What Goes Up Must Come Down...You Can Plan On It

It's no secret that economies are cyclical...they have ups and they have downs. Despite that simple fact, most businesses work on the assumption that they'll always be in the up cycle. That's foolishness. A business that wants to be around for the long term needs to have a plan for the up times and for the down times. And the good news is that we can have plans to not just survive, but to thrive and grow in the ups and the downs.

Long lasting businesses have a growth plan for the up times and in the down times.

It's true that for most it's easier to grow business when there's a high degree of consumer confidence and the economy is growing...all ships rise in a growing economy. For many, the extended period of "good times" has led to an unintended complacency in how they do business. And now, they're facing a rude awakening.

Frankly, I'm hearing a lot of advice about "working smarter" and "tightening your belt". Let's clear the deck of these two misguided pieces of advice:

Governor Sarah Palin's Yahoo Email account got hacked. That means someone got into it. Someone who shouldn't have. And apparently it was relatively easy (especially for someone motivated to do harm) and involved using Yahoo's password reset feature which asks for such information as your Birthdate.

Lesson 1: Don't use Email services like Yahoo, Hotmail or GMail for sensitive or business communications! Use a proper Email service...like your Business Email.

Choosing the right domain name is one of those “little things" that can make a big difference in your Internet Marketing. Having the wrong domain name can cost you countless numbers of visitors and PR; something a small business cannot afford to lose. The good news is that this is one of the quickest and easiest things you can do to give your Internet Marketing efforts a big boost.

Here are 7 key factors to consider when selecting the domain name for your small business:

I remember back when having a fax number on a business card was the "cool thing" to have. Now, fax numbers are disappearing and in their place, everyone has to have an Email address.

In fact, Email has become the primary way business communications happen, displacing even the telephone. However, if you're using an Email address that's intended for personal use, instead of looking "cool", you look "amateurish".

The answer is to have a Business Email address such as yourname@yourcompany.com.

There can be some nasty business hiding beneath offers of "free domain name included" or "comes with a free domain name". In fact, I've had a few clients (and some very high profile ones) lose their domain name and have to start over with a brand new web address.

Your domain name (your web address, e.g. www.piggybanktechnology.com) is an important business asset. Imagine what would happen if you lost control of that web address and someone else legally put up a site with less than desireable content? That would cause significant harm to your business. Not to mention the lost business from visitors trying to go to a lost domain.

I recently did an informal poll of business owners, asking them about their data back-ups. Sadly, most failed to have adequate protection in place and only one scored an A+.

What really alarmed me is that almost all of them knew of someone who had suffered because of a computer crash without adequate back-ups and still hadn’t taken measures to protect themselves.

To find a need to fill is the single most important decision you’ll make in your entire business, and that decision will impact everything you do in your business.

Finding the right need to fill is the difference between struggling day after day to make a go of your business and having a business that takes on a life of its own.