Did you know that Business.gov has setup a website to help small business owner learn how to do business with the US Government. According to their website….

Business.gov helps small businesses understand their legal requirements, and locate government services supporting the nation’s small business community.

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To help you understand the things that are available to you through this website, let’s take a trip through some of the links on their website. There are eight main components of the website.

• Small Business Community
• Ask Questions, Discuss Issues
• Expert Insight & News
• Share Your Ideas
• Find Loans & Grants
• Get Business Licenses & Permits
• Register Your Business Name
• Get Answers to Common Questions

Now as a small business owner, taking advantage of these sources would be good for your business if you are trying to become a vendor for the US government. Would love to hear from those who have used this website to help them do business with the government.

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.

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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.

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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!

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.

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.

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.

As leaders know, being the go-to person can sometimes put a strain on your personal life due to emergencies that could come up on projects or at work. How a leader handles this type of pressure can affect the success factor of their leadership.

To help leaders deal with pressure and stress that can occur in their lives, I thought it would be a good idea to share a few “pressure relievers” that I have found helpful. See the starter list below:

• Always remember that there are only 7 days in a week, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour. Son’t try to squeeze more time into your day.
• Don’t allow your projects or emergencies control you and stress you out.
• When dealing with a problem, try to look at it from different angles to see if you can come up with different solutions.
• Let it go! Don’t hold onto the stress or pressure of a situation. Deal with it and then let it go so you can continue on with the project.
• Leaders can make mistakes. Don’t get hung up on any mistakes that you may have made or that one of your team members may have made.

Now let’s look at quotes from those who want to encourage to control pressure/stress and not let it control you:

Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way. Douglas Pagels

Being in control of your life and having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy,
healthy and rewarding life. Marilu Henner

How we perceive a situation and how we react to it is the basis of our stress. If you focus on the negative in any situation, you can expect high stress levels. However, if you try and see the good in the situation, your stress levels will greatly diminish. Catherine Pulsifer

Although the following video may not seem that it has anything to do with leadership, it does. Just take note of the points that he shares and listen how he deals with different things. Yes this is a funny look at key components of leadership. It’s OK to laugh out loud and enjoy the video. Please feel free to share your tips for dealing with leadership and life.

As business look for ways to outsource specific business tasks, many are turning to crowdsourcing as a way to fulfill their outsourcing needs. Crowdsourcing is the process of  outsourcing your business tasks to undetermined, usually a large group of people or community in the form of an open call.

Why use Crowdsourcing

For those who are looking for a way to minimize time and cost for outsourcing their tasks, crowdsourcing may an answer to your business needs. I understand that crowdsourcing may not work for every task or even every business owner. This is just an alternative option to meet your outsourcing needs.

Who offers Crowdsourcing

There are different options available to you as a business owner that you can check out. The type of website source that you use depends on your needs as a business owner. Whether you are looking for a branding source, or a creative source or you might be looking for a just a freelance resource website. Whichever you are looking for, I have created a short list of recources below:

• CrowdSpring
• 99Designs
• oDesk
• Elance

Check these out and let me know what you think. Also feel free to leave a comment and add to the list of resources who provide crowdsourcing opportunities. The video below provides more details about how crowdsourcing works.

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Many business owners use Quickbooks to manage their business finances as they monitor the revenue flow into their business. An alternative resource to this finacial software is Freshbooks which is an online resource for billing, invoicing and managing the finances of for your business.

Online business finance management is the key component to Freshbooks.  Below are a few services that Freshbooks can provide to you:

• Record keeping should be easy, fast
• Billing your customers & allowing them to process payments online
• Make you look professional (think Fortune 500)
• Let you manage your books without an accountant
• Secure, encrypt, and back up your data

According to Freshbooks website,

Our mission is to deliver fast and simple invoicing and time tracking services that help you manage your business.

They provide several payment plans for their services and you can even try it out for FREE!

Image: Freshbooks.com

With the state of the economy, have you found the getting customers to pay in a timely manner harder to do? Do you have customers who have been hit so hard by the recession that they can no longer afford your services or products? Do you have a plan in place to deal with this issue? As the domino affect occur in getting paid, business owners much find creative ways to solve finance issues.

Key to finding creative solution is being a listener to hear what’s going on with your customers and at the same time understanding how to handle your customers and their ability to pay. One of the things that you have to keep in mind is that with the recession, that many small business owners are finding that they can not afford to pay their bills.

In some cases, you may have to work out a payment plan with smaller payments from those who owe you. Or in cases where the customer is not willing to workout a payment plan, unfortunately you may have to take legal actions such as hiring a collection agency.

In the video below, additional suggestions are included to help you deal with the process of getting paid.

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