It’s clear that the current economic climate is stressful for many people. With the threat of redundancies, banks going bust, big companies going into administration, and poor pension performance, no wonder the global economic mood is a little pessimistic.

However, rather than wait to be made redundant (if you’re in full time employment) or wait for a job (if you’re looking for a job), I recommend investigating how you can work for yourself and earn an extra income. Sure it’s a difficult time to make money, but it’s worth being proactive to make some cash to prepare for the worst. You never know, your sideline might even become a full business!

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This article highlights 3 sadly common mistakes made by 3 businesses I’ve had dealings with in the last couple of weeks. Last week, MFI, essentially a bathroom and kitchen retailer, and Woolworths, a music/video/confectionery/clothes/toys/homeware/gardening/etc shop, have both gone into administration. I’ll share my perspectives on why I think they failed.

Additionally, I’ll share thoughts based on my dealings with a UK fudge company that was evasive about sending me their wholesale fudge price list.

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The term “credit crunch” has been banded around now for around 12 months so I’ll spare you my thoughts on why it has happened. However, I’d like to share my thoughts on what effect the credit crunch has on businesses and what opportunities it provides.

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There’s a bit of a dirty word in business that I don’t particularly like, but I know that it holds significant value and that’s networking. I must admit, I’m not very experienced with networking, but I’m quickly starting to realise the benefit of such a skill when starting a new venture.

Something that I am more experienced with is how to avoid burning bridges. i.e the metaphor that relates to breaking potentially useful business relationships. Relationships are vital in business, so I’ll share some of my thoughts and tips to avoid tarnishing relationships.

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I’ve been finding, particularly with having a rather painful RSI, that trying to do everything with my websites is increasingly becoming an impossibility. I have way too much to do in the time that I have available to do computer work (i.e. a limitation created by pain). One of the more time consuming aspects of website creation is link building. Choosing a link building service is a nightmare too, as there are many link building companies offering many similar services!

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I’ve recently been contacting other bloggers who have green or eco blogs, and I’ve found a couple things that really bug me. Firstly, only 25% responded to my email. And of the blogs I contacted, about 40% didn’t have any way of getting in touch with the blog owner, except via a comment!

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We’ve all been seduced by adverts promising untold wealth for very little effort or for very little investment. Sadly a few of us actually part with our hard-earned cash on a pointless scam. These scams are usually written with highly attractive sales copy designed to encourage us to buy into something that usually only results in lots of cash for the scam artist. Here are a few tips to help you identify potential scams quickly and easily.

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If you’re looking to buy a website, it can be exciting to know that you’ll be taking on an established site that will hopefully make you some money. You shouldn’t rely solely on what the seller states about the website. The seller may have forgotten something, intentionally lied about something or made some assumptions that aren’t obvious. However, to make sure you don’t get ripped off; here are some of the things to check when buying a website.

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When you decide you want to design a new website, it’s often difficult to find an idea that you can use, let alone one that might actually make you money. Have you run out of ideas for a website? Are you keen to create a site rather than buy a potentially expensive yet established website? Then how do you go about coming up with ideas? Here’s my little guide on idea generation that I personally use to come up with my new concepts.

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If you’ve considered working for yourself, you probably already know the benefits. You instantly gain flexible working hours, the pride of working for yourself, you can do something that you enjoy, no more commuting, and you get to forget about office politics for good.

However, working for yourself is not always rosy, and here are some of the challenges that you will need to consider if you start working for yourself full time.

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