Bill Gates on DomainMart and Domain Names

"[DomainMart] A broker of Internet domain names lists 'billgates.com' for sale for $1 million."

"Perhaps I should be flattered that somebody imagines the name is worth so much, especially since my parents gave me the same name 42 years ago for free."

"Asking prices for domain names are often between $500 and $2,000, and it's not uncommon for really good names to fetch $5,000 or more. A media company paid $7,000 for search.com and $15,000 for tv.com. Every once in a while, a name sells for much more; business.com reportedly sold for $150,000."

Bill Gates, Chairman & CEO, Microsoft

Getting out of a lease

Your rent is too high and there's a great opportunity to move to perfect new premises for your business, but you need to get out of your existing lease. Know the barriers and how to overcome them so you're ready to move when you need to.

What are your options?

Options depend on your lease. You may be able to:

• Terminate the lease, under a break clause.
• Where there is no break clause, negotiate termination with the landlord.
• Assign the lease - i.e. sell it to a new tenant.
• Sub-let the premises, or part of them.

Termination under a break clause: If you can terminate at a specified point, because there is a 'break clause' in your lease, you may have no continuing liabilities to the landlord. Check how much notice you have to give, and that you have complied with conditions in the lease, such as keeping the premises in repair (breaches may lose you the right to terminate).

Termination - no break clause: If there’s no break clause, you can try to negotiate termination. If you succeed, you may have no ongoing liabilities to your landlord but he will try to get you to pay - a fee for terminating, payment of his professional fees and payment for repairs and redecoration.

Assigning: Finding a new tenant to take over your lease - someone to 'assign' it to - is usually the best way of realising any value in your lease, although leases for fewer than three years often prohibit assignment or you may need your landlord's consent - which usually can't be unreasonably withheld. Or there may be restrictions on use that limit who you can assign to.

If you do assign, you'll usually still have legal liabilities for all future payments owed by future tenants, or have to guarantee some or all of the next tenant's payments. The landlord will try to negotiate other payments from you too, that you may be able to pass on to, or share with, the new tenant.

Assignment can cost more and take longer than terminatation. First, you have to find the new tenant, and may have to pay an agent to help. Second, you have to negotiate with both the new tenant (who will pay the landlord's professional fees? Will the new tenant pay you a premium, or vice versa?) and the landlord.

If your lease has less than two years to run it's probably better to try to terminate the lease, to avoid the costs and risks of assigning it.

Sub-letting: Rental from sub-letting could cover part or all of your rent and leave you free to move, but you retain all your liabilities as a tenant and you have the additional burden of managing your sub-tenant.

Sub-letting may not even be allowed - check the lease for restrictions on sub-letting - or you may need the landlord's consent.

Strengthen your hand

Whether negotiating an assignment or termination with the landlord, put yourself in the landlord’s shoes:

• Is the market strong? The more potential reliable new tenants out there, the more reasonable the landlord is likely to be with you.
• Does the landlord have cashflow problems? If so, the landlord may want a quick agreement.
• Has the landlord breached the lease? Use that in your negotiations.

You need judgement, experience and a good knowledge of the local market so use both your own - and your adviser's - negotiating skills. Don't give your position away. If the landlord knows you are desperate to get out of the lease, the landlord will have the upper hand

Planning For a Successful Exit

Have you planned when and how you will exit your business? 

Here's how to avoid being one of the thousands of businesses liable to lose out for lack of succession planning.
 

Poor planning, poor result

It's never too early to work out your strategy for exiting your business. Surveys highlight poor succession planning in the UK - and sellers who haven't prepared get less for their businesses than those who do, or can't find a buyer at all. A buyer might make an offer now, but two years is the usual time frame for a successful sale. Changes you need to make can't be achieved overnight, so get planning. 

Steps to riches

Strategy
Consider your strategy - can you add value to your business when you plan to sell? Should you be aiming to maximise shorter- or longer-term profits? Are you over-reliant on just a few customers?
Timing
When will your business be worth most, given changes in your supply chain, competitor activity or technological advances?
Tax
Tax-efficient strategies for realising your investment in the business can take time to set up - your company might need to make sizeable contributions to your pension fund for several years. Stay in touch with your professional advisors, to make sure tax changes are factored into your plans.
Legals
If you have legal disputes, sort them out. If a shareholders' agreement or your company's articles of association say you must offer your shares to other shareholders before you can sell to an outsider, square things with them. Agree who will take over personal guarantees. If the company leases premises from you, discuss the alternatives. Ensure all key agreements are in place.
Employees, customers, and suppliers
Key workers must be retained for a good sale price. Clauses in customer or supplier contracts may give them termination rights if ownership changes - when will you talk to them, to make sure they'll do business under the new owner?
The offer
Take advice on the different tax implications of selling company shares, compared to the sale of company assets - legally, selling shares is generally a better option for the seller than selling assets.
Systems
Make sure management information systems, equipment and premises are in good order.
Finances
If you want to keep a stake in the business, you can restructure the company's finances. Increasing bank borrowings and selling some of your shares back to the company is an option.

