The challenge ahead lies in holding steady and to hope that a decline does not take hold, only time will tell.

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Are you scanning the horizon trying to pinpoint the optimum foreign currency exchange rates? The world wide web is an exciting place to have a thorough and comprehensive look at what is on offer & happen upon the greatest offer. However, it is patiently not all about searching the marketplace the lowest exchange rate - additional fees, commission and transfer charges will often all regrettably transform an enticing exchange rate all of a sudden poor value.

In this unhappy era of worldwide economic trouble you should work with a firm that you can completely trust - to not only get you the very best deal achievable at the current time but also to furnish you with assistance and sound advice. Foreign Currency Direct has been mentioned in such well thought of publications as The Sunday sad era and The Observer as a market leading brand with whom to do business with when you are thinking about acquiring foreign currency. Consequently, you can be secure in the knowledge you’ll be working with a honest and appreciably thought of enterprise.

Dealing in foreign currency could be a difficult area of business - the currency rates consistently swing, consequently, if you don’t appreciate the ability to access to the most recent numbers and expert experience you could wind up losing a significant amount of cash. Foreign Currency Direct are unmatched when it comes to working with exchange rates - operational ever since 2000 the firm has moved from strength to strength.

Foreign Currency Directs exchange rates are worked out using live, constantly updated interbank’ prices (the price at which one institution sells to the other) which are given in real time, making them a lot more competitive than those offered by less specialised banks and building societies. Foreign currency exchange rate searching is made easy with Foreign Currency Direct.

The only thing you should do is set up an account with Foreign Currency Direct & you 4 commence trading currency - you can get exchange rate quotes by telephone, if you accept the offer you shall receive an email, fax or postal conformation of the contract.

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When I was a kid, I was one of the scrawniest boys on the block. So as I got older, my desire to be physically bigger and stronger almost became an obsession.

When it was the right time to begin my weight and muscle-building training, I made sure everyone in my home knew what I wanted to do. And it was my dad who gave me some of the best advice.

“I understand your desire son, and I want you to know we’re with you. I just want you to be safe and do things the right way,” he told me. My first trainer was the father of a friend of mine who swore by Whey Protein as a great way to get started at a young age.

When our second son was diagnosed with a milk allergy at age 2, it was kind of a shock to us, but one that was easily managed. The hardest part about the experience was determining what food products contained milk and its derivatives.

And since all food products must list every ingredient on its label, all my wife and I had to do was learn the various terminology of milk. As it turned out, milk is mentioned in many ways and one of the most popular is Whey Protein.

Whey is milk in its basic protein form. So once we figured that out (among others) we were good to go.

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Copyright 2006 Joseph Farinaccio

You want your sales letter or ad copy to be easy to read. The
following elements help make copy reading easy on the eyes. And
easy to understand.

Reading your sales copy shouldn’t be a chore for anyone. It must
be reader-friendly.

So you’ll want to…

A) Break Up the Copy

This means no long paragraphs. No thick blocks of text. Using
short, punchy sentences.

Think of how you read. You’re a busy person. You want
information… now… fast. You don’t like reading a
never-ending pile of words. You like to see lots of white space
on the paper or computer screen in front of you. It’s easier on
the eyes.

Sales letter copy must be written so it can be scanned easily.
Many readers are scanners - - especially on the web.

B) Use Contractions Wherever Possible

As a general copy rule…

DO NOT use “do not” when you can use “don’t.” You see what I
mean?

Say things like: I’ve, you’ve, you’re, you’ll, we’ll, that’s,
he’d, would’ve, there’s, they’re, you’d, who’s, let’s, it’s,
it’ll, he’s, she’s, aren’t, haven’t, can’t, and shouldn’t …
etc.

It gives your copy a conversational tone. It helps it flow.

C) Use SUBHEADINGS

Your reader will generally like Subheads (short, easy to read
headlines). And put them in BOLD.

