One of the first things you may learn from business school is the importance of scalability. You may be entering the entrepreneurial world with only a small business and the corresponding small business aspirations, but there may be some point in your entrepeneurial career where you find that demand has outgrown what your company can deliver. They say that this is a good problem to have, since it means that you are growing, but it is a problem nonetheless.

Let’s take the example of a small printing shop. Initially, the shop owner will invest in the required printers to fire out flyers, business cards, and other kinds of documents that customers may desire. Perhaps this motivated entrepreneur has looked ahead and already covered his bases with different types of printers, the availability of color, and so on. However, he is still handling all of the orders manually and on his own. That could become a problem.

As this printing shop continues to grow, the business owner may consider implementing an online order form and payment system. This way, customers can go to the website, submit their print jobs, and even submit payment via credit card or PayPal. The business owner can then receive a message with the required print job, proceed with the tasks needed to complete the project, and have the final product ready for pickup (or deliver) on the date needed. By using this method, the business owner spends less time on the phone with customers taking orders and more time actually getting the projects done.

A growing business is a healthy business, but it is also a business that will require modifications in order to accommodate this growth. Think of your business as a boat. It may be great for a certain number of passengers, whizzing along on the water at a breakneck pace. However, load up with too much cargo or too many customers and you may find your boat slowing to a crawl… or it may even begin to sink! Be prepared for growth and shift your practices accordingly.

If you happened to be following me on Twitter over the weekend, you may have heard about my experience at Olive Garden: I waited far too long for my table. This wouldn’t have normally been an issue — if they’re busy, they’re busy — but my customer service experience was soured due to the way that the hostess decided to handle the situation. Allow me to explain.

I showed up at the restaurant to find a rather long list of people waiting for tables. I kindly asked the hostess how long the wait would be and she told me that it would be in the 50 to 55 minute range. I put down my name and I told her that I would come back in about 50 minutes and she said that would be perfect. During that time, I went to a nearby grocery store to get some shopping done and, right on schedule, I returned back to the Olive Garden 50 minutes later.

We approached the hostess again and asked if my name had already been called. She said that she called out my name 20 to 30 minutes ago and I missed my chance. The assumption, at this point, was that I would be placed back at the top of the list and I’d be next in line for a table. Instead, she said that because we missed our chance, we’re getting bumped all the way back to the bottom of the list. Even so, she said the wait from then should only be 10 to 15 minutes. I was slightly peeved, but 10 minutes was bearable.

Unfortunately, we were not seated for another 30 to 35 minutes! All in all, the total waiting time for my table ended up being an hour and a half. The hostess was not at all accommodating or compassionate. When we first arrived, she vastly overestimated the amount of waiting time, so I returned “too late” from buying groceries. Returning to the restaurant, she then vastly underestimated the amount of waiting time, so I sat in the lobby for far longer than I had expected. And I was getting very hungry.

This is completely unacceptable for a restaurant. If the initial waiting time had been quoted as 20 to 30 minutes, I would not have gone to the grocery store. She even told us that it would be fine if we left and came back in 50 minutes. Thankfully, the dinner itself was reasonably pleasant and the food was good.

If you were the hostess, how would you have handled this situation? Is it better to underestimate or overestimate the waiting time?

It can be difficult to separate yourself from your competition, especially if you are offering seemingly the same kinds of products and services. What’s stopping your potential customer from going to the other guy across the street? What is it about your particular company that makes it more appealing to customers than your competition?

I was talking to a friend of mine who had recently moved to a new city for a new job and she needed several articles of clothing to be altered, hemmed, and dry cleaned. Shopping around, she found that the price for hemming a standard pair of dress pants was about the same at every location that she called, but then she came across an advertisement in the local newspaper for an alternation place that went above and beyond the call of duty.

Rather than getting you to come to their location to drop off your clothing, pay, and pick it up when it is ready to go, this place offered free pickup and drop-off service. There was seemingly no set minimum, but my friend did have about a half dozen items that needed to be altered. For this amount of business, the alteration place was more than willing to visit my friend at her apartment, take her measurements, pick up the clothes, and drop them off a few days later. There was no additional cost and this huge added convenience made the decision an easy one for my friend.

By going above and beyond the call of duty, this place was able to attract a fairly large order from my friend. This added touch of customer service left a good impression and now, even if she doesn’t need the pickup and dropoff service, my friend is more likely to return to this same tailor to get any future work done. Attract customers with a little something extra and it’ll pay off in spades in the long run.

