You know they say it takes money to make money, well you want me to tell you how I started out. I started with zero cents. I got fired from a job from sleeping in cause I was up to late on the internet. My girlfriend even yells at me when I sneak out of the bed in the middle of the night to get onto the computer. My dog wines and cries because I don’t spend time with him, but anyways let me get back to what I was saying there is several ways to promote a website with no money, but I’ll tell you what it takes a lot of determination and dedication and if you don’t have that in you then don’t plan on succeeding. It also takes a lot of innovations, or some type of innovation, or viral markets that will pull leverage in for you.

1. Submit to free directories as cheesy as it sounds yes they do work, plus over time when these links set in these web directories you’ll start to get more credit from them and who knows the directory owner might promote the directory pretty well.
2. Do donations you can find high quality links one way links by searching for links to donate to just go to the search engine and type donate open source, or something similar to that. (this is a secret though so don’t let every one know).
3. Install a blog and starting writing your fucking ass off at least 5-10 post a day of quality posts.
4. Hang out at forums, and join the social part of the web and see what you can do from there on out. You’ll also meet a lot of friends this way, just viral these people into your blog one way or another and get them to subscribe.
5. Get famaliar with websites such as Digg, Reddit, and numerous other social media sites. Just become part of there community.
6. Buy a laptop just encase you go homeless, or don’t have money for rent. I’m being serious about this cause if you don’t have the passive income to support your bills while your building your business then stuff will get really tough. specially if your someone totally new, but you can still succeed just takes a lot of dedication like I said.
7. Make Friends, Make Friends, and let met say it again Make Friends. Join the social parts of the web and no this is not a waste of time don’t depend to make a living hanging out at DP your whole life by any means, but just try to meet people that will market your services for you such as word of mouth and etc be good at something that no one can do. If you do something that others haven’t done show your ass who cares, prove to other people what you have done people will be like neat-o.
8. Think like an entrepreneur don’t let other people destroy your believes you will feel like your in a war zone when your building a company or something you dream of, and don’t ever let go.

Just mainly try to find ways that you can promote your self with out losing. Don’t give in and offer to do stuff for dirt cheat. Its ok to maybe give a few deals here and there, but the idea in business it to always take care of your clients and make sure your moving forward at *all times*. If you believe there is a better way of doing something because you done been there and done it, then you do it your way because the chances are if your getting better results then what ceo joe is producing then do it.

So you have been on the front page of Digg, you have been a Stumble Upon Top Pick and the blogospere buzz machine has blessed you with enough ink to make Gutenberg cry. Still, your neighbors still doesn’t have any idea what it is that you are doing coding in your den all night long. In fact, he’s pretty sure that you’re some kind of terrorist.

Once you decide to expand your business beyond the bounds of early adopters, there are a few things that you should keep in mind. This will be a brief rundown of most of the important ones.

Keep It Simple

Rubik Cube

The best way to get real people to use your product is to tell them about it. Remember that most people do not have the same knowledge of “collobrative, crowdsourcing designed to leverage your social graph” that the average internet entrepreneurs does. More importantly, they don’t care. If you present normal people with a useful concept, even if it has been done a thousand times before on the web, they are a lot more likely to adopt it than if you try to wow them with marketese.

Notice that I said useful “concept”. You need to distill your product down to its functional parts. The thing that will detract adoption amongst main stream users is complexity. Once they have decided to use a product, features are a great way to keep them happy. When they are still giving it a test drive, however, unnecessary “stuff” is bound to come back to bite you in the butt.

Use Your Community

Parliment

No, I am not talking about your social network on Facebook. If your product solves a real problem, there is probably a terrestrial equivalent somewhere. Find the people who use this solution in their daily lives. If everyone at your office has a day planner, they may interested in your new piece of productivity software. If your friends all spend three days a week watching Blockbuster flicks, they may find your new movie recommendation engine helpful.

