Category Archives: Business Tips

Doing business online?

If you do business online, why not share your thoughts and experiences in a survey? Quick and easy to complete, this survey is finding out how small  business uses the internet in Australia – will the results support the MYOB survey results posted a few months ago?

As well as the survey, we’d love to read your comments here – why did you start an online business (or part of your business)? Do you think it is good or bad, or something in between, that is is so relatively easy to start a business now the Internet is readily available to many of us?

Back from the conference

As mentioned in May Madness, we both attended the Business Mums Conference over the weekend and had an awesome time.

We’d like to congratulate Karen (Time Well Spent) and Simone (Wellness, Fertility & Balance) on winning a door prize of a feature listing on Save Time Online for a year – we’ll post links to their pages once they have provided the information to go on their pages.

There were many great presentations over the weekend, including a session on web 2.0 and social media, and Tash’s presentation on promotional articles. Ally also shared her story in a forum, along with the Founders Award winner, Amanda Cox, Glenys Gijsbers and Bernadette Huysing.

We’d like to thank Melissa and her team for a great weekend, and highly recommend you diarise it for next year! And we may just offer another advertising deal if you mention us when booking (and we hope those people who took advantage of it this year benefit from their upcoming newsletter ads.)

The social network of cybercriminals

With the increasing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, they have become a popular target for cybercriminals who are looking to collect personal information so that it is easier to trick users with phishing scams and to distribute viruses and malware (malicious software).

With the growth of these social networking sites, it is said that by looking at the profiles it’s become the easiest and quickest way to commit ID theft. There is no need to hack or dumpster dive when a profile is so publicly displayed.

Ways to prevent phishing scams and the distribution of malware through social networking sites are:

  • Making your passwords complex - involving numbers and symbols is a good way to do this
  • Making your profile private
  • Reduce the amount of personal information you include
  • Be wary of new applications, especially those that are allowed access to your personal information and the personal information of your friends

Though these sites are great fun and a fantastic way to keep in touch with people, it’s always best to be safe about who you let look at your personal information.

VistaPrint Earlybird Bonus – Christmas Cards

Want to get those christmas cards out of the way?

Sending a card to your employees and colleagues is a good way to show them that you notice their good work and christmas cards for your loyal or new customers is a fantastic way to thank them for their support, plus remind them of your business or brand.

So click HERE and organise your very own christmas cards that you can design yourself for a great early bird price.

Win! One of two magazine subscriptions!

BMN Issue 9The Business Mums Magazine is Australia’s only magazine aimed especially at mums running their own businesses. It is written by business mums, for business mums.

We are once again offering two lucky people the chance to win a 12 month subscription of this bi-monthly magazine valued at $25 each.

To go into the running for this wonderful prize click HERE- remember, you must be subscribed to our newsletter to enter. Adding your answer as a comment in our blog will not count as an entry (and won’t be published to keep it fair for everyone!)

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Business Cards in different cultures…

Like many things, how you give out (or even receive) business cards in different cultuers can be different to how you would do things in your own culture. What works in one place may not work, or even be offensive, in another place.

If you deal with people from a variety of cultures, or are attending an event where you may well met diverse peoples, you may want to read up on how to offer/accept business cards.

The following sites all explain different cultures’ attitudes to business cards…

How to exchange busines cards in Japan

Chinese business etiquette and culture

links to a number of specific countries’ business etiquette (including Argentina, Norway, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea)

International Business Etiquete and Manners resource

Mexperience – doing business in Mexico - have you thought of cards in another language?

Business etiquyte in Asia

Business card etiquette (internationally)

Why offer RSS feeds on your site/blog?

Did you know that you can use RSS feeds to add your blog content to other sites? You can offer it for others to add to their sites (for example, look in the meta data section the right of this post – clicking on ‘entries RSS’ will set up the RSS feed for you) or add it to another site manually.

But why would you add your blog content to another site?

  • gets your content in front of more people so it spreads your message further
  • it links to your blog so it can increase your traffic and site rankings 
  • it builds your credibility as an expert in your topic
  • it is a form of free promotion to your blog (and business if applicable)
  • may be picked up by different sites which may not have found your actual blog post
  • it helps build the community aspect of blogging and communicating with people

An RSS feed can only occur if you allow it and it is still seen under your name – it isn’t like someone blatnatly copying your content for their own pursposes. And of course, teh copyright remains with you as the creator of teh content.

So keep an eye out for opportunities to share your blog content through an RSS feed…

Juggling parenting and business

An increasing number of parents are running their own business, which means they often find themselves doing a real juggling act. As we are both Mums and business owners, we get it!

One thing to note is that the juggling act changes over time, so don’t expect that what is working today will work next year or the year after. It might still work, but the juggling is much easier if you accept that change and disruption is part of the package when working around a young family.

Why would things change? For example, the amount of time available for your business with a young baby is likely to decrease when the child has fewer naps, makes more mess and needs more attention as a toddler. And other commitments vary, too, such as going on school excursions, planning for birthdays and Christmas, family emergencies and holidays all vary when you can work on your business.

The good news is that with so many parents running businesses and the power of the internet, you don’t have to feel alone or figure everything out for yourself. The following Australian resources are just the beginning of the support and information available to business parents and small business owners in general:

Of course, the business section of Save Time Online also lists a number of suppliers and resources that can also be of assistance in your business life.