By Antoinette Tuscano

Before clients do business with you, they go online to find out who you are, what your business is and why you might care about doing your best for them.

Your “About us” webpage is often one of the first places people visit. Have you looked at yours lately? Is it a neglected few, sad sentences riddled with typos? Is the only graphic a tiny Google map? Or is it functioning at its max potential for attracting clients and increasing your income?

If optimized well for the internet, the “About us” page can help search engines find you and communicate to prospective clients why you care and how you can be easily reached.

How to get more business through SEO friendly “About us” webpages

• Start with the why, who, what, when and where of your company.
• Make sure your contact information includes your state/province. It helps search engines identify you as a local business.
• Include years in business.
• Tell your story concisely.
• Skip the industry jargon.
• Show photos of your office and staff.
• Prompt visitors to act by providing a link so they can contact you.
• Proofread it. Typos can damage your credibility.
• Design matters in building your reputation. Every single page of your website should follow good design principles.

You have precious few seconds to attract someone’s attention online before they click away and visit your competitor’s website. Don’t waste an opportunity. Have each webpage work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

11 attention-grabbing questions for clients

By Howard E. Sharfman

I learned from some of the greats in our profession, and in exchange for this knowledge, they asked me to share it. Here are 11 great questions you can ask your clients.

1. Does your estate plan reflect your current values?
2. Can you think of anything that will interfere with your plans? Do you think these premiums I am asking for will interfere with your plans?
3. Can you sell your business today at a profit? After your death, could your executor do the same?
4. I believe it has taken a lifetime to create your estate; isn’t it reasonable to take a few hours to save it? Does Monday at 2 p.m. work?
5. How long would you like this process to take? When would you like me to finish?
6. Does your current estate plan provide for your children inside and outside the business in a way so they will still talk to each other after you are gone?
7. What have you done in your estate plan to protect your assets from creditors and your children’s spouses?
8. Are you maximizing the exemptions the government gives you?
9. Is it better to have coverage you don’t need — or need coverage you don’t have?
10. Besides cash today, what are you doing to motivate, reward and retain your key people?
11. Can I talk to you about a product I am working on that is in development?
    • It is not subject to creditors.
    • There’s no tax recapture.
    • It’s flexible.
    • There are no unknown commitments.
    • It’s 100% liquidated at maturity.
    • It requires small cash flow.
    • There is no gift tax, income tax, capital gains or estate tax.
    • You should earn 300 to 500 basis points more than the fixed returns of today with similar risk.
    • It shows your values immediately, privately and when it is needed most.

Does this sound like something we should schedule a time to discuss?