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Posts Tagged ‘New Business’

BBC Finds Optimistic Local Builders

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

I just found an article on the BBC News site about a builder in Colsterworth, UK, who expressed some careful optimism about the future, despite the recession.

Dave Ostler, who runs his own building firm, said “I’ve had to make a lot more effort to secure work,” but mentioned “no major concerns” about his family’s future. He also said that his wife Gail Ostler started her own business doing the books for local firms, after the prospects at the building firm she worked at looked to be taking a turn for the worse. “She felt with this credit crunch looming that she better not leave her destiny just in the hands of one firm so she started her own business and she has done very well in building up a client base.”

So it’s not all doom and gloom. Starting and running your own business can work, even now, and can bring in some extra cash to keep the scales balanced. This is the kind of thing we hope the Clever Little Site can really help people out with – giving start-ups a chance to hit the ground running. Check out the feature list to see what we can offer new businesses.

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IFAs Urged To Get Themselves Online

Thursday, April 16th, 2009
IFA Life are urging their members to get a website for their business

IFA Life are urging their members to get a website for their business

IFA Life, the leading social network for financial advisors worldwide, is urging its members to capitalize on the benefits offered by the Internet. They believe (quite rightly) that a decent looking, up-to-date website, with useful information, could make all the difference to generating new business in the coming year. In their business website article, they say that having a decent website is as essential to a business as having a logo, business card and letterhead.

The easiest solution they suggest to IFAs is what they’re calling a “brochure website” – a straightforward, five page site that provides relevant information about your business to your current and potential clients. This includes your services, process, information about your advisors and your contact details.

You know what’s coming now, right? Yeah, you guessed it. The websites we provide are absolutely perfect for this. They’re very affordable, and easy to use. There’s a wide range of professional, business-oriented templates to choose from, which can then be customised with your company’s logo and imagery, and you have the ability to change and update the information on there whenever you like, for free. You don’t need any special software or expertise, either.

In your PJs at 3am? Not a problem. Just grab your laptop and get stuck in. Spare 20 minutes between meetings? Fine, fine, fine. Just login, choose the page and start typing. Just staggered in from the pub, with a brilliant new vision for your company involving wild lions and a fleet of bendi-buses? To be honest, it might be best to write that one down and have another look in the morning, but at the end of the day, if you want to put it on your website, you’re the boss. It does sound like a fairly spectacular idea, after all.

While the IFA Life article does say that such “brochure websites” are fairly low maintenance in that they only need to be updated occasionally, it does still pay to keep things fresh. There’s no need to re-write your entire site every few weeks, but keeping an eye on your content and making sure fresh information appears fairly regularly does still pay dividends – it keeps your clients interested, and can also help with your search engine rankings, too. In these financially turbulent times, IFAs should be keeping their finger tightly on the pulse, and what better way to reflect your awareness than through your website?

Like we said in our last blog, more and more people are turning to Internet websites for information and advice, including older people with money to invest, which is also highlighted in another article on IFA Life’s site, so the decision to get a website for your company is definitely a smart one.

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Start Your Own Business

Monday, April 6th, 2009

… with an easy start-up website. Why not? Here’s a bunch of reasons why right now might be a really good time to give that entrepreneurial idea some serious consideration, and maybe think about starting your own business.

  • People are looking for work. In the current economic climate, a lot of people are already finding it hard to find work, so if you’re able to create jobs for them, you should find it easy to find people to fill the vacancies.
  • Banks are looking for worthwhile investments. While banks are no longer carelessly lending out money they may not see again, it is still in their interest to be lending out and investing money in viable businesses. If you can present a solid business plan and valid market research to back it up, the banks should still be listening.
  • You may already be out of work yourself. A lot of people put off starting their own business as they are busy with their current job, working for another employer. However, with recent job losses and redundancies from large corporations who are “slimming down” their operations, many people are no longer in this situation.
  • You can do something you love, instead of “working”. The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This is exactly what starting your own business can allow you to do. By running a business that focuses on something you’re passionate about, you can indulge that passion whilst earning a living. Also, it won’t feel so much like hard work, and you’ll find that your enthusiasm for what you’re doing is infectious, and people will be interested in what you have to say.
  • You stand to gain a great deal. If your new business grows and is successful, you’ll be the owner of a valuable financial asset, that keeps on giving. You could be the next Richard Branson. He started off selling Christmas trees in his hometown. Then he sold records out of a room above a Doc Marten’s outlet, which, as he had no money, he managed to rent for free, after persuading the shop owner that the extra foot traffic through the store would help sell more boots (which apparently it didn’t). And look where he is now. So we’ll see you in the pits of the next season’s Formula 1 championship, right?

Richard Branson gets some pretty good VIP treatment in the pits

From humble beginnings, Richard Branson is now a player in the world of F1 racing

So what are you waiting for? If you have an idea, develop it into something you can run really with.

New businesses are starting up at a rate of thousands and thousands each month – there’s no reason you can’t be one of these have-a-go entrepreneurs too.

In these challenging times it’s important to remember one thing – in every difficulty, there is an opportunity.

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