Recently Google’s Kevin Marks was interviewed by cNet, where he said:

OK, stop and think about your application. Do you really need to be a standalone site? Do you really want to write user registration code, or would you be better off taking your application and bringing these other sites where there are lots of users already and where they have already expressed both their personal information and their connections to other people?

The answer to that is of course you want to be your own destination. Writing registration code once means you can re-use it over and over again on various projects. If you can program a successful widget or application then you are not the type who thinks registration code is a roadblock.

Some of the most successful viral applications (like Paypal and YouTube) leveraged other platforms for growth, but a large part of their success was that they also chose to be destinations.

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We often hear that people should think globally and act locally to protect the environment. Often forgotten among the segments of society who are doing their share to conserve resources for future generations are home based offices and businesses. In an era of Peak Oil and climate change, the telecommuter and solopreneur are more important to the economy than ever.

Home based business ventures and home satellite offices are now a fixture of the modern economy. Service based industries and outsourced subcontractors are one of the fastest growing segments of the business landscape. Many large corporations are using telecommuting and modern technology to manage off site employees as well. With the rise of the internet, as a base for entirely new business models, countless virtual companies exist purely as online entities.

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Every business goes through tough times. Expecting to have season after season of continuous growth without any dips or downturns is pretty much unreasonable. And despite all your strong marketing pushes, there will always be times when business isn’t as swift as you’d like it to be. But that doesn’t have to be cause for concern. Well, OK, concern is good, but there are things that you can do to make slow times a whole lot less stressful on you and your finances.

1) Prepare

When business is going good it is important–now more than ever–to prepare for the future when things may take a downturn. Remember the children’s story (and excellent Pixar movie) about the ants that store up food for the winter and the grasshoppers that don’t? This is more than just a fable about bugs. It’s about learning to plan ahead during the times of plenty and to be prepared for times of famine.

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