Small Business Growth Strategies

1. Blaze your own trail.
Employee Life: Get an education in order to get a job, work tirelessly until retirement and HOPE to have a few good years left for traveling and enjoying life.
Entrepreneur Life: Start with a dream, work your tail off early on to build your empire, hire, outsource, get help to grow and enjoy the ride along the way. Why wait for retirement?

2. Greater likelihood of getting rich.
The vast majority of millionaires are entrepreneurs. We control our own destinies and have the power to generate wealth beyond our wildest dreams.

3. No false sense of security.
We’re in a recession and entrepreneurs have options. We can market through it, reinvent, and refine our businesses. We may be working a little harder, but we know we will come out of this bigger, better, and stronger because we’ve fought a good fight. In corporate America, nobody has any control over what will happen to their future. 

4. Freedom to create.
What gets my blood pumping is creating something new. Whether it’s a new product or service, a marketing campaign, a book, an article or a blog post, there is pure joy in the process of creating.

5. Mondays.
In my past life as an employee, Sunday nights were depressing. The weekend was over; the fun was over. As an entrepreneur, Sunday nights are energizing because Monday is coming! I get to do what I love on Monday!

6. It’s a really cool club.
Entrepreneurs are unlike any group of people I have ever known. We come together at events and meetings to share, learn and support each other. We share a common bond and outsiders feel like aliens in our world.

7. Nobody else is pulling the strings.
No subjective performance reviews, no one to ask for time off, no accusations of insubordination (yes, this happened to me!), and no mandatory time-sucking meetings.

8. Ongoing learning opportunities.
I don’t know any entrepreneur who hasn’t made mistakes or run into some obstacles along the way. But these experiences bring opportunities to learn. The most successful business owners find the lesson, avoid repeating it, forge ahead and celebrate successes.

9. The playing field has been leveled.
Big businesses are suffering from high overhead in a bad economy. While nobody wants to celebrate the demise of any business, the reality is that the recession is leveling the playing field. As over-stuffed businesses lose market share or disappear off the map completely, new opportunities emerge for small business.

10. Flexibility and freedom.
This morning I checked e-mail, updated my social networking profiles, taught a teleclass, handled a few calls, took a walk, ran out for coffee, and returned to pick up where I left off. I’m leaving early today to pick up my son and go to the park. I might do the same thing tomorrow. Life is good.

About the Author:
Stephanie Chandler is an author of several business and marketing books including “LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business” and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur.” She is also founder and CEO of Authority Publishing, which provides custom book publishing and author marketing services for business, self-help and other non-fiction books. A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, she has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, BusinessWeek, Inc.com and many other media outlets.

Join me on Twitter! @bizauthor

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written by Stephanie Chandler