What Small Business Success Steps Are You Missing?

Small business failure is quite evident given the data from the Small Business Administration. Every minute in this country, one small business opens and another one closes. So what are you doing as a small business to avoid this fate? From my observations and experience as a business coach, executive coach and consultant, I have witnessed 3 success steps that are missing within most small businesses.

Missing Success Step Number One – Goals Action Plan Business planning is talked about, but many small businesses even if they have one it is on the shelf somewhere. This is quite common as this same malady affects even much larger businesses. A goals action plan is what makes a strategic plan executable. By having written goals for:

Marketing Sales Financials Customers Management Quality

you as the small business owner can take control of the destiny of your business. Fate is no longer in control. You are now in control.

Missing Success Step Number Two – Attitudes What attitudes do you have about your business, your goals, your customers, your employees, your business success? Attitudes are literally habits of thought that are repetitive in nature. Much like the Little Red Engine that said I think I can, I think I can. With those determined and positive attitudes, the Little Red Engine did what he thought. One of my favorite quotes is by Henry Ford who said If you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you are right. Those thoughts will lead to your small business success or small business failure.

Missing Success Step Number Three – Self Leadership Skills Leading a successful small business begins by first leading yourself. Self Leadership Skills will help you navigate through the rough seas and take advantage of the smooth ones. Unfortunately Self Leadership Skills are not actively taught in the K-16 educational experience. These are usually learned through experience, mandated training or better yet through self directed learning. Research from many institutions confirms that Self Leadership Skills are more valued than job specific skills. Are these the only missing success steps for small business? No, but they are critical ones. Look at your small business and determine if you are missing any of these success steps. Then take immediate action so that you can be a sustainable business success. If you want to learn more about small business success, then you may be interested in Three Missing Pieces of Organizational & Personal Success. Visit http://www.processspecialist.com/e-books.htm to learn more about this combination e book and e work book. Call me, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, The Business Coach, at 219.759.5601 or visit at http://www.processspecialist.com to explore everything from how my solutions double results to articles and resources including the Simply Speaking series. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leanne_Hoagland-Smith

Advanced SEO - The Characteristics Of A Perfect Incoming Link

What is a quality incoming link? This article describes the key characteristics of a perfect link. For explanation purposes, the sample company is a shoe retailer called Fred's Sports, and the keyword phrase being optimized for is "blue Nike sneakers". Key word phrase in anchor text Unless you put your keyword phrase in the anchor text (the text that describes the web site being linked to), you are wasting a lot of link power. Unfortunately a lot of people don't know this an end up putting their company name in the link text rather than the keyword phrase that they want their company to be found by. Much better that they link anchor says "blue Nike sneakers" than "Fred's Sports Store". The link is from a relevant page Google and the Google-powered search partners seek relevance in the interconnectedness of web pages. Incoming links should be from pages where the content on that page is related to the content of the page that is being linked to. A fishing related page linking to a casino site is an example of a non-related link. A jogging related page linking to a blue Nike sneakers product page is related and is looked upon favourably by the search engines. The link goes to a relevant page Another mistake that people make is always linking to the home page rather than to the most relevant page to the anchor text. If the link anchor text is "blue Nike sneakers" then the link should go to a page about blue Nike sneakers, not the home page. This is by far and away the most common linking mistake. The link is from an authority site Links from high Google PageRank sites are worth more, a lot more, than links from other sites. It's all about trust. A link from a trusted site tells the search engines that the sites linked to are also trusted - it's a vote of confidence from a credible source. Links from .gov, and .edu sites are also reported as having more weight than standard links. They are also more difficult to get adding to their perceived quality. The link is at top of the page Links from the top of a page (except for the header), are said to have more weight than links at the bottom of pages. It's the same with keyword phrases. A keyword phrase in the heading is worth more than in the body text. The link is one-way, not reciprocal Google's algorithm looks for link exchanges between sites and rates these links lower than straight one-way links. If possible, look for one way links by creating link bait - compelling content that will encourage people to link to your pages. The link is within the body copy - not an advertising zone Linking should be a natural part of the body copy. Recent reports suggest that the search engines will derate links from parts of the page that are traditionally sold for advertising. these tend to be the margins, header and footer areas of the page. The link does not have a nofollow tag The nofollow tag is a recent innovation that tells the search engines that although I am linking to this other page, I do not vouch for the page's integrity. In short, the nofollow tag tells the search engines to ignore the link. Obviously you do not want links to your web pages to have nofollow tags. Be careful with link exchanges. Some dishonest people will exchange links with you but use nofollow tags in the links to your pages to preserve their own link power. There are few links on page (less than 20) One link to your web site from a page with hundreds of links does little for your SEO results. The page's SEO power is being distributed over all the other links on the page. Goo;le's guidelines recommend no more than 100 links per page, but I believe 20 is a reasonable goal. You never know when the Google algorithm may change. The perfect page that links to your pages should have no more than 20 links. John Hacking, SEO Brisbane, is Product Manager for Search Tempo, a Brisbane specialist SEO company. Search Tempo also conducts Australian SEO training. For daily updates, check the SEO Blog. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Hacking

