These days there are many Software as a Service (SaaS) products out on the market. Ones for billing, ones for project management, ones for selling and customer service. There are also a few for handling your accounting needs. This is a very tough nut to crack since many are first reticent to put data into the cloud, much less their financial information, and then they have to contend with the Intuit Quickbooks ownership of the market place.

This is why I was skeptical when I heard about what Outright was planning to do but in true Agile software methodology they started with the basics and have stayed on a constant improvement path adding features and functionality incrementally. My business was evaluating the move off of Quickbooks which is used on our network and doesn’t give access to our team or accountant like the web product does. This provided me an opportunity to evaluate lots of other services (which will be for a later post).

What I liked about Outright

Two simple messages – Save Time and Save Money. You are really speaking my language. Accounting package can suck your life away because of the complexity many have and the time it takes to learn everything properly. I want my accountant to be helping me with tax planning and cash flow management not training me on how to properly enter vendors and reconcile the checkbook.

Integration with other SaaS tools – They have started with two big ones – Freshbooks and Shoeboxed. We use Freshbooks for invoicing but our expensing is done separately and shoeboxed is not a vendor of ours.

Techcrunch has a nice update on the addition of Expensify “Getting started with the site is quite easy, because Outright has recently partnered with a number of financial services: you can import invoices from Freshbooks, receipts from Shoeboxed, your PayPal transaction history, as well as your credit card transactions through a deal with Expensify, which supports 94% of US credit cards. You only have to do this once — once you’ve linked your account, they’ll keep automatically updating until you unlink them.

Killer Tax Planning Tool – One of the big areas many new entrepreneurs and freelancers screw up is in the tax area. For years they have been used to their employer taking out taxes and they just took their W-2 and did their taxes. With a new business there are all kinds of tax benefits to using expenses and also planning your cash flow so the right amount goes to the IRS quarterly so you don’t get spanked the following year with a tax bill plus penalties that make you cry and ask yourself why you are doing this in the first place.

What I didn’t like about Outright (but they can change this and innovate to fix this stuff)

No Connectivity to banking accounts – This was my deal breaker. Despite my love-hate relationship with Quickbooks some times, they do this part flawlessly and I am able to quickly go through the month and match deposits to client billing and categorize the expenses with a final reconcile button that takes me about 60-90 minutes a month to do my books.

Granted, I think I have become spoiled to this functionality because Quickbooks has been doing it for so long and I can get this online though the personal budgeting tool Mint.com so I am really kind of expecting it. Despite the enormous complexities of integration behind the scenes I am willing to wait for this but many other non-technical people who have this in other products will look for it.

Then again, this product is FREE and has some great functionality already so I can’t completely put them to task.

Tax planning only covers Schedule C – For the uninitiated, Schedule C is for a Sole Proprietorship and not partnerships or corporations. I won’t go into a business law discussion but a sole proprietorship is the most basic form a business and many firms are usually formed as LLC or Subchapter-S corporations for liability protection and tax advantages. My firm is S-Corporation and all partners get K-1’s at the end of the year that go into our tax returns.

Inability to bring in balance sheet items from previous year – You may go, huh? The plain english translation of that statement is basically this could be old receivables from customers that haven’t paid yet (or may never pay) that you will need to write off. This can offset your tax liability in a big way so your estimated taxes in the tax planner are just that – estimated. If you have complexities like this you should engage an accountant who can give you a better picture of tax planning for this year and next.

Who is this Smart Working Tool for?

I would say at this point in their life, Outright absolutely perfect for the independent contractor or freelancer who has a very simple cash-in, cash-out approach with no employees. Outright is FREE, which takes away any cost objections. Plus, if you can leverage Freshbooks and Shoeboxed to automate the sync to Outright, this can work really well. Oh yeah, did I mention that is FREE to use?

Check it out today and if you are current user of Outright, please leave a comment on your opinion of the service and if we missed anything.

CLICK ABOVE TO DOWNLOAD: 15 Steps to Writing a Winning Marketing Plan

Much focus when starting a business is about putting together a great business plan. We have covered that and you can click here to download the e-book on that type of plan. However, most don’t talk about a critical component of every business – marketing.

The marketing plan is critical and I would almost do this first so you can flesh out your product value, understand the competition and price the product/service for profitability. The business plan takes components of this plan and really demonstrate the execution and operations to make the business work. But it is marketing that is the engine and analytic proof to demonstrate why your company should even exist in the first place.

