Here are five business tips to get you through the weary winter months:

1. Put on a promotion.
With the holidays behind us, your customer’s wallet is likely a bit slim this time of year. To keep momentum going at your business, try organizing a promotion or sale. This will keep people interested, and if not spending money, at least thinking about spending money at your business.

2. Get some exercise.
Science proves that winter can make a person really S.A.D. While weird ionized-air treatments can help battle this, nothing beats depression like a bit of good ole fashioned exercise. Hop on a stationary bike, do some squats, jump rope, or if you’ve got a gym membership, make a serious effort to actually use it.

3. Plan a getaway.
What better way to beat the blues than to forget winter even exists! Planning a holiday to a warmer climate can be pricey, so check Hotwire, iTravel2000, WestJet deals or Air Canada’s special offers page for the best deals. If you absolutely can’t afford a holiday, try to plan what they call a “stay-cation”. Take a few days off work and enjoy the comforts of your home and local attractions.

4. Crank on the lights.
Fancy scientists say that light is the key to fighting off winter blues. Turn on more lights, buy one of these, or just go for a walk when the sun peeks out. You could even (gasp) jump in a tanning bed once a month. Remember the dangers of tanning, but hey, if you live where it’s pitch black for 15 hours a day, a bit of tanning might not be so bad.

5. Snuggle up.
Staying warm is a crucial part of surviving a long Canadian winter. The cold can impair body functions, reduce pain receptors, give you frost bite, and who can forget those icy hands and toes? A good rule of thumb when getting dressed is to always wear precisely one layer more than you think you’ll need. Cover your head, your feet, drink plenty of tea and forget about fashion. Fashion won’t get you anywhere when it’s -40 C.

Have a business winter story to share? Don’t be shy. Tell us in the comments!

Photo by vonSchnauzer on Flickr.

1. Always outdo yourself.
Why deliver exactly what you promised when you can over-deliver? I’m not saying you should put your neck on the line, or spend a heap of extra cash, but it’s the little things that people tend to remember. Be like the local restaurant who throws a free Ziploc bag of gummy bears into every takeout sandwich container.

2. Don’t be shy, ask for referrals.
If you sell someone a product or service, follow up to make sure they’re fully satisfied, and if they are, ask if they’d consider referring you! There is no harm in asking, and referrals can be a huge source of new business for you.

3. Solve problems.
One of the main reasons why people spend money is to solve a problem they’re having. For example, the problem of a broken computer network, a grumbly stomach, or a pair of cold feet in need of some new winter boots. By solving some sort of problem, (perhaps in a unique or memorable way) you’ll make life more enjoyable for your clients or customers.

4. Be different.
The marketplace is cluttered. There are thousands, if not millions of choices when it comes to purchasing a product or service. Should I buy that new book at Chapters? Online at Amazon.ca? Directly from the publisher? Through my Kindle? Figure out a way to stand out in the pack and serve your target audience in a way that suits their lifestyle.

5. Do a freebie.
If you’re just starting out your business, it can be difficult to make a name for yourself. You likely don’t have much (or any) experience under your belt. Consider doing a freebie for your favourite local charity to beef up your portfolio and create some buzz.

Have a tip for growing your business? Share it in the comments!

Photo by macsterr on Flickr.

Here are the top five reasons why coworking is better than working from home:

1. You’re surrounded by like-minded people.
Inspiration comes from many different places. From our dreams, our mentors, research and books. But nothing quite beats being surrounded by people who believe in the potential and power of small business. People who are bursting with ideas and energy. It’s catchy, and will keep you motivated.

2. You’ll have access to a greater skills pool.
Yes, you’re brilliant, but not at everything. In a coworking environment, it’s easy to find people with unique  skills who are looking to work on larger, more complex projects. Web designers, developers, strategists, writers and social media experts can connect and collaborate in a coworking space without the commitment of working for a big company.

3. You’ll have access to a larger space, without all the risks.
With typically low monthly fees and drop-in rates, running your small business out of a a coworking space means you’ll have access to a larger, centrally-located office without the risk of purchasing a space or signing a scary lease.

4. You’ll impress your clients and customers.
While your home office might be swanky and clean, nothing says professional like an office complete with boardrooms, fancy presentation equipment, and a secretary who answers the phone. Instead of meeting at Starbucks with your clients and customers, you can invite them to your bustling hive filled with creative professionals.

