Kingsbury Consulting

Office: (866) 814-7641
Fax: (866) 814-7641
Cell: (310) 923-0603
johnkingsbury@kingsburyconsulting.com


Our Mission is to provide Professional Services in the computer field to individuals and small companies. To perform these services in a quality manner at a fair price. To address the client's consulting needs as a whole. To emphasize understanding the business issue before developing the solution.

Professional Services:
Web Site Design, Development, Updates and Maintenance

Additional Information:

 Qualifications

 Finder's Fee!

 Publications

Client Sites


Web Site Development: Our goal is to assist both individuals and small businesses who cannot afford a full time Web Master by providing those services in an affordable manner. Instead of hiring a full time employee, our client can save a great deal of money, as well as achieve outstanding results, by outsourcing their WEB needs to us. We begin an engagement by determining the client's goals, translating those into a WEB site design, and then developing the finished product. We also assist by managing the technical issues of setting up a WEB site. Domaine names, ISP selection, and file transfer protocols are obtained as necessary.

Having developed the initial "solution", we continue to assist our clients with the maintenance of their web pages as technology changes and their business matures. Once the initial effort of developing the site is complete, our clients call us when they have changes to be made or a problem to be corrected. Web changes can be "collected" up to the point in time when it makes sense to publish them. Clients will typically "book" our time for one day per month in order to ensure that their Web page investment continues to meet their needs. In this way, the cost of ongoing maintenance of the site is kept to a reasonable level.

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

TECHNICAL SKILLS

WEB Publishing: HTML, Macromedia HomeSite 5.0, Adobe PhotoShop, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Jasc Animation Shop, Broderbund ClipArt and Print Shop, and WS-FTP
Programming: Visual Basic
Operating Systems: Windows 95, 98, ME, XP
Office: MS-Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Project

EDUCATION

Learning Tree University
Fundamentals of Data Communications, Understanding WANs, Networking
Essentials, HTML, Programming Concepts, Visual Basic Rel. 6, Relational
Databases and SQL
1998 -- 1999

UCLA
MBA -- Management and Information Systems

University of Redlands
BA -- Business Administration

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
FINDER'S FEE

Kingsbury Consulting will pay a finders fee of $100 for each lead which results in a billable engagement. Only one fee will be paid per engagement. The fee will be paid upon beginning billable work.

ARTICLE
Ten Reasons to Create a Commercial Web Page
by John G. Kingsbury

It seems as if almost everyone you talk to these days has an idea of what a Web site is. After all, "The Web" seems to be everywhere. Many of these same people will say they need one for their business, but a much smaller number overcome their uncertainties surrounding Web sites and go ahead with their own. While inertia or fear of technology is often a sufficient reason not to have a site, the reasons to have one are far more compelling.

Opportunities to sell goods and services For those of us in the business of selling either goods or services or both, the Web has become a "gotta have". Of course, there is always the issue of bragging rights. "I'm on the Web and you aren't". But more importantly, a new generation of consumer has sprung up. One with new computer skills and one which has learned to shop over the net, not at the mall. Those who do a large part of their shopping via their computer, and don't have to jockey for parking space any more.

Those businesses that have their Web page in place are able to tap into the huge demand in this new marketplace. And the marketplace will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Already there are major Web retail outlets such as Amazon.com which only sell via the net. How long can you afford not to participate?

Join in the "Gold Rush" Brand new markets for existing goods and services are springing up. Take the online clothing market, which generated $530 million in sales for 1998. That amount was a small fraction of the $180 billion per year apparel market. However, Internet clothing sales are expected to rise to $20 billion by 2003, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. But more importantly, research shows that women are going online at a faster rate than men, and that apparel has become the fastest-growing category of e-commerce. This Gold Rush is happening right now.

The opportunity to sell your organization While goods and services can be sold quite effectively over the net, it is becoming essential to also promote the organization behind the product. If you sell commodities such as vitamins or jewelry over the web, quality and service become issues of equal importance to price. If you sell services over the net, quality, reputation and appearance become differentiators used by Web shoppers to determine whose services to use. While there is often a cost difference to take into account, I believe that over time net shoppers will build loyalty for the organization which is reputable, sells quality, offers fair prices, and guarantees their offerings 100%.

