So the summer has started with a big bang and you have plans to take a vacation away from your daily life. As a business owner, sometimes Summer vacation ca be scary to take. Basically, if you don’t have a backup plan in place where you have alternate source that can keep your business funning while you are away, then you might have to shutdown.

Image: SXC.hu

Shutting down could be the kiss of death for some businesses and thus some business owners may not feel that they can take a Summer vacation. For those of you who think that you can’t take a Summer vacation, I want to give you food for thought.

• Develop a strategic partnership with someone who you feel comfortable setting up a temporary agreement with who can support your clients. This will give you freedom for a vacation.
• Determine what tasks you are comfortable being covered by a strategic partner.
• Define a process of how you want your clients to be handled during your absence. Make sure to define the hand-out of basic information and receiving it when you come back from vacation.
• Deliminate a structure of how your clients like their work handled so that you clients won’t be hurt by the temporary transition.

Although these may seem like simple steps, they will make a big different in the long run. As you plan your Summer vacation and if it includes travel, I thought the video below would be helpful.

Today is a special day in the US where all around many are celebrating July 4th as Independence Day. What I want to do is encourage you as a small business owner to celebrate your independence. What I mean by this is that you should celebrate the fact that you have chosen to start your own small business separately from Corporate America or any other type of entity.

Image: SXC.hu edited by Kim Beasley

In choosing to celebrate your independence, there are a few things that I want you to keep in mind:

• Don’t be afraid to operate like the big Fortune 500 companies.
• Make a plan and stick to it as you grow your business big.
• Celebration is about excitement so if you are not excited about your business, restore the excitement.
• Even though you may be small, don’t think small, think big and plan big.

There are many examples of small businesses that started out small but ended up big businesses and being successful. As you take this journey to “Celebrate Your Small Business Independence” I want to encourage you to always be innovative, joyful, encouraged and finally mindful that you can be successful.

Below is a video that shows what happens when a small business celebrate its independence and success!

Credit cards don’t just strong-arm people; they strong-arm businesses, too. Or at least try to. Back in the day, MasterCard tried to force businesses to accept debit cards branded with MasterCard at businesses where those credit cards were accepted. Many businesses (including Wal-Mart) took umbrage, claiming that the move created, in effect, a trust situation and tied the acceptance of debit to the acceptance of credit cards. Businesses claimed MasterCard was threatening them with revocation of the ability to accept its credit cards if they did not also accept branded debit cards.

In 1996, an antitrust suit was filed. In 2003, the suit was settled, reports TheStreet.com:

The Purchase, N.Y.-based company settled the suit in June 2003 with a number of U.S. merchants that took issue with certain antitrust aspects of the payment card industry. Under the settlement, MasterCard was required to pay $125 million in 2003 and $100 million annually each December from 2004 through 2012.

Instead of paying all of that through 2012, though, MasterCard wants to pay $335 million by the end of the 3rd quarter in order to be done with the obligation early. This is a discount, since MasterCard would pay $400 million if things went forward as originally laid out. A court will have to agree before the new payment schedule can take effect.

It’s a savvy move by MasterCard. Paying off your business debts early is always a good choice.

Image source: Wikipedia

Have you ever felt like you were a failure at implementing your social media plan? Does it seem like your social media world is crashing down around you? Are all of your efforts starting to seem like you miss more than you hit the mark? Then I want to encourage you not to stop because success is right around the corner.

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Do you remember how many times Thomas Edison failed at making the light bulb? Most likely not but I bet you can remember that it only took one time for him to get it right for it to be considered a success. If you feel like you have failed at developing your social media plan, don’t worry because you can continue trying until you figure out a combination of tasks that work for you.

Let’s continue to look at the example of Edison to see what we can learn from him that could help you go from failure to success in your social media efforts. I’ve used the acronym P.E.A.K. to help you remember these four easy step to go from failure to success with your social media efforts.

• Persistence. Don’t give up. Just keep trying until you find a formula or process that works for you and your business.
• Enjoy. Don’t let worry get you down. Enjoy your trip from failue to success as you determine what works for you.
• Appreciate. Look at what you have accomplished and appreciate how far you have come along and then press forward towards success.
• Knowledge. Determine that you will research and find ways that you can try which could lead to your success with social media.

As you strive for your P.E.A.K. in developing your social media strategy, keep in mind that being different in your approach or trying something new is OK. Watch the video below and allow it to encourage you as you go from failure to success with your social media efforts.

Recently, the NY Times reported that Job Losses Rise in June as Unemployment Reaches 9.5% so transitioning from working a 9 to 5 (Corporate job) to Working at home (WAH) is slowly becoming a norm. According to this article,

The American economy shed 467,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent from 9.4 percent, its highest level in 26 years, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. Job losses were widespread among the construction, manufacturing and business and professional services sectors.

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In being affected by this, the common worker must make a decision in what will be their next steps to ensure that they have a steady income. Some of the things that they can decided to do are:

• Search for another Corporate America job while they are receiving unemployment in hopes that a job is found before unemployment runs out.
• Try to start their own business and work from home by using the skills that were used on a daily basis in their Corporate America job.
• Or they could also become a sub-contractor for someone else who has already started their own work at home business

Regardless of what decision is made, it is always helpful to know and understand the facts about what it will take to make either of the decisions above successful. Personally, I made the decision many years ago to start my own business after having my consulting project canceled without prior notice. It’s can be hard bouncing back from a layoff/downsize life event but it is possible.

