1.Ok this one isn’t really an article it is more of a signup form but what is promised should be quite a good read. Rockable Press by the creators of Freelance Switch is offering a free 20 page ebook on personal branding simply for signing up with their mailing list. These guys are pretty damn smart so I recommend checking it out http://rockablepress.com/the-rockin-list/.

2. Although the articles over at entrepreneur.com can oftens times be a little drab for my tastes they usually pack in some pretty good information here is one entitled “You Can Weather the Economic Storm” http://snurl.com/4aeob.

3. Here’s a short read over at Freelance Folder about promoting your online business offline http://snurl.com/4aepy

4. Something from over at Pearsonified, when he writes he’s usually got something good to say http://snurl.com/4aeul “2 Sure-fire Ways to Make Money Online”

5. It’s an older article as internet articles go but it is still rather interesting, and well this is the first time I ran accross it. On Business Week, “Five Don’ts for Marketing in Tough Times” http://snurl.com/4aew8

Ok so that’s a short one, but hey it’s Sunday so read through these and then take a break, you deserve it!

Well happy reading!

The first thing I am considering is a redesign, imagine that? Don’t get me wrong, for some reason I love where it is at right now but I am not sure that it is the most reader friendly format, your thoughts?

Second thing on my mind is the direction I shold take with the content of the blog. What would be most useful to the reader, given the overall concept?

In the natural order of things the next thing would be… how to really get people involved in the site. The most important element to my purpose for the blog would be reader interaction thus “viral thinking”. So, how do I get you involved?

Stay tuned, it’s all coming up rather quickly, but first an upgrade of this WordPress Installation is in order!

It is a hard business to crack into and with new companies coming and going on a monthly basis I don’t necessarily suggest it as one you try for yourself, but I am never one to crush a dream and chances are you are going to give it a shot anyway. Consider this my official announcement and the lead off to a whole series of articles regarding “how to start a clothing company”.

First I would like to touch on the idea of networking and how important I find it for the small business owner. I often read that the single best way for a freelancer to land new business is through word of mouth or networking and slowly I am starting to realize the truth behind this statement. Networking, for our purposes could be looked at in two ways. In the more traditional sense of the word you are out there networking in your community meeting people and other small business owners. Learning about what they do and giving them some insight as to who you are and what your business entails. They may not in fact require your services but in some sense they now few you as a friend (well if you approach it correctly) and now feel more confident in your services. They can put a face with a name so to speak. Down the road they may come upon a project that requires your service and because of the time you took to speak with them so many months ago you are now first on the list for consideration. Every time you meet someone in life you should treat it as a possible opportunity, not only to learn something interesting about the experiences of others but an opportunity to do “business” in the future. The key here, I believe, is to treat them as more than just a business contact, treat them as a potential friend and acquaintance.

Moving on now to what some may consider the non-traditional sense of networking and that is by creating happy clients. If you approach each piece of work or job that you do as a potential networking tool I can almost guarantee you will start to see the payoff. Not every job that comes across your desk is going to excite you in the way the last one may have, but if you put 100% into it and create a happy client, the word will spread. Networking by referral it may be called. “Great website! Who did it for you?” Ah ha, now you have created real value for the customer and they will be more than happy to pass on the word about your services.

I believe next on the list was the topic of advertising and how I might go about doing so beyond just networking. This is an area that I have been putting a lot of time into researching. Let me say that during this time of “economic downturn” I see the need for advertising to be even more important for my new business venture. My potential clients are facing the same slowdown in business that I am and I would like to let them know that there are things I can do to help them explore additional marketing channels, helping them to tap into new clients themselves. Beyond my ability to get ranked in the search engines for certain services I offer I need other ways of getting my name in front of the decision makers. It is important that I mention the need for an understanding of your target market. In order to create effective advertising you need to understand first how your customer might be found, what they might react to and what they are looking for. In my particular area it seems that people still often turn to print advertising, so I am exploring various ideas such as a small targeted mailer and also the traditional yellowbook ad. Really it is about researching you market and determining what will work best for you.

