Small Office, Home Office Information

Everywhere you look lately the talk is about recession. Interest rates are going up, spending is going down and there’s gloom and doom breaking out all over. So what does a small business do in a situation like this?

Do you batten the hatches, shorten the sail and try to ride out the storm? Or is it time for striking a valiant pose, clenching your pipe between your teeth and declaring that it’s “full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!”?

Well small business in definitely not for the faint hearted and while everyone else is running for cover now is the time to be out there telling the world that your open and ready for business. Now is the time to increase your marketing, now’s the time to tackle new projects and do what others are either too short-sighted or too scared to do.

And if you think that’s nothing but rhetoric on our part then let me outline what we’ve done in the last couple of weeks.

• that we’ve just taken on a new writer to work in a very specialised area so that Toni gets some extra time to work on other things
• we’re in the process of expanding our web design business into an area that few web designers are prepared to tackle
• we’re about to launch several online stores that are targeting a growing trend in shopping here in Australia and
• we’re revamping another little store that we built as a training exercise several years ago and were suprised to find that we’d stumbled on an interesting sales niche.

At the same time we’ve still got more work coming in than most other web designers in this town and we’re working on increasing that too.

Are we insane? No, it might look like we’re striking a valiant pose and daring fate but we’re not. Some of these projects are things that we’ve been sitting on for a year or more and now, even though the economic climage might be a little bleak, the time is right to launch them and take advantage of the fact that most competitors are trying to weather the storm by cutting back on their marketing.

As for striking a valiant pose … well it’s 30C (86F) outside and I’m sitting here in a pair of old shorts. It’s not a very pretty sight let alone a valiant one (Stop laughing Bronwyn - one of our daughters regularly reads this to see what her old fogies are up to)

So Toni’s and my challenge to you is to think of these rough economic times as a time to grow your business instead of cutting back on it. Certainly, there are things that you should cut back on at this time but promoting and growing your business aren’t among them.

Your response to genuine complaints … and even some frivolous ones … can have a very serious impact on your small business as one Brisbane restaurant found out when their response to a legitimate complaint went worldwide.

You can read the full story here

Don’t let your small business get locked in by service providers 
by Stuart Livesey

Oh boy, last time it was over two weeks since I last posted. This time it’s nearly three weeks since I posted. The deafening silence hasn’t been because we haven’t had anything to say, it’s just been because we haven’t had time to say it. Work has simply been non-stop for weeks now and, in these current economic conditions, that’s very pleasing.

And it doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. In the last few days we’ve been asked to provide so many quotes and proposals that March looks like being just as busy as February has been so far.

Two of those requests for proposals have come from small businesses here in town who are facing a real problem. Both businesses want us to redevelop existing websites for them . One couple recently bought a business and thought that the website the previous owners had a local company build for the business came with the sale.

Unfortunately they now find that the previous owners of the business did not own the domain name … instead the local media company that designed the site bought the domain name and never transferred it to their clients and the media company is also claiming ownership of the website.

The second couple had the foresight to demand that they be the copyright holders of all the material that they paid for when they had a different design business here in town build their website. Unfortunately they didn’t realise that the web designer at that business was going to use a content management script to build their site that no other web designer has access to.

Now that should not be all that much of a problem except for the fact that the script this designer used does not produce good code. Sure the browsers that have to read that code and display the site on your monitor can handle it but it’s so poor that many designers … including me … would have problems deciphering it so making additions and alterations to the site is going to be costly.

So, even though I’ve said it several times here on this site, it’s worth saying again. When your small business does business with service providers such as web designers, marketers etc. make sure that you own the copyright for all the material that you pay for and make sure that there is nothing that ties you to that service provider.

We all like to keep our clients but the ethical way to do that is by providing an unbeatable service. Any service provider who wants to keep their customers by making it too expensive to move to another provider isn’t worth doing business with.

By Stuart Livesey 

For over 20 years I worked as a field officer in the New South Wales Sheriff’s Office. Part of my job was to serve and execute court process in various country towns around the State. In those 20 years I had contact with a thousand or more small businesses and usually that contact was at times of crisis.

When a small business had reached a point where it couldn’t pay its bills I was usually the first one there with court process to start recovery action. When the small business owner had gone beyond the point of no return I was usually the one there to sell up their stock and evict them from the business premises.

Sounds a wonderful job doesn’t it … but it had its good points and not every small business that fell into debt sank to the point where there was no way out but to be sold up and evicted.

Sadly though there were plenty of small businesses that did reach the point of no return and after just a few years it seemed that I could tell from the moment I walked into the business those that would survive and those that would not. It was almost as if they had the scent of death about them right from the start.

Perfect examples were a young mechanic who ran his own business repairing cars in a workshop attached to his house and a much older car salesman who had a business selling one of the leading brand-name cars in Australia. He was the only dealer for that brand in a small but prosperous country town.

The young guy was working in conjunction with his wife who handled all the banking until one day she left him with the kids and took all the money that was in their bank accounts. I thought he was guaranteed to end up out of business because his his wife hadn’t been paying the accounts for months but, even though things got very tough for him, he recovered and there was always something very positive about him.

The older guy ran into some problems when his wife became very ill but his business looked very sound and I couldn’t understand why there were so many negative vibes about him. It didn’t surprise me when, a few months after I first had contact with him, I put the locks on his door. He had a great business but when the going got tough he folded.

