That thing you do - whatever it is - is your expertise. You know more than the average person about your occupation whether you’re in sales, marketing, production, distribution… doesn’t matter. You know more than most people about it. Surprisingly, this edge may be all you need to get an article published in an appropriate trade magazine! (It’s easy to publish on line, but it’s something else to see your name printed on dead trees. It’s heavy, man.)

“Euw! I hate to write - I can’t.” Save it. Yes, you can write about what you do. Why would you want to? Hinted above (the heaviness) of being published on paper can be an excellent branding/marketing tool. When people in your own industry see your byline, you gain immediate credibility, attention and respect. The potential of getting print published is highly likely to pay off as a lofty component of your reputation.

Here’s a good place to consider whether writing is for you.

But the best tip of all is this closely guarded secret: Magazines need ink! Many are actively seeking and enormously welcoming of an article contributed by someone in their field. I know this for a fact. Don’t delude yourself that they have great mountains of wonderful, professionally written articles just sitting around. Call an editor. Odds are, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Risk is an essential part of running a business. It can make your dreams come true but it can also shatter it if you are not careful. A new study shows that successful entrepreneurs are more likely to take risks.

Some 60 per cent of those with assets of more than $1 million said a high appetite for risk had been a big influence in generating their wealth, compared with 36 per cent of those with less than $1 million of assets.

Given that risk is all around us, you should learn how to take calculate your chances of survival in this game. Here are some of the things you need to consider:

1. Look before you leap. Research about the risk you are about to take and consult with experts in the field to gather more information. The more you know the better your chances of survival.
2. Have a Backup Plan. Because there are different ways to solve a problem, you should have an alternative plan in case things will go out of hand.
3. Rank the risks. If you are taking several risks, you should prioritize which one to tackle first. A good measure is to consider the consequences of each scenario and the probability of it happening. However, this is a very tricky method because it’s difficult to avoid subjective opinions.

Start your week with these 8 practical small business tips and news happening around the globe. More importantly, try to integrate these new insights to help your small business succeed.

Here we go:

1. IndyStar.com says true entrepreneurs seem to have a knack not only for spotting an emerging business opportunity, but also for spotting another opportunity within that first opportunity.
2. Do you know the basic psychology of marketing? Understand the difference between needs and wants? AllBusiness.com offers an overview of marketing and how it affects your business.
3. Do you really need to learn employment law? A new study in the UK shows that 78 per cent of entrepreneurs deal unaided with employee-related paperwork. This may be from another country but I have a strong feeling the U.S. has the same trend.
4. Time to brand yourself because CareerBuilder.com says like consumer products, you have a brand as well and that is your reputation.
5. If you want to hire good employees, don’t just rely on your academic books. Why don’t you try football? Rob of Businesspundit explains what you can learn from this contact game about hiring.
6. Regardless if you are in online or offline business, do you believe we are all in the business of ideas? Small business marketing consultant Amy Biddle suggests to all small business owners that our primary business is the business of being a visionary.
7. Because many Gen-Y people don’t want to climb the corporate ladder, will they succeed as entrepreneurs? Just combine the freshness of the younger generation with the work ethic of Gen-X or boomers and they’re good to go!
8. Jamie Herzlich of newsday.com says keep customers by keeping them happy. This might appear obvious but check again for you might be missing some important points in your business.

We’re giving to you the must-read tips for entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on gathering new insights to help you succeed. Read our compilation for today:

1. If you are a Six Feet Under entrepreneur or interested in running your own funeral home, you may want to invest in Maryland’s funeral industry because a new court decision has opened the door for more entrepreneurs to enter the funeral business under the legal and financial advantages afforded by incorporating.

2. Looking to expand your online business? Why not try the virtual world Second Life? Read this interesting news about how entrepreneurs reap profits from this site.

3. Protecting your business data like financial statements, marketing plans, or business plans is a very important task every entrepreneur should not forget. For $10 dollars every month, At&T is offering a Remote Vault service to allow small businesses with a broadband Internet connection to remotely access, copy and store data from PCs or laptops to an AT&T Internet Data Center.

4. Visit BootStrapMe to learn some great bootstrapping suggestions from a diverse group of business leaders. One interesting suggestion is to be honest with yourself by not chasing an idea forever if you can’t pull it off.

5. Fortunately, Rhonda Abrams of Gannett News Service believes cash isn’t the only way to reward employees. Understand how you can use well days, birthdays, extra time off, and employee of the week program as meaningful tactics.

Tired of spending countless hours surfing the Internet and looking for best marketing lessons suitable for your small business? Don’t worry! We’re compiling the most relevant marketing articles and news that will guide your small business towards success. Today, there are 7 marketing tips you may want to read:

1. Ageless Marketing offers a comprehensive guide on how an understanding of the seasons of life can make you a more effective marketer.

2. Branding Autopsy explains why the notion “to get a customer, a marketer must be willing to lose a customer” is one of the most important lessons he learned.

3. For online entrepreneurs interested of hiring SEO experts, Scott Buresh of The Post Chronicle offers a good advice - for your search engine optimization campaign to be truly successful, a search engine optimization company must understand your business, products and services enough that it can accurately promote them on the Internet.

4. Understand why Branding Blog doesn’t believe in low rent strategy.

5. Testimonials are great, if you know how to do it properly. Guerilla Consulting explains the trouble with testimonials and how you can avoid it.

