Every business needs to evolve and develop. The stagnant business is only going to end up dying – and no businessman would want that! Here are some quick tips to help you develop your business and continue to grow as a company.

Always look for new customers.
Just because you have a stable customer base, it doesn’t mean that you should sit back and relax. It is true that having a stable customer base is a good thing – you will always be assured of income. However, you never know how long that customer base is going to be with you. After all, stable is not forever. As such, always be on the lookout for potential customers.

Keep tabs on the changing needs and requirements of your existing customers.
A stable customer base does not mean that your customers will always have the same needs. As the saying goes, change is the only constant thing in this world. As such, you owe it to yourself and your customers to always know what is going on and how to keep up with their needs. Of course, before you spend on changing your products and services, make sure that your customers are willing to pay for these improvements as well.

Keep tabs on your competitors.
You have to know what your competitors are up to. Otherwise, you might be left behind. Knowledge is power and having knowledge of what the competition has to offer will prove to be advantageous for your business.

I was only able to squeeze in two ideas in the last post – here are some more.

Photography service
Got a nice camera that you like to play around with? Put that hobby to good use and hire yourself out for holiday parties! What you should do is add on other services such as framing or Photoshop and then charge much less than the professional photography services in your area. I bet that you will get a good number of clients during this season.

Catering
I have a friend who thought of this idea much earlier in the year. For the month of December, she found herself booked to the brim! From office Christmas parties to family gatherings, she found clients that wanted her to cater their events. If you are good in the kitchen and you like this sort of thing, it is a most profitable business idea.

Decorating
I would be your first client if you ever decided to put up shop as a Christmas decorator! It might be a bit late to start this business this year but there is always next year. You cannot imagine how many people would love to have affordable professional assistance when it comes to decorating the house for the holidays. Your target market: busy young professionals. You should really look into this.

Remember, these ideas are only as good as your planning and execution. In any sort of business, you have to try and foresee the turn of events and be prepared for them.

Christmas is almost here but it is not too late to make some money during this season. Let me emphasize, however, that I do not believe in the idea that you should go out and take advantage of Christmas just to make money. Deep inside, I still believe in the good old spirit of Christmas – sharing and giving and spending time with those important to you. However, if the opportunity to make money presents itself, then why not grab the chance? Just make sure that you do so tastefully and tactfully. Here are a few holiday business ideas that can help you out during the holidays.

Crafts
Giving gifts has become such a commercialized thing these days. I cannot even begin to count the number of people who just go out and find anything they can because “they have to give someone something.” Though Christmas is indeed about giving, sometimes people give because they have to and not because they want to. Why not bring back the old spirit of Christmas and sell personalized crafts that people would want to give and receive? If you are talented in this area, go ahead and make money out of it! If it’s a bit too late in the game to launch your business, then give away gifts this year and then market them for the next year!

Gift buying service
You can call it what you wish – some people call it personalized shopping assistant. In this day and age, people sometimes get too caught up with their daily lives that they do not even have the time to do their own Christmas shopping. Why not help them out and do their shopping? An important note – make sure that you get to know a lot about the recipients so that you can find suitable gifts for them.

Setting up your marketing campaigns can be a tedious task, especially if you’re managing more than one venue at the same time and want to maximize your earnings from all of them while spending as little time as possible. Not many people realize the great benefits attached to hiring a freelance copywriter to take care of your advertising – and believe us, it can actually be one of the greatest favors you can do to your business if you want to see success in the end.

Even if you’ve got the perfect graphics designer who’s working day and night on your campaigns, if the text on them is lacking in power this can ruin all the effort and bring you back to the starting point. This makes it crucial to hire someone who actually knows what they’re doing for writing those texts – and this is where a freelance copywriter comes in. More →

The last two weeks have been tumultuous for everyone in my company. While we knew that the management was undergoing some changes, there were a lot of surprises that were sent our way. I suppose that we should have seen it coming, what with the never disappearing talk of the credit crunch and financial problems.

What happened was that 3 people in my team were let go. You can call it what you want but in effect, our team was downsized; without a warning – at least an explicit one. While I should be happy that I still have a job, I couldn’t help but wonder. What if it had happened to me? How long would I survive on the measly severance pay that would be given to me?

The only thing I can think of now is this: it is always a good idea to have some sort of business that can back you up if things do take a turn for the worse. One of my colleagues, for example, has been running a baked goods business for the last year. It is small, no doubt, but at least she has something to do in terms of income while she looks for another job. In the past, she saw it as a supplement to her regular income but I can just imagine how thankful she probably is that she has this small business to get her through.

Events like these are more than good enough reasons for us to make sure that we have something to back us up in case something happens.

What’s your back up plan?

Cost cutting is the buzz word these days. Go to any office work place – whether it be a big corporate office or a small business location. Cost cutting is what everyone is trying to do effectively. What are some of the ways by which you can considerably cut down on costs?

One, get rid of multiple telephone lines.
How many lines do you have in the office? Two or more? Why don’t you evaluate your set up and see how many lines you really need. If you are running a small business, I doubt that you would need more than 2 lines. You do not need a separate phone for each person. While that would be more convenient, think of the money you can save if you have only one or two main lines and use extensions for others.