You are either someone that has been doing marketing as a part of your professional career or you look at as that “thing you do to promote your business and attract customers to buy”. Regardless of where you are along that spectrum, you have arrived here because you have been charged by the CEO of the startup you work for to write a marketing plan for your business or you need to create one for your own business.

You need to not just write just any marketing plan. You need to write a Killer Marketing Plan.

One that your boss will say “awesome, let’s get started” and which will tell all those people who have been looking for a product or service like yours for a long time. This book is written for you.

Marketing plans are sexy mistresses that tempt you to include all of the coolest of campaign ideas without the sanity of budgetary constraints. While marketing is one of the more important functions of a small business, it is one that is limited by the budgets of that business and campaigns must demonstrate a return in order to justify their existence. Since I have written more marketing plans than I care to tell you, I can share with you my knowledge and experience of what has worked almost all the time, some of the time and none of the time.

While this is not the single tome on marketing plans, I hope that this helps you balance the unlimited creative ideas with the budget you have to work with and find a mix that is both innovative and results in sales.

I invite you to explore as many resources out there, some of which are mentioned at the end of this book. I don’t need to wish you luck. Just get started, get out there and crush it.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD: 15 Steps Writing a Business Plan e-book

Many of you who follow this blog are small business owners and you have either wrote your first business plan or about to start on the journey. For some it might seem like an easy task but I will bet that it seems easier to summit Mt. Ranier that finish your business plan. It is the procrastinators ultimate project to put off and the perfectionists ultimate project to endlessly tweak.

I will guess that while sitting down with all these great ideas swimming around in your head about how you are going to create the next great product or service you couldn’t wait to tell someone about your business. But when it came time to actually ask for money from someone or actually lay out how you will execute, there was a hard realization that you needed a business plan.

But you can’t write just any business plan. A Killer Business Plan.

One that even your strongest detractors will read and say “this could work” and those whose wallets you are trying to pry free of investment capital ask “where do I sign?”. This book is written for you.

After writing many business plans, many for businesses that never launched and a few that did launch and were eventually sold, I felt compelled to share my experiences and advice to save you from the rocky process of getting started so you can just start writing.

I wrote a 15 part series through the last year that addressed many issues and gave you a basic plan of action. However, I kept getting asked to put it into an e-book format for easy reading and note taking.

While this is not a end‐all book on business plans, I hope that this helps you frame your plan so you can get started and put together something that is relevant for what you are trying to accomplish.

There are many other resources out there which I have mentioned at the end of this e-book so I invite you to use this book along with those resources to build your killer business plan and be the success I know you can be.

I don’t need to wish you luck. Just get started, get out there and crush it.

In case you missed the big button up top, you can click here to download the e-book.

Read it and please leave a comment. We want to know how your business plan journey is going.

However, as a business owner, the business is always calling for something – one more email, working on Sunday afternoon to do the books, write this proposal, etc. Since you are where the buck stops you are usually the one that has to do the task. Often, new entrepreneurs feel the pressure to do everything and do it now. The lines of when you are working, especially if your office is located at home is trying and you must have the discipline to separate them. If you don’t do this, there is one end result…Burnout.

Phases of Burnout

I recently came across this article on Web Worker Daily, “Regain Balance and Avoid Burnout“. It turned me on to a great article on A List Apart by Scott Boms called “Burnout”. That article examines the stress, exhaustion and illness often associated with web work. Burnout is not just stress, he notes, but is caused by an “imbalance in an individual’s personal goals, ideals, and needs as related to their job.” Here is their list of burnout phases that a person goes through:

They identified phases, several of which I bet sound familiar, are:

• A compulsion to prove oneself
• Working harder
• Neglecting one’s own needs
• Displacement of conflict (the person does not realize the root cause of the distress)
• Revision of values (friends, family, hobbies, etc., are dismissed)
• Denial of emerging problems (cynicism, aggression, and frustration become apparent)
• Withdrawal from social contexts, potential for alcohol or drug abuse
• Behavioral changes become more visible to others
• Inner emptiness
• Depression
• Burnout syndrome (including suicidal thoughts and complete mental and physical collapse) [2]

As they say in the article, tt’s important to note that burnout is not the same as depression, though there are shared characteristics that blur the distinction; burnout can be brought on by fits of depression or may lead to depression itself.

Ways to Avoid Burnout and Get Your Balance Back

Here is what the Web Worker Daily article recommends:

Stop (or at least slow down). When you realize you’re suffering with burnout, it’s important to start taking steps to reduce the amount of work you’re doing. Cut down on the hours that you’re working, use sick days, or take a vacation.

