Small Business Advice - November

By Jamie | November 28, 2006

Our monthly round up of none IT business advice from various sources we’ve come across.

“The Web puts an exponential twist on the whole word of mouth thing, because word of mouth is now happening virally.” (Blue Man) – My Take: the Web is a megaphone. It gives you leverage and dramatically increases the spread of any talk about your business. The Web makes it easier for word of mouth to spread, and spread more quickly and more widely.

7 Tips For Naming Your Web Startup

4. Capture the .com

When Nintendo revealed that their seventh-generation console would be named “Wii”, the domain name Wii.com was already registered by someone else. Luckily for them, they had the money it took to acquire the domain from the existing owner. If your pockets aren’t as deep as Nintendo’s, think about working your name around to fit a .com instead of working domain extensions around to fit your name. Even if a domain is unavailable, look up the whois information on the domain and attempt to negotiate for it directly from the existing owner. Ever wonder how many extra hits Disney’s dig.com gets because of the popularity of Digg? It would greatly benefit Digg if they got their hands on Dig.com, but I doubt Disney would sell now. This is also why thefacebook.com quickly purchased facebook.com from the existing owner when they had the money to do so.

Why you need to pre-launch your next product

Pre-Launching Creates Buzz
Pre-launching a product means letting people know about the product 30 to 60 days ahead of the actual date that they can purchase the product. There is nothing new about doing this. Movie studios for years have heavily advertised their films many months before you can go see them. Recording artists often advertise their upcoming albums well before they can be purchased.

7 Mindful Business Practices

4. Create a Positive Workspace
You should look forward to work. (Isn’t that why you’re an entrepreneur?) It is important to have a professional touch, just don’t make the mistake of recreating an Office Space cubicle nightmare. For those of us who work from home, we don’t usually need to impress clients and can do whatever works for us. But even if you have an out-of-home office space, you can add plants, fountains, framed art, pleasing music, and other goodies.

20 Magazines for Small Business Owners