Business Advice

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How to make money from social networks

Facebook, MySpace and the like are hugely popular with millions of people around the world using them to communicate with friends. But do these services offer real opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to grow a successful company? Dan Martin, editor of BusinessZone.co.uk, investigates the business benefits of social networking.

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Is your business prepared for the Credit Crunch?

The media is full of scare stories about the impending Credit Crunch and the impact that it is likely to have on small business. As a small business owner, you need to make sure that you are prepared for any consequences this economic climate is likely to have on your business.

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Three easy ways to start your business

Do you think starting your business will be difficult? Of course, there’s a lot to think about but it might be easier than you think. There’s a huge range of information and support out there for you to take advantage of.

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Should I stay or should I grow? Making the leap into enterprise

A full-time job elsewhere can be a handy security blanket as you try to get your solo venture off the ground. So when's the best time to kiss your boss goodbye? Louise Druce, features editor of www.businesszone.co.uk, clocks the pleasures and the pitfalls.

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Top Ten Tips for Online Business Success

It’s very easy to get carried away with all the exciting (but expensive) things you can do to make your website look snazzy and to feel that you have to spend a lot of money advertising it.

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Nine tips that guarantee big advertising ideas for small companies

Here are nine ways to maximise your advertising spend and hopefully make you more confident to take the right advertising decisions.

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Are you ambitious to get more from your business?

David Molian of the Business Growth Programme (BGP) at Cranfield School of Management lists the key challenges to growth – and how successful owner-managers overcome them.

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10 tips to use the web to grow your business

This article is based on experience of working with a variety of companies who use the Internet as a critical sales tool in their businesses. It gives 10 tips on how you can improve the performance of your website.

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Business continuity planning: Should I bother?

Most big businesses are well prepared for any incident which could impact on their operations. Small firms on the other hand are generally not ready for the unexpected. Dan Martin, editor of www.businesszone.co.uk, examines why small businesses should place business continuity planning higher up their agenda.

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Dealing with a customer complaint

“I got a customer with a complaint screaming down the phone at me, what do I do?”

Patrick from Effective Business helps identify how to deal with such complaints.

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Protecting your intellectual property

Too many small businesses pay little attention to intellectual property (IP) regulations until they find out their ideas are being used by a third party. If only they had taken the time to check their rights and register their IP, says Matt Henkes, they could have saved themselves a whole world of worry and legal expense.

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The 9 reasons why businesses fail

Starting a business from scratch is not easy. In fact, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail within the first five years. Why? What goes wrong? Below are the common pitfalls to be aware of and plan to avoid.

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What's in a name?

It begins with an idea that you can’t stop thinking about. Eventually, after discussions with friends and family and many hours working with spreadsheets or a calculator, the idea becomes a decision to start a business.

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How much are you wasting on your incentive programmes?

How can careful planning ensure success?

Motivation initiatives are launched for many reasons, but there should be only one - to deliver more profit to the organisation. Obvious, maybe, but few companies - once the business case is signed-off - pay much attention to one of the most easily measured activities in the toolbox.

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Why is PR essential for business?

"Why is he always in the press? Why are they always writing about his products not ours? Why do they ask him for his opinions and quote him in features when our business is bigger and my views are more interesting? Why is he asked to speak at conferences? Why is his business better known in the trade than ours even though we spend just as much on advertising?

Many business people have asked either me or themselves at least one of these questions. It is fascinating how the competitive nature of business comes out when they regularly see one of their competitors' names in the media!

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