Small Office, Home Office Information

So many people want to be able to work from home but don’t want to be in the position of having to go through all the hassles of starting their own business. For them it’s a shame that there aren’t more companies like Dotspots who have this to say about themsleves on their Jobs page.

We are a totally distributed company. This means that while we were thinking about how to change the world for good, we started by not making everyone drive to one central location, wasting time, money and energy to get to and maintain an office. Instead, we’re learning how to work in a completely distributed way. One immediate and wonderful byproduct is that everyone gets to work from home. And, because we don’t have office expenses, we even pay a part of every employee’s rent or mortgage! (yes, it’s smarter than Google’s free cafeteria idea… ;)) This will allow us to work with the best people, wherever their home may be in this world!

 

For someone who has spent a large part of his working life outdoors, on the road, dealing with people in crisis working online has and will continue to be a lot of fun. Helping people make money from their websites is even more satisfying than helping people survive bad financial times and usually everything flows along without a much drama at all.

But when the wheel falls off it usually happens late at night when you would much rather be in bed than sitting up rubbing your tired eyes and squinting at the computer screen. Last week the wheel fell off not once but twice.

On Thursday night we were about to head for bed when we discovered that one of our sites had been hacked. So we trudged through over 400 pages of content weeding out the garbage that had been inserted and then upgrading the security measures so the hacker couldn’t get in again.

Last night we found that another upgrade that we’d just done to one of the scripts on a server we run had messed with the individual scripts that we run on 10 different sites so we sat up again updating those scripts and fixing a couple of other glitches as well.

I guess that just goes to show you that running a small business is a 24 hour, 7 days a week kind of job.

While some of us build our small businesses from the ground up others prefer to buy in to an established business. There are definitely pros and cons for both options but when you’re buying into an established small business sometimes there are some hidden traps lurking behind those great … and perfectly legitimate … figures that you’re seeing when you look at the financials.

Here is a story of an internet business that certainly had a great cashflow but wasn’t as profitable as it seemed.

One aspect of our business specialises in the design, hosting and ongoing maintenance of websites for small businesses. While we certainly haven’t cornered the market in this town we certainly do have a lot of very happy customers because their sites always rank well for important search engine terms and so add value to our clients’ businesses.

Sadly not all web designers can make a claim like that and if you’re one of the thousands of unhappy website owners out there then here - in Small Business Website Marketing Frustrations - are a few tips from an expert in small business websites on what you should really be doing to turn your site into the sales and lead generation machine you hoped it would be.

Sadly some of the not-so-good advice the ‘victim’ in this story encountered is exactly what our competitors in this town tell people.

I’ve come to the realistation this morning that there’s one sad fact that relates to our small business that I just have to face.

The desk in my home office is a total mess and the parts that you can’t see are even worse than the parts that you can see. So it’s time to spend a few hours tidying it all up.

Of course I could hide behind the myth that I work better with a messy desk but that’s all it is, a myth.

You’re far more productive if your desk isn’t cluttered with old files, scraps of paper, business cards, an old mobile phone, a PDA you’d forgetten all about, still and video cameras, a magazine or two and an assortment of pens, pencils, cables and other hordable junk like mine is at the moment.

The day outside is going to be wet and windy so what better way to spend the time than cleaning up my desk.

Friends can be great fun to be around. They can be supportive, encouraging, caring out of business time … but don’t always expect them to be that way when they’re engaging your small business.

You may just find that your best friends are going to be your worst customers and can do the most damage to your business.

Any business, whether it be a large multi-national or your small business in your very local part of the world needs to plan for the future. You need to plan for future growth and you need to have plans in place that will ensure that your business survives when things get tough.

Here’s a little story about how tough things could get here in Australia in the future. So how would your small business cope if the fuel for your vehicles was rationed?

If your business doesn’t own any vehicles then you should still be thinking about a future when fuel isn’t as easy to come by as it is today because, when you stop and think about it, every business both large and small is dependant on fuel.

So perhaps it’s time to start looking at the impact that fuel rationing will have on your small business.

by Stuart and Toni Livesey 

This morning we went to see our accountant - it’s one of the four times each year here in Australia when small businesses have to lodge various returns with the Taxation Department - the Australian version of the IRS.