These few ideas coupled together and I hope to not only create new business during what some might consider to be slow times but actually come out ahead.

What that means? Well for one it will give me a much broader range of topics to choose from and a whole new set of solutions to present for the readers of Viral Thinking. It also means that in addition to creating a brand new entrepreneurial adventure I will have time to devote to other ideas that had been put on the back burner. I for one know a particular clothing company that could really use my help to get back on it’s feet right now.

It is an exciting time for me and I can not wait to share!

Why expansion? Let me first clarify that by expansion I am not suggesting that we all go out and purchase a new building or office space planning for the economic boom to follow. What I am suggesting is that your look to expand your product or service offering. Fact is there is still money out there to be made for your small business but it may mean thinking a bit outside of the box. It is time to begin exploring other services or products that would easily piggy back on your current offering. Here is an example. Let’s say that your company, company A has been in the business of selling Widget A for the last 10 years. Widget A sells for $1000 and falls in a category somewhere in between necessity and luxury. Business has been good from the get go and you haven’t really seen the need to expand your product or service offering up to this point, but being that the need for your product lies on that shaky middle ground, you have started to notice a slow down in new purchases. So how do you combat this. Well here are some thoughts. In the past when people purchased your product they have covered by warranty, however that warranty is fulfilled by either the manufacturing company or the local serviceman who knows just enough Widget A to offer a quick fix. Herein lies the opportunity. Chances are that a number of your seasoned employees know quite a bit about widget A and could more than likely diagnose any number of problems that might arise. Being that your customers are looking to keep Widget A and during this time would rather have it serviced than purchase an entirely new unit, your company is in the unique position to expand. It is time to begin generating revenue by offering service solutions to your customers. Having already gained the customers confidence through the initial purchase you are one step ahead, you specialize in Widget A.

Another example for those that are not quite positioned to provide a service in addition to the product you sell. Perhaps your product is quite expensive and not quite considered a necessity in these rough economic times, so now what? It seems like every product assembled these days has a vast array of accessories and add-ons. Now it will take some research and knowledge to decide which one of those products might actually offer an added value to your customer, but if you are able to provide an accessory that may increase performance or efficiency chances are you have found something that might sell. Allowing your customer to upgrade without forking over the money for a completely new product but instead purchasing an accessory could be the solution to generating new revenue.

I for one have realized that when looking at web design, my particular product and service can often times fall on either end of the spectrum. It can range from a necessity (needed to conduct daily business) to a luxury (it would be great but we don’t need it right now). So I have set out to compile a list of offerings that closely relate to my major product/service. A client might not need a new website at this time but what fixes or upgrades might add to their existing site, there for increasing productivity for their business? What other, slighty less expensive services may someone with an online presence be willing to explore? Email and Newsletter marketing, advertising and online productivity tools are just a few off the top of my head. Maintenance to existing sites that may have been scheduled for a re-design but have now gotten pushed back. This type of client is looking to stick with what they have but make slight improvements, which I am more than happy to provide.

In summary, look to expand your service offering in tough times, search out both existing and new clients and keep pushing through the hard times. Diversify and expand your current service and or product offering to generate new revenue. Ask yourself what else can I do for my client?

Bottom line here is I think this domain will provide me with a great opportunity to get my name out and a building block for things that I have planned. We shall see what happens, I encourage you to stop by the site often as the information will most likely be relevant to a much wider audience.

Well it is time for me to get back on top of things and begin frequently posting on Viral Thinking. Recently I added two brief interviews that I conducted with student at USC and I would very much like to expand on this and get the interviewers themselves involved in the discussion. I have asked for a final copy of the project itself and hope that with their permission I am able to publish excerpts. I think that this particular topic is of much interest to many of you. It seems from my experiences that so many of today’s companies, or at least their advertising campaigns are geared towards the skate/surf/snowboard demographic. Now I don’t always agree with some of the ways people portray the industry when pitching their product, however it appears as though this industry will remain in the lime lite for some time to come.

