Insurance

Recently my insurance was up for renewal but my insurance agent at Westland Insurance informed me that my premiums would be increasing by 85%. This was because the previous underwriter did not like the fact that I ship products to the United States.

My sales in the US account for less than 1% of my sales. The sales will cover the increase in insurance but obviously to US market is not where my concerns lie. I did have a choice though. I could forget about coverage in the States and keep my old rate but if some sued us I would be on my own. Or I could payout the 185% premium for business insurance.

After much debate I ended up caving in an paying for the complete coverage. I wouldn't want to risk my business and the livelihoods of my employees if we ever ran into trouble. Insurance a necessary cost of doing business. I guess...

Wild ride continues

The Canadian dollar plunged over 1.5% as the equity market imploded, commodities plunged, and the Euro dropped by 3% after ECB President Trichet admitted that they had considered cutting interest rates to address a slowing economic environment.

US employment fell more than market consensus posting the loss of 159k jobs, the largest decline since March 2003, while the unemployment rate surprisingly held steady at 6.1%. Fundamentals however remain a side show as the primary drivers of the US dollar continue to be investor liquidation of deteriorating positions, tighter credit conditions, and the ongoing need to repatriate funds back to the US to address funding restrictions.

There is talk out there of a coordinated effort across the G7 to cut interest rates in an attempt to provide support to ailing markets globally. It's unknown at this time whether such a move would be of any benefit as cash remains king and banks would rather hold than lend, but I guess at this point what do the various central banks really have to lose? For now, the US dollar remains well supported.

Canadian/US Dollar exchange

The US dollar gained almost two cents against the Canadian dollar yesterday. CAD gained a bit of ground back overnight but remains weaker than where we have been trading over the past week and a half. Very strong GDP data for Canada yesterday failed to have any impact on the currency and it seems likely that the CAD will remain a slave to the flows and broader market sentiment for a while yet.

There is no data due out of Canada for the remainder of the week, however, there are a few key data releases due out of the US including the always closely watched Non-Farm Payroll numbers due out on Friday morning. Friday's non-farm payroll report is at risk of coming in sharply to the downside.

Driving traffic to your site

Perhaps like me you have had the fine and dandy website constructed, now you are faced with the challenge of letting people find your site.

You read other articles on search engine optimizations, submitted your site to all the search engines. You have put your web site address on your letter head. Spammed your existing customer database and all your friends and family too.

I have not had much success with Google Adwords or pay per click ads. I can imagine all the site owners clicking on the googleads just to fatten their purse with my $0.45. I have looked into banner advertisments but for a small business the cost $10,000-$15,000 per month can be too much.

Here are a few alternative ideas that may be successful for you:

1) Get a billboard - If your business is in Springfield and you deliver to Shelbyville then buy a billboard on the highway out of Shelbyville. Have your website in big letters. Chances are you have already saturated the market in Springfield with your print ads, word of mouth and promotion events.

2) Use technology - If you would like to reach a tech savvy clientele i.e. students, young professionals think of a creative way to run a promotion. Have customer use the camera phones to submit contest entries online.

3) Partner with your supplier - your supplier likely get requests daily from people wanting to purchase. These referrals are extremely valuable.

Hope these help. If you have any ideas feel free to comment.