It’s also a good time to take the temperature and judge the health of a small business and what better and more objective person to do that than your accountant. Today, after looking at our business it was nice to hear our accountant tell us that our small business is in very good shape. Our turnover has increased every quarter for the last six … and next quarter is looking pretty good too.

So how did we manage to reach this point? Well we wish we could say that all we had to do was wave a magic wand but success for a small business … and especially ones that start their business from a home office … never comes that easy and some of our early quarters were downright dismal.

So what did we do?

1. We never gave up - even when we were both ill and very short on money we just never gave up.

2. We set out to provide the best possible service for our customers and we made sure that “the best possible service” was a hell of a lot better than ANY of our competitors were providing.

3. We kept … and still keep … our overheads screwed right down. We don’t drive a flashy car … we don’t go on expensive holidays … and we don’t play the game of keeping up with the Joneses.

4. We spend some money on promotion … in the right places but we rely on word of mouth from very satisfied customers. We spend lots of time talking to people and showing them that we really are the most experienced people in our field, both here in town, and on the Net. A considerable amount of our income still comes from clients that are overseas

5. We listen to what our clients want and we provide what they need. We don’t spend their money on things that they really don’t need. We  go to them rather than expecting them to come to us.

6. We work at times when our clients want us to work … if they contact us on a Saturday with urgent work then we do it … we don’t put them off till the weekend is over. Sure that sucks when the weather is perfect and beach is just 10 minutes away but what do you want? Do you want a nice day at the beach and a so-so business or do you really want your business to survive and grow?

Every client has our mobile phone numbers and they know that they can call us day or night.

6. And we don’t play at running a business … we just go ahead and do it.

That’s what has helped us achieve what we have so far. As you can see, there really is no magic wand in there … just a lot of hard work. If you can match what we do then the chances are that you will succeed in whatever industry you’re working in and your small business will grow.

That’s our manifesto for success in small business put in the hard yards and you will succeed

We came across an interesting business model the other day that’s sure to have a negative impact on any small business owner that gets caught by it.

Charge too much, provide too little and refuse to give a refund when you’re customer wakes up to the fact that they could have got a better deal somewhere else.

It doesn’t matter what the goods or services your buying might be. Before you part with your hard-earned cash make sure that the seller or service provider explains it to you so that you have a clear understanding of all the elements that make up whatever it is that you’re buying.

And when they have then go and look to see if you can get a better deal from someone else. As a web designer and copywriter it’s nice to see a small business owner take the deal that we’re offering without shopping around - but I always feel comfortable if they come back to us after they’ve seen what our competition has to offer.

by Stuart Livesey 

Now that’s an old saying that’s probably been round for many centuries and it’s certainly one that’s always stuck in my mind. My maternal grandparents were wheat farmers back in the day when horses pulled the equipment so I’m sure that saying was firmly embedded in their minds too and it’s a saying that should be etched into the minds of every small business person today.

 And if you don’t understand that saying then let me suggest that it’s all about working hard when the work is there whether it’s on a day you would normally work or not.

The weekend that’s just gone was a long weekend here in Queensland and in a tourist centre like Hervey Bay, where we live, that means three days with plenty of tourists about. Now here in Hervey Bay most tourist related businesses - especially the cafes - have been doing it tough for the last nine months. The weather hasn’t been the best, interest rates and increases in petrol costs have all combined to keep tourists away but last weekend the weather was incredible and the tourists came in quite decent numbers.

On Monday every cafe along the tourist strip was packed with customers all day … that’s every cafe but two. Two of the smaller cafes … cafes that have been a little short on customers lately … remained closed and missed out on that bonanza.

Of course, they’ll be open today when all the tourists are long gone .

I guess the lesson for all small businesses is that we need to be prepared to work when the work’s there.

Toni and I worked right through the weekend too; we had planned on taking a couple of days off but early on Saturday morning one of our overseas clients contacted us with some urgent work and we wanted to make hay while the sun was shining … so we worked.