small business

The following posts are hopefully related to "small business" in some way.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 7:09pm

How Do I Manage Growth at Snowdrop?

Snowdrop is running into a pretty cool problem: too much work.  I never really gave much thought to the idea that Snowdrop could eventually have too much work spread over too many projects, but after putting in 98 and 107 hours each of the last two weeks, respectively, I realized it’s time to start managing growth a little better.

To do this I’ll actively try two new things:

  1. Value My Time A Little More - Colleagues at work always ride me for charging too little, so from now on I will make a better effort to charge for value, not for time.  Through this I’ll probably piss off a few more people, but the clients I do take will be much more valuable.
  2. Ask For Help - If there are several interesting or profitable projects running in parallel, I’ll turn to colleagues, outsourcing websites, and other outlets to offload and share work.  I’ve already started to do this and it has worked out well so far.

May will be Snowdrop’s biggest month ever in terms of profit and revenue.  Since the beginning of the year, business has grown almost 300%, but to maintain that type of growth we need to be smart about our decisions.

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Sunday, April 6, 2008, 10:00am

How Small Businesses Evolve

About a week ago I had a client ask me what Snowdrop Media specializes in.  By the way she asked me, I could tell that she really meant what was the real cash-cow service that Snowdrop offers to most, if not all, of its clients, perhaps trying to get a feel for what other local small businesses have done to promote themselves online.

For some reason, I found it difficult to answer this question.  I knew mostly all my work was for small businesses and individuals, and I knew it all related in some way to the web, but what do I really do most for clients?  I started out strictly doing web design and database access (CMS), then moved to mostly WordPress customizations and WordPress-powered applications, and then now more recently I’ve been doing a lot of SEO work.  So what’s the answer?

It’s funny how small businesses evolve based on the needs of their audiences.  As SEO/SEM has gained more of a solid reputation, I’ve experienced much more demand for that service.  Many businesses that previously took the leap online in the early 2000s are now looking for cleaner, more functional designs that play well with the major search engines rather than settling for brochure-type sites that only list available services.

So what’s my real point?  What your small business was two years ago may not be what it is today, and certainly won’t be what it is five years from now.  Whether your niche shrinks or grows, it also evolves. Even in a shrinking industry, a small business that evolves will succeed.

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