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1. Your most valuable asset - is your database. Add value to your business for future sale by taking all that knowledge in your head and placing it in intricate detail in your database. Then segment, target, cross-market.
2. Forget ABC\'s- grade your clients and prospects as e-nabled or not. With email so scalable you can contact the remotest of prospects regularly and cheaply. Remember each individual has a sphere of influence of 250 people. Adopt the mentality of Seth Grodin author of Permission Marketing (permission.com) \"The Internet is the greatest direct marketing medium ever invented\".
3. Put your beta\'s to work - think creatively. Find your target market, then contact them by email. But think outside the square too.
4. Viral marketing - (horrible name, great concept) describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message\'s exposure and influence. Off the Internet, viral marketing is called word-of-mouth or network marketing. A classic example is Hotmail.com. Their strategy is simple:

• Give away free e-mail addresses and services,
• Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: \"Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com\" and,
• Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates,
• Who see the message,
• Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then
• Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates

Like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond, a carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward extremely rapidly.

1. It\'s easy to work cheaply - why have an office if clients don\'t come to see you? Put the rent into home equity and technology.
2. Columbo at your service - Keep 3 steps ahead by examining your competition online. Gone are the days of figuring out how to get the scoop on what \"They\'re doing\".
3. Anything - not everything - You can do anything you want, but you personally can\'t do everything. Focus on what you\'re best at and brings in the money. Offload functions that are non-core. Because doing it yourself is much more expensive in the long run. If your business centres on billable hours - why would you spend your time doing administration or producing newsletters? David Allport - National Manager NonCore Business Solutions agrees. \"It\'s the same for big business. The key is to manage it, don\'t let it manage you. Simply put focus on the knitting, and let other manage the risk.
4. Forgetta bout it - Don\'t get caught in the hype. Not only is having a website not the be all and end all, it could be a hindrance for some. Miles Larkin says that 60% - 70% of the hits and email requests to his company website www.coolcanvas.co.nz originate from the US \"They\'re a nuisance and it\'s a laborious effort to reply to them all\".

It\'s still early stages in NZ. If you don\'t have a commodity to sell - having a website can be an expensive distraction with minimal return. You can achieve everything a website can give you - just by using email as your workhorse.