When you go to a brick and mortar store, you expect that the store will have regular business hours. These business hours are usually posted on the door, letting customers know when they will have an opportunity to come in and shop. Similarly, customers assume that the phone will likely only be answered at these stores during the posted business hours. This much seems obvious and to be expected. For home-based businesses with no official storefront, the picture isn’t quite as clear.

For consultants, graphic designers, freelance writers and other people who run their businesses from home, having official business hours does not appear to be the norm. In this way, all potential and current customers assume that these businesses can be contacted at any hour of the day on any given day. Sending an email to these businesses at 9am on a Monday is exactly the same as sending one at 10pm on a Saturday evening. Is this really the right course of action though? Should home-based businesses have set business hours as well?

There are certainly advantages for the person who is running the home-based business. By having set business hours, it is easier to separate work hours from leisure hours, since customers don’t expect you to answer the phone outside of your regular business hours. This also helps to keep your focused during the work day, because you know when “quitting time” is at the end of the day. It also provides an extra air of legitimacy and authenticity to the business.

On the other hand, having set business hours can be very restricting as well. If you are telling customers that you are open between 9am and 5pm, but you want to take care of some errands during the middle of the day, this can be more of a challenge than if you do not have set business hours. By not having set business hours, it is easier to offset working hours to a later time, giving time in the middle of the day to take care of tasks and other responsibilities, work-related or otherwise.

What’s your take? Should home-based businesses have set hours like brick and mortar stores?

I think we would all agree that Apple has done very well with the iPhone, quickly propelling the device to become one of the most popular smartphones on the market today. There are a myriad of reasons why the iPhone has been so successful. Part of it has to do with the sleek design, but there are other smartphones with a similarly sleek appearance. Part of it has to do with the intuitive touchscreen interface, but there are other smartphones that have touchscreens too. A big part of it is clever marketing and product placement, but there is another element at play here.

Since the introduction of the product line in 2007, Apple has only released three variations on the iPhone. We had the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G last year, and the iPhone 3GS most recently. This keeps the product line relatively straightforward and simpler to understand for the end user. Nearly any customer can walk into a Fido or Rogers kiosk and simply ask for an iPhone. They have a general idea of what they want and they don’t have to fumble through the confusion of multiple model variations.

Contrast this to the experience that a customer may have when looking to select a BlackBerry. The BlackBerry smartphone line may be perfectly suitable for a range of customers and it could offer nearly all the same features that you can find on the iPhone, but the product line can be very confusing. Let’s say that you are interested in the BlackBerry Pearl. There are at least four versions of that smartphone, not including the Pearl Flip. Say that you want a BlackBerry Curve. Just like the Pearl, there are three versions in the 8300-series, as well as the newer 8900 and the upcoming 8500-series. The differences are relatively minor, but they’re there and they could be a source of confusion.

In developing your product line, you may want to consider taking Apple’s strategy and keeping the line as simple as possible. Here is product X and we are only offering product X for this kind of market. Alternatively, you can consider the conventional strategy of developing slightly modified versions to satisfy slightly different needs, but know that you will have to invest more time (and money) into consumer education so that they can understand these differences.

As part of my work as a freelance writer, I have the opportunity to review a wide range of gadgets and other consumer electronics. In doing so, I find that different companies seem to take on very different strategies when it comes to bundling in the appropriate accessories to maximize the user experience.

For instance, I recently took a look at the Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player. This box connects to your HDTV and allows any media stored on your USB flash drive (like movies and music) to play through your TV. It has an HDMI output to allow for full 1080p video, but no HDMI cable is included. Instead, a composite video cable is included. These are only capable of 480i video and they don’t fully utilize the capabilities of the WD TV. Is this the best move for Western Digital? An HDMI cable would cost more, but it would better complete the user experience.

Going even further, many DVD players do not come with any audio/video cables at all. This can be quite frustrating for the consumer, because they discover when they get home that they have to head back out to buy cables (unless they already have a spare set at home). So, it sounds like you should bundle everything that the customer would need, right? Well, not necessarily.

This increases the cost of your product, because you are including extra bundled accessories, and that either increases the price of your product or bites into your profit margin. Further still, not everyone will want the extra accessories. For the WD TV, I have no use for the included composite cable, because I’ll be using my own HDMI connection. That, in effect, is wasted money for Western Digital.

From a business standpoint, there are definitely pros and cons to either approach. What’s your take? Do you include everything or do you offer optional accessories instead?