To help you understand how others are dealing with this crisis, I thought the video below from MSNBC.com would be helpful. It’s one way that an unemployed man has decided to create a steady income using eBay. This is an option along with starting your own business. For instance, if you were an Administrative person in Corporate America, you might want to think about starting your own Virtual Assistant (VA) business.

I think we’re all going to miss Lela Davidson . She’s sassy and smart. You can still read her at Business Pundit , but I hope you’ll stick around here as well. (After all, you can read both blogs, right?)

I thought I’d share a little bit about me for my first post in this area. I live in Utah right now, with my husband and my son. I am a professional writer working from home . When not writing, I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, being outdoors and playing chess. My other writing for b5 can be found at Yielding Wealth and Bizzia Personal Finance . I also cover business, investing and finance topics for Banks.com and Mainstreet.com .

Corporate finance is often as interesting as it is depressing, and there are plenty of stories of triumph as well as stories of defeat. But there is always something to be learned.

In my article about Ford Motor Company’s social media plan, I shared how they implement social media within their business model and industry. For this part of the series, I wanted to share how you could use the same type of social media plan to grow your business.

Image: Newscom.com

One of the things I want to point out is how Ford held an evangelist search for those who would be able to help get the word out about their “Fiesta” event. This event centers on social media heavy-hitters bloggers who have been given a Fiesta car to test drive for about a year.

The heavy-hitter bloggers get to spend the entire year driving the cars and giving feedback to the car’s engineers before the release of the car in America. You see, the Fiesta hasn’t been released in the US yet and this is Ford’s way of conducting a Beta test before release the car to the US public.

As business owners, when you have a new product or service, you can learn for Ford’s example. Conduct an Alpha or Beta test with a small group of people so that you can get the bugs out before an official release of your new product or service.

Learn more about how the Head of Ford’s Social Media campaign explains how social media is implemented within Ford and some of their long-term plans for social media.

Remember back to when you were a child and you wanted to be a fireman or a lawyer or even a singer when you grew up? Yet when you became an adult that dream died. Have you had a business dream that has seemed to have died right in front of you? Don’t give up, just look at it as an opportunity to “Birth Your Business Vision” into fruition.

Giving birth to your business vision takes you believing in you and your business and also thinking outside of the box. What this means is that you need to think outside of the box that may hold you back from birthing your business vision.

Let’s look at ways that you can apply to your situation so that you can birth your business vision….

• Talent usage.
• Attend to vision.
• Keep it in focus.
• Expect change.

As you “T.A.K.E” back you dreams of success in business then you can follow-through with birthing your vision.

Don’t be afraid to reach for those dreams of success that you which caused you to  go into business in the first place. Try starting with making a list of those things that you would like to achieve in the next 6 months. You can break in down into one month intervals and then develop a plan for completing the list.

Keep in mind that as you give birth to your vision that you may be challenged to change in ways that you were not expecting. You may be challenged to step out of your comfort zone such as starting to speak at events or holding tele-seminars. Think outside of your comfort zone box and birth your business vision.

Yes, another Fortune 500 company has been bitten by the social media bug called Twitter. Although it’s starting to become a norm for big businesses to get involved in social media, it’s good to see how they approach social media.

Image: Newscom.com

It seems their philosophy is that they should connect with consumers via social media and communicate with them. I experience interaction with Ford when I wrote an article last year that included a link to Ford’s Facebook fan page. I accidently had a link to an old page and I was sent the correction for the right link within a couple of hours.

Because of the fast response time regarding the wrong link to the Facebook fan page, it showed me that they monitor their brand reputation online. As part of any social media plan, brand reputation monitor should be an essential key component. And by the example of Ford, we can see that it is important to them to manage their brand via social media websites.

Additional ways Ford is incorporating social media into their company’s marketing plan:

• Fiesta “Agents” are Heavy Hitters in Social Media
• Can Ford’s New Social Media Strategy Help It Become the Leading Social Automotive Brand?
• Twitter Websites: Ford | Scott Monty (Head of Social Media for Ford)

The video below goes into more detail regarding Ford’s social media plan and I’m sure you can learn a number of things from this video that will help you develop or enhance your social media plan. Please feel free to leave your feedback or comments.

As you manage your business, sometimes you may find that you come up against a brick wall. In a sense you come to a point where you are at a crossroad of decision and may even stall. One of the things that you may want to consider is to revamp or rebuild your business to help it grow.

If you find yourself at a crossroad, don’t get frustrated. Just take time to think about the direction that you want to take your business in whether it’s removing or adding services/products. Or you may find that you need to revamp current services/products that you offer. Regardless of the direction you decide to take, remember that it’s best to do it with input from a mentor.

In revamping your business, a mentor can help you see inside your business in a way that you may have missed. Since they are looking from the outside in, they can give you vital input to help you revamp your business that could help it grow.

Sometime dealing with failure can cause a change in your business and learning from the failure may help you revamp your business. Don’t be afraid of failure because you can bounce back from it and grow. To help you understand how you can grow from dealing with failure, watch the video below.