Toni and I were talking about that yesterday after we were reviewing some of the contacts that we’d had this week. One couple we talked with just had that air of negativity about them. They’d done a lot of market research before they set up their small business but they’d still managed to make some serious mistakes and they’re on the slide. They did have an opportunity this week to turn their business around but they didn’t take it.

So why do some small business people survive while others have the scent of death about them?

John Wooden - the well-known American basketball coach - seems to have summed it up quite well in his Pyramid of Success. One of the fundamentals in that pyramid is Intentness and what he says about it is so very applicable to small business.

“Stay the course. When thwarted try again; harder; smarter. Persevere relentlessly.”

Your small business does not have to have that scent of death about it if you are prepared to persevere relentlessly.

by Stuart Livesey 

Wow, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 11 days since I was in here last … but it’s been a very interesting 11 days. Some of that time I’d love to repeat while others parts of it I hope will never happen again.

My daughter Adrienne … who’s part of our team at Total Website Management has been up here for a week and in our spare time we’ve been talking servers and team management and that’s something Toni, Adrienne and I could do all night

Toni’s mum became very ill on the weekend and we discovered how depressing the intensive care unit’s waiting room at our local hospital can be and of course there has also been the ongoing work with our regulars plus with a number of new clients who have come across to us from our competitors too.

Picking up work from the competition is something that we’re always a little cautious about doing. This is a small town and we all have to live here so we usually let our reputation for outstanding service attract clients from other web design businesses.

And that’s something that you can do no matter what area of small business that your involved in. Basically all you have to do is let your satisfied customers do the work for you while you set a standard of service that is so far beyond what your competitors are providing that they just can’t catch you.

Of course you’ll need the skills and experience to provide that level of service but if you have them then beating the competition is easy and no matter what they try you’ll still stay well out in front.

And knowing what level of service you will need to provide is simply a matter of benchmarking your business against those of your competitors. For some small businesses the comparison is encouraging but for others making that comparison can be rather difficult when they find that they don’t compare well with the opposition.

I don’t know what it’s like where you live but here in Hervey Bay we get a lot of junk mail in our letter box at home. There are glossy brochures from businesses both large and small and most home owners simply take it out of their letterbox and drop it straight into the recycling bin.

But sometimes there can be some valuable leads for your small business tucked away in that junk mail if only you take the time to look for them. So if you get junk mail delivered into your letterbox have a look through it before you throw it in the rubbish.

You just might be throwing away a lead that could generate some income for your small business.

Well the move is over - our part of the business is totally unpacked and in operation and we’ve got a huge week of meetings and proposals in front of us. Our biggest undertaking - worth many thousands of dollars - will start this week as will several smaller ones.

So we’re feeling pretty excited about our small business right now.

While we’re getting excited about the week ahead here’s something for you to consider.

“Writers using short words and short sentences tend to sell more.

It is easy to think that if you just do more and add more value that you will make more money, but sometimes doing more just means simplifying and clarifying your words, or publishing in a more friendly format. If you want people to take action, to believe they can afford it, making them feel confident and comfortable works.”

It comes from Aaron Wall’s SEO Book blog and you’ll find the rest of the post here.

by Stuart Livesey 

Just a little while ago Toni and I were round at one of our client’s when we had a chance to speak to another small business owner who is involved in the fitting out of our new office. He was there doing some work and we needed to arrange times so that someone could be there when he needed to get into our new office.

As we talked a third small business owner came in and he is someone we’ve done work for in the past. Without a moment’s hesitation he said to the person we were talking to “Toni and Stuart are good people - they do good work.”

It’s a great feeling when someone says that about your business.

We now have an appointment with the person we were talking to do some work on their website.

… and do it from the day it’s born. 

by Stuart Livesey

If you’ve been reading my scribblings here over the last few weeks you will know that we’re expanding. In fact we’re basically bursting at the seams with new staff, new clients and new premises.

It might seem that this expansion of our business has been sudden and almost unexpected but that’s not how it has really been. Instead we have been planning for this expansion for quite some time and Toni has been developing her business to be ready for this expansion.

We’ve even carefully planned for the added overheads that we will be facing and we can meet those overheads right now … we haven’t hit the new premises and taken on new overheads and then looked for the work to cover these added expenses.

The work is there already and it’s going to be there for the long-term - we don’t have to rush around in a panic looking for new work just to pay the rent or the wages.

Instead, even before the move actually takes place (we’ll be there from next Tuesday) we’ve already begun executing a marketing plan that will take us to the next level. We may not be as ‘out there’ as some of our competitors are right now but we’re also not facing the same problems that they could be facing … if the local grapevine is to be believed.

So our suggestion to you is that you plan to expand your small business right from the start and that way, when the chance to expand does come, you’ll have your plans in place and you won’t make any sudden decisions that you may regret later.

The last two weeks has been absolutely crazy for our small business. Almost on a daily basis we’ve had new clients coming to us - and old clients coming back to us - for web design work. Even visiting the doctor on Tuesday for a check up resulted in another client being added to the list for some work he wants done in November.

And all that work is coming to us from a country town where there’s plenty of competition for website design and development. So what’s working for us?

Word of mouth marketing from satisfied clients and a willingness to get out of the office and go and talk to new clients is what’s working for us. But, as in any small business, one size doesn’t fit all and what works for us may not work for you.

That’s why you might find this thread over on Sitepoint worth reading. While it’s talking about promoting a small web design business the principles are the same for many other types of business too.