The point is that you have to understand the problem you are solving and reach out to the members of your community who have those problems. Make a few phone calls, visit your local college, get in front of your Chamber of Commerce for advice. In short, get out there and network.

The Mainstream Web

Facebook

Remember that the web is also filled with “mainstream” Internet users. You can find them wandering the halls of social networks like MySpace and Facebook. Many of these people have never heard of the blogosphere, and are really only online because it’s an easier way to anonymously stalk people.

Make a Facebook Group and MySpace profile for your idea and invite all your friends. Talk to some of the entrepreneurial groups on these services and bounce your ideas off of them. Get your name out there, and make sure that people have an easy time finding out what you are about.

Once again, these are all people who haven’t been necessarily been saturated with Web 2.0 jargon. Forget your hype, explain your idea and try to make it relevant to them.

Mainstream Media

Anchorman

Local newspapers have very tight publishing cycles and often very little to write about. Use this to your advantage and write a press release. Also, don’t be afraid to contact your local media with your idea. A lot of times they will be more than happy to put together a human interest piece if you can prove to them that there is something coverage worthy in your startup.

The best way to convince members of the press that your idea is worth talking about is to avoid the Web 2.0 hype machine and just pitch them your value proposition. If you can also throw in how your product will help the community, or something about fighting against a large, faceless corporation that’s usually worth a few bonus points.

Consider Advertising

Billboard Trick

Remember that, if push comes to shove, you can use advertising to promote your product. Online, you can usually do this for relatively cheap with services like Adwords. Offline, advertising gets more complicated and much more expensive. This should be the last option in your arsenal for another reason as well. Web products are more easily sold…on the web.

The point?

Don’t put too much money into terrestrial advertisement before you saturate the tech crowd.

Web 2.0 Roundup

A better question than where you should go to market offline is whether your startup is even ready to move into the real world. This checklist should help you make the decision. If you answer “no” to any of these you may want to continue building.

* Does your product, like the cell phone and Facebook, translate well to real people?
* Have you already collected a group of early adopters to help you work out the most glaring bugs?
* Does your major “hook” work well?
* Can you explain your product in one sentence?

Good luck and happy innovating.

VIDEO is taking over the internet world. I can’t explain enough how important it is to get on board. We will see more directories with video more websites with optional welcome videos and most importantly if you have a help page on your website make sure to have help videos!

Videos give the customer/visitor a sense of realism and that someone is with them during the process.  Really compared to text and a image it is a much more suyppeir way of getting something acomplished.

So why hasn’t everyone jumped on the band wagon? Well besides having a full plate it’s because the technology is still alittle cloudy. Do you use WMV, Flash, Quicktime, right.. Who knows.

Well I feel strongly that flash video is the best, it seems to roll with web pages better then the others and has more interactivity them the others.

So how do you start with video on the web?

1. Buy a camera, newegg and costco are good for this
2. Buy the video editor ulead
3. Export the finished video in flash
4. Add it to your website

Also green screens are great ways to spice up the video but don’t get cheesy. This is a business video and needs to not waste time and look clean.

The was written by Charles Yarbrough 

Getting your blog listed and see is becoming more dificult simply because more people are blogging. But on the flip side we are seeing more fair listing services like DIGG FARK and many more like it. Why are these lists in existence? SImply because it worked for Google and they want a similar process. Why Google worked is another story.

So with the millions of people you are against how do you get your article listed? Well first like with all business doing anything you need to see the people are doing it right and getting what you want already.

Then out do them or if you can’t out do them the most important factor in your article is to be something original. I can’t tell you how many lame articles got 500 digs I swear just because it was a original thought (idea ect).

I mean think about it, there is millions of people with hundreds of thoughts. It’s actually really hard to come up with something new in the blog world. Now redoing something already done is aoption and can work but you already 50% chance of getting burried just for what you are doing.

So what the solution, talk about your life and when you have something happen that you like build a list around it and find anything related to it so you can add to the list.

What’s so great about lists?

