Small Business Blog

At the 2011 Small Business Summit in New York City, I attended a break out session called – Where’s the Money? The discussion explored funding & investment questions; finding the money and how to effectively pitch for it. This is typically a topic I have not written about. Firstly, I’m not an expert in this area, but mainly because the vast majority of existing small business owners in the world are not actively looking to get $500,000 in angel investment, followed shortly by a further $20 million in venture capital to become the next facebook or whatever. Most people in small business want to simply achieve their vision of a better business, and business lifestyle for their family. Nevertheless, the lessons I took away from this short but excellent panel discussion can be applied to every small business owner regardless of their desire for funding, or the ultimate size of there vision.  

We all want higher sales numbers in business, don’t we? What determines the most effective steps to growing your small business? There is just so much advice, information and insights available in the world. I mean, information like; ‘101 strategies for marketing your business’ or ’50 business growth ideas your small business can use today’… the list of information is endless. I’m not knocking information or content titles like this; in fact I have a number of them myself. But, just sometimes we need to get back to basics – what is business growth really about…

If you’re like many small business owners, you’ll want to know how to market your business on a budget. I’m going to take the word ‘budget’ to mean; very small and very limited… I don’t think people mean; “how do I best allocate my carefully planned marketing budget of $500,000 for the year?” For the most part, I think you are most likely to mean; “how the heck do I market my business in a way that will... get me the highest number of sales and revenue, from the small amount of money I have to spend on marketing?” If you find yourself agreeing more with the later statement, let’s explore some of your best options…

If you’re looking to grow your small business any tips and minor distinctions you get, can go a long way if you embrace the incremental natural of the business improvement process. Of course, the key is to turn ‘tips’ and information into actionable tasks. Execution is everything. So, with execution front of mind I offer 3 quick tips to grow your small business.

This question; “ How Do I Find More Clients? ”, is definitely in my frequently asked questions list from small business owners and entrepreneurs. For most people asking the question, it would seem pretty simple and perfectly reasonable. If you asked me that question, perhaps you would expect a simple answer, right? Well here goes;