Small Business Tips

Welcome to the second edition of the Small Business and Startups. As many entries as possible have been including, based on my time to read through each. If your entry is not here, it may appear in the next edition, unless it is either not relevant to the Carnival theme, promotes your services, or promotes specific affiliate products.

If you did make it in to this edition, please give a link back as soon as you can. Preference for subsequent entries is given to new bloggers (those not already selected in an edition) and those who have linked back to editions they’ve been in. If you submit regularly, and get in but don’t link back, then your own readers don’t benefit with opportunity of being introduced to other blogs - which is part of the reason for a blog carnival: networking.

Where provided, summaries of articles have been published here, though in future editions, I will try to provide my own summaries, when time permits. Enjoy.

1. Entrepreneurship 101: Is Entrepreneurship Right For You? by Daniel Sweet of Free Resume And Career Toolbox Blog. It’s an unfortunate truth that not everyone is capable of entrepreneurial success. It takes a certain kind of personality. Daniel has a new series of articles that may help you determine if entrepreneurship suits you. This one is the index, along with an introduction.

2. Get More Done with Activity Logs by Dr. Robert Karlsberg of The Road to CEO blog. Having trouble with your productivity? Dr. Karlsberg discusses how keeping activity logs can benefit you, and offers a PDF download of a sample log sheet.
3. 10 Reasons Why I Love Google by Jimson Lee of Speed Endurance. Bootstrappers and startups are always strapped for cash. And software can be very expensive. So how can you not love free software. Jimson lists ten web-based applications or services that Google offers for free. (I might be wrong, but I thought Google Apps Premier edition is only free for 30 days.)
4. Not So Smart After All by Mike Buckley of Mine Your Own Business. Mike offers an amusing story of why it’s important for businesses to maintain integrity.
5. 3 Huge Steps On How To Leap From The Security Of A Job To A Home Business by Cade Krueger of Small Business Opportunity. Not everyone finds it easy to go from a salaried job to a starting a business, and sometimes running it from home is more fearsome. Cade offers a substantial explanation of three steps that you can take to make the leap.
6. Planning Out a Short Term Project by Matt of Realigned Living. As the title suggests, Matt points out that planning isn’t just for big/ long-term projects.
7. There are Times When Features are Better Than Benefits by Jim Logan of Jim Logan. We typically market to consumers in terms of the benefits of a product or service. Jim suggests that sometimes it’s better to talk about features.
8. If At First You Don’t Succeed by Adnan of Entrepreneur Buzz. Despite the title, Adnan’s article is about being cautious about sharks when you start an online business. Although, if you don’t succeed the first time around… Well, you know.
9. 13 Things a Successful Entrepreneur Must Know & Take Action On by Edith Yeung of Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act. Edith discusses thirteen building blocks that entrepreneurs of any industry should take note of.
10. Advertising Jingles and Commercials - Radio & TV by Matt Hanson of Matt’s Creative Advertising Blog. Matt offers five rules to consider if you are planning on using running ad jingles on radio and TV.
11. How to Write a Headline and Grab Your Prospect by the Eyeballs! by Chris Tackett of Direct Marketing News. If your company needs to do direct marketing to gain customers, read Chris’ very detailed copywriting guidelines.
12. You Can Make More Working Less by Eric Hudin of Everyday Marketing Ideas. Eric offers up the radical idea that you can earn more by working less, provided you learn to be more efficient in your tasks.
13. 5 Distractions To The Nesting Entrepreneur by Ant of The Beef Jerky Blog. Ant cautions “nesting” entrepreneurs of five distractions that they may face. These are entrepreneurs that are still dipping a toe into the idea of going into business and haven’t fully committed.
14. How to Influence Others by Terry Dean of Integrity Business Blog. Terry offers six tips for positively influencing other people as part of your general business proceedings.

Notes
Here are some reasons for an article’s exclusion.

• Resubmitting the same article to a carnival. I keep all unpublished entries that meet the requirements and publish them when I can. If an article does not meet requirements, it gets deleted in my list. Not honoring this rule means permanent exclusion from this carnival as my time is limited and I don’t want to have to read it all over again.
• I’ve become fairly tolerant of the occasional typo or bad grammar, but if an article consistently shows poor grammar or spelling, it will not be included.
• Submitting articles where 90% of the content are quotations from someone else’s article.
• Articles you took from elsewhere, that someone else wrote and had published elsewhere.
• Articles about home-based businesses are okay, home-based jobs are not. There’s a distinction: having your own business, which this carnival is focused on.
• Not relevant or promoting services or an affiliate product.

To summarize, this carnival targets existing small businesses and startups, or entrepreneurs on the verge. What advice can you give them - business and technical - to help them towards success? There’s a wide spectrum of topics, including branding, identity, marketing, hiring, online efforts, success, productivity and more.

If you have an article that you think fits in, please use the Blog Carnival submission form. One entry per person per week (Monday through Sunday), please.