Business Challenges

Unless you live on a remote island and don't need to work, then it would have been difficult to not have heard about the economic turmoil and often doom and gloom that has surrounded business, especially in the UK, for the last years. I remember the start of 2008, being the Director of a web business and people beginning to talk about recession on the horizon. Having not run a business in a recession, it just wasn't as important as the daily tasks, meeting the things which shout loudly. The urgent things, not necessarily the important things. Well, business carried on, but you see the age in a business; that one day it could die, that it is not going to be a child forever. And still the talk is of economic hardships, the difference of just a few percent with apparent boom.

And now uncertainty is increasing again. All businesses travel through storms differently and some crash into higher waves, but the one thing as a company Director that I have taken on board is not to be dependent on too few things. You cannot spend all your time attending to the urgent tasks, else you come too dependent on too few customers, or markets, or products. Sometimes you need to forgo some urgent tasks to work on less quickly rewarding things as they pay off when you really need them; in economic hardships. It depends on your business, but this might be writing new procedures, installing better software, or establishing yourselves in a new market. The latter is where a domain comes in, as I will try to show how you should be using domains, a cheap highly accessible product, but something that can be used in so many ways.

Can your service be sold outside your normal geographical area? If the answer is yes, then expand on your website portfolio with applicable domains for the areas you can do business in. If your product or service isn't culturally specific, then add non-English speaking countries and suddenly you are less dependent on one market. There are obvious large markets in Europe; Germany, France etc but there will also be a lot of competition. If your service is quite niche then it will be even more niche in countries such as Iceland which you can freely buy a domain for.

If you do make content available through the web to non-English speaking countries then get your language right, it needs to be professionally translated or you are better off sticking to English and building on the qualities you have; not a bad tactic in countries which speak excellent English such as Netherlands and Scandinavian countries.

What to buy this Christmas?

Now we're into November and Christmas isn't that far away. Decorations will make the north European nights pretty but it is a time for mass-marketing. Not so long ago stocking fillers were pens and note books and other small but useful items. Now we are told that smart phones, tablets and consoles are ideal stocking fillers; putting financial pressure on so many gift purchases. It is nice to buy something special of course, if you can afford it; but as much value is in the small things which carry the thoughts of the purchaser.

What about a domain name as a present? Most domain types (TLDs) are available for all to register without any specific requirements like company numbers. And most domains are only going to set you back about £10 for a year's registration, so it is a lot more affordable gift, but could be a spark behind someone's new business, their blog or even their new baby name. Buying someone's name gives a real person touch to a gift, and you can be creative! Don't think that you are restricted to dot com or .co.uk. What about initials? Do they match any of the country codes such as BE, ME, or CH? Or what about me.uk or .name? There are many alternatives so there should be a good chance of finding something personal. But if you have the deep pockets to buy smartphones as gifts then your friends are equally lucky!