Set boundaries and expectations. When you’re no longer working a regular 9-to-5 schedule you need to set boundaries between your work and home lives (see my previous post “Mark the End of the Day and Finish on Time“). It’s also important to manage your clients’ expectations. As Boms notes, when you start answering client email at 10pm, it sets a precedent that is then hard to undo.

Create a daily routine. Most people have a time of day when they work most effectively. Organize your day around these times (see our previous post “Change Your Work Hours to Get More Done” for tips on how to do this).

Make time for numero uno. Sometimes it’s hard to justify making time for yourself when there are so many demands on your day from bosses or clients, but everyone needs some “me time.” Spend time with family, goof off, visit a gallery, play a game — whatever makes you happy.

Change your situation. Changing careers might be in the cards, but there are also plenty of steps you can take to improve your current one. Shake up your routine (tryworking from somewhere else, perhaps), offload responsibilities, or learn a new skill.

Rely on a good process. If your current process isn’t working as well as it should, try another one. GTD works for me.

The video of the interview is at the bottom of this post.  We also have another common connection i.e her son Dave Troy is a friend and I did not know that till Pat just mentioned his name. Dave has a lot of achievements and you can read them here. Thank you Pat for your time and sharing your secrets with our audience.

a) What made you think of taking your company virtual?

I first considered it when I needed to move my office in 2000. At that time, however, we were still doing a lo of functions that were not Web based. After 9/11 I surveyed my employees to see how well they could function from home if they had to, and just about everyone could. After Hurricane Isabel, our offices were without power for nearly three weeks. Many of us had power at home or could find it at friends’ homes or businesses. We managed to operate relatively normally. But we still had one client that required physical space because they had a big awards contest. But that contract came to an end, and I decided I really didn’t need to maintain office space.

b) What advice do you have for people who feel they are technologically challenged?

There is nothing that I am doing now that is any different than what I was doing when I had an office — I am using the Web, email and standard software applications. We do have our phones set up using VoIP, but all we have to do is answer the phone and it says which line is ringing (necessary to answer it properly).

c) How are associations coping with the economy ?

Some are facing some serious hardships due to declining membership, hotel attrition charges for under-attended meetings, and investments gone bad. The smart associations are taking a hard look at their operations and making changes. Web applications, properly used, are one way to reduce costs.

d) Are members interacting more now with their associations?

That really varies with the association. Certainly job boards are in demand, and so are low cost seminars.

e) How did you encourage your son Dave Troy to form a technology company at the age of 15 ?

Actually, he was only 14 when he started Toad Computers. It really was all his idea, and we just didn’t stand in the way. We told him to write a business plan and he took that plan to the bank (we never saw it) and got funding. He managed to balance his business with his education. I did drive him around until he got his driver’s license. Financially, he was on his own with it from day one, though we had to co-sign his first loan.

f) What are the tools you use for your virtual office.

We use the Internet, online accounting software, as well as online association management software for database management and communications. We are now adding electronic filing cabinets as part of our online accounting package. Our phones use VoIP. We also make heavy use of cell phones.

Have you made your business virtual ? Chris Anderson the keynote speaker at the GrowSmartBiz Conference also runs 3 small business and told me that are virtual and use technology smartly.

Note: Network Solutions®, LLC and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have partnered to track the competitive health of small businesses over time. The baseline survey for the Small Business Success Index (SBSI) was collected in December 2008 through January 2009 by interviewing 1000 small business owners over the telephone. The second wave was collected in June 2009 from 500 small business owners. More details at http://growsmartbusiness.com/wp-content/files/SBSIwave2.pdf

As a small business owner myself I was particularly interested when back at SXSW a bunch of companies that included BatchBlue, Shoeboxed, Outright, Mailchimp and Freshbooks announced the “Small Business Web“. (Full Disclosure: There is partnership between Outright and Network Solutions and they have a blog called the Unintentional Entrepreneur.

The concept is simple, get these different web applications that business use talking to each other and streamline the data exchange so small businesses are more efficient and the combined products are more powerful.

Here is what it says on their web site:

“The Small Business Web is a movement to bring together like-minded, customer-obsessed software companies to integrate our respective products and make life easier for small businesses. While there are many products available for small business owners on the Web, the approach we’re taking is to use each others APIs to provide a high-level of integration between these applications and create a more seamless experience for our customers.

