Business Finder Blog

The Easy Solutions Are Usually The Wrong Solutions

Tough economic times causes companies to panic and cut their overall costs.

Laying off employees, cutting marketing costs and lowering inventory levels cause low staff morale, lower sales and poor customer service.  This actually increases your costs in the long run.

Find New Ways to Sell.

Poor economies provide new opportunities.  Pay attention to what your customers have to say – especially those who complain.

The information customers provide is extremely valuable.  It might give you insight as to what they don’t like about your business operation and what your competition is doing better – if so, take the time to fix the issues or add the new product[s] that they are looking for.

In general, customers are the key to your success.  They will tell you exactly what you need to do to make a success of your business.

Focus on the fundamentals

The basics are important during tough economic times.

- Negotiate each deal with each and every one of your suppliers to make sure your get the lowest cost possible.

- In your key cost areas obtain regular bids from suppliers.

- Make sure you understand all your costs.

- Take the time to measure and watch all the key aspects of your business, like employee performance, sales in all areas and productivity of advertising, etc.  Anything that is measured and watched closely will improve.

Survive 1 Day At A Time

Make it a rule that each day, by end of day, you would have made your business better in some small way.  This system is extremely powerful and it ensures that your business is at it’s very best right now -  when it counts.

Tough Times Separate The Winners From Losers

Realize that your number one goal is to survice the touch times.   Those who survive are those who continue to work hard, despite tremendous adversity and simply refuse to give.

Websites and Your Business

Setting up a website to promote products and services online are all part of modern day business marketing.  Unfortunately not everyone can fork out large sums of cash to build professional looking websites with highly complex dynamic content, content management and eCommerce capabilities like shopping carts and online payment facilities.

In fact, most small to medium sized businesses require nothing more than a simple and affordable website to gain some sort of online presence – but they have no idea as to where to begin their website journey.

If you own a starter up business or you find yourself in the dilemma mentioned above then my advice to you is to get in touch with a local website design & development company.  Unfortunately not all designers are honest about the options available and will probably try to pitch the most expensive package to you.

How to Get a Free Website

Here is a list of website options that you can implement yourself at very little or no cost.

-          Business Directory Listings

There are hundreds of business directories online and most of them offer free listing registration.  Although this is not an actual website, it does create a small online presence for your business as well as marketing for your brand.

Business Finder (www.businessfinder.co.za) provides each listing with a free one page website which can be populated with all the content of a normal website, including logos, contact details and more.

-          Social Media Sharing Website

Social media websites like Facebook (www.facebook.com), MySpace (www.myspace.com), Squidoo (www.squidoo.com) and Twitter (www.twitter.com) are excellent tools to promote your brand.  You can use these websites to set up a “one page website” containing all your company information, images and updates – like specials, products, etc.

-          Blogs

Setting up a blog is extremely easy and in most cases free.  Blogsites like Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) and Blogger (www.blogger.com) can be used to quickly set up and customize your own business blog.  Blogs can contain multiple pages, images, articles and everything else that you would want on a professionally built website.  The difference here is that a novice can set it up and it won’t cost you a penny.

-          Free Website Generation Tools

Google offers a tool (pages.google.com) that allows you to build your very own website with ease.  The interface is extremely simple to use, and you can build as many pages as you want.  The system offers a content management system which allows you to update your website at any time.

Domains

You can set up your own domain names and have them redirect to the blogs, facebook pages, etc.  Domain names are affordable and will cost you about $10 per year if you register them through websites like GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com).

Summary

If you have the time and resources available to you then you are definitely able to build and maintain your very own website at no real cost to you.