I want to tell you all a little story. This particular story involves one of the members of my own personal team. This particular team member had a fairly old PC at home. As he's a music producer and avid gamer (and source of all the references to the gaming industry I have spoken about in the past), his current machine was no longer up to the task of handling...

So you've been in negotiations with a prospective client for some time (and hopefully been making use of the advice I gave here and here), and you're just about to put signature to contract and seal the deal. Now comes the hardest part. If any of you have ever worked in telesales (which is an absolutely dreadful job, if you're currently in this industry I highly suggest reading the rest...

Getting feedback from your customers is the single best way to identify ways in which your business can improve. Looking at it from the inside is all well and good, but you're too close to it, making it hard to identify the real issues that need fixing, or could be improved. This is why getting feedback from your clients is so incredibly important. They aren't directly tied to the business,...

There comes a time in any business, where circumstances will arise that will warrant you making a change to what you're charging your clients. A pricing change is a fairly common occurrence in any business. Just look at McDonald's and their "dollar" menu (which is in many places actually over a dollar), or the recent trend in "everything for a dollar" stores suddenly charging prices that are definitely not a dollar....

We've talked before about the need to build your company out so that you're doing more earning, and less working. One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a business venture that will quickly get you where you want to be is the notion of scalability. Originally an electronics term, scalability is the capacity of a system to handle increased traffic - to "scale up,"  so to speak. It's...

Every second of every day, the world around us is changing at what can only be described as an alarming rate. In the world of technology, for example, the common household items of today were the stuff of science fiction only a decade or two ago. Don't believe me? Look at the prevalence of touchscreen interfaces, tablet computers, and smartphones. Now go watch a few episodes of Star Trek: The...

There are few things more annoying than sitting down to dinner or drinks with friends, only for your phone to ring with an unsolicited sales call. We've all received these calls from time to time (in some cases far more often, in the days before the Do Not Call list getting several calls a day was not unheard of), so we're all familiar with how aggravating it can be to...

Scalability is a term most commonly associated with computer systems, networks and processes and their ability to handle increased usage, or be expanded to handle that growth. The term can also be applied to businesses, and their ability to handle a sudden influx of additional work. I spoke before about expanding out of your home into a proper office to meet your growing needs, but what about your business on...

It should come as no surprise that a majority of the developed world’s workers would prefer to be their own boss. If you’re reading this blog, you’re no doubt interested in the same thing. The reasons are as many and varied as there are people. In Europe, increased profit potential is frequently listed in business polls  on the topic; in the United States, personal freedom is usually the number one...

Social media is the fastest growing form of marketing in the world today, and for good reason. Over the past two decades the Internet has spread like wildfire, from the old 14.4k dial-up modem days to today, where high speed Internet access is available to most of the planet via the touch of a button on a cellular phone. And with the spread of the Internet has come more and...