Online marketing tips for your new business
11/05/2012There's a lot to think about when you start a business, from telling the Inland Revenue what you're doing, to ordering business cards and setting up a base to work from. Then your bank will ask you how you are going to market your business to help you generate sales. Even if they don't ask you, it's probably a good idea to give this some thought sooner rather than later.
SWOT - Doing it Properly
25/04/2012A SWOT analysis is one of the most common diagnostic planning tools used in business. Its four perspectives - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats - provide a framework which is not only easy to follow but also helps provide an overview of your business.
An impromptu business plan will do (sometimes)!
01/04/2012Something we're quite passionate about is that planning should be easy, especially for small businesses. Detailed business and marketing plans certainly have their place, but if you need to get things done quickly, then a quick plan will do. It's still better than no plan at all.
Customer Service Techniques
18/03/2012It's common sense really. We all like to be dealt with in a welcoming and professional manner and undoubtedly that's exactly how you treat your customers already. But when the economy is as challenging as it is at the moment, you really do have to go that extra mile to keep and attract customers.
Time Management
02/03/2012I don't know about you, but I'm really struggling with my time management at the moment. Where does it all go? Time, of course, waits for no man/woman/person and, fool that I am, I thought that I'd have more of it as I got older... Wrong!
Using Spreadsheets in Small Businesses.
12/02/2012Spreadsheets put a lot of people off because they are seen as "number crunchers" and appear to be complicated. But they are really useful for a small business as they can actually be used for a wide variety of tasks and a spreadsheet is usually included in office software, so there is no need to buy more.
Free Software for Small Businesses
09/02/2012Last week I was supposed to meet my co-director In York to do some planning for our business. Of course, the weather put paid to that! Instead we spent the day (or most of it) on Skype for free and using Dropbox (for free) and got the work done that way. The only thing we missed was someone to bring us our coffees and lunch! It set me thinking, how much free software is there out there that can make our lives easier?
Starting a Business: our 10 tips to help you start your own business
25/01/2012Continuing our look at starting your own business, here are our 10 top tips for starting a business, based on a reflection of our past five years.
Tips Before you begin...
02/01/2012A new year often makes us think about living our lives in a different way and one of the things we often want to change is the way that we work. Working for yourself can be daunting and many people never get beyond thinking about it. However, if you do your research first you will have a far better idea of whether it can work for you. Here are some pointers:
Data Protection and You - the right to be invisible.
18/12/2011If we operate small businesses, we all know just how much collecting electronic data makes our lives easier. But how clued up are we on what information we can legally keep about our customers, employees, in other situations (such as buying marketing databases and storing databases on overseas servers) and what we can do with it? We need information about our local Data Protection laws.
Remember the Big Freeze? Here are 10 Tips for Surviving them!
02/12/2011So winter arrives and some of us get snowed in! With our apologies to those of you who are really well organised, here are 10 of our ideas on making sure that your company survives a big freeze.
How to find a niche
23/11/2011Finding a niche is crucial if you want your business to grow successfully. While there may be scores of similar products and services vying with each other for customer attention, it's this niche and the way you position your particular business that could make all the difference to your business plan.
Business Start Up - Exploit your Business Plan!
04/11/2011Having taken the time to write your Business Plan, how can you make it work harder for you? You probably wrote it in order to raise finance, but here are some other uses for all your hard work.
Planning for tough times
20/10/2011In 2010, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, announced €80bn (£66bn) of savings between then and 2014. At the same time, David Cameron announced a £156bn deficit. Things are yet to get tougher! The question is: if you are running a small business how are you going to deal with this and have you even thought about it?
The people you should talk to before starting a business
02/10/2011YOU can never talk to enough people before starting a business. Research, questioning, exploring every option, listening, networking, learning and training may all be necessary elements, depending upon your level of experience, and all well worth pursuing way before launch day.
Finding the right Finance for you.
18/09/2011It is vital you choose the right financing options for your specific needs. And it might be that a combination of options could work best for you.
Marketing and Finance - most important in a recession?
14/08/2011Having worked with SMEs for a long time (and been one myself) and having seen rather more of recessions than I would have liked, I long ago came to the conclusion that there are two important things in business that you ignore at your peril when things are tough. Marketing and Finance.
E- Service (how to treat your online customers)
06/08/2011Recently we had a hiccup with our software, which failed to recognise that a customer had paid for their plan. We have always been very particular about our customer service process, because we know how we like to be treated ourselves when things go wrong (and with the best of intentions, they do).
The Importance of Holidays
29/07/2011This is a really difficult subject for small businesses, simply because we don't see how we can take holidays when we feel that making money is more important. In fact, it looks as though many small business owners will forego their holiday this year, according to the XLN Business Community website.
Be Prepared!
10/07/2011The recession won't last for ever, so are you prepared for the upturn?
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- SWOT - Doing it Properly
- An impromptu business plan will do (sometimes)!
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