As the recession tightens its clench on the economy, it is even more important now more than ever to have an online presence for your small business.  Being online can help you reach out to millions of customer around the world who could be looking for whatever you are providing.

A good website can bring you a world of success, but only if done correctly.  You need to make sure that you are marketing your site in order to get it noticed, but you’ll be surprised at how many people actually get this wrong!

Read on to find out how to market your online presence properly and make sure that you get noticed above all the others…

Spam

Spamming isn’t wanted by anyone?  Customers hate it, and search engines aren’t a fan either.  People seem to think that spam is a great way of attracting more and more people to their site - however, they are wrong!  Stay away from spam.

Untargeted Traffic

You can have millions of visitors a day, but if they aren’t interested in what you are offering then they aren’t serving a purpose.  It’s the wrong sort of traffic and you instead need to make your meta information clear to attract the right traffic.  By getting your meta information correct you can guarantee that people that come to your site from search engines are coming to the right place!

Keywords

Never fall back on only using a single keyword - you won’t be able to separate yourself from every other site out there using exactly the same word and you’ll be lost in the world wide web.  Use multiple words that are relevant to the page so if you have an article about Indonesian stone baths then use those words as your keywords - if you just use the word bath you won’t succeed.

Design

There is nothing worse than having a badly designed website.  Bad design makes your website feel like it has been badly treated and forgotten about and visitors either don’t pay attention to information on the page or they try and navigate away from it as fast as possible.  Pay someone to make your site look good and you’ll reap the benefits.

Links

One of the best ways to attract visitors to your site is to have links to your site from other sites.  To do this think about joining in forums and leave comments with your address in the comment box.  Search engines judge websites by their relationships with other websites so if you have a lot of links to your site you will be attractive to search engines.

Good Online Presence?

Are you struggling to get the right balance with your online presence?  Have you been avoiding the Internet as a tool for your small business?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

Budget Motivation

Money is tight at the moment, as we are all well to aware. For businesses with cost management in place, the idea of pay freezes is what is commonly used in order to preserve profitability. But even the few companies that are still making a healthy profit need to keep their workers working hard without increasing the costs of running their company through increased wages.

If you’re not careful though, not increasing your employees wages could lead to a lack of motivation among your team at a time when you most need their help. So, the question becomes: how to motivate staff without breaking the bank?

Chief executive of a Brighton-based internet company called Mistral, Karl Robinson believes motivation can work without spending a fortune. Last January he wanted to keep his staff working hard without offering extra cash as a reward. As they already earned commissions, he wanted to make sure his workforce received something they could actually see and enjoy.

He says: “We didn’t want to give them a cash incentive, as it would probably go on paying bills, but something they could enjoy, remember and talk about.”

Sales Competitions The Way Forward?

Therefore, he decided to introduce a quarterly sales competition. When a member of staff tops the quarterly sales chart, they get the usual handshake and congratulations, but they also get £1,000 voucher that they can spend on an air balloon flight, a day in a health spa, anything!

Obviously, if you are a smaller business with just a handful of employees, £1,000 may seem like a lot, but you could settle for something that costs you a little less.

It’s difficult to measure how successful any motivation techniques actually are, but Robinson believes he is on to a winner.

“We don’t have any formal measurement, but gauge the success by the level of excitement it has generated. There are some people who haven’t won and are desperate to do so. They are constantly striving. Some have even mentioned it as a target in their appraisal. Once that excitement fades, we will look for something else,” he says. “It costs just £4,000 a year, money well spent. It gets very exciting towards the end of the third month, especially if several people are in the running for a voucher, and of course it is highly motivating.”

What Do You Think?

Do you have any tips on what does and doesn’t work? We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

The paper entitled ‘A Better Deal For Consumers’ bans unsolicited credit card cheques as a way ro promote responsible lending and borrowing and provides longer term framework to enhance and enforce consumer rights in the wider economy.

