Well didnt manage to finish up work til very late so finally getting back to everyone here, just some thoughts/opinions.
@Joe E as for twitter its definetly worth "finding your feet", there is a lot of possibilities with Twitter whether you do it for personal branding (
http://mashable.com/2009/05/20/twitter-personal-brand/) or if its for your business (
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/) then most definelty worth spending the odd few minutes here and there to keep a regular flow of tweets. Also launching *yet another?* business obviously you need to ensure you can keep on top of your current business and dont let it die as this is your current bread and butter as it were.
@Jane P a good butcher is essential my father always taught me that at a wedding you should have present a lawyer, doctor and accountant on your side and for the rest of your life as long as you have a home, clothes and great food thats all you need and there is nothing better than finding a QUALITY butcher. Sounds like you have a great thing going on with marinating meats, where are you based?
@Write My Site what type of blog posts do you write? Daily blogging service is interesting I have not seen much of that about apart from the *pay per post* sites that are/were around, how do you differ from that type of service?
@Emcar Vending at only 12:12pm you have done quite a bit alreay you sound like a very busy and productive person. We can help out with your website design/new pages if your interested. But vending machines tend to be a great business from what i hear from other similar companies - sounds like you are busy, hopefully apart from the loss of a big customer this will not affect you too much as you continue to market your business.
@Rhyl Lightworks answering emails can take FOREVER - do you filter or do inbox zero at all? Having a good email system can save ALOT of time! With regards to getting more people in the shop, are you doing any local advertising? Oh and looking at your website, one quick tip - REALLY make it EASIER to find the address of your shop. The white writing on the yellow bar doesnt stand out enough and move the contact us link maybe up next to Home | Login in the top of the site and somewhere more obvious as people will want to get in touch with you and FIND your store. Also have you added your store to Google Local Search? (
http://google.com/local/add)
@Scott-CopyandDesign any particular copy you write? I use a couple of freelance copy writers for my clients however copywriting is STILL one of those things where in very few instances I've noticed a difference or increase in sales. For example I have a client right now with a budget for copywriting their new website however I'm unavailable to take this job right now. But looking at your site - your doing great work and I shall pass your details on!
@CrewGirl25a cash loans businesses are still doing well in these difficult times? Also the site could do with a refresh looks very bland and *could be a fake site* type of look which would not be too inviting to possible customers i'm sure. Although i do like the new business forum you promote.
@estwig very swanky kitchen indeed at that price! What work will you be doing for the Royal Society of Medicine - sounds very posh! Although I have a feeling your more handy man than paper work man - get back to those tools and entrust someone else to do paper work.
@Wild Goose mornings are extremely busy always for me, although rarely work its typically answering emails and catching up on anything that happened over night. Interesting how different people are more productive in different times of day. Beer often helps many projects flow a little better - writing copy, programming etc however beware of the point of no return (
http://xkcd.com/323/). For me its early morning and late night that is most productive although the alcohol only comes in at the weekend ----- typically.
@Soul Survivor its possible to make a supplement look more interesting?
although I have that issue with a client - make a keyring look interesting and valuable, its only £1.99 and has no features but make it LOOK promising :-S What was the reason for closing down your full time business? The RC car website is that battery or petrol - used to be a hobbiest RC car racer and builder those were the days. Are you making the wordpress theme yourself? If you need to sort that hosting out - send me a PM and I'll sort you out. Squeeze in the BBQ its no use being busy 24/7 if you cant relax now and then. The sun makes it more difficult, unless your clever like me (sometimes) and work on a laptop while sat in the swimming pool.
@scotmum avoiding accounts is one of my favourite tasks! I'll do anything to avoid it... The parenting website although i do not need it just yet looks good - the forum is active is there any plans on how you will increase userbase over the next few months do you have a plan set out for this?
@Shaun Pearce working on reducing utility and telecom spend - we recently looked into this. What sort of options have you laid out? Use of VOIP? Are you a consultant on this field of reducing costs? I recently met with a Health and Safety consultant who spend some time explaining how indepth and pricey their consultancy actually is - i assume your the same?
@SeasonsOnline adwords without a doubt is worth it we manage many adwords accounts for our clients (a few in the same field as yourself). I love the design of your website however looking at the response speed of your site (200ms+) is fairly slow, most of our client sites have response of between 20 and 40ms and its public knowledge that if your site is not hosted in the country you want to market to then this WILL affect your ratings on search engines such as Google (
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=112259&p=893374) also if you are going for Adwords make sure you are setup correctly with Analytics and other Google products that may help you out. If you want any advice/quotes/testimonials then just PM me.
@am
m i like the print shop you have and keeping clients happy is always number one. Look after who you already have and dont neglect them in the search for newer clients. We are working on a redesign of our website because its VERY outdated however most of our business comes offline. How have you found flyers to work for your print/design work? We have not tried flyers per say just yet - considering it though.
@Bri great to be contributing to this forum just as I hope to be able to do day by day and I enjoy sitting back and answering posts and PM's. Quick tip, why not stick your website URL in the footer of your signature with a clickable link make it easier for people to find your website. Another quick tip how about changing your default favicon (the little icon that shows in the browser bar) to a smaller image of your logo or product, little detail but often noticed.
@Fenland congrats on getting to the point of quoting said university! As for the van sign I would definetly go for that and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you do make sure the website link is on there and have it LARGE, not small in the corner but LARGE because often i see vans go by and first thing i want to do is check the website, NOT call up at first and the URL is always in TINY writing. Again great site design but as with @SeasonsOnline the hosting seems to be a little slow and laggy at times I've tested. Also which country is it hosted in?
phew - thats that done.