5. Your productivity will soar.
Running a small business from your couch can be awesome. There’s no commute, no noise, no need to get out of your pyjamas – but then again, there’s nobody watching either. When you’re surrounded by people in an office, it’s human nature to quit procrastinating and keep up with the pace. You’ll also be more productive in a coworking space because of the friendly collaborative environment. If you get stuck, there’s always someone who will offer a quick tip or fact to push you in the right direction.

Find a coworking space near you through the global coworking directory or to learn more about coworking, visit http://coworking.com.

Photo by .dh on Flickr.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
-Confucius

There are literally thousands of benefits to becoming a business owner, freelancer, or self-employed individual. If you’re reading this blog, maybe you’ve already taken the plunge, or are perhaps flirting with the idea of “going out on your own”. Yes there are a few downsides, but the positives FAR outweigh the negatives.

Five reasons why you should become a business owner:

1. Job security.
In today’s economy, corporate employees have never been more fearful of losing their job. Becoming a business owner places job security directly in your own hands, as opposed to some fat cat up at the top. As a business owner, the harder you work, the more job security you’ll have. Period.

2. Flexible hours.
Being your own boss means creating a schedule that fits your personality. If you hate getting up early, sleep in and make up for it later in the day. Take an extra long lunch to do a hot yoga class. Schedule your tasks around family, holidays, dog walking, your kid’s hockey practice, whatever you like! Make no mistake, you’ll probably work more hours than you would at a “regular job”, but the flexibility means your life will suffer less.

3. Do what you love.
As a business owner, you call the shots. Without a manager telling you what to do, you’ll be able to go after the type of work you love doing. You’ll also be able to outsource tasks that frustrate or annoy you.

4. Work from home.
In addition to saving you all kinds of overhead, working from your basement, garage, or even your couch is known to be a source of great happiness for business people. With no commute, no ugly work outfits, no awkward work relationships and plenty of tax breaks, working from home is all kinds of awesome.

5. Control your destiny.
Admittedly, being in charge is not for everyone. Some people thrive on following orders and leaving stress and risk to their bosses. But for those who have drive, ambition, and a vision for making a change, being your own boss means more control over the amount of success and freedom you’ll experience in life.

What do you love about being your own boss? Share it with us in the comments!

Image by Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline on Flickr.

Here are five tips to help you live with less in your business:

1. Enjoy a minimal office.
Technological gadgets are among the world’s most cluttery and quickly obsolete items. Still harboring an enormous fax machine like it’s 1997? Instead use FaxZero (free) or EchoSign. Try going paperless, throw away that drawer full of pens, and switch to online radio instead of using a physical one. You could even ditch your desk and simply work on your laptop from your couch or at a cafe.

2. Abandon the media junkyard.
There is absolutely no need to keep your CD and DVD collection. Yes, you probably spent hundreds of dollars on it, but an office free of clutter is priceless. Try purchasing all of your new media digitally (which is more affordable than the physical copy). Rip your existing media collection onto your computer. Sell the hard copies to a pawn shop for a bit of extra cash! You can even throw out or donate that dust covered shelf they were sitting on. Just remember to back up your files to an external hard drive just in case.

3. Less stuff = more profit.
While some people think the acquisition of material items results in happiness, others disagree and argue it just brings more stress and needless expenses into our lives. Arguments aside, the less “stuff” you buy, the more money you’ll have in your pocket. With less expenses and fewer bills to pay in both your personal and professional life, it will be easier to start turning a profit at your business.

4. Practice the 12-month-rule.
This rule is a good way to decipher the true worth of your precious junk. Ask yourself, “Have I used this thing in the past 12 months?” If not, get rid of it. Donate it or throw it away. This may sound ruthless, but it’s an effective practice to prevent your storage cabinets from exploding and burying you in a junk avalanche.

5. Become frugal.
This will probably be a less popular tip, but becoming a cheapskate can do wonders for minimal living, as well saving cash for your business. Cutting back on spending (strategically, of course) means you’ll have less debt, less worry, and more resources to grow your business. To learn 50 excellent tips for frugal living, click here.

Are you a minimalist business person? Share your story with us in the comments!

Photo by Plat on Flickr.

Here are the top five foods that will lower your stress and create a happier business life:

1. Bananas.
Ignore those online ads telling you to never eat these neat little packages of goodness. Bananas are high in potassium, which regulates blood pressure, relieves heartburn, and also keeps up your sugar levels. Forget espresso and antacids, it’s bananas to the rescue!

2. Oatmeal.
Good old-fashioned, thick-as-a-brick oatmeal is rich in fiber, which helps your body to produce serotonin, a calming hormone that helps you manage stress. Throw some cut up banana in there and you’ll be laughing!

