Starting a Service-based Business? Read These 4 Keys to Success

A service-based business offers services to people without selling tangible products. Think about salons, laundry services, wedding photographers, house cleaners, car repair companies and coaching service providers – they all are service-based businesses that help people get their stuff done. Starting these types of businesses usually costs less but there are a few challenges unique to this type of venture. If you’re reading this article, we can assume you are either planning to sell a unique service to people or you have already started your small business. So, whatever your idea is or business is about, here are the four keys to become a successful service provider in your industry.

Find Your Niche: Enter an industry that you’re familiar with and offer services that you would use yourself. You must be an expert of that field. If you’re passionate about something, selling might be easier for you. Are you offering what people want? What aspect of your business will make it appealing to customers? To get the answers to these questions, you need to focus on buyer person as, how you’re going to solve their problems, research your competitors in the market and identify interesting ways to attract customers.

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Set The Pricing Right: You are here to sell your time and expertise, so you need to choose the right pricing strategy. Price your services too high, and you can never win over your competitors. Price them too low, and you will never be able to turn your business into a successful company. Choose a striking balance between competitive rates and charging your customers for your time and service. The simplest way businesses can charge is by the hour. Your second option is to offer package services and charge a flat fee for a combination of services. You can also go with the combination pricing option and offer your services at an hourly rate and as part of a package.

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Learn to Manage Your Finances: A service business has lower overhead costs but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to have to take care of your finances. Keep track of all of your small business expenses, such as costs of buying new equipment or tools, payment to your vendors and employees and monthly rent if you are running your business from a shop. Create a cash flow budget, make financial projections, keep your payables up-to-date and track the credit you are extending to your customers.

Get Professional Help: Everyone needs help, especially small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Sometimes, it pays off to consult a small business mentor. Getting the right advice can be the difference between your success and failure. Seek professional advice from a business mentor to determine how to manage your business, know where it is heading and create an action plan for growth. Arrange one to one session with a professional small business mentoring service provider so as to get clarity about your business and create a strategic plan to take it to the next level.

Starting a service-based small business is cheap but it needs right skills, knowledge and professional guidance. When you find your niche, choose the right pricing, track your finances and get advice from a small business mentor, then you’ll be able to focus on the most important thing about your business: selling your service and making happy clients. So don’t wait, contact a small business mentoring service provider today to find new ways of selling your services and make your dream a profitable project.

Literature Review and Proposal on Core Java

Literature Review
Core Java, Java programming or simply Java is a widely used and robust technology for software development and creation of applications. Therefore, Java is both a programming language and a platform. On the other hand, a platform is any hardware or software environmental setting where software developers run their programs. Therefore, since Java has its own environment (JRE) and API on which it runs, it is referred to as a platform. A person who might not have encountered Java might want to know where Java is used. According to the studies, there are approximately three billion devices running on Java. It means that there are many devices around the world where Java is currently being used. Some of the devices where Java is being used are (Levenick, 2006):

Desktop applications like the acrobat reader, media player, and antivirus among others
Several web applications such as javapoint.com
Mobile phone devices applications
Robotics
Embedded system
Types of Core Java Applications
As has been seen in the description above, Core Java is a programming language that is used in the process of developing systems, software, and applications. It develops that have the capability of working on the local machine and the Internet. The most known features of core Java is that it is object-oriented, and it works across all the platform languages. Therefore, there are various categories of programs which Java can be used to develop them such as (Russel, 2001):

Stand-alone applications
An application is a type of program that runs on a PC or any computer under the OS such as Windows, Mac OS, Linux, or Android of a computer or a mobile device. The process of creating an application in Java is similar to creating a program using another programming language. A stand-alone application can either be a graphical user interface (GUI) based or console based. Console based Java programs are the types of programs that run on being prompt by a command. Furthermore, such programs do not display any screen based on GUI. The output of such programs is console-based (Fain, 2011).

Figure 1: Console based Java Program
GUI based program are the type of Java programs that run stand-alone and can accept input from the user through a GUI based screen.

