Well it’s nearly 12 months since I braved the market, through caution to the wind and decided to start working for myself.

Like many in a similar situation, I went through the roller coaster of emotions. One day it would be the best decision you have ever made, the next- career suicide! Add in the fact that we had our second child on the way in 2 weeks, and things start to get really interesting. There has definitely been no shortage of advice nor a shortage of people to give it. Most has been incredibly useful, with the odd piece of ‘my god what were you thinking’.

Raz Chorev sent through this article from the Wall Street Journal- How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo. There is some excellent advice in the article, from getting your own work space to joining business networks.

Probably the one thing that was missing from the article was a very simple piece of advice- don’t be afraid to ask for help. Sound’s simple, but when you decide to go it alone, it is often a hard (or even embarrassing) thing to admit and ask for. Start with people in your own network. You will be surprised at how wiling many are to lend a helping hand, or refer you to a professional resource that they might be using.

For me is was the financial and administrative side of the business that was taking a lot of my time. Perhaps the fact that I failed accounting first time around at university was a sign of things to come! First thing I did was chat to my accountant- Mr TaxMan (yes that’s his alter ego and you guessed it- phone number 1800-Tax-Man, gotta love him just for that).

Next was to reach out to friends on Twitter asking for sites/ software that people would recommend to help manage quoting/ invoicing. Many recommended Zoho Invoices, and I am extremely happy with it. Lets me do all my quoting and invoicing online, as well as managing reminders for late payers.

There are hundreds of other situations that you can get help for, and entire industries are popping up to service these exact needs. Virtual office space, desk shares, virtual assistants, time management and copywriting- the list goes on.

For all those that have taken the plunge and are going at it on their own, just remember that you don’t need to do it all alone. The sooner you can identify your own weaknesses, the sooner you can get on with the job of building a successful business.

We have all experienced it. The lazy shop attendant, the rude waiter, the shopkeeper that just doesn’t think his business even needs customers.

Our experience with these people and businesses often leave a lasting impression for a variety of reasons. In some cases we actually made a purchase from said business either out of necessity or the need to keep one’s sanity whilst the kids are screaming all the way through Westfield.

What often does not leave a lasting impression for us is when we have a positive customer service experience either pre, during or post purchase. Is this because we have come to expect a level of mediocrity in service that we only care to remember the disastrous and not the pleasant and helpful?

My recent experience in needing to purchase a new television (my beloved plasma died in a power surge) is not only a poster-child for the negative above, but a shining example for the positive.

Like many tech lovers out there, I relish the opportunity to purchase a new item and enjoy researching the various options available as well as digesting all manner of opinions and reviews. Having a short period of time to do my research when our TV departed this world, I went straight to the review blogs and hit up friends on Twitter for all manner of recommendations.

Within a few hours I had read all the reviews I could handle, and the tweets were coming in thick and fast recommending particular brands and answering the eternal question of Plasma vs. LCD (I went for Plasma).

Armed with the latest product knowledge from reviews and recommendations, I headed up to the Local Westfield to see what the local retailers had and if there were any decent specials. I visited David Jones, Myers, Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, Bing Lee and JB HiFi- this is where things got interesting.

Only 2 of the retailers even had staff interested in talking to customers, and of those only one was helpful. This ended up being on of the most positive buying experiences. The sales rep at JB HiFi was incredibly knowledgeable and honest (a rear quality). He mentioned reviews on blogs that I had read, and swayed me away from a more expensive product as it’s advantages were not worth the cost. I ended up receiving a good price for the unit and made the purchase on the spot.

Such a positive experience can leave a lasting impression on a consumer for years to come and cement the foundations of a positive and ongoing relationship with the brand. Additionally what many organisations, big and small, fail to understand is that one happy customer is worth a hundred more if they talk about their experience (the same is also true for the negative- with negative consequences).

In an age where conversation happens at the speed of light, and positive and negative experiences and feeling are shot around Twitter in an instant, organisations must pull out the proverbial finger to make sure that their customer service and overall customer experience is not just satisfactory but extraordinary.

Twitter is truly hitting the mainstream now, and for many of us there is a love hate relationship with the network. Some pick it up and ‘get it’ instantly, whilst others are seemingly frustrated with the method of networking and communication.

Rohit Bhargava wrote an excellent post at the end of last year describing what he called The 5 Stages Of Twitter Acceptance.

To help you through these steps and to manage the huge amounts of information that you need to process, there are some excellent tools or twitter ‘clients’ to help you follow, unfollow and manage your twitter experience. Below are a list of some of the ones I have found useful.

Twitter Clients:

TweetDeck

Twhirl

Twitteriffic (also available for the iphone)

Hootsuite

Tweetie (for Mac and iPhone)

Nambu

Destroy Twitter

Thought this was very cool

Get your twitter mosaic here.