Stop Competing With Your Competitors

#217-CompetitionThere’s something wrong with helping your competitor, right? I used to think so until I read the Small Business Trends blog post Build your business by promoting competitors.” In some situations and in certain crummy economic times, it makes sense to work with, rather than against competitors.  Some of the better tips in the post are:

  • Realize you’re more powerful in numbers. Numbers give you street cred and the ability to do more than you could on your own. Keeping friendly relationships with competitors means that when things get slow, you can rely on one another to come up with a plan to help things pick up. [Read more...]

Crap! Where Did My Search Engine Rankings Go?

Let’s say that you’re blogging away, generating income from your words of wisdom and then suddenly your Google ranking drops.  What’s that all about? There are several factors that contribute to your ranking going haywire and a post on ProBlogger gives some good insight into the whole ego-deflating deal. [Read more...]

Is it Really the Thought That Counts?

#211-customergiftsFinding the right holiday gifts for clients can be tricky. I’ve given clients everything from baskets filled with yummy chocolate, to Mrs. Prindable’s apples, to donations to charity.  If you spend too much, the gift may come across as a bribe or worse, a kickback.  But if you spend too little, you give the impression of being cheap.  What’s a working naked professional supposed to do…stop giving gifts?

In her post Customer gifts shouldn’t be economic casualties,” Joyce Rosenberg makes a good point for continuing to give clients gifts.  According to Rosenberg, “Gifts selected with care convey to customers how important they are, and how much an owner will continue to value their relationship going forward.” [Read more...]

Picking a Planner

I’ve tried most of the planning systems out there so I’d know which ones to recommend to my clients. It’s hard to recommend something if you haven’t tried it. After using Day-Timers, Franklin, Time Design, Day Runner, Filofax and a few other systems, I figured out which systems were effective and which ones were duds.paper

Sue Shellenbarger, author, writer and the Wall Street Journal’s Work & Family columnist did the near-impossible…she tried three systems in three weeks.  She made some interesting discoveries. [Read more...]

Working Naked Gift Ideas

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Working Naked Day—you’ll learn more about that last holiday in a few months—are just around the corner. Are you worried about what to buy for someone in your life who’s working naked? Worry no more and check out CIO’s slide show  Cool Home Office Gear.” From futuristic chairs to ingenious desktop accessories, you’ll find hot, new gift ideas for that special working naked someone who’d probably be happy with a pair of underwear.

There are several have-to-have products in the slide show but two of my favorites are:home_cabledrop_6

Generation chair by Knoll. This sleek, awesome chair looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. No matter which way you move, the chair moves with you.

CableDrop clips. These colorful clips are a simple way to keep cords from dropping behind your desk. They’re functional and cool at the same time. Another one of those “why didn’t I think of that” products.

Starting Out On The Right Business Foot

#205-Best resourcesLately I’ve met a few home office folks who’ve come up with great business ideas and products, but they don’t know much about business.  More importantly, they don’t know what their next steps should be so they can grow their business.

You don’t need to have a business adviser in your back pocket when you start a business—although it doesn’t hurt to have one—but you can take advantage of the many resources out there to get your business started. The post 20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground lists a range of sites to help you start a business. [Read more...]

A Second Life For Electronics

A little over a year ago, I read about a physician who left his computer on the curb for the monthly bulk trash pickup.  He’d wiped the hard drive clean so he wasn’t worried about anyone accessing his patients’ records.  #202-Recycled comWhat he didn’t count on was a savvy computer geek picking up his computer, bringing it home, and then opening the doc’s complete patient files.  So much for HIPAA rules.

One of the best ways to donate a computer is to leave it to the pros. There are collection companies that will take your computer and refurbish it, re-sell it to a charity for a nominal fee, or recycle it. That’s a better option than dumping electronics in a landfill. [Read more...]

Is Working From Home Child’s Play?

Is working naked a fad, a fluke or a farfetched idea? I say Hell, no! Even toy manufacturers are jumping on the home office bandwagon and are making models of home offices. I’ve collected toy home offices for years. (It could be worse…a friend of mine collects husbands.) My collection includes:

Barbie My House Armoire Desk SetBarbie my house
Barbie’s a doctor, lawyer, nurse and scores of other professions but at the end of the day, she comes back to her home office. I mean what’s a dream house without a home office? One of the product reviews on Amazon slammed the chair for being flimsy but in Barbie’s world, everything is small and dainty. Why do you think her shoes are the first things everyone loses? [Read more...]

Are You Working on or in Your Business?

You have to put out client fires, deal with bummed out clients who need a little handholding and manage freelancers or subcontractors to keep your business going. You’re so busy working in your business that you may not be taking the time to work on your business.

A Small Business Trends article offers some great tips for stepping back and taking a close look at your business. [Read more...]

Making Money and Saving Money

More money, more money
An article posted on Technology Toolkit called Five Great Home Business Ideas That Could Make Money offers a few tips worth considering, including writing articles and completing surveys. If you’re struggling to come up with a way to make money from home, this article is a good place to start.

Verizon + Office Depot = savings
There’s a new team in town: The Verizon Small Business Center and Office Depot. Reuters reports that this new team’s goal is to offer small businesses discounts up to 12% when they buy office supplies. That’s a definite improvement from the 0% discount I’m getting at my local Office Depot.

To participate, businesses need to log on to the Verizon Small Business Center’s Web site and click on the “Office Depot Discount Program” link (under “Alliance Discount Program”).