3. Salmon.
Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, salmon helps to suppress the production of anxiety hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. So keep calm and carry on with a tin of salmon in your briefcase at all times.

4. Sugar.
Yes you heard me, sugar. This delicious additive can help lower business stress! Foods high in sugar cause your body to produce fewer hormones linked to anxiety and also help your body create a hormone that counters stress reactions.

5. Black tea.
Forget those wussy green or herbal teas, black tea is proven to help cut levels of the stress hormone cortisol, helping you relax quickly and enjoy even the rainiest of days.

Have a stress relief tip for us? Feel free to share it in the comments.

Photo by samantha celera on Flickr.

1. Studio/Company Culture:
Blog about some of the fun people you work with and what makes them so special. Share behind-the-scenes information on projects your working on. Take photos of the team having a laugh and sharing lunch. Revealing your human side makes it easier for your readers to relate to you and like you. And that will give them a stake in your company’s success!

2. A day in the life of:
This is a great way to educate clients about how much love, sweat and tears you put into your work. Write short 200-300 word pieces about the challenges of a design project, or how hard it can be to balance work and family. Write about the way you source your raw materials or how much energy you put into training your employees. This is also a good place to do mini “profiles” of fellow employees. Just come up with a template and almost anyone can fill it in! If you’re a journalist, you can blog about the challenges of pitching or proofing or answer the question, “where do I get my ideas”. Share tips that younger writers will enjoy.

3. Customer Profiles:
Everybody loves to be acknowledged and customers are no exception. Doing an occasional piece about a valued customer is a great way to build community. Interview them the way a journalist would (a template is a fuss-free way to do this). Include photos. You could also have clients tell stories of ways they’ve benefitted from your product or service. Carhartt (blogs.carhartt.com) is an outdoor clothing company that does this brilliantly: they have a blogger dedicated to “field testing” their clothing in all kinds of mad conditions and they invite customers to  share photos and similar stories. Journalists Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell started a blog where they interview editors and even created a job board to get writers coming back regularly for more! www.therenegadewriter.com

4. “How-to”:
Customers love useful, relevant information. So if you’re a spa, share DIY kitchen spa tricks and recipes. If you’re a cafe, share a quick-fix recipe that busy moms will thank you for. If you’re a beauty salon, think about what your clients struggle with at home and share tips on looking fabulous in minutes. The content need not be directly related to your product; in fact, this works best if it’s simply related to your field of expertise. Freelance consultants and writers can offer free “how to craft a profile” or “how to decide if Living Social is worth it” (like on my blog).

5. Guest bloggers:
Guest bloggers can be a great way to make your blog dynamic and to have a ton of fresh, original content (without it turning into a full time job). Just know that you’ll already need to have a bit of profile in the blogging world before people are likely to jump on board and blog for free. Guest bloggers are also an excellent way to drive more traffic and acquire fresh clients, so choose a strategic partner– usually someone who offers a service complementary to yours. Always make sure to be clear about style guidelines and what is (and is not) okay to publish ahead of time. Control can sometimes be a dealbreaker.

6. Reviews:
If Amazon has taught me anything, it’s that the honest reviewer has tremendous power. Use this power on your blog. A washable diaper service can do “mom-and-baby” product or restaurant reviews. Consultants can review products or books that fall under their area of expertise. Again, it’s almost better if the products and services you’re reviewing are peripheral to what you sell. So a car salesman or knitting shop owner might do reviews of audiobooks (that customers can listen to while driving or knitting). Or a restaurant owner can review their “can’t-live-without” kitchen gadgets. Blog about what you love, and people will read! Happy writing!

These are some of our ideas. Do you have tips that worked for your company’s blog? We’d love to hear them!

Here are five secrets to starting your own small business:

1. Having nowhere to run.
Many people start their own small business because they have nowhere else to work! During the recession, many people (like me) who lost their jobs were literally forced into becoming their own boss. Especially with online and freelance style careers such as computer programming, graphic design, writing, consulting, legal and engineering. With no rental space costs, little overhead and the comforts of working from home, becoming self-employed was an obvious choice for people with nowhere to run.

2. Profitable hobbies.
Are you passionate about something like, gardening, vegan baked goods or 3D video games? If your hobby is the only thing you think about, dream about, and spend your time and money on, maybe you could turn it into a small business idea. Many business owners spend big bucks marketing their products, but the secret to getting noticed is to be a bit obsessed with what you do. Customers notice genuine passion and are quick to spread the word about your products or services.