Debt Relief

Debt Relief From Debt Consolidation by: Jakob Jelling If you are up to your neck in debt, there may seem like there is no relief in sight. In fact this is not necessarily the truth. There are ways to take all of your stifling bills and roll them up into one neat package by using debt consolidation in two very popular forms Home Equity Loans, Refinancing Loans, and a Consolidation Credit Card. All of these instruments provide the debtor with one thing “relief” from the current debt by shrinking it down to a single manageable debt.Using home equity to consolidate debtsOne of the popular methods of debt consolidation today is the Home Equity Loan. What happens is that the debt is extinguished using the equity from a homeowner’s home. A loan is created outside of the mortgage in order to satisfy the debts. Should the homeowner default on the loan, their house is in jeopardy of being foreclosed upon if that loan is not satisfied with a specified amount of time.Refinancing loansPeople often consume the debt by rolling it into a new mortgage. This way the house costs more money to the borrower, but the debt is extinguished at close and the debt is neatly rolled away into the mortgage securely. Upon settlement of the loan, the debts are paid in full and satisfied. The clock on the mortgage is reset to day one.Credit card consolidationA low interest credit card is offered to the borrower to include any outstanding credit and loan balances. The interest rate is a low fixed rate for a period of up to one year, upon the year’s end it will resume at its normal rate. Upon acceptance and terms the account should be closed once paid in full and payments be made directly to the new credit card provider. Some people have been able to master paying off one credit card with another to keep the debt revolving and interest rates low. Some people fail to close out the previous creditors account and run them back up again as well.All three of these options provide solid relief for the debt and help them reconstruct and manage their debt better.By Jakob Jelling http://www.cashbazar.com/ How do commercial debt reduction companies work? by: Jon Butt Don’t stress it – commercial debt reduction companies are proven authorities in debt negotiation to reduce your commercial debt in the best way possible for you, especially when you’re least interested in the worst alternatives like Chapter 11. The best debt negotiation companies are there for your small business or medium-sized company - the size of the companies involved is never an issue to these debt negotiation professionals. The heart of the matter is debt reduction to take your commercial debt through rough patches including recession that creates those limited dry spells in your cash flow. Debt Negotiation Will Reduce Your Debt And Save Thousands Off Your Commercial Debt! You know what’s best for your business or companies – and debt reduction companies know best how to get your business back on track. Companies across the country have chosen a debt reduction program to effectively structure their commercial debt. Your debts can seem like an insurmountable obligation – and the most frustrating thing with commercial debt is that as hard as you work to succeed, your supplier companies demanding payment – or even larger factors like a bad economy - create bad credit issues that can be completely out of your control. You know you offer one of the best products or services in the marketplace, and all you need to do is reduce your commercial debt, re-establish your credit rating and get your business back on track. Debt reduction companies understand your hard work and best efforts, so you can depend on qualified counselors, CPA and legal pros in debt negotiation and debt reduction to put your debts on the firing block. About the author:Jon Butt publishes http://www.the-debt-reduction-guide.com/a free resource providing genuine, up-to-date advice for debt reduction, credit card debt elimination, the best online consolidation loans, how to get a decent credit score and, above all, how to avoid bankruptcy