If you own a business then one of the keys to success is getting out and meeting other business people. There is value in having friends in the same industry but there is even more value in having friends in industries outside of your industry. People that are not in your industry are not ‘inside the bubble’ that others in your industry are and will be able to give you a fresh perspective on how your business is doing.

You can network with other business people in traditional ways like your local Chamber of Commerce, Business Improvement Association’s and attending local events. I personally try to attend as many events and local business groups I possibly can to build my connections in the community.

If you do attend one of these meetings be prepared to not make many business connections right off the bat. The typical event is filled with other business people who are only interested in selling their product or service to you. It may take you awhile to find those business people looking to build relationships but once you do it is worth it.

One group that I am a big advocate of is a business group called Thinkreferrals. Although the company name suggests that it is only about referrals the groups are focused on relationship building. After a relationship is built referrals come naturally and never forced.

Other non-traditional ways of networking are LinkedIn, Facebook and Forums. I have tried many of these online networking sites and very few of them make networking very difficult. Without the human interaction the relationship building is very slow.

How do you network with other business people and what has worked best for you?

In order to succeed in business, you most likely need to offer something that no other competitor is offering. You have to provide your potential customer with a reason to choose you over the other guy, and if the two competing firms have identical features, products, and level of customer service, the customer will just choose whoever is the most convenient. On the other hand, if one company has something special, something unique that appeals to their needs, the customer will be more inclined to choose them.

I live near a major street where there are countless coffee shops. They typically offer the same kinds of drinks — latte, cappuccino, etc. — with only mild variations to go with their branding. Some shops have better coffee than others, but for people who are not too particular, all of these shops offer a fairly decent cup of java. It’s not fast food coffee, after all.

So, how have these coffee shops decided to market themselves? How have they tried to lure you away from the guy down the street? I’ve noticed two key trends. First, some of them have started to extend their hours, opening themselves up to late night study sessions and other reasons why customers would come in during non-peak hours. Second, most do not offer free Internet access, so those that do, typically have the most customers.

This second issue is a huge one for students and mobile professionals! For the fairly minimal cost of setting up a WiFi network in your coffee shop, you can attract a fair bit of business that you may not otherwise get. Furthermore, it is important to openly advertise this free Internet access, because if people don’t know, they won’t go. Clearly displayed stickers on the front door are good, but you should also get listed in local directories like WiFi Mug.

How do you set your business apart from the competition?

Last week we asked what is your favorite social networking site and 83% of you said it was Facebook.com.

This weeks question is…

There are currently some routing issues at the Planet in Texas. Staff are investigating the issue and working on a solution. The routing issue is only affecting some clients and not all. This issue affects the EOS, Rhea, Zelus and Zeus server.

We will update our news section as we more information.

Your patience while we resolve this is greatly appreciated.

As your blog starts to get more popular, it will inevitably attract the attention of hackers. Some are simply out to get a free backlink or two, whereas others have much more malicious intentions. Whatever the case, you don’t want to make it easy for these bad people to get into the backend of your WordPress blog.

There are several measures that you can take to protect yourself, but one of the most critical is protecting the login area. This is because if a hacker manages to get into your WordPress dashboard, they effectively have access to everything that you would. They could edit pages, remove plug-ins, and do all sorts of other nasty things that could be a huge headache to repair.

If you typically update your blog from the same location — say, your home — then it might be a good idea to have an aptly-coded .htaccess file in the wp-admin folder. What this does is specify the exact IP addresses which should have access to the folder and thus, access to the login area. The code is actually quite simple:

order deny,allow
deny from all
# whitelist home IP address
allow from 20.20.20.20

Of course, you should replace the 20.20.20.20 with your actual IP address. You can add additional IP addresses by adding similar lines of code in your .htaccess file.

Alternatively (or in addition), you can implement something like the Login Lockdown WordPress plug-in. After a small number of failed attempts, access to the admin area is blocked for a certain amount of time.

Dealing with taxes and accounting can make anyone’s head spin. There are just so many numbers to keep track of and it can become terribly overwhelming. If you have already registered your business, there’s a good chance that you have also applied for a GST number. You need this number in order to charge tax on your customer’s purchases, but don’t forget about the small business exemption. If your business earns less than $30,000 in Canadian receipts, you do not need to register for GST.

Assuming that you do have a GST number, the conventional way to account for your GST payment to the government is to keep track of all the GST that you have collected, as well as all the GST you have paid on qualifying expenses and purchases. You subtract the latter from the former, arriving at a figure that is then payable to the federal government. If you have relatively minimal expenses — like a freelance writer — then it may be in your best interest to find out more about the quick method of accounting.

Under this system, you do not necessarily have to account for the purchase price and GST separately. There are different remittance rates depending if you own a service or product sales-based business, as well as whether you are in a participating (HST) province or not. You can find these figures on form RC4058.

For example, a freelance writer would remit 3.6% of the total sales. Let’s go through a quick example of a single invoice.

$100 – Sale price
$5 – 5% GST
$105 – Total price paid by customer

The amount of GST remitted to the government would then be 3.6% of $105, which works out to $3.78. The difference — $1.22 — accounts for any GST paid on related expenses without having to go through the actual figures. This is why it’s the Quick method of accounting. It’s not for everyone, so take a look at your expenses and see which method is more advantageous for you. The form to opt in (or out) can be found here.