Small Office, Home Office Information

Yuck … I have a nasty head cold and I feel like crap and when I’m like that bears with sore heads are much better company than I am so fortunately Toni was able to deal with  what happened yesterday and handle it much more diplomatically than I might done.

A couple of weeks ago the people behind a typical online Mom and Pop business that they run from their home here in town approached us and asked us to redevelop their site. Sales were very poor and they had built the original site themselves.

Throughout the redevelopment we had kept in touch with them and, as we do with all our customers, at the midway point we showed them what the new site looked like. Apart from a couple of very minor changes they seemed quite happy with the new look.

Yesterday, with the redeveloped site just two days away from going live, one of them rang the office and spoke to Toni. They weren’t happy, they thought we had missed the point when it came to marketing what they were selling and they suggested that we didn’t have any experience in selling anything online. They even pointed to a site we had built for another customer and suggested that it was way “too cold” to sell anything.

I suppose we could have suggested that they call the owner of that website and find out just how successful the site has been. We could have pointed to our car and told them how it had been paid for by the online sales we have made and continue to make via affiliate marketing and our own online shops. But in the end if a client suddenly loses faith in your ability to produce what they’re paying for then there’s only thing you can do … and that’s what we did.

The client was invited to come into the office today and pick up a full refund.

You win some and you lose some but as long as you learn from your loses things haven’t been a total waste of time.

by Stuart Livesey

Here’s a hat tip to Small Business SEM for mention of a a kit that every small business or home office person should have. So what’s in your marketing bag?

There are a lot of small businesses and home office people involved in affiliate marketing. It can be very demanding and not all that rewarding but there certainly is money to be made there.

It can be very encouraging to read of the success of others and my last post I posted a link to a story over on Site Point of a guy in New York who has worked hard and is making a lot of money from affiliate marketing.

That thread on Sitepoint encouraged another affiliate marketer from the UK to post his success story. He approaches affiliate marketing from a different perspective and his story - My Bank Statement - Monthly Earnings from AM - is worth reading and so is the whole thread.

I wish I could say that the hectic pace of yesterday has settled down again but I can’t - the pressure of work continues and I’m dashing this off in a few spare moments while I grab a coffee - 4.30pm and it’s only my second of the day.

Yesterday I rambled on about instant messaging systems and small business and today I would just like to add a one or two additional thoughts.

Using an Instant Messaging system to close a business deal is no more dangerous than using email or even the phone. The safest business deal is the one that’s closed with a firm handshake and an opportunity to look the other person in the eye.

Now of course, you can’t do that with ICQ, Messenger or any other IM but nor can you do it with email, the telephone or even mail so to think that doing business via IM is filled with danger is a little silly.

However, any prudent business person will always take precautions when it comes to doing business that way. We never start a text job until we have been paid at least 50% up front. There are simply no exceptions and anyone who wants to see the work before we see the money is politely told to look elsewhere for a writer.

We always ensure that every important business message is backed up. Most IM software have a history option but sometimes it is not enabled by default. If you are going to use an IM system for business make sure that the history option is enabled and even then copy and paste important conversations into a word document for further backup.

I’d like to say that we have never been conned by anyone who wanted to use our services and came to us via IM but I can’t. We have been caught but then others have been caught when work has come to them via email, letter or phone.

The risk is always there but you work to minimise that risk because doing business via IM is just too convenient to ignore.

small business

No, we are not thinking of selling our small business - or should I say, Toni’s small business (because Copytext Online is very much her baby) but it is an interesting situation to consider.

It is especially interesting for those who have a small business that is saleable. I really doubt that the current incarnation of Toni’s business is saleable but there certainly are many small businesses out there that could be sold.

In fact there are some who would suggest that your business should always be for sale. I guess that depends on whether the price is right or not but I certainly have heard of small business people who have been quietly working away. doing their thing, and suddenly find that the person who has just walked through the door has come to buy the whole business.

So think about what your response might be if someone did suddenly offer to buy your business and while you’re doing that have a look at The Ideal Time to Sell a Business - if you can cut through the jargon and get to the plain-speak you might find it helpful.

small business

Recently I posted a brief snippet of information about eBay. Evidently there are now over 750,000 people deriving all or part of their income from selling on eBay and it really is something that just about anyone can do.

If you want to read more about it have a look at the article that I have just added to the site. I love the title, It Pays to be Lazy on eBay. I hope you find it useful.

I came across an interesting statistic earlier today. There are now over 750,000 people who make either a full time or part time living from selling on eBay.

I’d really like to try my hand at eBay but what to sell?

I doubt there is much of a market for navel fluff