The Measures

Some of the measures that will be put in place include:

- Significant reforms in the regulations of credit and store cards so that consumers are in more control of their borrowing – helping people avoid running up huge debt they can’t afford to pay back;

- Bans unsolicited credit card cheques so that consumers unaware of high interest rate charges don’t get caught out;

- An Office of Fair Trading review into the market for high cost credit, usually above 50% APR – pay day loans and door step lending;

- A new Consumer Advocate responsible for the co-ordination of work to educate consumers and help them get their money back when things go wrong has been appointed;

- New court powers to ban persistent rogue traders including a new national specialist team for internet enforcement tackling scams over the internet; money for a central ‘Fighting Fund’ to tackle large scale rogue traders; and a pilot scheme giving Trading Standards officers powers to help consumers reclaim their money;

- Also, a Money Advice Trust new self-help tool-kit, and a new Debtor’s Guide from the Insolvency Service to help those in debt stay in control of their finance.

What Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary Has To Say:

 “The Government is determined to help consumers during the current economic difficulties. Many family budgets are under unprecedented strain.

“We’re already providing targeted help to protect people from falling into debt and to support those who get into difficulty.

“But we need to do more. Our aim is to help consumers make better informed borrowing decisions.”

Credit and store card reviews will look at restrictions that could be put in place regarding the rise of interest rates on existing debts. It will also consider the minimum monthly repayments that should be made to fight debt levels and at the practice of increasing borrowers’ credit limits without their consent should be banned, along with the order that debts should be paid off in.

There will be new requirements for all lenders to check consumers’ creditworthiness before they can borrow. Also regulations explaining financial products fully, including consequences of failing to pay as well as new OFT guidance to tackle irresponsible lending.

Consumers will also be allowed to compare the cost of different credit cards based on their intended use. The Financial Services Authority’s Moneymadeclear website will soon host a new objective comparison table to help consumers make the right, informed choice.

What Do You Think?

How much will this affect your business? Are the measures for the best, or are they going to make things worse? We want to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

There are a lot of duties involved in starting up your own business through a limited company - you might be aware of some of the more commonly known responsibilities and duties, but can you be sure you know them all?

Every director or a limited company should know what comes with the position and what the law asks of them…read on to find out what responsibilities come with the title.

Directors’ Duties

The role of director comes with a legal code of duties that must be adhered to to stay in business.  These codes are outlined in the Companies Act 2006 and are outlined as below;

•    Duty to act within your powers as a company director

•    Duty to promote the success of your company

•    Duty to exercise independent judgement

•    Duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence

•    Duty to avoid conflicts of interest

•    Duty not to accept benefits from third parties

•    Duty to declare interest in proposed transaction or arrangement with the company

As a company director it is your job to follow these legal outlines to the letter.  However, your role doesn’t stop there as there are more financial and legal responsibilities that must be stuck to.

Financial

Although it is your job to make sure that the following tasks are given the attention they need, most director’s  will do well by hiring an accountant who is able to fulfil the roles properly.

•    Maintain strong accounting records that portray a true and fair representation of the financial position of the company.
•    Your business should submit a corporation tax return to HMRC.
•    Your business needs to have accurate company accounts in place which should be handed in to Companies House
•    You need to make sure that any due tax liabilities are paid.
•    Staff must be paid correctly and legally - this includes yourself.  This also means that all income tax and national insurance contributions are met where applicable.
•    You must make sure that all the financial liabilities of your business are met while maintaining a solvency for your business.

Legal

As the director of your company you also have to concern yourself with the legal responsibilities of your company.  These responsibilities include;

•    You must complete and return an annual return.
•    If anything changes in your business regarding directors or secretary’s for example, you must submit forms to Companies House informing them.
•    If your company changes its address then you must inform Companies House by completing Form 287.
•    When it comes to shareholders, you are legally bound to make decisions that move the company in their interests.  In this light any decision made cannot knowingly harm the company.

