It's not always easy to find a cheap hotel that you know you would be comfortable staying in. Often, prices charged in large cities like London, Paris, New York, etc. don't really seem to equate with word 'cheap'.

That said, it is possible to find a cheap hotel. You just need to know where to look!

There are a number of budget hotel chains who offer a good standard of accommodation at an affordable price. These vary by country - you'll probably know ones in your own country but if you are travelling abroad, you may need to do some research.

The advantage of using a hotel room provided by one of these chains is that it will be fairly cheap and that you can rest assured that all standards you expect from a budget hotel room will be catered for.

The disadvantage can be that sometimes location is a bit 'out of way'. Some cheap hotel chains have branches at out of town locations. You may also miss out on personal service you would expect from a smaller, owner-run establishment.

The next alternative is to look for an individual hotel. Smaller hotels are often run by their owner and this can be a good way to dig out a cheap hotel.

A: Laurie, before you call in SWOT team to deal with this investor (sorry, couldn't resist that one), let me tell you exactly what a SWOT Analysis is and how it can not only help you plan for future, but get a gauge of how your business is doing today.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT Analysis is a written exercise that can help you clarify and focus on specifics that make up four areas that most affect your business. The purpose of a SWOT Analysis is to help you build on your business' strengths, minimize and correct weaknesses, and take greatest possible advantage of potential opportunities while formulating a plan to deal with potential threats.

Think of a SWOT Analysis as a checkup for your business. By spending a little time examining internal and external factors that affect your business' health you can better gauge present state of your business and identify things that may adversely affect your business' health in future.

It's a good idea for every business to perform a SWOT Analysis on occasion, especially if you are doing strategic planning, contemplating a change in direction or formulating new strategies for distribution, marketing and sales.

Should you hire a consultant to perform a SWOT Analysis for you? Speaking as a consultant who has been paid to perform SWOT Analyses for companies in past, I can honestly (and yes, without bias) say that depends on three factors: (1) size of your company; (2) how in-depth SWOT Analysis needs to be; and (3) how much of your investor's money you'd like to spend.

Larger corporations are most likely to hire professional firms to perform such analyses, primarily due to complex nature of big business. Some corporate SWOT Analyses can run on for several hundred pages. Typically, a consultant will charge up to $100 or more per hour to perform a detailed corporate SWOT Analysis and most large companies consider this money well spent as a good SWOT Analysis can reveal otherwise ignored factors that might increase company's bottom line or help avert future losses.

For a smaller business, however, a professional SWOT Analysis can be an exercise in overkill. For your money you will get an impressive, detailed report that will make for great show at your next investor or board meeting and a wonderfully expensive door stop rest of time. I don't mean to belittle value of a professional SWOT Analysis for small businesses. It's just that smaller companies can learn as much from their own efforts as that of an expensive consultant.

You can perform a simple SWOT Analysis with a #2 pencil and a fast food napkin, but to get a truly accurate view of your company's SWOT factor I suggest you do things a bit more formally (and without aid of condiments). I recommend that you involve all key players in your business, including management, employees, your attorney, accountant, even your spouse. My wife often gives me insights into my business just from listening to me talk at dinner. Sometimes we business owners and managers can't see forest for trees. It's good to have someone else point out things we might miss.