Small Business: Ten Traits All Small Business Owners Must Have To Be Successful
By: Chris Le Roy

Winning in Small Business is as hard as running a race in the Olympics, actually I think harder, but the interesting fact is that the traits to succeed in small business are the same ones athletes use to succeed in any sport. Essentially the ten traits small business owners must have to succeed are the same ones we all must have if we ever think that we will achieve something in our lives.

Trait 1: Know Your Purpose

The first trait all small business owners must have is to know their purpose. First and foremost what is it that you want? What is it that youu want to achieve? Once you know what your purpose is then this will be the force and motive behind you taking this journey.

Trait 2: Have a Desire to Succeed

How many people do you know want to win Lotto? Probably a lot … Did you know that most people who win the lotto actually spend every cent of it in the first 12 months? Why, because they have not got a desire to use this money to succeed. To be truly successful you must have the desire to want it so bad that you will do anything to achieve your objectives

Trait 3: Have Faith That You Can Achieve What You Want

Just like an athlete, you must have faith that you can and will achieve your objective. If you do not have faith that you can achieve success in your business, then you will simply give up when the things get tough and let me assure you as a 10 year veteran in small business, things at some point will get tough and you will skate along the edges of losing everything. You may even fall over the cliff, but you have to have faith to climb up the cliff and continue on your journey.

Trait 4: Have a Clear Plan

Without a plan, you will simply be like a lost animal in the wilderness. Let me ask you this,do you go on holidays without a plan of what you want to do and where you want to go? Absolutely not, because you would simply be lost and would probably see and do nothing. It amazes me though how many small business owners plan their holidays more rigorously than they plan their small business. Remember the old cliché, "If You Fail to Plan, You Plan To Fail"

Trait 5: Have the Knowledge

If you do not have the knowledge to enact your plans, then you are in trouble before you begin. You must have the knowledge that the plan you are implementing will in fact give you the desired results. If you do not know that, then how can you move forward.

Trait 6: Be Prepared To Co-Operate

Small business is not like any other business you can enter into. In small business you simply do not have the resources or the money to hire a plethora of staff or advisors so it is essential that you learn to co-operate with others to help you in your desire to succeed. You will need to co-operate with other small business owners, your clients, your friends and family and also your band of mastermind business advisers in your path to success.

Trait 7: Have the Will Power To Go On

Without will power you cannot succeed in small business because you are the boss and there is no driving factor behind you. If you do not have the will-power to keep going even in the midst of adversity then your business is doomed because the bottom line is this, small business is tough. Things do go wrong and when you get knocked down, you have to pick yourself up and keep going. You have to keep going to the office each day, even if all seems lost. One of the books I consider my bible to success is called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

In the first chapter he tells the story in his first secret of 13 in the path to success about an uncle called RU Darby who went west to Colorado to dig for Gold. After investing a lot of money, his gold mine was up and running. After a period of time the gold was no longer found in the mine and after lots of drilling he simply gave up. In the end he sold the equipment for the mine to a Junk Man. The Junk Man being a shrewd operator hired an engineer to find the gold and in the end it turns out that RU Darby was just 3 FEET Short from where one of the largest gold deposits could be found in Colorado. In fact that mine is one of the richest mines in Colorado.What this illustrates though is that you must never give up, because you could be just 3 FEET from success.

Trait 8: Be Habitual In All You Need To Do

Getting into a habit of doing your daily tasks every single day is one of the most important aspects of success and is the basis of the tenth trait, persistence. When people get out of the habit of doing certain things that is when small business goes wrong, like getting the books done weekly, answering the phone within three rings, getting quotes out within 24 hours of a request, these are all habits you must stick to and being habitual will lead you to success.

Trait 9: Maintain the Quality

Maintaining the quality of your business is paramount. Quality covers every aspect of your business from the way you answer the phone to the way you present your products and services to your clients. If you do not maintain the quality in your business then there is know way that your customers and staff will stay with you.

