Carnival of Small Business Issues

Carnival of Small Business Issues - Edition 14

Welcome to the 14th edition of the Carnival of Small Business Issues.

I was without an Internet connection for most of the weekend - thanks to our service provider. Hence the delay in posting this carnival.

We received some great posts this week. I hope you do link back to this carnival.

Enjoy!

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Marketing

• Becky McCray blogs at Small Biz Survival. The thing I like about Becky’s blog is her down-to-earth writing style. Take the case of Simplified Online Marketing. Her advice, “Focus on having an active online presence where you customers can find you, and then engage your customers in conversations online …”
• While on the topic of online marketing, we all know that search engine optimization, or SEO, is crucial for success. But very few online marketers actually know how to effectively enhance their online presence with effective SEO techniques. Courtney Tuttle at Make Money Online with Court discloses 10 Secrets of Advanced SEO Copywriters.
• Continuing with our online marketing tips on tactical stuff, Susan Velez says, “Traffic is the lifeline to any website, blog, business … if you don’t have it then you are not really in business…” in her post The Truth About Traffic Generation.
• Widgets. Oliver Muoto at vFlyer blog categorizes widgets for your convenience in his post Widgets, blogs and online sellers.
• While sales is technically not marketing, I’ll talk about Jack Yoest’s post, Close the sale: Make the pain worse in this section itself. Neat headline - a shining example of what Chris was talking about above. I’ll let you click through and discover its contents yourself.

Operations

• Stephan Töpfer at The Small Business Blog asks you not to spend too much time mulling over pros and cons of getting into business; i.e. don;t be paralyzed by analysis in his post Want to waste some more time before you start your business?
• But there is some basic information you need to know as an entrepreneur. Edith Yeung talks about this information in her post 13 things a successful entrepreneur must know and take action on.
• We talked about online marketing earlier, but have you stopped to consider where you are going to host your site? Jimmy Atkinson at the Dedicated Hosting Guide looks at 14 good hosting options for hardcore developers.
• “Business opportunities are everywhere, so it should be possible to find something that you can do. But don’t make emotional decisions and then try to justify it later … real business opportunities should be around long enough for you to make the right decision”, says George Courtney Jr. (The Authentic Bartender Blog) in his post How to find the best business opportunities.

HR

• How you take feedback? Positive ones makes you glow, doesn’t it? But what about negative ones? Dr. Robert Karlsberg at The road to CEO says, “one of the factors that distinguish expert performers from everyone else is how they interpret and use criticism.” in his post How to react to criticism.
• Tupelo Kenyon offers a similar advice on feedback - Don’t take it personally. He says, “It’s not about you - it’s about them.”
• If you are a leader, chances are you will be providing much of the feedback to your team (have you implemented 360 degree yet?) Michelle Cramer at GreatFX Business Cards says, “Being a good, strong, dependable leader is all about balance … you can’t always be easy going nor can you always be rough …” in her post The Balance of a Leader.
• As a leader, do you differentiate on how you deal with men and women? Alvaro Fernandez at Brain Fitness Blog shares his Top ten tips for women who lead men. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your tips Alvaro.
• As a small business leader you are trying to keep your overheads down. So it makes sense for you to hire independent contractors instead of employees. But you need to convince the tax-man about the working relationship. Elizabeth Potts Weinstein (The Wealth Spa Business Blueprint) shares her tips on How do you keep your contractors from becoming employees.

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