Do You Know Your Responsibilities?

Are you aware of the responsibilities you have towards your small business?  Have you found our advice useful?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

The economic climate is one which calls for small businesses to try their hardest to stay as efficient as possible to keep costs down while keeping productivity level.

By becoming efficient you can make sure that the savings you make will make up for the loss of trade through the recession making your hopes for seeing through the recession much more feasible.

There are some key ways to make your business efficient, allowing you to save vital money…

Review Your Account

You should shop around for the best possible account deals available to your business - there is a massive difference between current account rates and saving rates.

You should therefore think about placing any spare money into a high interest bearing savings account to get the most for your money.  Furthermore you should think about looking for a better deal for your current account which may even be free…

Credit Check

Although you might think that the best idea in a recession is to do business with everyone you can grab hold of, you should investigate everyone you do business with to make sure that they will be in a position to pay you on time.

If you are doing a job for someone who isn’t financially healthy then they may put off paying you which could possibly damage your business right when you need the money.  Credit checks are low cost, yet they tell you all you need to know…

Follow Ups

One of the best ways of getting work is by looking at previous customers - if you follow up the work you did with them in the past then you are more likely to get more work with them in the future.

However, it is quite common for businesses to put little effort into looking after information they have on previous customers - don’t fall into this trap.  Keep good databases of your previous customers contact details and keep them abreast of any special offers that they might find useful.

Website

You must have an online presence - if you don’t then you are missing out.  Having a website is a great way of getting customers to hear about your business and get a better understanding of what you offer.

You must stay up-to-date and relevant when it comes to your online presence and you can fill it with special offers, blogs, articles and other useful information available for attracting customers.

Furthermore, if you don’t have an online presence you will be surprised at how cheap the whole thing can be - you can find yourself jumping online for as little as 5 pounds a month and you will get back much more in customer business.

Trying To Stay Efficient?

Are you hoping to remain efficient through the recession?  Have you tried any of our techniques to stay efficient through the recession?  Has our advice helped?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

If your campaign is to work, you must target the right audience. There are certain things you MUST do in order to achieve this effectively, but here are some things you MUSTN’T do:

Ineffective Communication With Existing Customers

Your existing customers are your best immediate source of income because they have already invested time, money and energy into your business and know they can trust you.

 It is usually a lot easier to get existing customers to buy from you again than new customers. So knowing this, why are some businesses so ineffective at communicating with existing customers?

For example, think of the ads you see in your local paper for restraints. When was the last time you received communication from a restaurant you visited asking you to come back, offering you a little something, such as a free bottle of wine if you do? What would happen if restaurants started asking for customers email addresses to add them to prize draws or offer them exclusive discounts in the future?

Now apply this to your business and ask yourself how often you communicate with existing customers? What could you offer them? When did you last communicate with them? What would happen if you contacted them twice as much? Etc.

Relying On One Or Two Marketing Forms

Most businesses only use one or two forms of marketing. But if you want your business to grow, you should aim to turn your company into a multi-level marketing business combining several methods of marketing simultaneously.

Your business could grow by 100-300% if you go from using two forms of marketing to ten! But there are two reasons everyone isn’t doing this to increase business: 1 - they don’t know how; or they haven’t realise that you’ll never fulfil your business potential if you don’t prioritise your marketing.

2 – Fear! If someone suggested implementing ten different marketing strategies to you next week, would you do it immediately?  You would be concerned about it all going wrong and therefore losing money.

Therefore you must employ the principle of ‘testing and measuring’. Every month you should test one or two new, small scale marketing methods to quickly identify what works and what doesn’t. If you find something that works, increase its scale. Less than one in fifty businesses employ this incredibly simple scheme, so if you start doing it you may find yourself ahead of the competition.

Before you try this however, you should measure the results of your current marketing plans. Most businesses find they are actually losing a lot of money on their current marketing plans because they have never thought to, or bothered to, measure the results!

