More often than not, I find myself surprised to receive stellar customer service from vendors that I would least expect to deliver even average customer service.   I buy all my web domain names from GoDaddy, not because I’ve had a positive experience using the service provider but simply out of habit.  I recently bought a few new domain names and decided to buy extra security for each one.  In a few clicks, I was done....

For a lot of small businesses, the first few months of the year can be slower.  The holiday spending is over, and people are starting to tighten their budgets to save for a summer vacation.   It’s the time of year to get creative and keep your business moving forward.   

When your staff has some downtime, have them hit the phones to call your current clients and make sure they are aware of all the ancillary products and services you offer.  Have everyone catch up on any projects that have been left untended due during the busy times, whether it’s scanning in old files or updating training manuals.  Try to schedule in any refresher courses during downtime as well.  Have your managers take a look at recent office supply orders and make sure they are ordering efficiently.  Offer a webinar on new laws that have passed or run additional training for your clients that may be interested in using or already are using a special product or service that you offer.  Dust off your business plan and make sure it’s updated to reflect your current position and business goals...

Email is the number one method of business communication; the amount of “snail mail” my office receives is rapidly dwindling with the exception of catalogs.  However, the cost associated with company email can be staggering to a startup company.  Hence, many small businesses rely on free email services such as AOL, Hotmail or Gmail; using these for business purposes can be a struggle and confusing....

Times are tough for small businesses right now and it’s even harder for charities and other not-for-profit organizations.  Government funding is being cut, donations are at a record low and demand is constantly rising for the services these organizations provide.   Over half of all charities whose services help people to deal with the effects of the recession have seen demand for their services increase. Many charities are working hard to maintain their services with even less funding than they had expected. Over forty percent of charities have received less support in the last three months than they had budgeted for. Most charities are not counting on an increase of funding or donations going into 2011.