We think small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy and that it’s from small business that true innovation will arise. We believe small businesses should have access to the same tools and technology that big companies have without paying a huge amount. We know simplifying access and increasing integration to our products and services will benefit all of our customers. We want small businesses to succeed and we want to help.”

The execution is challenging because companies have to open up their API’s and the connecting companies have to develop the functionality to plug-in that respective application. This can also be limited by what the respective company opens up their particular API. On top of that each company is well, its own company and there is no central control or product team to deal with integration issues.

Despite those challenges, the Small Business Web is starting to get some traction and more companies have joined in. The list is long and covers just about every area of a small business back office operation. There are actually more than one in each area freeing the small business owner to find the best solution for them and not tied to a specific group of apps like a desktop office productivity suite.

Those hours freed up from using spreadsheets to do double and sometime triple data entry allows a small business to focus on more important things to help them grow. We will be covering many more of these applications in future Smart Working articles.

For more information, check out the Small Business Web at http://www.thesmallbusinessweb.com

Now it is time for the long tail to take over and for us to create a personal brand that is niche but powerful and helps us improve our careers/businesses along with increasing our recognition in an area we are passionate.

In Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, personal branding expert Dan Schwabel teaches readers how to use social media tools (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs, etc.) to stand out in the working world. About.com says “The book is aimed at new grads and young professionals who are looking for their first big job, but would also be useful to anyone who wants to climb the corporate ladder or start their own business venture.” I agree buy I disagree on that one. Let me elaborate.

When I picked up the book I knew a fair amount about the concept of personal branding so the first portion of the book was a bit of a review. The book is separated into three major sections:

* Part I: “The Rise of Personal Branding,” which gives you a little history. This is where you get your first clue that this book is targeted toward younger job seekers who are looking to build a career. This is why About.com reviewed the book like this and it is focused on Social Media as your gateway to Personal Branding success. If you’re still a little confused about all this social media stuff and want to figure out how it fits into your marketing strategy – you need to read this section.

* Part II: “Command Your Career in Four Steps,” This is the heart of the book and what I liked the most because it gives you a practical roadmap you can follow regardless of where you are in your career. This is where you will get all the how-to guides and resources to discover, create, communicate and manage your personal brand.

* Part III: “Now You Have Command.” This is a bit of “take some action, this is how other people” have and it has the obligatory success stories that must backup what Dan is trying to explain to those that might be skeptical. They are called “Brand Commanders” and it is pretty good and you will probably find someone to identify with your own journey.

Three Audiences for this Book (via Small Business Trends)

I was going to talk about the types of people that would benefit from this book more than just college students or young people as the review from About.com said. Ivana Taylor at Small Business Trends did an awesome job quantifying the usefulness of various people looking to build their own personal brand.

If you’re currently looking for a full time job — This is a terrific book for you. If you’re a Gen Y looking for your first job, you will find practical tips and tricks for overcoming the “lack of experience” challenge in Chapter Five’s “Discover Your Brand.” If you’re a more experienced job-seeker who needs to look into a different industry, this chapter will help you re-position yourself for an industry that might be faring better in today’s economy.

Independent business owners, consultants and freelancers – You will find wonderfully practical tips on creating and communicating their brand using social media tools. Dan includes a wonderful “Blog Success Checklist” to make sure that your brand-building using a blog is painless and successful:

Small businesses looking for broader networking reach — Does this describe you and your business? If so, you will find “The Popular Social Networking Sites” chart a great summary of the biggest and best social networking sites and how to use them to increase your sphere in influence and build your network.

Don’t just take my word for it

I came across this great video review of the book from. It is from Maria Reyes-McDavis AKA @WebSuccessDiva on Twitter. Enjoy.

What is LazyFeed? This new startup out of the Bay Area is designed to offer people a more convenient way to get information from “relevant” feeds. According to Gahng and the website, it’s a means of offering individuals the opportunity to “accidentally” stumble upon something new.

How does it work? Basically from what I saw – and they’re still in the final push (as of this writing) for making changes that they haven’t revealed yet – the interface is pretty simplistic. Once you’ve logged into the site, you’re greeted with your “homepage” that gives you what are trending topics that LazyFeed has parsed from the blogosphere, but not from Twitter and offers you the option of learning more about the top 10 trends. If that’s not your cup of tea and you don’t see your topic there, you can enter in tags in a search bar. That’s actually the cusp of what I’ve gathered LazyFeed to be – they look through the web to find content that is tagged similarly. So for example, if you’re on the application, you’re able to see a lot of blog posts, photos, videos, etc tagged with the same keyword(s). I did notice though that some of the more “credible” websites were not accounted for though, such as the New York Times, TechCrunch, Mashable, Washington Post, Huffington Post, etc., although they are still apparently crawling through the rest of the web to index the content to make it more relevant. Once you have looked up a topic, you’re able to save it similar to a bookmark along with individual content you like to reference later.