Success on the Internet

    Success on the Internet begins by owning a domain name related to your business or industry that is a keyword. For example:

•         industry specific like Stereos.com or Loghomes.com which cover multi billion dollar markets
•         market specific like Teens.com which covers a multi billion dollar market
•         product & market specific like Copier.com which covers a multi billion dollar market
•         regional specific like Tristate.com , or Twincity.com
•         company specific like Tristate.com, Bryan.com or Martz.com

    What makes these domain names more successful than others is that they are "the" key word in a information search. For example; you are looking for stereos. The "first" word you will search for is stereos. When properly registered on the web stereos.com will pop up in every stereo search world wide. The same applies loghomes, kids, teens and so on.

    There is a paradigm change taking place in the world of business and business communications. The Internet is the driving force behind this change. What is a paradigm change? A paradigm change begins to take place when you make a new law or change a old law. When the decision was make to allow the public on the Internet our world of business communications went into hyper drive and will accelerate to warp drive as fiber optic cables are installed nationwide.

    What does this mean to business? Business email is sent in seconds rather than days. The virtual office will develop with virtual employees. The US Post Office will eventually downsize and raise rates. Businesses will be conducted over the Internet in seconds. People and companies will send more business files back and forth on the Internet. Advertising to the whole world was never cheaper. Advertising agencies will go the way of the crank telephone. Large and small manufacturers and retailers will publish virtual catalogs. There will be a major re-alignment within the printing industry as more and more firms move to electronic media and in house publishing. Our language will change to keep pace with key words and shorter computerized logical sentences. Purchasing methods and habits will change world wide. Whole new industries will develop around Internet communications. All of this is taking place right before your eyes, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day.

    I would estimate that a million or more domains have been registered to date. Most were registered for the prestige of owning a name that relates to ones business interests.

    Today, smart retail companies are beginning to position themselves for new internet business through the purchase of key word domain names. Owning a domain name that is a keyword is the major key to success on the Internet.

    Our business is buying, selling, leasing and developing key Internet domain names. Take a look a few names listed with below. If you see a name listed here that applies to your business or industry, make an offer. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

What is a “good” domain name?

The criteria for domain names do not differ considerably from the criteria regarding the selection of a name for a product or a company:

1. Target group
The name should either be created in the target group jargon, or at best extend same by means of the new description (for example HOTWIRED.COM).

2. Remembering the name
Of all the thousands of domain names only those which can be easily remembered have a chance (for example screamingfrog.COM).

3. Quality
A good domain name makes people curious (for example FASHIONGIRL.COM).

Domain Name Philosophy

A domain name can be divided into the following groups:

1. Company corporate identity
In the case of well-known companies it is recommended that the company name be protected as a domain name. Any interested party would find a company such as IBM within the shortest possible time without Search-Engine (WWW.IBM.COM).

2. Product description
It is often the case that the product is more widely known than the company which manufactures it. In such cases it is worthwhile having the product names protected as a domain.

3. Company name and product description
It would be ideal if the company name and the product name were to use the same description (for example WWW.COCACOLA.COM).

4. Short-term name for advertisement campaigns
It can be the case that a name is only required, for example, for an advertising campaign during the period of a few months ( such as BEFIRST.COM, FIRSTBID.COM, LOVEIT.COM, SELECTIT.COM, etc.).

5. Branch descriptions
Early birds would perhaps have the chance of protecting for themselves the description of an entire branch as a domain name (for example MEDIA.COM, PAPER.COM, MOVIE.COM, etc.).

6. Activities
SUBMIT-IT is an example of an Internet service whose domain name describes the organisation’s activity.

Choosing names

Choosing names for objects has occupied mankind’s thoughts since time immemorial. The tendency towards more and more new descriptions results, for example, in dictionaries and encyclopaedias being printed in ever shorter intervals, and subsequently in the degrading of existing books to recycled paper.
A host of fantasy descriptions such as brand names and company names enter the normal vocabulary used during our daily communication.