Trait 10: Be 100% Persistent

In Trait 7 I talked about how RU Darby was just 3 FEET from successfully finding one of the largest Gold Deposits in Colorado but simply was not persistent enough to continue on. All of the ten traits lead to one thing, being persistent and fighting on even when success is only a small spark of light a million miles away. You will be surprised how quickly success will sneak up on you when you stick with your game plan and maintain your persistence.Let me take a few moments to simply refresh your mind of the ten traits all small business owners must have to succeed:

1. Know Your Purpose
2. Have a Desire To Succeed
3. Have Faith that you can achieve what you want
4. Have a Clear Plan
5. Have the Knowledge
6. Be Prepared to Co-operate
7. Have the Will-Power to Go On
8. Be habitual in all you need to do
9. Maintain the Quality
10. Be 100% Persistent

If you would like the opportunity to read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill simply visit our website where you can download the book and audio reading. To help you in learning this material I strongly recommend our High Performance Meditation Music at - Meditation Music

Small Business Owners Marketing and Customer Service
By: Adam Heist

Marketing can be time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be hugely expensive now, thanks to the Internet. By using e-mail and keeping in touch with your clients on a regular basis, you can increase your business without any mail costs.

One big problem for small business owners is the tendency to try to do everything themselves. You have to learn to lead and to develop other people. Also, it is worth the expense to hire an accountant, have a lawyer on call, and use other outside services. If your business is at all profitable and worthwhile, you need time to develop your business. Whether you are in the food and restaurant business or writing e-books and marketing them, you need to devote your energy primarily to what makes your business function. Take the time to socialize with business people. Even if you are doing the best kind of internet research possible, you have to get out there and talk to business people to know how to ask the right questions.

By going to classes and seminars you can learn new ideas and get a chance to network with both clients and vendors so you can both improve your business’ operations and also find more clients. Business to business sales operations tend to accelerate more rapidly for small business people because the orders are larger than clients one by one. Going to a business associate’s Christmas or New Year’s party can be much more than an opportunity to get drunk on five martinis. Once you are over 40-years-old, your acid reflux problems will probably preclude you from doing that in good conscience anyway. So get out there and talk about the real estate market, computer aids to business, or whatever relevant topics there are for you, and get some business cards. You’ll feel a lot better about it later, and you won’t have a super hangover.

Work on your customer service, it’s what keeps customers coming back. Many small business owners spend huge amounts of time and money on advertising and public relations, but tend to neglect the important area of customer service. When you fill an order on a mail-order or electronic information product, do you take the time to email the customer after the order to make sure that they are as satisfied as possible? You can do this by an automatic e-responder, but often, a simple and short note that you compose is worth the effort.

Setting Up a Small Business
By: Adam Heist

It can be scary to set up your own business, even when you know what you’re doing. The statistics say that most new businesses fail during their first year of existence. Businesses can fail because of inadequate planning, too much competition, not enough profit margin, or disagreements between partners, or owners and key employees. Many people need a lot of capital to start up a new business, since the business may not make money right away.

If fact, as in the well known cases of several Internet businesses, some operations can lose money for years, and still receive adequate investment to continue and grow, and make an eventual profit. You may have to hire advisors, such as lawyers and accountants. True, you can and should read law books to find out in general and in many particular cases what are the laws regarding your business. Likewise, you can manually, or using a computer program, organize basic accountant statistics for your business.

The problem is when you have to pay taxes, you need to properly organize your payroll taxes, sales tax, etc, and use all the tax deductions you are entitled to, and make sure that these are well-documented. You may need other advice to get an adequate idea of business trends. In today’s speculative economy, the trend toward rapid rises of prices and types of businesses, and their subsequent collapse can be devastating especially for new businesses. We have the recent example of the Internet bubble, which attracted huge amounts of capital in the late 1990s, and then went into a general collapse, as a speculative bubble that popped by early 2001. Many new business owners buy into a franchise.