Real-time? This whole phenomenon of real-time updating is something that I think LazyFeed is trying to incorporate into their platform. Part of their website is programmed to display when new additions are made to the tags that you find interesting and have bookmarked.

Why is LazyFeed even interesting? To the individual it’s a really remarkable tool for you to use. If you’re always wondering what’s going on in the world, compared to Twitter’s trending topics, you’re not subjected to just conversations. LazyFeed will offer you the chance to look at the actual content surrounding those respective trends. Take Sarah Palin’s recent surprise resignation. Rather than scouring through Google, Bing or even Yahoo for information about what blogs are saying – often some rather irrelevant, you can log into your LazyFeed account and look up a specific tag – in this instance perhaps “SarahPalin” which will produce a list of content that has been tagged accordingly. You’re able to get a whole array of content with a simple click and even get continuous updates. However, it does seem that they don’t want to address archiving information at this stage as the content is displayed in chronological order with the most recent automatically placed at the top of the page. As a result, it’s my impression that LazyFeed is just about current events and pushing out information related to those topics. Anything longer than a couple of days would require exorbitant amount of scrolling (time consuming) or as I’ve been told by Ethan Gahng: “Go to Google.” Amazing…

The quirks. Initially the whole startup looks sound and for individuals to use it makes total sense. From a business perspective, you might need know that it’s little more than buzz monitoring at its most basic level. The folks at LazyFeed understand that and they don’t seem to mind it at this stage. So why should you, as a business care still about this product? It’s because it’s cheap buzz monitoring. If you happen to be in the automotive industry, you can use LazyFeed as a method of understanding the sentiment people are having about industry issues like, hybrid vehicles, General Motors, Japanese cars, etc. and then frame your conversation elsewhere accordingly and possibly get ahead of the curve.

Some advice that I would have given to someone about how to monitor your brand online would be through searching on Google or Yahoo about what people are saying about your brand on blogs, websites, social networks, etc., but it seems that LazyFeed has consolidated the whole idea to one site and even incorporates the tag concept to help shape how you find information. Saves you multiple steps, I’d imagine.

LazyFeed offers you the option of looking at either their trending topics that they’ve accumulated through their journey across the interweb or allowing you to connect to sites. You can “connect to sites” using one of four ways: RSS feeds from your blog or any other enabled site you may come across, Del.icio.us, Flickr, and Twitter. Once imported, you’re able to look at content that fits those keywords you have for whatever feed/site you’ve connected with. Sort of like a personalized feed reader, I suppose.

What can be improved? When I saw a demonstration of the application, I found it pretty simple – literally. It’s not that complicated to find things to do, for the most part. One thing that I did come across was the ability to link out to external sites. When I came across a post I wanted to read more on and possibly link to and/or bookmark, I clicked on a icon that read “page” only to discover it only refreshed the site! The real external link is at the end of the blog post title! Other issues that I found was related to usability and adherence to best practice to follow the “two-click rule”: users must be able to get from where they are to where they need to be within two clicks. And as of right now, it’s a free model since I’ve been told that since they’re just launching, there’s no immediate plans for monetization.

From what I gathered the content provided would also be real-time. Unfortunately based on what I saw at the demo, only a portion of LazyFeed is indeed “real-time”. The rest requires some action on your part to refresh the site. Maybe I’m defining the term incorrectly, but I imagine the constant auto refreshing of information similar to FriendFeed is real-time – LazyFeed does not seem to offer that in the truest sense, although I don’t think that’s a major reason to avoid the site. After talking with them about that, I was assured by the CEO that it would be something they would consider modifying in later phases.

Lastly, did you know that you’re not able to share your information with others? It’s not a social media website. It allows you to import content from social media sites, but when you want to share it with others on Twitter, Facebook or others, you’re out of luck. Right now they’re methodology is to have the system be truly focused on the individual – the only way I’m able to share my feeds I’m monitoring with others is by giving them my access login or showing them what’s on my computer right now.