Well “I” love them, but universally they condense a lot of information in a straight forward easy to navigate process. They also sound very impressive during a dinner party. They also keeps most opinions at bay unless it’s about oppinions.

Anyways don’t get discouraged, your blog will always get love from Google it’s their favorite no business type of website.

Written by Charles Yarbrough

Among the best ways to get immediate customer feedback about your products, services, customer service and other issues—as they perceive them—is through focus groups. But, at anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per session, depending on the firm you use, the location (i.e., at their site or at a hotel) and the depth of your questioning, it can be an expensive process.

That said, if you have a do-it-yourself mentality, you may have more resources available to put together a focus group than you realize. If you look at the basics, you’re assembling a group of 10 or fewer people to discuss topics designed around specific results you’re looking for (e.g., feedback on a new product or service, the shopping experience at your firm or website, whether you offer good follow-up service, etc.). You’ll have a series of scripted questions, with a group led by a moderator.

So where can you save some money? Following are a few ideas:

• Write your own questions and script—Because you know what you want to learn and accomplish, you’re perfectly capable of creating the questions to which you’d like answers. Try to develop questions that help participants open up and answer without being led. For example:

• What do you like best about working with us? Least?
• How would you want to see our business/product/service be improved?
• Are there products or services that we should be offering but that we’re not?
• What have you seen competitors offer that works better than what we do?
• What about our processes or customer service?

• Keep it in-house—Often, the greatest expense comes from working in the field with focus group companies, which provide meals, snacks and even little gratuities (read: desk toys). If you have the space or access to a conference room, bring in a good meal and do the work in your office, or you can even rent a hotel room. If you have to rent a video camera, just make sure someone can operate it. The record you keep of the meeting—so that it can be used later—is critical.
• External or internal moderator—This can be a tough choice. It can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 for an external moderator, but the objectivity they bring to the table can be worth it. If you have a trusted friend who you think can do the job, it may be worth the savings. Under no circumstances should you moderate; you may not like everything you hear and that can kill any objectivity.
• Recruiting—Market research firms can recruit for you and it might cost about $50 a head, plus whatever you pay for in meals, snacks and fees. But you can also speak directly with your customers or send invitations to do your own recruiting. The promise of a meal and even a free service or product (the gift has to have value—no useless trinkets here) is often enough to get people onboard. You may even want to involve former customers—provided you’re close enough—to determine why they left. The key is to assemble a diverse group of customers and get to the right size (six to 10 people). If the group is too small, people will be inhibited and may not talk; too big and someone’s views will likely be missed.

Once you’ve completed the group, watch the playback and read your notes carefully and unemotionally. Chances are, you’ll learn a lot about what works or doesn’t work for your customers—and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. And remember to follow up with those customers that have participated in the focus group, thanking them for their help and time.

Moving from a sole proprietor to S Corp status (the most common small business structure) offers potential tax and other benefits. But a sole proprietorship gives you more freedom to move money and is cheaper to operate. So when, if ever, should you incorporate? It depends on where you are in the growth and lifecycle your business and what you need. Each type has its own advantages.

“The chief benefit of a sole proprietorship is ease of operation,” notes Janet Attard, founder of small business intelligence site BusinessKnowhow.com. “There’s no special paperwork to file other than your quarterly taxes, a Schedule C and a Schedule SE—to pay your own Social Security and Medicare—at the end of the year. There are no monthly payroll tax deposits or quarterly payroll tax returns, and no separate corporate return to file. Since all net income belongs to you, you can easily take money out of the business. There are low start-up costs and you can use losses to offset other income on your tax return. And it’s your baby—no one else can tell you how to run the business.”

That said, as you grow and take on more employees and outside contractors or do more work with larger corporate customers, you may want the protection that incorporation offers. As an S Corp., you gain liability protection. As a sole proprietor, if you hire someone who makes a costly mistake, you’re personally liable for their actions. Under the rules of incorporation, unless it can be proven that you were negligent regarding an employee’s actions, you have liability protection.

