“You see, I tend to change from one media to another, and explore anything that interests me at the time”, she explained. She isn’t one of those artists that has a particularly successful theme and moves to mass produce pieces.

This doesn’t make things easy, but during development we managed to draw together coherent themes in her work and present them as collections. But she’s certainly not saying “here you are, this is what I do”, she wants to keep her options open.

As she explained her position, it seemed strangely familiar. The fact is that I’ve always been that kind of generalist, and I’ve exactly the same misgivings about marketing myself, but this is where I’d start.

Pick and choose where you’re seen, and I’m not just referring to seedier side of the Web. Use services you’re comfortable with, you’ll express yourself more effectively: I don’t like the feel of Facebook, so I don’t use it, but I like Twitter.

Make sure all your online profiles tell a consistent story so that you’re not confusing potential customers. OK we’re generalists, so what story do you tell? Talk about what you can do, and why being a generalist makes you such a valuable asset without making rash promises.

On the techie side, I look at the way search engines like Google and Bing perceive websites with Webmaster tools and Google Analytics. Try checking the keywords their crawlers identify to see if they’re seeing what you expect, it can be quite instructive.

Finally, try a Vanity search by sticking your name or brand into Google. Look at the results and see if they correspond to the image you’d like the World to see. How many pages correctly, and flatteringly, apply to you will give you a clue to how much work you’re got left.

These are just a few ideas to get started, and they’re not guaranteed, but I’m testing them on myself, and then maybe Margarita.

These small businesses are staffed by the knowledgeable, enthusiastic types that originally gave birth to the Company. These are very high value individuals that will create that feeling of quality that niche customers prize so highly, and justifies your higher price.

Eventually, the time comes to make the decision whether to stay small forever, or start to scale up; and this is where disaster can strike.

Growing turnover is dependent on appealing to a larger market that rarely shares the values of your current clientele. Frequently prices must be reduced, but doing this on a large scale means cutting costs, especially wage bills. Poor staff leads to poor service, and to make matters worse, the decline causes those old hands to look for something better elsewhere… a downward spiral which can destroy reputations.

I’ve experienced this decline through several suppliers I’ve used over the years as they’ve attempted to grow. The message is clear: know your market, and when think carefully before making a decision you may regret.

I want to continue blogging on personal topics: particularly investment, but anything else continues to be fair game. They’re going to have their own section of the site, but I need to bear in mind that today’s interest may become the business of tomorrow.

The work I’m targeting must determine content that’s pertinent to the business blog. I’ve focused on web development and administration to date, and I think this will continue. However, I could leverage my experience in project management and engineering teams better.

I’d like to improve the RSS provision and integrate other social media on the site, but that’s for another post.

Although I’m going to radically change the category structure on the site, I’m keen to avoid breaking the Web. This is where the permalinks should come into their own… I hope.