1. Add a one-line summary of your business to your email signature. The person you sent the email will already know exactly what you do, but the colleague to whom she forwarded that email might not.

2. If you send HTML email and your email signature or stationery is rich HTML, sign up for (at the very least) a Hotmail and Gmail account and send yourself a test email so you can be sure your pretty signature doesn’t fall into a messy heap on those email clients. Find someone who has the opposite platform (Windows/Macintosh) to you, and send them a test email, too.

3. Don’t allow each of your staff to choose a different font for their name that matches their personality. Please, don’t.

Know who your domain registrar is — the company through which you registered your domain name(s).

You will receive dozens of letters and faxes from competing domain registrars that look a little like a renewal invoice, but are just an invitation to swap your domain name over to them, or register similar domain names to those you already own.

Ignore these. Stick with your existing domain name registrar unless you actually want to move your business elsewhere.

Ever notice how big business goes out of their way to hide contact details on their websites?

People want to contact you, and the sooner you can establish real, tangible contact, the quicker you’ll make that sale.

Make your contact details visible on every page of your website, in the footer. Include your email, phone number and physical address. Consider adding timezone details, hours of operation and international dialling codes — and invite your visitors to make contact!

(And, no. Hiding your contact details will not make you look like a big business. Being a big business makes you look like a big business.)

Ever find yourself answering the same email over (and over?)

Your reply is an ideal candidate for your website’s Frequently Asked Questions page. After a year, you will have developed an impressive suite of answers, and your visitors will appreciate the information you have provided them with. Be sure to add calls-to-actions to your FAQ pages so that you don’t entirely lose the benefit of that person contacting you.

Your FAQ will also become part of your training kit for new employees to become up-to-speed in your business.

When designing your website, or sitting down with a web design company to plan the look-and-feel, be careful how you style the content on your website. Consider:

• White text on a dark background is hard to read for an extended period. Prefer dark text on a light background.
• Small text can be difficult for some people to read, particularly on screens with high resolutions. Prefer a happy medium. Look at other websites that appeal to your target demographic for guidance.
• Large blocks of text can appear daunting. Break it up into smaller chunks, use bullet lists, and add imagery.
• Fancy fonts can look different from one computer to the next. Sans-serif fonts tend to work better on a screen (and serif fonts for print.)

Ask colleagues for first-impression thoughts on the readability of your text, and adjust the style according to their feedback.