What Do You Think?

What do you think about this advice? Leave your comments here.

Being a freelancer isn’t always a simple walk in the park - it can be truly a difficult business and the whole process can be really difficult to get right.  Being a successful freelancer doesn’t have to be an unreachable goal - you can be up there with the best of them…

You can be a successful freelancer, no matter what economic climate you might find yourself - read on to find out how to be one of the freelancing greats by following a few simple tricks.

Be A True Freelancer

Don’t spend your time being an inbetweener freelancer - it won’t work.  Just because you don’t have a job and you do the odd job now and then doesn’t make you a freelancer.  If you aren’t entirely focused on being a freelancer then you won’t be a successful one and you won’t be able to build a successful business.

If you want to be a successful freelancer then you need to make sure that you are separated clearly from these unreal freelancers and make a clear name for yourself.  You won’t get any work if the company you are freelancing for doesn’t whole heartedly believe that you are going to be sticking around to finish off the job.

Be clear about your intentions to a potential client and make them realise that you are undertaking the job as part of a larger picture for your freelancing career, not to simply pay the bills right now while times are tough.

Have The Ability

You need to be able to be in a position to be able to fulfil the role properly.  Although being positive and willing to do something is an attractive characteristic for any freelancer, you need to be able to back up this enthusiasm with real skill and ability.

To do this make sure that you only take on work that you can do well and in your spare time train up on the things you aren’t so strong with.  By doing this you will slowly but surely gaining abilities in all the different aspects out there.

Keep Your Eyes Open

While working you should always be looking forward to your next job.  This is the best way of making sure that you aren’t left hanging without any work and income.  This is much easier when you successfully manage to include your own marketing in with the job you are working on.

To do this you must build a reputation as a trustworthy, desirable and capable freelancer that any company would profit by having you on their team for a time.  Make sure that your portfolio and website are both current and up to date and that you are charging the right amount for the jobs that you do.  If you undercharge you will find this will actually harm your business.

Freelancing?

Are you a freelancer?  Are you struggling to work through the recession?  Have you found our advice useful?  Let us know…

Working as a freelancer doesn’t always have to be a difficult venture.  If you take the time to look around online you’ll find some pretty nifty tools at your disposal that will be able to help you get the most from each job.

No matter what problem you are facing, there is most probably a solution out there to sort it out for you.  Below we’ve taken a look at what tools are available to you to help your freelancing life run a little easier.

Highrise - This is a free tool allowing you to organise your customer relationship management.  This tool will be able to help you manage your relationships with clients and will also provide a useful reminder service.  The tool also provides you with all the notes you have made over the relationship with a client which can be called up at any time.

Basecamp - This is another free tool from the guys who brought you Highrise.  Basecamp allows you to manage all your projects easily and efficiently.  It is also a great tool to help you make sure everything runs smoothly and everyone involved knows exactly what is expected of them through each stage of the project.

Toggl - Toggl is a free tool that allows you to track time effectively.  You can start the timer when you start a project and then keep track of how it is going.  Phone calls and emails all add up!

Todoist - We all need to make efficient to do lists to keep on track.  You can input your tasks into the tool and then split each task into different categories.  Each day you log in you can keep abreast of what tasks need to be done and which ones are more important, etc…

Lino It - Think about all the Post It notes you need to make every day.  Now imagine the clutter they will all make if they were plastered all over your desk.  With this tool you can have all of these Post It notes available online to access whenever you need them.

Google Documents - If you thought that the only way to write documents would be to get hold of Word or Excel then think again - you can do the same thing using Google Documents online.  Furthermore you can save the files in Word or Excel formats so your clients won’t have any issues opening them.

GoToMeeting - If you have a client on the other side of the country and the thought of spending 4 hours on the train doesn’t fill you with glee then think about holding an online web conference.  You have to pay for this service but it is a great way of connecting your computer with up to 15 others around the world.  This is the perfect alternative to a real meeting.