They help to effectively communicate the benefits in your sales
message. It makes reading easier while the reader is scanning
your sales copy.

D) Use bullet points for lists (or potential lists). Bullet
points are…

1) easy to read

2) easy to scan

3) easy on the eyes

4) just like this

E) Put a “you-orientation” in your copy. Say things like, “We’ll
help you save money,” instead of, “We help our clients save
money.”

F) Use fonts and font colors in a uniform way … to shoot for a
smooth look. These elements provide a consistent and unified
presentation to your reader.

A great deal of sales material is too “busy.” The human brain
can’t process all of the information being thrown at it. That
means less readership … and less sales.

You want all sales media (including webpages, sales letters, ads
and brochures) to be simply designed and visually consistent.
These small things will go a long way in making your sales copy
easy to read - and effective.

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In business there is one certainty: Problems will occur. Products and services will not always perform as they should. People will be disappointed. Employees will make value judgments that won’t always pay off. And above all, the one business truth that you can depend on: Customers will have complaints.

Which leads us to one the biggest business misconceptions: Customer complaints and problems are detrimental to your business. This is not true! In fact, customer problems and complaints are often your greatest opportunity to build more sales and create customers for life.

How do you turn problems into profit? By approaching every complaint as a second chance to prove your dedication to good business and to your customers.

For example, if you own a service station. You are in a highly competitive industry because customers tend to go to more than one station to get their gas tank filled, their oil changed, and their cars serviced. A customer makes an appointment to have his or her care tuned up, but you are unable to get to it in the scheduled time. As a result, the customer is greatly inconvenienced, has to make another appointment, and has to rearrange his or her schedule.

Needless to say, the customer is more than a little bit angry and your customer vows never to bring his or her car to your again. How can you turn this situation to your advantage? By putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. If your car was not ready when promised, what conciliatory services would you expect to be provided?

Remember that you are responsible for your customers; for their convenience, their satisfaction and, most importantly, for their overall happiness. And when you have failed to meet your customer’s expectations, rather than accepting defeat and letting the customer slip away from you, use your initial failure as a jumping off point for a profitable relationship. Commit yourself to turning customer complaints into sales. When you make this part of your business practice, you will become a trusted friend in the eyes of your customers.

So how do you turn customer complaints into sales? It’s really obvious, but very few business owners recognize it. Your number one priority, both before and after a mistake has been made, is to solve your customer’s problem. Not only solve it, but do it in a way that exceeds your customer’s expectations.

In the example I gave above about the service station owner, a great way to solve that problem would be to provide the customer with free transportation until his or her car is finished.

Even if the problem is not a direct result of some mistake that you have made, it is still your responsibility to make it right for the customer. You should always reward your customers for their inconvenience. That may mean offering repairs at a reduced rate or even free. It might mean giving them a free fill-up at your station. Whatever you do, you need to earn their trust back, and free gifts and services are a wonderful way to achieve this.

If you want to secure future profit from your customers, you have to give them a reason to transact business with you again. Give them coupons, gift certificates, or vouchers. Give them anything to get them into your store and buying from you again.

As with all promotions of this kind, there is always the chance you could end up spending more than you make on the initial transaction, or even on the follow-up. But your goal is to turn your customer into a customer for life, which gives you plenty of opportunities to make a profit and make your customers happy.

Whenever a customer complaint or problem arises, remember that it is a human being asking you to recognize that their life, their business, and their satisfaction is as important as anyone else’s. They want you to recognize this, verbalize it, and compensate them. If you do all of this with compassion and understanding, you will not only earn their lifelong support, but also the support of all those whom they refer to you.

Copyright©2006 by Joe Love and JLM &Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many of America’s largest corporations, on the subjects of leadership, self-esteem, goals, achievement, and success psychology.

Reach Joe at: joe@jlmandassociates.com

Read more articles and newsletters at: http://www.jlmandassociates.com

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