But, Attard points out, there are other benefits as well. One not readily evident is your perception in the marketplace. “When you incorporate, you immediately look more professional and bigger,” she says. “At one point, we had the opportunity to partner with AOL, so we incorporated to look more professional. Larger companies want to know you’re in it for the long haul and sole proprietorships can appear temporary in their eyes.”

Other advantages include greater ease of ownership transfer for incorporated companies vs. sole proprietorships and real tax benefits. In an S Corp structure, you are employed by your own corporation. You get paid a salary and have payroll taxes withheld on your salary. Any profits (all corporate income, minus all expenses including salaries) left at the end of the year then pass through to the owners as unearned income, which is not subject to the self-employment tax. If you are the sole shareholder in an S Corp, pay yourself $75,000 a year, and have $20,000 in profits at the end of the year, you’ll only pay income taxes on the $20,000, instead of income taxes plus self-employment. One caveat: The salary owners take must be considered “reasonable” in the eyes of the IRS, which it considers “fair compensation for the work performed.”

One increasingly popular derivation of the S Corp is a Limited Liability Company (LLC), which offers similar liability protection, yet owners still pay self-employment tax. As far as ease of management goes, the LLC falls somewhere in between a sole proprietorship and an S Corp.

Incorporating a business tends to be fairly simple and inexpensive, with the key documentation being your state’s Articles of Incorporation, your corporate bylaws along with a first-year franchise tax payment, various government filings and licenses and attorneys’ fees. In fact, you can even incorporate online through such sites as BizFilings, MyCorporation, The Company Corporation and many others.

No matter which you structure you choose, Attard recommends consulting an attorney or accountant before making any decisions. “If you spend a couple hundred dollars and get good, consultative help up front, it can save you thousands later on down the road should you have legal issues,” she says. “When we shifted to S Corp status, my accountant handled it for me. It takes about 10 extra minutes a quarter to operate this way and I count on my accountant to know the tax ins and outs that I don’t want to learn.”

“President” and “CEO” are just titles. The words don’t convey what the leader of a company actually does that determines the venture’s ultimate success or failure. There are only three specific CEO actions that ultimately matter. If these actions are in place and working, the company will grow and prosper. If any of these actions fall short, the business will founder or fail completely.

According to Helow and Schleckser, very few CEOs are aware of these actions or their implications. They usually realize these things are important, but they almost never believe that these three actions should occupy 80% of their focus and attention. Yet, instead of spending the bulk of their time on these critical actions, time spent usually equates to less than 10%. A shift in focus and competence in these critical actions will substantially alter the destiny of the venture.

The three CEO actions that separate the winners from losers are:

1. Picking the right business/profit model
2. Putting “A” players in key positions
3. Implementing “A” processes in customer service and sales

Picking the right business (model)

Some businesses are good, others aren’t. A mediocre home builder in Washington, D.C. will be more successful than a great home builder in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Market demand always wins. Picking the business, designing it correctly and modifying it to meet changing conditions are the CEO’s most important acts.

What are the elements of a great business?

• Demand exists—or you can create demand—that consistently exceeds supply. It helps to have a product that customers love, has recurring revenue and is a non-discretionary purchase.
• You have a sustainable advantage that is difficult to duplicate. With this advantage often comes unique vertical knowledge, which deepens over time.
• The economic characteristics (gross margin, return on invested capital, etc.) are favorable.

In the wake of the dot.com bust, for example, The CEO Project found some interesting islands of success. ATX Forms in Caribou, Maine, is a classic example. ATX develops software that small, private accounting firms use for their clients’ tax returns. Their product is essential for their customers—accountants can’t do tax returns without this type of software, the product is sold on an annual basis every year because the tax code changes annually, and ATX focuses its product on the small practitioner. There are other large competitors, but ATX has the advantage of focusing on the needs of the small practitioner. Their sales and profits have grown over 50% in each of the last two years.What do you do if you’re in the wrong business? You have two choices. One choice is to take your existing assets (customer relationships, product knowledge) and reconfigure the assets to support a higher value business proposition. A CEO in the paper cup business—think commodity—invented and patented the big cups with the narrow bottoms to fit into vehicle cup holders. His business took off.

