Design is a very important element of any piece of communication, whether it's a leaflet, brochure or website. It can make the difference between someone looking at what you have to offer, or simply moving on to the next company. The choice of typeface, colour and imagery all play very important roles and express the way in which you wish to promote you and your service or product.

The way in which something is designed depends on it's task. For example if your service or product is in a competitive market, always battling against other suppliers, the role of graphic design is to excite, arouse and encourage your target audience, express and convince that they need look no further - you are the best and everything they were looking for is right here!

If the task is to provide detailed information then the design takes on a clean, clear and structured approach so the user is able to find exactly what they want quickly and easily. The design may have one element of high impact to draw initial interest which is then backed up with clearly presented information, or, the design may have several high impact elements which are designed to lead you through the piece communication in a certain way and order.

Websites have to play many roles. They have to be easy to navigate and user friendly, they have to excite, offer confidence and encourage the user to look further. We offer a visual and functional enhancement package that can be tailored to your current website. 

Think of it like a car manufacturer. They regularly produce cosmetic updates to refresh the look of their product and introduce new functions in order to retain the interest and business of their existing customers and also attract new ones. We aim to provide the same service for your website - improved visual design to 'wow' your customers and at the same time introduce new and improved functions that will further enhance the usability of your site.

Surviving quieter economic times can be as simple as concentrating on three key business elements - review your collections process and be extra vigilant about collecting debtors, work on and define what makes your business different from your competitors and review and increase your marketing activity.

Steve Hockley is a Red Hot business coach who helps businesses realise their owner's dreams. Steve is a successful business person in his own right so knows what it really means to run a business, rather than just reading about it. You can contact Steve on 04 894 7111
http://www.redhot.co.nz/

Why have a padlock on my site?
SSL encryption is what you need to add to a web site to have the padlock show up.

This encrypts all communication between the browser of the person using the web site and the web server that your system runs on. It ensures nobody can spy on these communications and it eliminates any risk of them stealing and using information such as user names and passwords. There is still the usual risk of them getting user IDs and passwords by other means such as word of mouth.

You need to determine how high/low this risk is for your company and what a hacker could do if they did get into your site. If there is a high security risk ie you have a lot of employees or high staff turnover and the potential for a hacker to cause mayhem is large then this would imply you have a high security risk and SSL encryption would be money well spent. A small family run business would usually have a reduced security risk and the web site may not need to be secured with SSL encryption, although this may change over time and should be reassessed as the business grows.

Sometimes the presence of a padlock may be more of a sales issue. If securing the site with SSL gives you more credibility and helps convert sales it should also be considered.

For a secure site, we use and recommend one of these:
https://www.thawte.com/process/retail/new_ssl?language=en&productInfo.productType=ssl2

Please contact us for more information

Other Secure Information
Here are a couple of tips about online security:

• Never provide personal info that you don't want known on a website that is unsecure or unknown
• If a bank, lending provider or anyone wanting money contacts you via email asking for account info it is fraudulent, give it a quick exit to the trash bin!
  
• Never provide any personal info via email. Credit Card details should only ever be used on a site that is secure and never sent in an email
  
• If someone asks you for your Credit Card details via email they are likely to be fraudulent
• Be careful with what you tell people or provide websites with on the internet, big brother is watching and someone may find out information about you that you didn't want them to know!
  
• You may have heard about a service called Bongo in recent times, their info is gathered solely from what you have provided on the internet! So be careful!
  

Do you know someone who is considering building a website? Refer them to us and you will get four months of free standard hosting* if they do work with us.

Refer a friend today and we will take care of the rest. If they sign up, you will automatically receive your 4 months of free standard hosting.*

*Standard hosting covers hosting for one domain name assigned to your account limited to $30 a month.