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If you're going to buy a new car sometime over the next 2 years and what's on the market does far more mpg than your current model then it'd make sense to buy the new one now ...

If customer demand's generally so weak that you can negotiate a super deal, it makes an even better case for buying now rather than later.

My own preferred practice was different, ie to follow Which guidelines - never buy a car until it was at least 2 years old and then run it until it's ready to be scrapped. The biggest cost of running a car is depreciation and this way you minimise the loss. However you do need an invisibility cloak so customers don't see your tatty old heap!

I've often wondered whether the real costs of recessions are properly recorded. I suspect they aren't because we don't have the tools to measure their impacts.

I'm a fan of the prioritise and try to be "good enough", not perfect approach to life.

Trying to update your blog on a daily basis strikes me as being unsustainable for most one man bands. It may be practical for you to think about weekly updating (that was my target though I've usually failed to meet it).

Trying to achieve the same goals by an easier route has always struck me as being sensible. I supplement my blog writing efforts by commenting on others' blogs - a much faster and less demanding way to encourage my target audiences to contact me!

Work on encouraging the referrals? Eg "do you know anyone else whose tree is darkening their life? Would he / she welcome me approaching them? May I cite you as a satisfied customer?".

On the career counselling side, I've had as many as 6 referrals from one customer.

What I need to quickly survey is:
1. Have you heard of or seen these codes? NO
2. If yes, have you used these codes?
3. Having used them, can you see a benefit to your business with the direct, targeted, FREE and unlimited marketing potential?
4. All smartphones can read these codes but the older ones cannot. Do you see this as an issue to my business? Can you please explain why. DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS SO COMPLETELY FLUMMOXED.5. If I was to show you how your business can get the full benefit of using QR Codes with this form of marketing, how much would you expect to pay for my service in training you in the implementation of QR Codes? WOULD BE RELUCTANT TO DO OWT ABOUT IT.

... ought to confess, I'm a technophobe and there's already a long list of items with higher priority!

Good luck with the survey and your course.

Getting as clear a picture as you can of your customers helps a great deal - it guides you on what's likely to work and what isn't.

Our individual and corporate customers are thinly scattered across wide areas of the UK, locations of major importance being London and the South East, Birmingham and surrounding areas, Manchester, etc. We can only reach them online, through press articles and occasionally via informal networking.

It'd make a super film!

You can only copy something which already exists and I believe Google can tell which page comes earlier in the sequence .....

Accordingly, Google would punish the copier not the content originator.

Hope I'm right

Has your Mum already got her (free) ads up in all the local supermarkets? Most of them only allow you to place your ad for 2 weeks at a time but surely the botheration of trekking round the supermarkets at intervals to replace the old ads is worth it?

Is your Mum also in the local services directories? Could she write brief columns for the free community newspapers (eg how to tame your toddler; fun and free things to do during the summer; and so on) in return for a bit of free advertising?

Hum, disagree. A lot of our business at the moment is outplacement support - so companies and individuals are really suffering.

In a business like ours, you can track when people start to feel more optimistic as enquiries for career counselling and help in achieving promotions / planned job moves go up substantially.