There’s been much talk about strategies for businesses to survive the uncertain economic climate. The media every day are reporting massive layoffs and industries in turmoil. In these times, it’ll be all too easy for most businesses to feel the effects of the crisis, so what can we do?

One of the major scenarios we’re already seeing in some industries is the domino effect of a large company hitting the wall; this in turn affects their suppliers, who then suffer, affecting their suppliers, and so on down the food chain.

What is immediately obvious here is that there are two actions we need to take. I also note that these should be part of standard business practice, not just for uncertain times.

The first one is control costs. Most organizations can identify a few areas where some small cost savings could add up to a sizable percentage of their bottom line. Look for savings in bank fees, transport costs, telephone and bandwidth, office supplies, and the like.

Secondly, manage cash flow.

If your clients hit hard times midway through a project, you could be left wearing the debt. Make a habit of invoicing smaller amounts more frequently, based on project milestones or calendar months. Keep on top of recalcitrant debtors — if you start chasing them the day after the bill is due, it trains your clients to know that you mean business.

Chasing your debtors consistently means you’ll have their payment sooner, and it’ll be less likely they’ll become a bad debtor.

This post first appeared as part of Issue 428 of the SitePoint Tribune, a very popular email newsletter that I am co-editor of. Thanks to SitePoint for allowing me to reproduce the work here.

Should you offer services or products?

The old phrase, The grass is always greener … is often heard when discussing the merits of services versus web-based products. Listed below are some of the advantages and disadvantages of both models. Which ones apply to you?

Products — Advantages

• gives you unlimited income potential, because time constraints are minimal (unlike selling services)
• enables lower prices for the consumer, as costs can be amortized over more customers
• allows you to concentrate on building one main project, rather than several small ones
• presents a choice of different revenue models, which are simpler to modify over time
• affords a better opportunity for residual income, in continual license fees
• provides an easier option to sell as an ongoing concern than a small web service does.

Products — Disadvantages

• requires more upfront investment in time and possibly money, especially the marketing aspect
• presents the possibility of competitors creating similar products and competing directly with you.
• necessitates market research to avoid ending up with little or no customer base.
• runs the risk of fielding more support queries than anticipated
• may delay long-term growth because of the lack of immediate cash flow

Services — Advantages

• generates income faster, because it’s easier to sell your services than a brand new product to the marketplace
• provides scope for a variety of projects, maintaining your interest in each new project
• offers more versatility in meeting market demands, rather than having to rebuild a mature application

Services — Disadvantages

• reduces your capacity for income, because it’s based purely on how much you can charge and how many staff you need
• limits short-term growth; for example, hiring staff is more time-consuming than bringing a new server online
• makes you more vulnerable to market buoyancy than product licenses

Also remember, as Dave mentioned, that it’s very simple to have a hybrid model of both: sell your current services while developing and offering products as well. This is similar to how businesses may sell hosting, stock images, and CMS licenses.

This post first appeared as part of Issue 424 of the SitePoint Tribune, a very popular email newsletter that I am co-editor of. Thanks to SitePoint for allowing me to reproduce the work here.

No sooner had I returned from Bali, back into the office, than I was off again, this time to Sydney, NSW to attend CeBIT 2010, where I had the honour of being involved in the judging of the Appciety awards, for the best Australian mobile and web start-up, as well as being involved in a panel for the WebForward conference.

Having never been before, I was unsure what to expect, however I was pleasantly surprised at how well put together this series of events were. I say series, because to call CeBIT just an exhibition would be a large understatement.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, on the picturesque Darling Harbour, played host to Australia’s (and probably the southern hemispheres) largest trade show event, with hundreds of stands in the CeBIT exhibition. The highlight of this exhibition for me was the Webciety area, with a number of web start-ups on display (including a few that I had just judged for the Appciety awards), along with an intimate lecture theatre where they demonstrated their products and services.

I arrived in time to attend the Welcome Reception / Innovation Nation event, hosted at the NSW Art Gallery, on Monday evening which was a great way to kick off the next few days.

Then on Tuesday, I attended the Enterprise conference, featuring speakers such as Simone Brunozzi from Amazon, Scott Chasin from McAfee and Stephen Beacham from DB Schenker Australia. The most prolific theme was the adoption and future of cloud computing.

Tuesday night was the popular ICT Celebration dinner, with over 750 guests enjoying the food, flowing drinks and networking whilst watching the CeBIT.AU Business Awards and e-Government Awards happening on stage, before kicking back with a live band and dancing.

On Wednesday, I attended WebForward, the web specific conference brought to you by CeBIT. Speakers included Stuart Bartram from LinkedIn, John Batistich from Westfield Group, Nick Love from MySpace and Bernie Sheehan from national broadcaster, ABC. The topics discussed definitely had a leaning towards the current topics of social media and the real-time web.

Nearing the end of the conference program, I joined fellow expert panelists, Marc Lehmann, Kim Heras, Brad Howarth, Mark Parker and Jeremy Woolf on a panel discussion, entitled ‘The Web Changing Landscape; And What the Future Holds for it’. Chaired by long time friend, Justin Davies, the panel was a great success.

There were plenty of other events and conferences that were also happening over those few days, such as an e-health conference, a number of web and ICT workshops, and the like, but there was no way I could even attempt to see it all. For such a huge combined event, the organisers, Hannover Fairs, did a great job of delivering it all; even the lunches provided for conference attendees were great.

If you are in business within the web or ICT industries, I’d strongly recommend that you consider attending a future CeBIT Australia. I hope to get the chance to attend a future one too!