As one year comes to an end and another begins, it’s time to take stock and see where you might make changes.  Also, you’ll want to do some organizing for 2010.
Consider practices and products that weren’t so successful this past year.  It might not be your fault at all but is due to the changes in the economy and spending power of your customers.
What can you do this year to minimize losses and even drive up profits?

Discontinue unprofitable products
Brainstorm for new products/services that meet people’s needs in a changing economy.
Assess what promotional practices worked. 
Discontinue those that didn’t meet with success over …read more

Developing a brand or recognition of your name and/or business has become a hot topic nowadays.  Focusing your interests under a related “umbrella” enables you to brand a wider group of activities.
I’ve written about a number of branding strategists at Home Biz Notes.  Perhaps none of them started out deciding to develop a brand, but slowly it has evolved for them and is worthwhile building upon now.
Susan Gunelius on Branding Your Business – The Playboy Way
Branding – The Elm Creek Way
Kyra E. Hicks Discovers Her Writing Niche or Brand
How Do I Brand My Home Business?
Can I Brand – The Trails End Quilters Way?
Have …read more

At Home Biz Notes, I wrote about, Plan an Open House to Generate Interest in Your Business, possibly between the holidays or right after the new year.  What steps do you take to organize one of these?

Decide on a date and time.
What will you emphasize…new services, products, reintroduction of current ones (see list on Home Biz Notes post).
Put up notice in your place of business.
Tuck notices into purchases.
Send out cards/announcements which you can make on the computer.
Possibly plan a program.
Do you need someone to help?
Will you have special decorations?
Whatwill you give as door prizes or hand-outs (keeping them within a …read more

When organizing promotions for your business, consider what group you’re focusing on or targeting.  Perhaps you have different groups.  However, your promotions generally are more effictive if you focus on a particular group at a time.  The same type of techniques might be used, but let each group know how you can fill their needs.
For instance, at Home Biz Notes, I mentioned that online shopping appeals to those with health issues.  If someone with a home or small business has items or services that interest those shoppers (and this can be a wide category).  I also wrote at Small Business Boomers, about statistics …read more

Instead of promoting your business hit and miss, collect these tips and organize them for effectiveness. 
Then check them off as you use them.  Or rate them as you find they’re effective or not.  Remember though, that is often takes some time before you know whether promotional tactics work.  Even then, you may never know which ones were most effective.  However, you can’t sit by and refuse to take any action because you’re uncertain what would work best.
So collect, list and organize your tips as you find them, learn from friends what they found worked well, adapt it to your business.  …read more

Numerous businesses conduct Open House promotions before the holidays to introduce gift products, update customers on products and services, enjoy refreshments and have fun. 
These might consist of simply a gathering at one’s home (if you operate an online or home business) or a time for greeting customers at your walk-in shop.
How do you organize?

Set a date and time.
Determine whether you’ll have scheduled hours or simply be open for customers and prospective customers stopping by.
Will you demonstrate products?
Will you serve refreshments?  If so, determine what they’ll be.  If you sell food items in your business, serve samples of these.
Prepare invitations to …read more

In today’s business world, it’s all about “branding,” giving yourself and your business an image that’s attention getting, one that will stick in the public’s mind and bring you to mind when they hear it.
  Have you been organizing your business so that you fit an image or brand?  Do you have an image that will linger over time?

Make a list of words that describe you or your business. 
What are the best ones that bring vivid images of what you want people to think of you?
Find or take photos that describe you/your business? 
How can you develop promotional material that will …read more

Scrapbooking becomes more than a way to secure family memories and photos.  The techniques utilized in this craft can be put to good measure when planning a business portfolio, I’ve discovered.
I used a photo album type portfolio when I operated a quiltmaking business.  That was before scrapbooking was a big attraction.  However, this was ideal for showing off my work at that time.
Now I’m involved in party planning,  Not so much the actual hands-on, being present at the affair planning as providing resources for my customers and helping them do their own affair.  I also look at ways to keep their costs …read more

In 5 Tips for Organizing Your Social Media Strategy, I mentioned one of the ways to do this was starting a blog for your business or service. 
 Sometimes a blog can be an offshoot of your web site, if you have one.  In other  instances, you begin your online presence with a blog. 
Some possibilities for blog content to make it appealing.  Thus viewers will keep returning, and your business becomes a household name:

Include photos. 
Keep blog entries fairly short.
Use lists of tips and items to make for easy reading
Decide whether your blog will be product/service oriented or include some personal interaction.
Keep the posts from being dry and preachy
Include humor …read more

More and more business people are using social media (a presence online in venues such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging) to brand themselves or their company and get their names out there. 
Here are 5 tips, of the many available, to organize your social media.

Join one of these groups and set up your presence
Start writing there
Avoid coming across too strong as promoting your products and services so you don’t turn people off.  Establish friends and correspondents.
Set up a blog and write about your business, your day to day adventures, and your products/services to keep people informed.
Do something each day

How have you found …read more