A recent Auctiva Edu blog post caught my eye, while preparing for a week on BuildaSkill looking at the bank plastic industry and it’s future for small businesses.  The Auctiva post begins -
Paper or plastic? Customers are used to hearing this question at their local grocery stores, but they also want the option when [...]

There was a time, not too long ago, when the concept of online wish lists meant that each site had to add a software script to their site, and users had to direct family and friends to the particular site.  They then had to know how to find the wish lists of people they knew, [...]

Maps.com are offering some great deals in the run up to Christmas, and whether you need maps for the office, or for Christmas presents, they’re worth checking out as they’ll save you some money, which we all need to do in the current economic climate.  Here are some discount codes for BuildaSkill readers to [...]

After two years of incessant price increases, and being told the major fee revisions in January and last week were price decreases, which does not agree with the actuality, many eBay sellers are extremely price sensitive when looking at new channels. For that reason, most have expressed a preference for building their own ecommerce website and many serviced, script-based, store providers have emerged in the last year. Many of those providers have built their offerings on the back of customised versions of the open source osCommerce web store software – still the best and most powerful of the generic offerings on the web.

Thus it was with great surprise and welcome enthusiasm that I discovered (by accident) a new service called “shopit” yesterday …

The difference between a hobby and a business is that a hobby doesn’t make you money – it costs you money. If you’re earnest about starting a profitable online business, approach seriously and focus on generating revenue. Treat your online business as you would any regular business.

Both North American eBays – Canada and the USA – have announced two weeks of cheap listing fees for fixed price listings.
On both sites from July 16th to July 29th (inclusive), insertion fees for Fixed Price (FP or BIN) lisitngs are fixed at $0.25 in all price tranches.  Listing upgrade fees and other options, including [...]

To paraphrase the legend of Robert the Bruce – “recycle, recycle, and recycle again”. 
Recycling is not only good for the environment, it’s good for your businesses bank balance.
Whilst the paperless office is about as attainable as a feasible ashtray for a motorbike, there is lots that can be done to obtain the maximum value from [...]

Potentially your biggest business cost savings could come from servers, software, bandwidth, and energy.
Never buy new servers from a brand-name vendor.  Refurbish standard no-name hardware bought from imploding startups or roll your own to spec.  In small and home businesses, server requirements are rarely more than just a central repository for data, connection to the internet (maybe also to the [...]

In many businesses, large and small, it’s a tradition to start the week (or day) with some form of management or strategy meeting.  Over the year, that adds up to a lot of wasted hours from the “production” schedule.
Try having these meetings at lunchtime and pay for lunch for your staff – meet while you [...]

Buy your hardest working employees computers for home if they don’t already have them
If you have staff who are willing to work an extra hour a day per week, you should provide them with a home computer.  Once you get to three hours of work a week from home you’re at 150 hours a year “bonus” effort.  Invest in equipment if [...]

Any experience small business entrepreneur will be able to explain the cost-creepage associated with a telephone on every desk.
It’s not just about employees making personal calls, it’s also about the uneccesary inter-desk calls that become protracted and due to the loss of face-to-face interaction, can lead to misunderstandings and reduced co-operation.
PBX-type internal telephone systems are [...]

Buy cheap tables as desks, but good quality office chairs.
Why spend a small fortune on “pro” desks that most of the time are only used to support the working tools of office working?  A far lower priced, sturdy, folding table will often do the same job, and it will free up budget for the far [...]

Now that March is upon us, the winter and skiing holiday seasons are all but finished and a lot of people are going to soon begin thinking about their summer holidays, and a spot in the sun.  It’s an appropriate time to explore some new ideas for product sourcing and sales maximisation / reinvigoration after [...]