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?

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.)

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.

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.

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!)

Full terms and conditions are available here. Competitions close on 9 September 2008 and winners will be announced here and in our September newsletter.

We think brand is critical for all businsses, both small and large. In fact, small businesses may need a strong brand even more than large businesses than can rely on a larger number of potential customers finding them.

Despite what many may think, brand is more than having a logo – it includes the look of a website, the style of writing on the site/in blogs and brochures, etc, how phone calls and emails are answered, how prompt service is, the choice of colours, presentation of staff, and more.

So before we share some links about building your brand, why not share your perceptions on branding in this thread and in this branding survey?

Here are some interesting branding articles/discussions…

definitions of ‘brand’ from Google

Branding

What makes a good brand?

USPs and Using your USP (a USP should form the basis of your rband)

Branding and intellectual property

Reviewing your brand (Not Australian, but good none the less!)

Building a good employer brand Yes, how employees and potential employees see you is part of your brand, too

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)

If you would like to promote your business by joining May Madness, just send us an email with the details of your May Madness offer and start promoting the May Madness page where ever you can. It’s that simple!

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…

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:

• Business information and articles – a Save Time Online Guide
• Business Victoria is a comprehensive online resource designed to help you start, run and grow your business 
•  Reduce home interfering with your business
• the Business Mums Network and magazine
• Kids Helping your Business
• read blogs written by other parents in business and/or other small business owners; for example, Word Constructions, Melissa Khalinsky and Tilda Virtual blogs all help with running a business, and there are heaps more blogs to find!
• Separate your home and office
• find blogs about business and parenting, or just business, by looking at some carnivals, such as the Mothers in Business Carnival  

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.

Visit the free rice site, test and improve your vocabulary, and 20 grains of rice goes to the UN to defeat world hunger. Work on more words, donate more rice.

It is very clever, too – with each correct answer, you earn points towards a harder level so you can improve your vocab; if you find the words tough, it moves you to easier words. The aim is everyone can learn without getting discouraged. What a win win!

However, we must warn you – some people find these site addictive! But at least it is in a good cause!

** If you run a business website, you may be interested in joining the free rice campaign as a donator, too. It is like paying per view of your banner on other sites – each time your banner shows under the vocab test, you pay for it. Unlike other advertising options, you know your money is helping the truly needy.

If you are running a business, do you feel in control of your finances or do they overwhelm you? Are there things you want to learn so you can do better – or do you just long to outsource it all?

The Business Mums Network is conducting a brief survey to find out how business mums feel about their finances. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and the results will be released in the next edition of the Business Mums Magazine.

If particualr areas of business finance are shown to be harder for small business operators, then further information on those topics will become available through the network.