Two, limit business travel.
If you need to travel for meetings and similar activities, why not look for an alternative such as telephone and video conferencing? With the technology that is available to everyone these days, there really is no excuse to spend more than is necessary for meetings. To save even more, invest in a VOIP package that will cut your telephone costs considerably.

Three, make sure everyone turns their PCs off at the end of the day.
The habit of many employees is to leave their PCs on when the leave the office. While this is convenient – no need to boot up the next day – the electrical consumption does add up. Remind everyone to shut down and turn everything off or even assign people to check everyday. You will be thankful for the power savings that translate to money.

For the first several years of my working life, I found myself drawn to start ups. Perhaps it was not by choice. Perhaps it was simply because I got really good opportunities with start ups at that time. And I have to say, I really learned a lot during those years. If there is one thing that really stuck with me, however, it is that any business – no matter how big or small it may be – should have clear policies at the outset. Without clear policies, you might be able to get by for the first couple of years. Once you start expanding, however, you will see that having no policies spells disaster. Here are some tips that you can consider when coming up with policies for your business.

Have foresight.
While you may be content to run your business at the pace and scale that you started out at, expansion is inevitable at some point. As such, you have to bear in mind what can happen and what you will do in case these things happen. Planning ahead is always a good thing and having a solution to an event that has not occurred yet can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches.

Know what policies you will need, even from the start.
There are some things that you cannot do without. If you have employees, then you need an employee handbook. You have to establish policies regarding compensation, leaves, performance evaluation, and so on.

Make sure there is a concrete venue by which you can communicate your policies to everyone involved.
One of the worst things is having policies without anyone in the company being aware of them. When you spring a “rule” on your employees without the proper process, it might very well backfire on you.

Technology is something that has become an inherent part of any business. In the past, a business could survive, even flourish, without really putting much thought on technology and how it affects the day to day running of a business. Today, however, not paying mind to technology can very well be the start of the unraveling of the tapestry. So do you have a technology plan? If not, here are some ideas to get you started.

Start with the big picture
Much like having a business plan, you need to look at your technology plan by looking at the big picture. What do you want to achieve? Set your goals and then slowly work at the details.

Align your technology plan with your business strategy and goals
You can’t treat the technological aspect as a separate thing. You need to know your business strategy and goals, and let those guide you as you create your technology plan. Bear your overall business goals in mind as you make decisions for the technological aspect.

Treat technology expenses as investments
One thing that keeps some people hold back on their technological improvement efforts is the fact that they see the associated expenses as merely costs. They do not see that somehow, it is an investment. Change your perspective and you’ll see that investing in technology will end up saving you money in the long run.

Get expert help if needed
If technology is not your forte, don’t force it. While there are things that you can learn, there are also some things that are better left to the pros. If you need help, do not hesitate to get it.

So you’ve chosen your domain name, and you’ve registered it as well. What’s the next step? You need to choose a web host or a web hosting service. Why is it important to choose a web host?

This service will store and maintain (hence term “host”) all the data you need to keep your web site up. As you can probably see, it is quite crucial that you choose the right service for your web site as anything else will prove to be disastrous for your online business. Here are some things that you need to look into when choosing the best web hosting service for your needs.

Amount of space. How much space do you need? How much is the web host offering? Bear in mind that while you might need a small amount right now, you would probably want to expand in the future.

Reliability, speed, and security. It goes without saying that you need to be assured that all the data that goes through your web site is secure. You also need to be assured that the web host will be able to provide their service 24/7, and that any downtime is covered by the agreement you make. More so, you will want to make sure that users will not experience slow loading times.

Support. This is tied in with reliability. If downtime does occur, or if you experience other technical problems, how will the web host help you? Round the clock customer support is ideal; however, expect to pay more for this.

These are only some of the things that you need to check out. Bottom line: draw out your plans and expectations first, and make sure the web host can meet them.

In the last post, we talked about some things to bear in mind when starting an online business. One of the most important steps was to pick a domain name and register it. So how do you go about doing this? Read on to find out.

Go to a domain name registrar. You have a lot of choices here. I suggest looking at the following:

1. Go Daddy
2. eNom
3. Tucows
4. Network Solutions
5. 1&1 Internet AG (a.k.a. Schlund.de)

These are the top 5 registrars as of February 2010, according to Wikipedia. For my personal blogs, I use Go Daddy.

I assume that at this point, you already have an idea of what you want your domain name to be. Once you’re in the domain name registrar site, check the availability of your desired domain name. If it’s already taken, you have to try another name. This is why you need several alternatives. You may also change the suffix (instead of .com, try .org, etc.).

Once you get your desired domain name, just follow the online prompts for payment and registration; and you’re all set!

If this sounds like gibberish to you, here is an easier way. Go to www.google.com/apps. You can click on the option Google Apps for Business and read about your options. It is very easy to register a domain name using this, and you get your own Google Apps package as well. I actually use them as I get e-mail, calendar, docs, and more in one go.