All Entries in the "Small Business" Category
Small Business Sabotage: How Peer Relationships Can Make or Break Your Success
One of my favorite sports is tennis, and the dynamics of the game change dramatically depending on your opponent. When you play with someone who isn’t as good as you are the game is easy. You don’t have to work very hard and you’re rarely challenged. But when you play with someone who is better [...]
Simple Steps to Convert Site Visitors into Buyers
The following information on how to convert site visitors into buyers is an excerpt from the book: Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business. * * * Once you have your website up and running and a shopping cart system in place, the next [...]
Where to Find Clip Art and Images – And How to Use Them Without Violating Copyright Laws
Whether you want to add images to your blog posts or use them in your marketing materials and projects, you should know that there are copyright laws and rules that apply for images, just like there are protections for written words. Though we can all use Google to locate photos, it doesn’t give us the [...]
How to Own Your Niche: Narrow Your Focus to Win Clients
My new book is due out in early February (Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business) and it’s about more than internet marketing. It’s also about figuring out how to stand out in your field—no matter how many others also do what you do. [...]
What to Do When a New Product or Service Falls Flat
In my previous post, “Are you a Launchaholic?” we discussed the importance of focusing on the products and services you’ve already created and making those successful before moving on to a new venture. But sometimes, even after all of that effort, a new product or service still doesn’t work. When this happens you have two [...]
Are You a Launchaholic? How Frequent Product and Service Launches Could Hurt Your Business
A few years ago I put myself through a major time management overhaul. I needed to figure out why I constantly felt overwhelmed, and then find a way to improve my quality of life at work. One of the biggest discoveries I made was in how much time it took me to assemble new programs. [...]
How to Build a Business that Runs Without You: Part 2
In yesterday’s post I shared my journey of opening a bookstore and putting the business on auto-pilot. After I sold the store, I found myself running a freelance marketing business. I wrote articles for trade publications, wrote copy for websites and marketing collateral, continued writing books, managing BusinessInfoGuide.com, and also worked as a professional speaker. [...]
How to Build a Business that Runs Without You: Part 1
My first business was a 2800 square-foot bookstore in Sacramento, California. I had quit my Silicon Valley job to open the store and about six weeks after the Open sign was lit, I thought I had made a big mistake. I hated running a retail business. I resented the hours involved, the demands on my [...]
Setting New Year’s Goals and Reviewing Your Accomplishments
New Year’s day is my favorite holiday! I love the fresh start of a New Year and all the possibilities that come with it. It’s a great time for reflection, and considering we have all survived what has hopefully been the worst of the economic times, we have much to celebrate in 2012. As you [...]
LEAP #83: Get the Right Corporate Structure for Your Business
The following is an excerpt from LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business. I see so many businesses running as sole proprietorships, something that I also did for many years. However, once I finally understood the importance of protecting my assets, not to mention the tax advantages of choosing the right entity, I made some [...]