Due to organisational reasons it was necessary that individual computers and networks on the Internet were allocated with names from the very outset. Initially, they were simply given numbers. As a result of the increasing popularity of the network however, names and in particular those which were more original and could be easily remembered, increasingly gained importance. Services such as YAHOO were able to achieve such a degree of popularity worldwide not least because of the originality of their names.
Therefore, it is much easier to create advertisements for a product with the name YAHOO than it is, for example, for INTERNET-SEARCH-ENGINE.

Those who have children will be familiar with the enjoyable and exciting time of choosing a name for an unborn child and subsequently making a final decision. Authors of books and film producers usually hold the opinion that without a title their works wouldn’t actually exist.
Agencies which specialise in names devote their entire time creating names for new products or companies (as in the case of “Novartis”).

Perfume products and the fashion industry are typical examples of the importance of a successfully chosen name, whereby the illusion or the status is much more important than the actual product, and it is these characteristics which therefore ultimately make up the deciding factors as far as success or failure is concerned.

How to Get an Appointment

The first step in selling a product is always to get an appointment with the buyer. Sometimes, it is not easy, especially when it's cold-calling. It may be the president of a big company and has many meetings and on-going important things to do. This potential client does not know you, does not care about your product or service, and has no intention to meet you in person. The situation becomes even more complicated because her secretary is a real warrior whose mission is to protect her boss from you or any other strangers. Plus, to say it frankly, you are little bit afraid of calling this person, or at least you do not feel too comfortable about it. This article will help you to overcome all major obstacles and get that important appointment that may bring you a new, major contract.

1. First of all, if you really want to see this company among the list of your clients, you need to make them know you, and you can not avoid the stage of getting an appointment. Therefore, do not procrastinate. While you wait another hour or day or week, your competitors will make a call, get an appointment, and sign a contract.

2. Do not be afraid, even if you call the president of a multinational company. You are the president of a company too, and it does not matter that you work from your kitchen table. This person is also a human being, and if your product/service is really valuable to his company, both of you will gain.

3. Also, remember, it will not hurt to make a call. The worst possibility is that you will not get this project now. But, if you sit and do nothing, you can be 100 percent sure, you will never get it.

By the way, do not be afraid of turndowns. If a client said "no," it's an answer and the beginning of communication. Maybe he or she will say "no" six more times. The situation might change. Then, they may decide to use your services, because they are already familiar with you.

4. Do not hesitate and do not let opportunities go by. At the moment, do not think about the future meeting with this client, do not think about future projects, do not think how complicated it can be for your company. Now, your main goal is to get an appointment, and you will think about all other issues after this call.

5. But in the same way, plan well what you are going to say. As always, do your homework. Find out as much as possible about the company in general and about the person you are going to call in particular. Prepare your speech, play with intonation for a while, and choose the right words.

6. You have to be self-confident, believe that your service is the best, and believe that this company really needs it. If you do not believe in it yourself, why should they believe? Think about all your successful projects, all happy clients and all successes you had before. If it's the first time you propose this product/service, or you never worked with such a big company before- you should remember THE GOLDEN RULE: There is really no limit in the amount of sales you can produce!

7. If you know that it will be rather difficult to get through the secretary - send a fax out first. This should be a brief letter to this person, introducing your company, your product/service and saying that you will be calling him or her to discuss details. Chances are, he/she will never see this fax, but that does not really matter. Now, when secretary asks you about the purpose of your call, you tell that you sent Mr. X a fax and want to follow up. It will make the possibility of being connected much greater.

8. Now, it's the most important time. You are self-confident, well prepared, and happy to eventually hear your potential client on the other side of the line. Be brief. You have only 30 seconds to sell the appointment. Do not discuss your service or product over the phone, do not give him/her any chance to refuse a meeting. As soon as he says his first phrase, should it be a question, an objection or a concern, say: "that's a very good question, and we can discuss it. How about Monday?"

9. It is very likely that if you have followed all of these steps, you already wrote down the time of the meeting in your daily planner. If not, do not panic. You did your best to get this meeting, but even the most successful sale people are turned down from time to time. You can put this client in your database, write down why she refused to have a meeting, and schedule calling her one more time in 3 months. You learned a lot from this process, and by doing this you increased your chances for getting a "yes" answer to another phone call.

10. Practice cold-calling every day for at least 30 minutes and in the end of a month you will not only have your daily planner full of appointments, but your sales will definitely increase. Of course, nobody likes cold calling, but if you do it as a routine every day, it will keep your business and your own communications skills in shape.

Now, I will go and call that potential client, with whom I dream of doing business. I can not be sure that I get the project, because too many factors will be involved in this long process. But, I am sure I will get the appointment. I wish you do the same now. And if we both as professional and self-confident in the next stages (conducting a meeting etc.), we will also get the project we want.