Freelancing?

Are you freelancing?  Have you found our advice useful?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

There are certain names that we will always remember - whether they were in a catchy jingle or were just simply memorable!  Your businesses name is a very important thing to choose and while you are tasked with choosing one you should choose a memorable one.

Read on to discover the main tips you should keep in mind when choosing a memorable name - you might find the inspiration you need for your businesses name on this very page;

Meaningful

You should use a word that can be visualised and therefore memorised more easily.  You don’t necessarily have to worry about relevance with the word but you can be sure that people will remember a noun than a name they can’t even pronounce.

Control Your Creative Urges

Leave weird names to the big boys - you can’t afford to come up with a weird mixture of letters that no one will be able to remember.  Stuff like that works for supermarkets like Tesco but for your company coming up with a name like Huyta or Luipo will only alienate customers.

Short But Sweet

No one will even bother trying to remember a company name that could actually pass as a full sentence simply because it is so long.  Instead choose a name that is short but memorable.  Your name should be unforgettable not a mission statement.

Alliteration

Think back to GCSE English classes and try every trick in the book - alliteration is a great way of coming up with a memorable name for your business using the same letter to start a number of words.  For example your company can be called Bouncy Bricks - it may not be a great name but it’s nice to say, making it unforgettable.

Thief

Don’t steal someone else’s name - it’s incredibly tacky and obvious and it’ll just put customers off!  If you are going to open a corner shop don’t call it Tisco…you’ll just look cheap!

Sharing

There might be a word that is often used across the market you are in - maybe it’s “nails”, maybe it’s “world” - whatever it is make sure you avoid it, otherwise you’ll lose your unique perspective in the market and there will be nothing separating you from the other companies.

Stupidity

You’re starting a small business, you aren’t Prince.  You can’t get away with a wacky symbol as a name - no one will know what you’re called and you will be forgotten straight away.  Keep things simple and you can’t go wrong…the simpler the better and the more memorable.

Place

It is often useful to incorporate the name of the place you are in with the name of the business - if you are based in Manchester then you should think about Manchester’s Movers - see how I used alliteration there too?

Naming Your Company?

Are you naming your company as we speak?  Have you found any of our advice useful?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

Choosing a name for your small business can be a difficult thing to do - there are many considerations you should think about before taking the plunge and deciding on one.

Read on to find out some of the key considerations and make sure you get the name for your small business spot on!  Your business name effects more than you would think…

Unique

You must make sure that no other business has the name you want to use - you should come up with a top 5 and then if the first one is taken then you can move down the line.

If you want to check up on the different names in the country then there is a list at Companies House you can peruse at your convenience - if you see a company with the name you want then unfortunately you have to go with something else.

It is also a good idea to have a flick through the phone book if you want a quick check on the availability of business names.  You should be able to see quickly if another company is operating under the name you want…and don’t forget the Internet!

Rules

There are rules that must be followed when deciding upon a name for your business - for example you business should end with ‘limited’, ‘unlimited’, ‘public limited company’ or the abbreviations for example.

Then you must make sure that the name that you choose for the company is not offensive.  You could find that some names must even receive approval from the Secretary of State if you use words such as England and English.

Online

Before deciding on a name you should not only make sure it is unique but you should also make sure that you can get your hands on the website - if you call your business “Wood and Bricks” you want to make sure you can buy the domain “www.woodandbricks.co.uk” for example.

If you don’t check this out you may be extremely disappointed later on down the line when it comes to setting up your online presence - your customers will not be able to find you easily online and your business will suffer.

Trademark

Just because you register a name for your business it doesn’t mean that you are protected against other people using your company’s name for their own products for example.

You can trademark your business by getting in touch with the Patent Office.  However you should think about getting in touch with the Patent Office anyway in case you are ripping off someone else’s name - if you don’t cover yourself you can find yourself in a lot of financial trouble later on down the line.

Naming Game?