Time to diversify

[Brian Turner]

Apologies I've not been around of late - busy as hell.

Mainly because admin time and costs for clients has been increasingly significantly this year, but also because the credit crunch finally hit and I'm down 25% on income, with the danger of it hitting 40%.

Since I set up Britecorp 6 years ago, the company basically doubled every years - except this one.

A key reason is lack of delegation - though I've tried to delegate tasks, the key lesson I've learned is to not try and do it on the cheap - instead, spend more to get reliable people on your side.

Also, diversification has been key - while SEO has been my core business model, I branched a part of the business into a distinct online publishing side.

Now I'm looking to grow that publishing side a lot more - specifically, increase revenues through investment in expanded development.

I'm also looking to diversify the business further through sometimes quite separate trading branches.

The aim is to get established in various markets - especially local, but with national marketing options - and then when the economy starts to recover, be well positioned to establish these businesses.

The problem is, I really don't see the economy coming around any time soon.

Even still, I think it makes total sense to invest now, because I think online markets are especially going to become a lot more crowded.

In the meantime, Platinax as a website has already been rebuilt as internetbusiness.co.uk, and Platinax Ltd - a seperate company for running the website - is going to be bought out by Britecorp, my main site, to allow proper investment in this site.

Anyway, apologies again for not being around so much for discussion, but even when not posting, I'm still keeping an eye on the site, tweaking the back end, and generally developing my continued strategy to take over the world. Bwa-hah-ha!

[monaghan]

If you build a good solid base now, it should stand up well to build on as the economy picks up again.

Doing things on the cheap is not necesserally a bad thing, it's the quality that counts not the price, unfortunately the difficult thing is telling the difference between someone who's cheap because they have low overheads or just simply underprices themself and those who are cheap because they are cr*p.

Also if you have money to invest now you'll most probably get far better value if invested right as anything worth having will start going up quicker once we start the economic recovery process.

[brooke2]

Diversifying is good.

Personally I am experiencing constant growth, although not from a financial perspective, but generally, with regards to my own personal ventures. Customers are one thing and im doing OK theres although loosing a few along the way, but my personal empire just grows and grows and by that I mean, if you create a web site that doesn't need alot of maintenance you can then leave it to its own and move on to another.

My latest venture is http://www.btlpropertydeveloper.co.uk which is a game. Its still embryonic and needs alot of development but its a venture and it should develop both Google Ad revenue and a little community and following. I dont think it will have long term followers but im sure you know what I mean. I have another game but its rude so I cant use Google Ads and it has between 3-10 players a day, not alot, but again, its another venture. And I have another idea which is too amazing to share, but you get the idea.

I think my point is that as time goes by its quite easy to build more and more, diversify, with the only cost on a venyure being the domain, so if revenue halfs but your empire doubles your overall income will be the same, and then more in an improving economy.

Admitedly, my own personal ventures are less than 1% of my income but I can easily see that increasing given effort.

The problem with forums is they require maintainance.

[Kasumi]

I think diversification is definitely the key in the current climate.

I have found myself being exceptionally busy and like you Brian I have found that I have had to diversify and adapt for me it has been for each individual project I undertake.