Opportunity to penetrate new markets The business owner of today has a wonderful opportunity which his predecessor did not. In the recent past most companies served local markets only. The cost to reach national and international markets was prohibitive, enabling only the very largest of companies to compete internationally. The cost of advertising alone made it infeasible for most businesses to expand beyond their local market.

The advent of the Internet has offset this disadvantage. The smaller companies of today can be members of the global village just as effectively as their larger counterparts. The cost of creating and implementing a basic Web site is minimal and a one time cost compared to other types of promotional tools. The web site that one company builds can generally be as effective as that created by another company. The point here is that the Internet has opened world markets to all players on a much more equal basis.

Reduced advertising costs The beauty of a Web site is that it is a relatively inexpensive form of advertising. Once the page(s) are created, there remains only the minimal monthly service charge payable to the Internet Service Provides. This fee typically runs $20 - 50 per month. If you can replace another more expensive form of advertising with your Web page, you will end up saving money. If you decide to supplement your current advertising programs, you do it at a lower cost, potentially earning a bigger bank for your buck. Be prepared, however, for additional work to be required on your Web page as you fine tune its target audiences, add new products, or shift the direction of your business to take advantage of new markets.

Leverage existing media Let's assume, for example, that your company advertises on the local television station and in a monthly magazine. Each medium has its strengths and weaknesses that stand on their own merits. But the value of each stops where the ad stops. A Web site, on the other hand, offers the businessman an opportunity to leverage other media. By referencing a Web site address in each of the above ads, their effectiveness improves as they steer customers toward your Web site. A more effective form of advertising A Web site offers at least two advantages which most other advertising media do not. Those being graphics and animation. If you have a complex product which "shows" well, you can place graphics on your Web site along with descriptive information about the product. The prospect is free to examine the product at his or her own leisure. If your product is one that requires movement to demonstrate its value, you can use animation. The prospective customer can review it again and again. The only other media that can match these capabilities are television and motion pictures, and those ads can be expensive.

Reduced order-taking costs Tremendous savings are available to those who take advantage of the Virtual Showroom. A Web page offers you the advantages of eliminating the rent, the salespeople, the inventory, the taxes, the utilities etc. etc. While there are costs associated with building and maintaining a Web site, they pale in comparison to those incurred by a traditional retailer.

New distribution chains "I can tell you without blinking an eye that the Internet is going to change the entire distribution of consumer goods - from the factory to the shopping bag. And in many unpredictable ways," says Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report. "It will be as easy for a lady from Ottumwa, Iowa, to place an order with a store in London as it is to order from the store across the street." All signs are that the traditional constraints of information and distance will fall away as consumer good ales continue to grow on the Net. Think of it as a cyberage Sears Catalog; but always available, always accurate, and always up to date with the latest trends.

Two way communication "How can I not learn from that as a designer?" says clothing designer Norma Kamali. Kamali can conceive a design and quickly put it on her Web site, using a flock of young e-mailers as an instant focus group. Similarly, customers of Steve Madden's platform thongs pour out their thoughts to the designer on his "Dear Steve" Web page. "I ordered my shoes online when I couldn't find them in the stores, and although a bit leery, I bit my lip and went forth…it was the best decision. I got my shoes within three days and they fit perfectly."

All of the above is real and happening today. We are reaping the benefits of the Information Age, and they are great. This hit home with me when I did my Christmas shopping last year. From the comfort of my home, I shopped online, finding just what I wanted at a great price in a short period of time. And it was delivered as advertised and on time. If you are running a business, large or small, the benefits of a Web site are there for you to take advantage of. You have nothing to fear but fear itself, and that fear is preventing you from reaping the financial advantages of a very bright future.


John Kingsbury is a consultant operating his own Web based business, Kingsbury Consulting. He assists individuals and small businesses with designing, building, and maintaining their Web sites. His competitive advantages are professionalism and the years of business experience he brings to bear when designing and building Web sites for his clients. He may be reached for a free consultation at johnkingsbury@kingsburyconsulting.com or (888) 814-7641.


Examples of Sites We Have Created



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