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This article by Emma Haslett originally appeared in Management Today

It can be hard to stay in calm control through economic turbulence. As Rudyard Kipling wrote: 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ... yours is the earth and everything that's in it.' That's more easily said than done. But, in his book Managing Through Turbulent Times, Anthony Holmes says it's important to distinguish between a crisis and a problem: 'A problem is straightforward, while a crisis changes and evolves.' So how do you keep a zen frame of mind even when your business is suffering?

Admit defeat

When things start to go pear-shaped, it's easy to hum loudly and hope the problem goes away. And denial may not come just from you. Wendy Tan White, CEO of website builder Moonfruit and seasoned crisis survivor, says that in the run-up to the original dotcom crash her business model clearly wasn't working, yet her investors put her under pressure not to change tack. The sooner you react to what's happening, the easier it is to work on a solution.

Look after number one

By its very nature, a crisis causes panic, so the first challenge is to think clearly. Often, your instinct is to keep pushing until you find a solution, but the best course might be to remove yourself from the situation - even if that means just taking a walk around the block. As the person in charge, says Tan White, it's important to look after yourself. 'Put your own lifejacket on first, keep your head clear, then you can look after everyone else. There's no honour in going down with a sinking ship.'

Phone a friend

When your livelihood is under threat, it's hard to look at a crisis objectively. If you're emotionally invested in something, it is difficult to set your feelings aside. If you find yourself at a loss for ideas, call for outside help: a friend, mentor or coach - one whose judgement you trust and who might have experienced a similar situation and can calmly talk you through your options.

Plan ahead

When you're up against it and your team is thinking with all the rationality of a cornered animal, this is easier said than done. Even in mid-crisis, though, planning is essential. Anthony Holmes says: 'You will need a well-thought-out plan B. It might not be as good as plan A, but if plan A isn't working, move on immediately. And the moment you do that, go away and work out plan C.' Jenny Irvine, chief executive of the Pure Package, adds that planning for the worst-case scenario often covers all eventualities. She had planned for her business to be 'burnt to the ground', she recalls, so when some laptops were stolen, it didn't present a problem.

Communicate

When your business runs into trouble, don't beat about the bush, because once the rumours start, they will serve only to erode your employees' morale. The more open you are with your staff about what is going on, the better they will respond and the more empowered they will feel. Try to keep staff informed in advance about what their roles will be when a crisis hits. 'It is about knowing who is in charge,' says Irvine. 'People need to know whose job it is to step up and find solutions.'

Look for opportunities

They say every cloud has a silver lining - which is worth keeping in mind as 2012 shapes up to be ever-more financially taxing for businesses. But as your competitors slash their costs, keep your eye on the future and don't stop innovating. During the previous recession, many businesses dutifully battened down the hatches, only to find that when things improved, their competitors had outmanoeuvred them. One company's crisis can be another's golden opportunity.

Don't live in the past

The most important thing to remember is that you cannot turn back the clock. A genuine crisis isn't a temporary blip - it will change your business forever. As Holmes explains: 'You can't drive a car forward looking through the rear-view mirror.'

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This video by Dan Martin originally appeared in BusinessZone: Technology, Business profiles

Web design company Moonfruit raised millions of pounds in funding during the dot com bubble of the 1990s and then almost collapsed after the crash. A decade on, the company is thriving again. Dan Martin met co-founder Joe White to find out why.

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Joe White is co-founder and COO of website builder Moonfruit. He's grown the business across a decade to an international company with Silicon-Valley-based backing. But White has had his fair share of headaches along the way. Here are his tips for small businesses looking to avoid legal hot water.

Running a small business in London can be a battle at the best of times, particularly in terms of managing your own time as it is one of the most valuable resources in the company. You need things done correctly, you can't do them all yourself, and you don't want to be distracted by things you shouldn't have to worry about. I should know, as COO/CFO of the number one hosted website builder in the UK, Moonfruit.com. We're a DIY website builder for consumers and small businesses to share their passions online, based in central London. Legislation affecting your business can seem like one of those extra things you just shouldn't have to worry about, but it is real and does matter. Some of it is a real pain, some of it is good discipline with real benefits. The main kinds of legislation that affect the running of your business are:

• Employment law: essentially, this concerns the relationship between you and your employees. From payment rights to varying types of discrimination.

• Consumer protection: this looks to ensure that consumers are treated fairly by businesses and to ensure product quality is satisfactory.