Would I use it? I imagine that if I, as a business, am interested in learning more about what people are saying about topics I’m interested in, such as social media, website, marketing, photography, etc., then I would consider using it – after all, it’s easier than constantly scouring the web looking for information. Overall, LazyFeed lives up to its name and provides content as simply as it intends.

And no, it’s not a competitor to Google Reader. It’s not the same thing. With Google Reader, you’re already looking at feeds you’re interested in. With LazyFeed, you’re given totally new feeds you may or may not have been aware of and might find something new to read. The goal of LazyFeed, according to Ethan Gahng, is to make finding content “serendipitious”. It’s the accidental discovery of information when using the site that will be the biggest reward. Being the constant surveyor of information online, that’s lazy enough for me.

LazyFeed will be open to a private beta group beginning on Friday, July 10. To put your name on the waiting list to test out the site, visit their website. They will also be presenting at this year’s TechCrunch CrunchUp event in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“You can only choose one. Which one do you want,” she asked.

The boy chose the one that directly in front of him. The one he could easily reach out to and take without any fear. He was eager to tear open the pages of whatever adventure awaited beneath the cover.

“That one?  Are you sure?”

He nodded and they were off. I don’t know if he ever enjoyed the comic, but I saw, for that moment, he was completely confident and excited about his choice.

Right then and there, I had my topic.

The rush hour of small business marketing.
With so many people reaching out for your prospective clients’ attention, it’s getting harder and harder to see yourself as the clear choice.  It is easy to get overwhelmed with choosing where to advertise, how to cast the widest net, and what your message will be to get their attention.  It can be frustrating with every niche item salesman suggesting what bit of swag will be sure to lure in that potential client, the local print shop touting the latest sale on brochures and postcards, networking events crowded with the same people over and over again, and yet have you noticed what you want…seems to be right where you need it?

I’m not advocating you ditch any of the tools above, but simply recognize them for what they are. They are tools and avenues to get you to the next prospective client.  But if these avenues are backed up with rush hour like traffic fighting for attention, why would you take them? Because they are safe bets? Because everyone is doing it? Because you are a bit afraid to feel like you wasted your all ready limited resources on an unproven tactic?

But what if you take these choices and you end up with a closet full of key chains, boxes of never seen brochures, and networking events where you end up collecting the same business cards from the same people just on different days?  Isn’t THAT a waste of your valuable all ready limited resource?

Be where you’ll get the most eyes.
Instead of trying to create tactics and plans that brings them to you, try getting out and going to them.  Seriously, go where your future long term customers will be. It could feel awkward at first, but if you’re the first person to tap the well of uninterrupted visibility then you’ve got nothing to loose.

The best example I’ve seen of this was just yesterday at an office where I am doing some contracting.  In their kitchen, right on the refrigerator door, was an advertisement for a Babysitter.  The design was clean, clear, and simple.  There was a pocket, made of folded paper, stapled to it with business cards sticking out. The business cards were even clearer than the flyer. They simply read, in a welcoming font,

“Nicole.
Babysitter.”

And below that were her phone number and email.

This wasn’t done in an off the shelf font, but it was neatly presented and easy to read. No fluff designs or overly wordy content. The business card laden flyer was close to eye level with anyone going to get their lunch.

Nicole tapped a market of an office made up of probably 60% of her chosen clients. She went right to where she would get the most eyes on her services.

Needless to say, I’ve seen Nicole’s simple business card holder refilled at least twice since the advertisement went up.

Be brave with your limited resources.
Don’t be afraid to take chances once in a while. Get out there and go after your prospective clients with the same excitement you started your business.  After all, they are your clients after all, right?  Instead of the next tried and true moderately successful “everyone’s seen it, done it, and got the t-shirt from it” tactic, get a little creative with your limited resources.

If you’re an auto detailing company, offer to wash cars in the parking lot of your local office building for free in exchange for letting people know about your services.  If you’re a business coach, give away coupons for a free session at a networking event for small business owners.  If you’re an author with a new book to peddle, go to where your reader will be and give out free sample chapters of your book with info on where to get the rest of the great, amazing best seller to be. What ever it is that you do, be bold, be creative and be fearless in whatever your marketing endeavor will be.  Failures will happen, but successes will as well.  Be more focused on the later and conscious of what caused the former.

If you’re wondering, yes, I’ve seen the aforementioned suggestions done, but those business owners wanted the clients and weren’t afraid to take a calculated risk to reap a little long term reward.

But the real question is…are you?

As all ways…stay wicked.