The second choice, and the hardest for entrepreneurs, is to sell or close the business and do something else that creates more value. For most entrepreneurs, it would be easier to cut off a limb than lose their baby. But often, it’s better to surrender and look for a better opportunity.

Selecting “A” players in key positions

Sometimes one person can be the missing link. Helow says he frequently hears “we were growing slowly and then we added ‘x,’ and that was the missing piece.” Often, this function is sales because most companies have sales as their limiting constraint. Sometimes it is a technical skill and other times it’s the addition of a great operations person that can bring all the pieces together. Sometimes it is replacing the CEO.

Player definitions are:

• An “A” player regularly excels and goes beyond expectations, reinvents and improves new situations and is a shining example for others and forwards company values. Ask the question: If you could hire anyone in the world to do this job, would it be that person? If the answer is no, then the person is likely not an “A.”
• A “B” player consistently meets expectations and supports others and company values.
• A “C” player is neither an “A” nor a “B.”

Most CEOs give their people “A” ratings when they really should be a “B.” But the difference between an “A” or a “B” can make the crucial difference in a critical position. That said, “B”s are essential to a company’s success. Companies are built on “B”s. You can’t have all “A”s. But you need to have them in the top positions of your company.Who are the most important people in your company? It’s always 1) the CEO and 2) the manager at the company’s point of constraint. Since most companies can usually handle more sales, the point of constraint is usually sales and marketing.

“A” processes in sales and customer service

If a company can systematically delight its customers, that leads to a series of good things. Existing customers don’t leave, they buy more stuff, and they frequently refer others. Being able to do this every time is a key ingredient in company success.

Several CEOs have used an innovative approach for keeping customer delight front and center in their organizations. Instead of complicated and arbitrary numerical customer surveys (one person’s “3” is another person’s “4”), they would ask their customers if they were 1) Delighted, 2) Satisfied or 3) Not satisfied. This made the customer data much more real. The next question was usually “why?” This opened up a customer dialogue, which frequently led to significant improvement in customer delight and revenue. A unanimous conclusion from this approach was that there was much greater economic value turning a “satisfied” customer into a “delighted” customer than trying to convert a “not satisfied” customer into “satisfied.”

Another catalytic event for many companies is when they find the keys to unlock their sales and marketing process. Orange Glo International manufactures Orange Clean and OxiClean. In the beginning, these products were sold mostly through craft shows. The product would sell itself in live demonstrations, but obviously the company would stay very small relying on craft shows and live demonstrations. Then came the Home Shopping Network test. The product was demonstrated live to millions and it sold very successfully. Users began telling their friends and the company was on its way. OxiClean became so popular that it eventually became one of the top-selling items for Wal-Mart on a worldwide basis, and the company is now over $300 million in sales.

CEO focus and skill along three critical dimensions will determine the ultimate success of the enterprise. The overwhelming tendency is for the CEO to spend time in other places—some good, some bad. A total commitment to building skill in these three areas will have a geometrically positive effect on business performance.

As your business grows, you’ll undoubtedly need to get help. More often than not, you’ll use freelancers and contractors before you can afford full-time help. But managing independent contractors entails some special handling.

“It starts with understanding the very real distinction between part-time workers and independent contractors,” notes Dr. David Javitch, CEO of business management consultant Javitch Associates. “An independent contractor is someone who’s not full- or ‘regular’ part-time on your payroll.

Strictly defined, full- or part-timers are your employees, which means that you may be required to offer certain benefits, pay over-time should the circumstance arise, cover them under your workers’ comp policy and follow other employment regulations.