3. Ignoring is bliss.
Not ignorance (lack of information), but ignoring: refusing to take notice of or acknowledging the fears and risks you are about to take. YES, it’s scary starting up your own business. YES, there are significant financial risks. YES your family might think you’re crazy, and will have to adjust. But ignoring these fears means you won’t let them bring you down. I can’t count the number of times I almost “quit” my own business. Nearly threw in the towel and started hunting for a “real” job. I have learned to ignore my fears, carefully manage finances, and journey forward with confidence and drive to succeed. Without drive, your just stuck in neutral. Or reverse….

4. Research, research, research.
A secret to starting up, is to know everything there is to know about your small business. Who is your competition? What do they charge? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Is there a hole in this particular market in your city? Can you offer your skills globally? What can you do to differentiate yourself? How much money do you need to get started? And so on.

5. Get by with a little help from your friends.
Networking is such a blah word, I prefer, “chilling with like-minded people”. To get your small business up and running, connect with as many small business people as possible. Go to a Meetup. Join your city’s chamber of commerce. Talk to anyone and everyone who will listen. Swap small-business battle stories, find out how other people got started and make some new friends in the process. “Chilling with like-minded people” will encourage you to make it happen.

What’s your secret to being your own boss? Please share your story in the comments.

Photo by wheat_in_your_hair on Flickr.

Take a minute to laugh a little with the top five memes for business people:

1. Why working from home is both awesome and horrible.
This chillingly accurate comic portrayal by The Oatmeal hit the web in late 2010, and spread through the business social media community like wildfire. With over 90,000 Facebook likes, I’d be surprised if you haven’t read this one already. Click here for the full comic.

2. Forever alone guy.
Another jab at the self-employed person who works from his or her couch, Forever Alone guy is someone you might be able to relate to. His tears are so blue, yet his loneliness somehow makes us feel less alone. For his history and a plethora of forever alone videos and quips, click here.

3. The Rickroll.
A classic bait and switch trick. To “Rickroll” someone, send an email saying, “Here’s that link to the informative article we were talking about”. But instead of the article, the shortened link you send takes your friend to the 1987 Rick Astley video “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The song will be stuck in their head for weeks.

4. Charlie Sheen.
How could I leave out the most widespread meme of 2011? From a business standpoint, Charlie Sheen’s Tiger Blood rant, if not purely entertaining, is chock full of guerilla marketing inspiration. Getting the attention of the entire world through a wild publicity stunt might be a tad risky for your mom and pop shop, but it’ll certainly get you thinking outside of the box. Instead of the same old direct mail campaign, why not try a contest using QR codes as your own version of “roll up the rim to win”?

5. Serious Business.
Ever wish you had a way to poke fun at someone who is taking things just a little too seriously? Send them an image from the “Serious Business” collection. With a variety of silly graphics, this meme will help you to sarcastically, yet gently mock their serious tone.

Have a favourite meme that makes your day go by quick? Feel free to share it in the comments.

Image by Know Your Meme.

Here are the five golden rules for writing your business blog:

1. Be awesome.
Not self-serving, boring, or lame, but a blogger who writes interesting articles that readers actually want to read. To do this, express an opinion, take a stance, focus on a niche and publish valuable, unique information that pertains to your business.

2. Be relevant.
Even if you’re passionate about one thing in particular, say, your dog Fluffy, it doesn’t mean your readers are. Are they interested in learning about your product or service? Or are they interested in finding out exactly how “green” you are? Write articles that are relevant to the people you’re trying to connect with.

3. Be unique.
You’re a unique and beautiful snowflake, so write like one! Don’t feel pressured to mimic the style or format of other business blogs, just be yourself. Let out a bit of personality in your writing so people can get to know you better.

4. Be patient.
It takes time to build a blog audience. Before you give up, sit back and take a breather. Try writing about a variety of topics that matter to both you and your readers. Share your articles with your network and see which topics get more buzz. Patience is key, along with consistent blogging and continuous fine tuning of your content. Patience and dedication will help you win over a group of dedicated readers.

5. Get energized.
Remember that feeling you had when you first started blogging? That sparkly excitement to share stories, and spread passion and knowledge to a broader audience? Never forget this feeling. Don’t get bogged down by the commitment involved with a blog, get energized by the opportunities it creates for your business! Try to book dedicated blogging time into your schedule because you’ve got to feed your blog to help it grow up big and strong.

Have some business blogging tips of your own? Share your story in the comments.

Image by Rosaura Ochoa on Flickr.