6. A new marketing study by the University of Missouri-Columbia reveals it’s a customer’s loyalty toward the salesperson – rather than the products and services tied closely to the seller – that can inspire greater sales. However, this loyalty can make your business more vulnerable.

7. Running an online business? You should watch this insightful video loaded with important online statistics to help you understand the internet better.

Is your business a fan of creativity? A recent survey shows that majority of US workers suffer from lack of creative stimulation. This is a very fatal blow for many small businesses since creativity is the core of our existence.

In a study of 674 full- and part-time workers, 88 percent said they consider themselves creative, but only 63 percent said they are putting their creative abilities to use on the job, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey commissioned by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Moreover, 39 percent of respondents said they do not think of their company as a creative entity. Nevertheless, the survey found that 75 percent of workers believe their employers value their creativity.

To help you boost your creativity, I have gathered several resources for you to read:

Jpb.com offers numerous creativity tips such as 10 Steps for Boosting Creativity, 10 Creative Myths, and Creative Idea Implementation Plan.

Brain Reactions has gathered 31 tips for improving your creativity and I personally like the idea of spending time with kindergartens and trying new experiences to widen one’s perspectives.

Download this pdf file from Laughterremedy.com to learn how you can use humor to enhance your creativity.

Compass Life Designs guides you on how to unlock your creativity by exercising, brainstorming, and using affirmations.

Ettiengt at Flixya will help you boost your creativity using your 5 senses.

We’re giving to you the must-read news concerning small businesses and entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on learning new stuff. Today’s leading news include:

Nina Kaufman, an official blogger of WomenEntrepreneur.com, provides a lesson on how entrepreneurs can survive trademark lawsuits. She also emphasizes the importance of having a legal counsel before starting your branding and trademark process.

If you want to build your business, you should know the Dr. Stephen Covey’s 4 “L’s” of success in your career or your relationships – living, love, learn, and leave a legacy.

Involve your business in saving the environment by following these recycling tips. According to LondonTopic.ca, it will help lower operating costs through more efficient use of materials and resources, save waste disposal costs and show your customers that you are environmentally conscious.

The Seattle Times reports how business coaches can help entrepreneurs stay on task. According to David Matthew Prior, a business coach based in Saddle River, N.J., “Coaching isn’t therapy, and it’s not consulting. The basic philosophy is that the client knows the answers, and the coach is there to facilitate and provide structure, support and accountability. And there is no coaching occurring if the client is not taking action.”

As promised, we’re bringing to you the must-read news concerning small businesses and entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on learning new stuff. Today’s leading news includes:

Optimism remains high today. According to The Washington Post, small business owners expect their sales and profits to be the same or better over the next six months

Not so good news for female entrepreneurs because the law passed in 2000 that would directly help small businesses owned by women still hasn’t been implemented.

Confused with numerous online tools available in the market? Search Engine Land will guide you on which Google products a small business should use.

Learn how Arvizu Advertising & Promotions Inc, a startup company specializing in marketing to Hispanics, has succeeded using the simple guidelines - Set aside your ego. Find your niche. Go grass roots. Dream.

This is your chance to shine as U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is seeking nominations for the 2008 NH “Small Business Person of the Year” and other small business champion award winners. Feel free to volunteer yourself or other deserving entrepreneurs in this prestigious ceremony.

Can’t think of any good ideas to improve your business? Brainstorming might be of help to you. It is basically a team activity starting with the listing of ideas to unlock your imagination and discover the different solutions to your problems. In some cases it also advisable to have a brainstorming session alone.

All you need is a poster-size paper, pen, and coffee to boost your minds. Invite your reliable and outspoken employees to participate. You can either facilitate the session or assign one of the members to do it for the team. There are two ways to kick off your brainstorming session:

Pinpoint the Problems

A traditional trigger is listing down all recurring problems encountered by your company. This may come from your friendly customer service, sales, and marketing group. You may want to divide the problems according to process or department. For instance, late deliveries are categorized under distribution while annoyed customers are strongly connected to customer service team.

Word Association

If you are brainstorming specifically to write an advertising tag line, using word association is a more effective approach. This will help you link several keywords you can use that will strongly appeal to your market. You can visit the website WordAssociation.org to practice word associations and learn the most popular associations to common words.

You might also be interested to download a PowerPoint presentation on how to run a successful brainstorming session at Scribd.

Here’s something that will uplift your spirits. A new study (PDF, 26 pgs) conducted by the Small Business Administration (SBA) has revealed that the survival rate of small businesses has improved.

Survival rates over the five-year period were similar for the different size classes, except the smallest. The survival rate for establishments with 4–7 employees was 75.3 percent; this rate slowly rose to 84.2 percent for the 512–1,023 size class. Even small size classes had relatively high five year survival rates, 61.4 percent for one-person establishments and 70.1 percent establishments with two to three persons.

Isn’t that wonderful? Of course, but the big challenge now is how to survive the first five years. To supplement our initial post about survival tips, check out these new weapons against failure:

1. Stay focused on your goals and objectives. Exercise scenario planning to anticipate possible reaction of your competitors and develop contingency plans for potential problems.
2. Be patient. Do not obsess with the idea of overnight success because it does happen to all of us. Slow and steady is the way to go.
3. Increase repeat purchase. Get your customers hooked with your products by developing effective marketing campaigns and promotional gimmicks. Find ways to win back lost customers.

Via The Small Business Blog