I guess I don’t need to go on, these are all nightmarish terms of a long bygone time in IT history, or are they?

It isn’t if you still have your server under your desk. You probably think “Cloud Computing” is something geeks do. Nothing to do with you and your small business!

Well – think again – cloud computing is something your competitors do right now, to

1. Save over 50% of IT related costs.
2. Gain a competitive advantage over you.
3. Focus on their business and not on IT.

Isn’t it time you had a look and spoke to someone about IT?

Social media is arguably one of the greatest things to have ever happen to small businesses. In less than a decade of usage, it has managed to completely transform the way in which businesses are able to conduct their marketing activities.

In terms of what can be achieved with a great social media campaign, it puts even the smallest business on a level playing field with its larger competitors. A huge advertising budget of a multinational can be overshadowed quite easily by the simple power of a small business with a great idea.

Despite the compelling power of social media, many small businesses are simply unable to see all of the potential benefits that they could derive from it. This is a shame, because they are being left behind by big business once again.

The important thing to remember for any small business considering social media is that it cannot simply be used as a substitute for a business website. For the best results with social media you must integrate it with your own website, which should already be filled with interesting content that you can easily link back to.

Social media is important for branding purposes. Even if you are not concerned with immediately starting to use social media, you should at least secure your own business identity on the social networks as a placeholder to prevent anyone else from impersonating you.

Being a member of multiple social networks will also help your search engine rankings. Once a social media profile is indexed, it will count as a natural inbound link to your main website. Sharing links via social media will often help to improve the popularity of that link.

A social media profile can generate a large amount of high quality traffic to your website, because the people who click-through are likely to already be interested in your business or industry. Your best tactic is to select a social network that is relevant to your industry and then try to get creative. If your campaign goes viral it could be a massive success.

Interacting with customers is a key part of social media. This is a great way of drawing customer attention to new products or services that you offer. You can also use the social networks as a learning tool by finding out what other people in your industry are doing.

Small businesses that choose to ignore all of these great social media benefits are only going to be left further behind than they ever were before.

The top 5 tips weekly post is always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners.

• Communicate with your employees and tweet instead of emailing.
• Encourage feedback from clients out in the open, even if not all of it is positive.
• Interact with your competitors and learn from observing them.
• Organise a ‘tweet-up’ in your local area so you can get to know your followers better.
• Advertise job vancancies and request for online applicants.

If you have additional tips, please share them in the comments section.

“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” Norman Vincent Peale, progenitor of the theory of ‘positive thinking’.

The process of bootstrapping can make it possible for even those with empty pockets to fulfill their ambitions if they have the head and the heart for it.

Many small businesses struggle to find finance, especially with the financial climate being as decidedly frosty as it is at present. But this doesn’t mean that those who dream of starting a small business should forget about their ambition and turn their back on their entrepreneurial streak.

Bootstrapping is to start a business without external help or capital; I believe this is the best possible way to start a small business. If a start-up funds the development of their company through internal cash flow and are cautious with expenses, the company can grow with low-risk to all those involved.

Simple ideas on how to bootstrap your small business start up are:

- Work from home. As many of my readers will know I am passionate about working from home for many reasons; it benefits society, the family and the environment. But as a start up the main reason you should be working from home where possible, is to save money. Does your business really need an office? If the answer is no you could save thousands of pounds a year by working from home.

- Where possible avoid hiring people and outsource work instead. Hiring people comes with fixed costs. If you can outsource work to freelancers, then do. There are many professional virtual assistants out there who can work when you need them to, and if finances become tight, or work becomes scarce, you are under no obligation to keep paying them when there is no work for them to do.

- Don’t pay huge amounts for marketing or PR- Do as much of your marketing and PR as possible youself, online. The Internet makes marketing your company easy; write a Blog, join Twitter and LinkedIn, and create a facebook group. All of these actions will increase awareness of your product. And don’t forget to network, network, network!

These tips will have you well on the way to being able to bootstrap your business, but the most important advice for business start-ups is this: don’t lose your enthusiasm. Your drive and passion for your business are what will carry it forward; remaining driven is the best way to move your business forward.

Here are some things not to do when you start a new business venture:

1. Don’t spend money if you don’t have too.

Think about what you need to start your business. You’ll have many items in your house already, like a computer, ADSL/DSL broadband, desk or even an office. Get free software, like openoffice.org for your word-processing, etc. – get bundles of services, not single applications – it’s often much less expensive.

2. Don’t pay for business ideas.

There are many free business ideas online, just google for them. Don’t spend you money on paying someone else to give you an idea, that may or may not work.

3. Don’t pay big bucks on marketing or PR.

Do you own PR and marketing online, get your website and online shop setup. Join twitter, facebook, linkedin and write a blog to promote your products & services. Go to local business networking events or talk to your local paper and give an interview – it”s all free.

4. Don’t pay, barter.

Whatever it is you do, you can use bartering techniques to get things or services you need – cash is king – so keep it.

5. Don’t hire, use a virtual assistant.

Hiring people is a big responsibility, don”t burden yourself and your new business with unnecessary fixed costs – outsource and timeshare professional virtual assistants. Make sure you get value for your money, not all VAs are the same.

6. Don’t buy, rent, lease, borrow or subscribe.

Again, “Cash is King” – keeping the money for as long as possible, is the name of the game. There are good finance deals out there – people are willing to make a deal in a recession – use that to your advantage.

7. Don’t borrow from banks, get equity from friends, family or business angels.

Banks are stripped of cash, they need to show profits and reserves on their balance sheets – they will see you as a risk, and that is best case. In other words if they give you any money, it will be very expensive money – don’t do it. Find friends or family to go into business with you, get an angel investor, he/she will not only give money but experience & contacts to get your business of the ground.

Business bootstrapping, there are always alternatives, you just need to think and find them. – ST.

One of the best ways to reduce the time spent managing your business is to find an online solution, or an office online. Look online to find Virtual Assistants to act as virtual employees of your company. Outsource the essential, repetitive tasks that you can pay someone else to do. Make every penny or cent count by finding the best solutions online to suit and help your business.

To find out how, read @ winweb.com

WinWeb tells you what you can do to stay on course to achieve your small business goal(s)….

Read more @ winweb.com

A Virtual Assistant (VA) will help take the pressure off running your business by reducing some of your workload. They carry out their work from their own premises meaning you won’t need to expand on your workplace.

Find out what else they can help you with @ winweb.com

It assumes the business is part-time and is a good way to test the credentials of a business idea you may have had. As you don’t have a full day to dedicate to running your business, it makes sense to run it from home to give you the vital extra time you need. If your home isn’t adequate for running your business idea, consider time-sharing a property to help bootstrap your business.

Find out more @ winweb.com

The points below will give you another brief overview of the many benefits of running your business from home and how to benefit from them.

Find out how @ winweb.com