• Tax and regulations: anything from payroll taxes, VAT and corporation tax, to filing accounts and statutory documents.

It's your responsibility as a business owner to make sure you take notice of all these things. But this doesn't mean you have to do it all yourself. My first piece of advice would be to make sure you have an accountant who is looking out for the day to day stuff, particularly payroll and taxes. The revenue aren't particularly sympathetic to people who pay incorrect tax and a competent accountant will make sure you do. It is an additonal outgoing but - trust me - accountants are worth their weight in gold.

On the legal and employment side of things, treat people fairly, with respect, and you'll be okay in most cases. If you find yourself in a tricky situation, then take advice. There are several business services that will offer standard contracts and process documents (e.g. dismissal), so you can use these to save money. Smarta offers a business software bundle that includes legal and accounting software, so that can be helpful here. Most importantly, don't be afraid to do something for fear of regulation or concern that it's all too complicated. Seek to do things the right way and take advice if you're unsure, but don't get paralysed. Most government agencies want you to succeed and will work with you to help you comply, even if it's tidying up after the event! Some laws can even lead to a benefit for your business. Understanding that EU law requires us to give customers a 60 day right of refund for digital purchases has allowed us to promote this effective 60 day money back guarantee to our customers - to their delight! So it's not all bad :-)

Further reading: FREE Business Briefing: How to interview; The Comply or Die ebook

This article first appeared in SMARTA See it here

By Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, PCWorld

Your company's online presence begins and ends with your website. But hiring a designer to dress it up can be expensive--and that's not even including the cost of a custom domain name and website hosting. Fortunately, you have do-it-yourself options.

If you need a basic website to house and promote your business, these five services let you design, publish, and host your site for free - or for a small monthly fee - all from the comfort of your browser.

These services all feature "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) website editors. In other words, you don't have to know a single line of code in order to build your own, professional-looking business website. Next, to make your brand's look and feel match your print materials, here's how to create print materials such as business cards and brochures.

Moonfruit is a free website host and editor with a plethora of fresh designs and detailed editing options. The service is moving away from its early focus on building Flash-based sites, which can't be viewed on iOS devices and are typically hard for search engines to find. Now, a site you build in Moonfruit is designed to render in Flash, HTML, or mobile HTML5, depending on how the user is accessing it. And soon there will be tools for building Facebook Pages.

Getting Started Getting started on Moonfruit is quick and easy--although mastering its site editor takes quite a bit of practice. First, simply choose a theme, which you can change later, if you desire. The modern-looking, business-oriented themes include IT Services, Accounting, Spa, Bakery, and Law. All are fully customizable, but if you don't see one that appeals to you, you can choose a dark- or light-skinned blank theme and build your site from the ground up.

Building and Editing Your Site Moonfruit has a ton of design options for building a site from scratch. Next, you can dive into the webpage editor. The Flash-based editor is full-featured but can be a little intimidating. Luckily, Moonfruit has a 40-page Beginner's Guide.

You can edit the Page Master, which houses the elements that will appear on every single page of your website (such as navigation links and your logo), or you can edit pages individually. The Webpage editor's toolbar includes options such as Save, Edit, Design, and Admin. Clicking these either opens a menu of additional options or brings you to other pages where you can set up various services.

While you're logged in to the editor, clicking any element on your website will open the element's "Editor" palette subwindow with tabs for options for editing text and styles, and more. Uploading files from your PC is a snap. Just click on the Files button in the toolbar to upload multiple images, video clips, or audio clips at once. If you'd rather use clip art or stock photos, Moonfruit has a library of images and multimedia elements.

Once you've finished editing your website, click Save and your site will go live.

Pricing Moonfruit's basic services are free for one website with up to 15 pages, 20MB of online storage, and 1GB of monthly bandwidth. To use Moonfruit's free features, you also have to update your site once every six months.

For those who need more, Moonfruit has packages from $6 to $50 per month ($54 to $450 per year if you pay annually). Its Business package is $25/month or $225/year, offering 15 websites with unlimited pages, 2500MB of storage, and unlimited bandwidth. That package also features an $80 Google AdWords voucher, email support, two domain names (with email addresses), multiple site administrator accounts, and PayPal integration.

Moonfruit Pros: Extremely customizable designs; plenty of attractive themes; small and unassuming ad on free pages; multiple packages; publishes in Flash, HTML, and mobile-optimized HTML5.

Moonfruit Cons: The WYSIWYG editor has a steep learning curve.

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