In contrast, an independent contractor is not an employee. While they may cost a bit more, you do not pay for or provide benefits, which can be as high as a third of salary costs, and they work only a specified set of hours.”

The distinction is an important one, as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has very clear requirements of contractors. For example, they should, in most circumstances:

• carry their own general liability insurance,
• pay their own taxes,
• charge a flat rate per project,
• carry workers’ comp and general liability insurance for any support staff they hire on your behalf, and
• use their own expertise and/or equipment to complete assignments, generally without your direct supervision.

Beyond that, there is some ambiguity around the way the IRS deals with the classification of independent contractors. According to the agency: “The main factor a business must use in determining how to classify its workers is the degree of control the business has over its worker. The more control the business has over a worker, the more likely it is that the worker is an employee rather than an independent contractor.”

Perhaps the best management tool you have at your disposal when managing contract workers is a written agreement. According to online legal advisor Nolo.com, the law generally doesn’t require you to put anything in writing. An oral contract or agreement is legally binding. But oral agreements can lead to costly misunderstandings because there’s no clear written statement of what the independent contractor’s job parameters, payment terms, length of time on the project and, most importantly, what the two parties will do should a dispute arise.

“You need to be very clear from day one what the scope of work is,” adds Javitch. “In addition to a specific description of the work, an agreement should cover what your corporate standards are, what your expectations are for the quality of work and what you expect in terms of timely delivery. You’re hiring these people for their expertise. If they can’t do what’s expected of them, you should have the right to cancel the contract as quickly as possible.

At one point, for example, we brought in an independent contractor to help with our accounting. This person was allegedly experienced, but, within an hour, we found that he couldn’t handle an Excel spreadsheet. We immediately dismissed the person and didn’t pay for any of his time.”

Beyond the legal mandates are issues around the ways in which independent contractors blend into your corporate culture. “This may not always happen, but there are negatives that are sometimes associated with these workers,” suggests Javitch. “They know they’re independent and they typically have a higher level of expertise in their particular field than an employee they might be working next to. They probably make more money and can sometimes see themselves as special. Part of what you can do before you ever hire anyone is to have them interview with a few other people in your company and help them understand the way your culture works.

A good written agreement can also stress what you expect in terms of behavior on-site. And, remember, it’s ultimately your decision as to whether they stay.” Finally, it is always wise to consult an attorney before signing a contract or when the potential for a legal problem arises.

Do you know who your most profitable customers are? They may not be the ones who buy your highest-priced items, the ones you talk to the most often or those who shop the most frequently. They’re the ones who bring in the most profit per customer over the long term. There’s only one way to truly discover those customers with the greatest lifetime value: know the data.

“The dividing line in gaining this knowledge has to do with how automated you are,” says Joanna Krotz, CEO of communications firm Muse2Muse Productions in New York. “It starts with your database. As a business owner, I know it can be difficult to take the time to put one together, but the payoffs are tremendous.”

You may already have a database in place, but the right software can turbo-charge what you do with it. There are a variety of customer relationship management (CRM) software packages and online services that now exist for small business, such as Salesforce.com’s Group Edition, ProphetCRM, RightNow Technologies, NetSuite and many more.

And if you already use Microsoft Office, you have a fairly powerful tool in place. Business Contact Manager, which comes bundled with most versions of Outlook, offers more than 20 different reports and a range of helpful fields to populate, says Krotz. “Whenever you communicate with customers, whether it’s in-person or online, you want to get as much data as possible and do it with their explicit permission.” She adds that the typical data you might want to collect, depending on the business you’re in, include:

• customer name,
• address,
• phone,
• cell phone,
• e-mail,
• birthdays,
• names of family members,
• spouse/children’s birthdays, and
• when kids are entering and getting out of college.

You then add the data you’ll track ongoing to their profile: the annual amount they spend with your company, a history of past purchases, special offers acted on, any loyalty clubs, events or promotions in which they’ve participated and their service history.