Figure 2: GUI-based Java Program
Web Applications
Web applications are the Java applications whose nature is based on the web. They are simply web-based, and they require a web browser to execute them. The web-based Java applications use a Server to store data. Every time a user sends a request to have the application executed, the user request is passed on to the server for an appropriate reply. Web-based applications come as an Applet or a Servlet.

Applets: These are Java programs that cannot work in any other environment except on the Internet. Therefore, they are specifically created for that purpose. These programs run through a browser embedded with a Java such as Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Netscape among others. Applets are created through any Java development tool. It cannot work on the Internet without it being contained within a web page. Java Applets programs include games developments and visual effects among others (Gladychev, Patel, & O’Mahony, 1998).
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Figure 3: A Java Applet Program Screen
Servlets: Java is also appropriate for development of web-based n-tier applications. In a web-based Java application, the client sends a request to a server. The server accepts the request and processes it and sends a response to the client. The Java Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on the server side address the program processes and request of the client’s response. The server sides APIs extend their capabilities of the standard Java APIs and are referred to as Java servlets or server side applets. An HTML processing of a form is a simple use of servlets. The servlets can also process databases as well as performing server side transactions. Servlets execute through web servers (Hunter & Crawford, 1998).
Distributed Applications

Distributed applications require a server to run. Additionally, the applications use several servers simultaneously to back up the data and information and prevent any losses that might occur. They are also called enterprise applications. Such applications include banking applications, and they are advantageous in that they have a high level of security, clustering, and load balancing. EJB is used to create enterprise applications in a Java development environment.

Database applications: They are distributed applications that use the JDBC API to connect to the database. They could either be applications or applets. However, applets may face security challenges in the database connections (Morgenthal, 1998).
Client Server Applications
Client server applications cannot execute without the availability of web technology. Therefore, they are web dependent. The application follows a less complicated Client-Server model in which a client sends a request to the server directly. Examples of such applications are Yahoo Chat. They are developed in Core Java and Web technologies (Kleinov & Lehmann, 2002).

Proposal
I will be attached to a company in the position of an intern as the software developer using Core Java. The software development process will largely entail a systematic research process to ensure that the development process is conducted according to the requirement, and it delivers the expected results. The internship will be a subdivision of four iterations where each of the iterations will entail different tasks and activiti

Iteration 1: Orientation – It includes an introduction to the company’s management, employees, and its code of conducts and operations. Furthermore, I will be introduced to the software development team and the department of IT from where I will be working.

Iteration 2: Training – The iteration includes being guided in the process of software development life cycle by the company’s experts in the development process. I will also be introduced to the company’s specific guidelines to the software development such as punctuality and adhering to professional ethics in the process.

Iteration 3: Gathering SDLC tools – The iteration includes collaborating with the software development team to identify and gather all the tools that the implementation phase will require. This includes setting up the computers on which the development will take place and installation the computers will necessary software as well as the JDK (Saini & Kaur, 2014).

Iteration 4: Implementation – The activities of the iteration will include the actual development of the software using Core Java. Therefore, we will follow the SDLC process from the first step to the last step.

Crm at minitex

Minitrex Systems
The Minitrex Company is a business entity with different divisions under different personnel heads. The company has various data and information databases. The Minitrex Company has complete operations conducted under four divisions. The divisions include the sales and marketing department, the financing department and the insurance department. The company operates four data and database information systems which include the Customer Contacts System, the Management Business Center System, the Credit Administration System and the General Management System.

Customer Contacts Database

The customer contacts are a data and information system dedicated to serving the sales and marketing department. The database maintains and controls data and information for customers contacts. The main process of data and information entry into the customer’s contacts is through the customers having direct contact with the sales and marketing department. The customers can also get information through making a phone call. The customer contact is not shared with the other department divisions. However, the Customer contacts database share data involving the orders with the credit administration database. Customer contacts database also share data containing the products and services with General Management System.

