The practical wisdom and real-life advice offered in the 30 Steps to Build a Better Business blog series is now available in a paperback or instantly downloadable eBook! Here’s what’s inside: The 6 business building blocks every small business must have Strategies and techniques to help you transition from ‘the dayjob’ to being a full-time business owner 20+ innovative marketing and promotion methods for first-time or part-time entrepreneurs Low-cost or free small business productivity...

We’ve talked previously about customers being the most valuable resource for a small business. So it stands to reason that finding and attracting those customers is one of the most critical activities within your business. In general, there are two ways to find and attract new and repeat customers for your business: marketing and advertising. The difference between these two methods can be most simply described like this: Marketing is how you attempt to turn people you know into customers. Advertising...

Over the years, I’ve had the chance to see and work with a number of different businesses. What I’ve noticed is that most small businesses often hit a wall within the first 1-3 years of existence. They have a good product, paying customers, but for some reason can’t ever seem to move from being a surviving business, to being a thriving business. But the truth is, most of these businesses could readily move to the next level, just by fine-tuning some key areas of their operations. After...