January 2011

Are You the CEO, Sales Rep, Bookkeeper, Secretary and Janitor of Your Small Business?

The right tool for the job
A brick wall with a name tag that reads, "Hello My Name is..."

As a small business owner, you are more than likely to be your only employee when you start off. So, your income will be directly related the the time you put in. There are only 24 hours in the day and you need to get the most out of what you put in.

Example

A friend of mine makes and sells handmade baby slings.  She kept things as simple as possible. She didn't have an ecommerce website, she didn't accept credit cards, she used hand written receipts and her client contact list was on an excel spreadsheet.

Grant for Change: Announcing the 2011 Call for Applications

Man yelling into a megaphone.

We are pleased to announcing the start of our 2011 funding season. This is the second year of the Grant and we are excited to make an impact again. With the Grant for Change, your organization can apply for matching funds, up to $10,000 towards your project. Join last year's applicants, that included:

Having a Website is Only Half the Battle

Woman with Her head wrapped in adding machine paper while in front of the comput

I just got off the phone with a client who was sitting there perplexed as to why, after a year of his website being our there on the internet, his phone isn't ringing off the hook?

He did all the right things. He had his site built on a content management system, so he could easily add and update content at any time. He got his site professionally designed, so it would look appealing to his potential customers. He spent the time crafting his content for his Home, About Us  and Services pages, so it would answer all the right questions.

3 Reasons Why Google Hates You

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Parody of Google Homepage with words "You Suck!".

After writing Having a Website is Half the Battle, it got me thinking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I am constantly receiving questions from clients about how their friend suggested they do "such-and-such" to their site and they will skyrocket to the top of Google. SEO just isn't that simple.

Facebook Fan Page Versus Profile: What's Better for Business?

Facebook Logo

There really is a huge difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Fan Page. Facebook profiles are for people; Fan Pages are for businesses.

Drupal 7 is Here

Drupal just got even better
Screenshot of Drupal 7

Easier to use

An entirely revamped administrative interface makes your daily tasks easier to find and carry out. Many improvements were added specifically for site builders and content editors.

More flexible

Define your own content structure and add custom fields to content, users, comments, and more. Extend your site with one of the over 800 modules already available for Drupal 7.

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Vanity URLs in Facebook. Don't be the Last One Doing it.

Elderly chinese man using laptop and giving a thumbs up.

Right now if you want to send someone to your Facebook profile, you have to figure out a URL that looks something like this:

www.facebook.com/people/Your-Name/1234567

But wouldn’t you rather own www.facebook.com/yourname?

And this becomes even more important for Facebook Fan Pages (not your regular friend profiles, the pages you can set up to promote your business.) Can you imagine how bad it would be to have someone else own your company name in Facebook?

How Much Does a Website Really Cost?

Society type man smoking a pipe.

Asking "How much is a website?", is like asking, "How much is a car?, or "How much is a house?'. It really depends on what you want.

Now a website shouldn't cost you as much as a car or a house, but there are so many variables to actually give a general estimate.

The Dissection of a Do-it-Yourself Website

What Not to Do
Older man using drill.

We are huge fans of people doing their own websites. We know that when you are starting out, or an organization on a shoestring budget, you gotta do what you gotta do. We were recently approached by a company to redo their website and we thought it was a great opportunity to share their old one to see what we could learn. So, if your planning on DIY, then check this one out, so you don't make the same mistakes.

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Freebie #1: Free Skype Phone Number for your Business or Charity

Ring2Skype service is free and you can get any number around the world.
Oldr woman with trinkets on her desk handing over the phone.

We are big fans of free and open source. There is so much good free stuff out there to help support you and your business/organization and we want to share our finds with you.  This is the first in what will be many posts on "Freebies" that we find.

Getting a Skype number in Canada has been a long wait and I am not sure if it's even coming. I came across this quote from our beloved Canadian Radio and Television Council (CRTC), dated 2007: