The holidays are fast approaching, and that means it’s time for giving. But many small businesses are rethinking their gifts to clients this year, reports this article from MSNBC.com . Some are looking to cut their spending; others feel that even if they can afford them, elaborate gifts are inappropriate when so many Americans are in financial straits. Some of the creative options small businesses...

Want a little more flexibility in designing your Web pages? Curious about how you could put your navigation bar down the right side? Want to replace the standard footer with something fancier? We’ve just published several new Help topics about features that will give you more control over your site's appearance. Modules are the great little design tools that come in your Microsoft Office Live account...

In a post the other day , I talked about the value of link exchanges to help boost your site traffic. The post generated a lot of discussion and feedback, which I found very valuable. The post talked about the value of reciprocal linking. The example I used was the vet clinic swapping links with local pet stores or groomers. I still think that aligning with noncompeting Web sites you know and trust...

Has your business ever used barter? If not, now may be a good time to start. Barter — trading goods and services for other goods and services, instead of paying cash — can be a great way to get what you need without spending money for it. While you can arrange informal bartering deals — for example, trading your company’s marketing services for another company’s IT consulting — many business owners...

What’s a good way to expand your product or service line? Consider simply asking your customers what they want to see. In this article on Inc.com , Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle, based in Trenton, N.J., explains how this strategy helped him sell more to OfficeMax, one of his biggest customers. Though OfficeMax was already carrying seven of TerraCycle’s eco-friendly office products, the company wanted...

With small businesses struggling for every dollar they bring in, there is a renewed push to cut the costs merchants must pay for accepting credit and debit cards, The New York Times reports. When a credit or debit card is accepted, merchants pay interchange fees to the card issuer, as well as fees to the merchant’s bank. Fees for electronic transactions of this type have increased to $61.56 billion...

If you want lots of visitors to your Web site, it helps to have lots of links to your Web site. Link exchanges — sometimes called reciprocal linking or link swaps — are a popular way to generate more links. It’s a pretty simple concept. Say I have a veterinary practice and you run a pet store. I ask you to put a link to my vet business site on your pet store site and, in exchange, offer to put a link...

One of the topics of discussion at the World Entrepreneurship Forum I attended last week in Evian, France, is the “qualities and skills an entrepreneur must possess in order to succeed.” These are not the same as common traits entrepreneurs share. Those characteristics were already laid out, I presume, by the Forum’s organizers (which are KPMG in France, the EMLYON business school, also in France,...