The first part of the data collection can assist you in terms of contacting customers. For example, when you know when birthdays are, you can send personalized notes. Or, if you have a financial services firm, knowing when the kids get out of college tells when it’s time to ping that client regarding setting up a meeting to deal with newfound disposable income. The tracking data helps you learn about who spends the most money with you on a longer-term basis. Why is the service history important here? “If a customer buys a high-end product or service from you every week, but then takes 10 hours getting help on the phone from you after the sale, you need to account for that time and include it in your estimate of their overall value,” Krotz explains.

Once you know who your best customers are, it’s about communication. That’s when you can effectively up-sell, cross-sell or provide timely rewards or discounts. “When you contact these people, you know you’re not wasting your time,” Krotz observes. “You can create ‘inside deals’ for them and communicate in a medium they prefer—e-mail, phone or even fax. The communication is designed to make customers feel recognized, so thank them for their last purchase and let them know that you’re extending a better deal because you know they’re truly valued customers. Your goal is to get best customers to return and buy more or buy more frequently. Remember, one good lifetime customer can pay for all the effort you put into your database efforts.”

A chargeback occurs when the amount of the original charge that was credited to your business checking account is reversed. Wells Fargo Merchant Services has created this tip card to assist you in managing this sometimes costly and time consuming process. Below you will find the most common steps that can be taken to help prevent chargebacks.
Common Reasons for Chargebacks

* The card was fraudulent.
* Cardholder disputes the quality or receipt of merchandise.
* The amount charged to the card was incorrect.
* Processing errors were made during the transaction.
* Proper authorization was not obtained.
* Merchant did not fulfill a retrieval request.

Although chargebacks cannot always be completely avoided, there are steps you can take to help prevent them. The more you know about processing procedures, the less likely you might be to do, or fail to do, something that could result in a chargeback.
Procedures for All Businesses

* Make sure that the business name you provided to us that will appear on the cardholder’s statement is a name that your customers will recognize. Many chargebacks start when a customer does not recognize a charge on their statement even though it may be a legitimate one.
* Respond promptly to retrieval requests. Both customers and card issuing banks may request copies of sales and credit drafts. Once a request is initiated you need to respond within 12 business days. Sales drafts should be accessible to authorized employees for 180 days after the initial chargeback notification after which they should be stored long-term in a safe and secure location.
* Always get an authorization.

Procedures for Retail Businesses
Make sure you fully comply with the transaction requirements issued annually by Visa®, MasterCard® and Discover®, most importantly:

* Have proof the card was present by making sure you swipe all cards through your terminal.
* Get a signature from the cardholder and compare that signature to the back of the card. Check additional identification if necessary. If the card is unsigned, request a photo ID that has a signature, and have the cardholder sign the card. Otherwise, don’t accept the card.
* Get an imprint whenever a card has to be manually keyed into a terminal. Be sure that all of the transaction information shows up on the imprinted copy including the amount, business name and location, and the cardholder’s signature.
* If the credit card is declined when swiped through the terminal, do not continue to try and get an authorization. Instead you should request a new form of payment from the cardholder.
* Verify that the number on the screen matches the embossed number on the credit card.
* Obtain an authorization number for the full amount of the sale — do not break the sale into several smaller amounts.

Procedures for Internet and Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO) Businesses
Take the following precautions that are unique to your business:

* Use the Address Verification System (AVS) to ensure that your customer is providing you with the correct billing address. Discover requires AVS on all card not present transactions.
* Provide us with a local or 800 number that we can include on your billing statement. Supplying a telephone number for your customer will help prevent a chargeback from occurring. Your customer can contact you directly with questions and you will have a chance to rectify the situation or be able to issue a refund to the customer before they dispute a charge.
* When sending merchandise to a customer, use a shipper that will be able to provide proof of delivery to the full billing address should there be a dispute. For very expensive items, request a signature for the merchandise to be released to the buyer.