Articles About Small Business Development and Running Your Small Business

• It's Okay to Think Small - In nearly every business book I read and from the lips of nearly every business guru I listen to is the premise that you have to grow your business. Grow, grow, grow -- think big -- and you'll feel successful. More products, more services, more revenue -- and you'll be happy. Bigger is better, right?

• The Best of Times, The Worst of Times - What would happen if your revenues decreased by 44% in one year and looked like they would continue to fall in the next 12 months?

• Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: How to Fire Your Assistant, Website Designer, etc. - We hire people to help us grow and run our small business: assistants and virtual assistants, website designers and graphic artists, copywriters, coaches and consultants, and bookkeepers. But what do you do when their work isn't up to par or they are constantly missing their deadlines?

• Think Small and Accomplish Great Things - Mary came to me to create big, new changes for her business. How exciting, having a big dream! She had a million ideas and a solid, well thought-out task lists to back up the big plan. Except there was one small problem -- Mary's dream was dying on the vine. By thinking big she was overwhelming herself. She was paralyzed.

• How to Choose a Virtual Assistant - When I looked through the list of all the tasks I wanted an assistant to perform, there was no reason why this person couldn't be located anywhere in the world. After careful research I hired an assistant who lives 2,500 miles away, and although we've never met in person, we've formed a strong foundation which helps my business run smoothly.

• Vacations Are A MUST For The Self Employed - It's impossible to describe the sheer terror of finally deciding to take more than a week's vacation.  Would my business crumble?  Would I miss logging on each morning to get my email?  Would my clients remember me when I returned?? Would I miss a new business opportunity while I was gone?

• What Should Be In Your Business Plan? - Many people quake in fear at the idea of writing a business plan. They imagine in their mind a 100-page document full of charts and financial figures. While it's possible to create a business plan of that magnitude when trying to get capital for your business, a typical business plan for self-employed people should be less than 10 pages.

• Self Employment: The Hardest Way to Make Easy Money - So many people I speak with dream of becoming self employed and starting their own small business. Don't get me wrong: being self employed is the best lifestyle I know. But it is hard work, plain and simple.

• Are You Cut Out To Be Your Own Boss? - There really are personality traits that separate born-entrepreneurs from people who can't hack it

• Someone Stole My Site: How To Defend Yourself When Someone Plagiarizes Your Website Text - I knew one day it would happen. Someone stole the text from my website and used it on their own website. Dirty rotten scoundrels! Here's what you can do about it.

• How To Raise Your Fees - There is a delicate balance between the fee you need to charge for your products and services, and the fee that people are willing to pay for them.  But with gasoline, heating, shipping, health care, and other costs rising, there comes a time when you must raise your rates in order to remain profitable.

• Are You a Jumper or a Planner? - There appears to be two types of small business owners: people who jump right into running their business and marketing their products and services with little or no planning, and those who plan a strategy -- and a service or product design -- before they ever dream of offering it to the public.  Is one better than the other?  Yes and no.

• How To Manage Success - You’ve struggled for years to get your small business off the ground.  You planned, marketed, sold, schmoozed.  You spent long hours with little rest.  Then suddenly it comes: Success!  Do you have a PLAN for success?

• Courage, And The Self-Employed - Each week, I hear people telling me they want to be self employed, but they don’t (or can’t) move forward on their dreams because they’re afraid.  There are so many things to be afraid of when you’re self employed: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of illness, fear of lawsuits.  No money, no time, no skills, no help, no support.

• Self-Sabotaged By Research - A woman in my MasterMind group posed a question today: why did she spend all her time doing research and never actually go on with "doing" the thing she was researching?  She loved looking up information, finding resources, interviewing people, gathering facts.  But taking these facts and applying them to her business seemed to always be put on the back burner.

• 10 Things To Do When Business Slows Down Over The Holidays - I’m sure you’ve seen it happen every year: your business slows down during predictable times, like the summertime months or year-end.  For the self-employed who rely upon steady cash flow, this can be a disconcerting time.  Should you just take a time off until things naturally pick up again?  Or should you try to find the needle-in-the-haystack business that might be out there during slow times?

• What's the Difference Between a Coach and A Consultant? - When should you pick a Coach, when should you pick a Consultant, and when do you need someone who combines these two talents.

• Six Reasons to Become Self-Employed in Your Retirement - So, you’re looking forward to being retired.  Relaxing in the lawn chair, sipping iced tea, watching the clouds roll by.  Lazy days of reading good books, traveling with family and friends, puttering around in the garden. What?  That’s not the lifestyle you want?  Good for you!

• Full Time or Part Time -- What's Right For You? - When you're self-employed (or thinking about becoming self-employed), one of the more important decisions you'll need to make is whether you want to do this work full-time or part-time. That's a difficult question for many people, and here are some things to consider when making that decision.

• What Should Your Fees Be? - You must decide for yourself whether you will charge for your services or not. Should you decide to charge, the next question is "what should my fee be?" First, examine carefully your skill level. It is common practice in business to charge based on skill. The more skill and experience you have, the more you charge.

• Do You Have Enough Clients To Survive? - When your business is offering a service, you have to determine how many clients you'll need in order to reach your goals. You don't have to have a group of ready-made clients when you begin, but it helps if you have a good network of people who you can approach, asking them to become clients.

• What Is Your Legacy? - During a recent speech, I told the audience that my mission was to empower the self-employed to succeed.  Instantly a hand shot up in the audience. “What’s your definition of success?”  I smiled to myself -- I love it when they ask this question!

• How to Create and Run a MasterMind Group - There is synergy of energy, commitment, and excitement that participants bring to a MasterMind group.  The beauty of MasterMind Groups is that participants raise the bar by challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion.  MasterMind participants act as catalysts for growth, devil’s advocates and firm supporters.

• Why Small Businesses Fail (or Fail to Thrive) - We review some of the common reasons why small businesses fail.  Here are 14 top reasons, which might help you to determine why your business isn’t growing and thriving.  Some of them are related to learnable business skills; others relate to personal attitudes, habits, or self-sabotaging belief, which are not so easy to change, except through coaching or other self-development work.

• Cleanup and Planning Checklist For The New Year - As the end of the year approaches, it’s important to both close-out the old year properly as well as plan for the new year.  I recommend you do this process throughout the year so that there isn’t a last-minute rush to complete your year-end closing tasks.  Here are some idea that you might want to add to your checklist.

   

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