The logic of this is that there is some security in investing in a name brand and business infrastructure that has some experience. Some of the largest businesses in the United States have been able to keep growing by selling franchises around the country, and continually expanding the extent of their storefront operations. Of course fees and capital investment are involved in setting up a franchise, and you must relinquish control over some decisions on how to present the business to the world. If you are interested in the type of franchise, as something you like to be involved in, whether it is car repair or fast food, this can be a good way to get into business quickly.

Adam Heist is widely recognized as an expert in all loans related circles. Adam boasts over thirty years experience in northern rock homeowner loan related fields. Adam has appeared in many newspapers, and in article directorys and website across the internet. Visit us today.

Small Business Grants - Business Grants - Government Grants for Small Business
By: Matthew Lesko

Why Is the Government Willing To Offer Grants for Small Business?

Are you an entrepreneur who is in need of a business or small business grant? Do you feel that you are motivated and experienced enough to start a business of your own? Are you in need of free money to begin a business but haven't got a clue as to where to start? You don't need to look any further; there is hope for your small business. As an incentive to small business owners, the united States government allots millions of dollars in government grant money to help small businesses to develop and grow.

There are millions that are unclaimed every year resulting from a lack of knowledge regarding grants from the government. Thanks to Matthew Lesko, there is more information out there about ways you can obtain free government grant money for small businesses, living expenses, college, and more. Matthew Lesko is the author of several books to educate and train individuals just like you on the way to receive small business grants from the United States government. An average individual may feel a little skeptical of any chance to get free government money and will likely want to ask at least some of these questions: What's the drawback to getting a small business grant? What exactly does the government get out of making an investment in small businesses? What can I do in order to obtain more general information and tips about small business grants?

The United States government does not give out federal money for beginning small businesses. The SBA, or Small Business Administration is a Federal government agency who advocates, supports, provides resources, and protects the interests of small business issues. The federal government has left it up to individual states to issue funding through state grants to help small businesses to develop. Small businesses are extremely important to the economic stability of the U.S.. With this in mind, the Small Business Administration has a mission to invest both funding and time into assisting entrepreneurs so they can start, build, and grow small businesses. Giving support to a new business by providing a small business grant is a small gesture when the economic improvement and growth of America plays a role. It's said that 50% of all small businesses aren't going to make it past their first year. Why aren't small businesses more successful? Not enough funding and a lack of experience are a couple of the more familiar reasons as to why small businesses fail in the first year.

Why does the government give out small business grants to assist entrepreneurs and the self employed with start up costs if small businesses have such a high failure rate? Why exactly does the U.S. government have an interest in small and personal businesses? Small businesses are likely to represent 95% of all employers in the US. Furthermore, they produce 50 percent of the gross domestic product of the country. Small business grants are given to small business owners in order to encourage and promote growth in the economy. Three quarters of all new American jobs are offered by small businesses. If you're an entrepreneur, the U.S. government provides grants in order to help your business succeed and be profitable. If you need some help finding more information on grants for small businesses, it would be a great advantage to hear about what Matthew Lesko has to say about free money that may be available that will help your business to grow and develop.

His research and study shows that more than a million small business owners are awarded small business grants each and every year. These grants might be available by way of the local government of your specific state. It's important to keep in mind, that by assisting these small businesses to flourish and grow, the United States economy will grow too. Small business grants are an incentive to business owners and to the country's economy as a whole. The more small businesses that are started, the more employment will be created.

In order to preserve small business development and progression, the government will help by providing small business grants as well as additional resources that are needed for a business to thrive and flourish. About the Author: Learn how to get Small Business Grants! Matthew Lesko.com can show you ways to get available funding, regardless of your company's income, credit or age! Look at this web site for a totally free preview: http://www.matthewlesko.com/ now! For more information and recommendations about Small Business Grants, click here.Mr. Lesko is a writer that has written and published numerous books on how to get government grants for things like housing, bills and college. He can show you how with information on small business grantsat http://www.matthew-lesko.com./