Welcome to our December issue of 360

Get online

The beauty of a well-designed website is that it can market your business for you 24/7, while making use of e-commerce allows you to trade with the rest of the world at any time of the day or... more

Focus on margins

It is easy for your business to get caught up in chasing sales, thinking that this equates to making more profit. But it’s highly likely that some of the services and products that business sells are more... more

Work on your strengths

While it’s good to be aware of the areas where your business does not perform that well so that you can aim to improve, it’s often easier to get better results, at least in the short-term, by working on... more

Plug your knowledge gaps

It’s unlikely that you, as a business owner, will have all the skills you need to run your business. This means that you need to take steps to plug the gaps in your knowledge so that you don’t make... more

Brainstorm ways to work smarter

There are only so many hours you can devote to running your business each day, so finding ways to work smarter, rather than harder, should be an attractive way to boost your business. Hold a... more

Stay in touch with your industry

It’s hard, if not impossible, to take advantage of an opportunity or to react to market events if you don’t know about them! You need to stay in touch with your industry. This means keeping tabs on... more

An easy way to back-up your data

DaySave is a cost-effective online data storage facility, that backs up important files safely and securely. And right now you can get a FREE 30-day trial.

Don’t miss important calls and emails when the office is closed

Call Diversion – Find out how you can divert landline calls to your mobile

Call Minder – Find out how you can access your messages remotely

Mobile Broadband – Find out how to get email when you’re out of the office

Make the most of your ‘out of office’ auto-reply on your email account, whether this is generated in Outlook or Apple Mail.

Use email ‘rules’ to make sure you get important emails.

Manage your life (and your business) with Android

Now you can do it all, even while you’re on holiday. With Android, you can answer emails, check accounts and order stock online – all from your phone. You can also customise your mobile so it works the way you want to, with thousands of practical and entertaining apps.

Estimate your workload in the run up to Christmas and over the break, so you can organise support or time off.

Christmas cards are the perfect excuse to stay in touch with your customers. They’re an easy and inexpensive way to remind people about your business.

If you’re sending holiday messages by email, make sure you add your mailing list to the ‘BCC’ field and use your own email address in the ‘To’ field. This will avoid people seeing the addresses of everyone else you’ve sent the message to.

If you’re going away, back-up your data, keep important contacts handy, appoint someone to handle emergencies and tell important customers when you’ll be back.

Don’t forget to organise staff wages over the break.

If you have a cash business, check the days you can get to the bank so you can make the right arrangements (security firms can hold large sums of cash if necessary).

Set-up a seasonal ‘out of office auto-reply’ on your email account.

Sync your important contact details to your phone, so you always have them on you.