General Management System
The other form of the data processing and management platform is the General Management System. The data and processing database are used by the department of insurance division the insurance division can receive bills from the customers. The General Management System shares data and information with the customer contacts database. The data and information shared includes the products and services.

Credit Administration System
The credit administration system is the data and information processing system that obtains the billing information from the insurance department. Credit Administration System shares the credit data and information with the customer contacts database. The General Management System is controlled and managed by the insurance department.

Management Business Center System
Management Business Center System manages and process data and information within the financing department. The financing department controls data and information stored in obtained by the customers. Management Business Center System share data and information concerning the orders placed by the customers. Management Business Center System supports the World Wide Web access to the internet.

CRM Minitrex Data
The Minitrex organization has three independent departments. The finance department, the sales and marketing department and the insurance department carry out their transactions on their individual operations. The customer accesses the Minitrex and services through contacting the four areas of customer service. The customers have the freedom of accessing any customer service. The vital data and information concerning the customer contacts information are not evenly distributed between the departments. The process of disseminating and sharing the information among then departments is not defined. The Minitrex organization encounter data and information redundancy resulting from customer’s inability to use a single point service point. The data stored in the Credit Administration System is similar to the data stored in Management Business Center System. The data and information stored by the processing unit lead to data and information redundancy. The departments have no developed mode of data and information sharing. Only a sing department has properly developed a system of education through the online network. The Management Business Center System has access to thru web services hence the customers can access the services through the online services.

Explanation for Calling a customer and Failing to know he is a Customer

An individual at Minitrex can call a customer and fail to know if he is a customer due to lack of sharing the customer contact data and information. The organization has no copy or way of accessing customer contact data and information. The situation results in the organization employee failing to understand their current customer. The poor communication results to the major operation of the company failing to get accomplished due to poor infrastructure of communication (Piercy, & Lane, 2009). The members from a different department like the finance and members of the department of insurance should shares data, and the information is containing the customer contacts. However, the failure may lead to the Minitrex workers calling and failing to identify the customer.

Explanation of failing to understand that the customer had called for the third time

The reason for failing to understand that the customer called for the third time is due to the lack of clear customer registration system. The communication m system at Minitrex has no way of recording the new customers within the organization. The customer contact processing unit doesn’t have the data and information for unregistered individuals. The data and information stored is only that exist within the database. When a call is made and happens that the one calling is not a registered customer, then the system has no record to indicate how many times the person has called through the system. The fact that the individual is new he is also new to the system and people when he is not recorded in the system database.

The Process of Implementing the Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The Customer relationship management helps in making the general tasks and the functions involving the customers easily to operate for the customers. Jon Bettman should focus on implementing clear customer platform that shares data and information of the customers evenly to all individuals (Farkas, 2011). Denny Khan should design a dynamic communication system that should facilitate the customer data being disseminated across all departments. Denny Khan should implement the automation of the operations by designing an online platform that supports the customers (Schniederjans, et al…, 2012). The system should ensure that the customer can access the services and the functionalities of the Minitrex organization at any time. The company services should get availed to the clients to ensure that all the operations have been automated. The CRM is also achieved through making a simplified system that enables the customers to receive services at one point. The organization should concentrate the business operations to a customer care service n to promote the issue of standardization. Standard services are well offered by having only one point of service delivery (Peppers, & Rogers, 2011).

All departments should be linked by a single cloud-based architecture where all departments should access the company data and information. The cloud computing technology should get applied in the Minitrex Company to facilitate easier access and to unite the departments. Uniting the department shall lead to better terms among Mariella Hopkins, Harold Blumfen, and Jon Bettmann. The togetherness would promote the customers also to emulate the unity of the company. The organization should also avail the goods and services always to the customer have to ensure that they maintain them always. The platforms such as the social media and solution solving platforms should be implemented on the company website for entertaining the customers for social networking. The solutions and feedback to the clients should be made online through chat box (Fjermestad, & Romano, 2006).