I would also like to begin posting more concerning SEO practices. I have been doing a lot of SEO experimentation lately with some of the sites I have been a part of creating, and I am very pleased with the results. My journey into the world of SEO is only just beginning and I hope to share all of my knowledge with you as I progress.

Lastly but certainly not least is the issue of the environment and how it is affected by your business practices. As we see buzzwords like green and sustainable carving out a place in our everyday culture, I feel that it is necessary to analyze these topics on a up close and personal basis.

Hope that some of these topics will be of interest to you!

Lately I have been experienceing a very odd but irritating technical problem with my hosting company. When working with files within my various websites. I update the code (CSS, PHP etc), save the file and upload the new file using my favorite FTP client. Now I travel over to my favorite browser (Firefox) to view the changes and be sure that everything turned out as planned. I work fast and think virally so I may be working with two or three websites at a time. I hit the refresh button and walla, page not found unable to return, blah blah blah. What’s the problem what have I modified in the files that is causing this to happen. Is it my ISP? No I can open a new tab and happily browse to various other areas of the internet. Does this cause a problem with my other sites hosted on the same package? Yes. Ok must be a problem with my hosting service so time to call technical support.

I get on the phone, listen to a confusing menu and some crappy music while my call is transferred to some remote area of a country I have never seen on a map and finally I get “technical support”. (That’s a stretch.) We discuss amazing technical terms like trace routes and such. We upload files, make updates all in search of this problem. Nothing found, everything is fine on our end. Ok I understand that it is near impossible to diagnose a problem when it doesn’t appear to exist, but can you offer me some advice like “well have you tried…” or being that we field thousands of calls a day and have probably dealt with this issue in the past “here is a suggestion”. But nothing. Only I’m sorry we can not find the issue.

I assure you the issue is there and I am growing extremely frustrated with it. This is the fourth time I have called to no avail and I am considering switching to a new hosting service. “Ok that’s fine.”

Wait, what? You don’t care if I just drop you?

I find this appalling. I pay on time every month. I have been a customer for over two years and while my business may not be paying the bills for this company it is certainly adding to the revenue. If you keep dropping off customers like nothing won’t you eventually see the effect. Lastly, what the hell kind of customer service is this?

The problem in this particular situation is a company that grew quickly and started outsourcing everything, customer service, hosting, technical support. The company clearly implements no procedure for this type of call or at least they are so large that it can not be monitored and enforced. The little guy no longer matters to this organization and unfortunately they fail to realize that if they were, on some off chance, to lose all of the little guys that they would probably be left with a room full of very quite but very shiny new servers. So I guess that they no longer require my business and it is time to start looking elsewhere.

As for the business on a smaller scale that suddenly land a few big accounts and no longer seem to care about the little guy, I can only offer one suggestion, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

I strive to create a business that never allows this type of nonsense to occur. Think of it in terms of networking. A few years ago you were at a local business network meeting and you happened to hit it off quite well with a local college student who was in the final days of his degree. You had some drinks and a couple of laughs exchanged business cards, the whole nine. You even offered t give him some advice should he need it. A week or so down the road he came to you seeking advice and the best you could do was let your secretary field the call ad give him some line about how you are very busy and will return his call as soon as possible. Never happens. Little did you know that he had a great new business model that he wanted to run past you before deciding to go ahead with it. You ignored him and he went ahead and launched it anyway. Now he is sitting on top of an office twice the size yours and running company that threatens to put you out of business within a few months. Wow, I bet you wish you had taken that phone call, perhaps you might be the supplier he sought for one of his products instead of that company in two states over who was willing to listen.

Do you find yourself getting snubbed in the world of business?