It seems like every week I learn about some new online tool that can automate some part of my business, enhance my marketing, make research easier or help me reach more of my target market.

It’s truly amazing what’s out there, and how many small and solo business owners have no idea that these tools exist. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day operation of our businesses and put research, strategy and systems development on the “I’ll get around to it next week” list.

Well here are a few tools that are worth checking out now. See how you can put them to work for you right away. All are either free or low cost.

Keyword research: My favorite tool is NichebotClassic. Open an account and keep your best keywords in an “account basket”. Keyword research is crucial for every business. You need to know what keyword phrases are the right ones for each web page, online article or blog post, and what your potential clients are searching for on the web, which will help you develop and position new products.

Tele-classes: Book a teleconference line for free at FreeConference for up to 150 attendees. Tele-classes are a great way to connect and share information with prospects and clients anywhere. There are many ways you can use tele-conferences to grow your business.

Automated phone calls: Use an customized automated voice message to alert customers of special events and offers or to invite them to an event. Even set up a virtual receptionist at VoiceShot.

Social Bookmarking: make bookmarking your web pages and blog to social bookmarking sites much easier and less time consuming at SocialMarker. It’s free.

Video submissions: Submit your video to multiple video sites all at once and be able to track how many viewer you get on multiple sites at TubeMogul.

Search Engine Optimization: Want free traffic from the search engines? Here’s a free tool that will help you see how you can improve the SEO on you web pages- SEOQuake.

Track your online reputation-this is great if you want to monitor what people are saying about you and your business. TrackUR

Check your website traffic ranking: Alexa. At the top, click on Traffic Rankings and enter your URL in the search box. Your Alexa ranking tells other business and potential clients how busy and popular your website is.

Get your website graded compared to others, and learn how to improve your website at WebsiteGrader. This tool doesn’t always work properly, buy hey, it’s free.

See how your website looks in different browsers with BrowserShots. You may find that your web pages look great in Internet Explorer, but not so great in Firefox, for example. It’s important that they look great in all major browsers so that you don’t loose visitors. This is also a free tool.

Just a few cool tools. I’ve got many more I’ll share with you in the future. Do you know of a cool tool? Please include it with your comment or join my free marketing forum at:

http://greatmarketingideas.ning.com/  and share it there.

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Opening and running a small or solo business is a daunting task that takes courage, passion and grit. It often takes a while before you hit that sweet spot where clients and profits start to flow in and you begin to breathe a sigh of relief. You look forward to that feeling of elation that takes over as you realize that your dreams are coming true. You’ve climbed a mountain and reached the top.

If you feel like it’s a struggle just to keep your business chugging along and you’re wondering when you’ll get to that point, you’re not alone. Here are some important things to look at and think about now.

• Make sure you’re key products are something for which there is a clearly expressed need in your market-something for which people are hungry. Your prospects and customers will let you know what they want and you need to give it to them, rather than what you think they want.
• Check to see if your niche is overcrowded. Competitors may be crowding you out and you may need to re-focus in on a less crowded niche within your area of expertise.
• Carefully measure the results you get from your marketing efforts. Are you creating a flood of interested leads? If not, your marketing approach isn’t working and needs to change. You need a powerful, new strategy.
• Your message may be getting lost in the flood of information with which people are bombarded. Making your message fresh, unique and benefit focused-even remarkable and memorable- is key
• You’re great at what you do, but are you struggling with the “running a business” part, like marketing, selling, website, bookkeeping, systems? These Entrepreneurial skills will make or break you no matter how good you are at what you do. They need to be mastered.
• Do you have difficulty managing your time and staying focused on profit generating activities? The most successful 6 and 7 figure income Entrepreneurs are time masters.
• You’re great at the daily details, but are you good at big picture planning? Remember, no one else can be the CEO and strategy maker but you.
• Persistence and follow-through are key. Don’t give up if something doesn’t produce immediate results. I’ve seen people throw an ad in the paper and expect the phone to ring like crazy. When it doesn’t they pull the ad and move on to the next short lived idea. Have a strategy, then stick to your plan. Follow through and you’ll see results.
• Are you feeling some resistance to doing tasks you know are essential to your success? Many business owner clients have told me that they know what they should be doing but every time they try they find themselves procrastinating of doing a non-priority activity. That can lead to inertia. Tasks that drain your energy may be better outsourced so you can spend your time on profit generating activities. Outsourcing is a success strategy and more inexpensive than ever. Or break the task down into 10 minute segments. Anyone can devote ten minutes to a task, even if they don’t like it. What’s important is to keep taking action! Keep moving forward. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

If any of this rings true, know that you are definitely not alone. Every business owner has experienced some or all of these roadblocks at one time or another. And all of them can be over come! If you want to breakthrough to a new level of success and reach the top of that mountain you need a solid, proven business and marketing system that works.

Try answering this question: “What is the one thing, which if I did it, would make a huge difference in my business now?” If there’s more than one thing, write it down. Voila! You know what you need to work on beginning now.

To access a series of free videos that will show you a solid, proven business building and marketing system that can take you to a solid 6 figure small business income, go to http://www.MaximizeYourProfitsNow.com/

Janis

Recently I’ve heard painful accounts from start ups as well as established small business owners about how they are afraid.

They’re afraid because they feel that they have no money to grow, or they’re
overwhelmed or confused about how to get out from under the load of work that is keeping them stuck from breaking through to the next level. Is any of this true for you?

Are you truly ready for strategies, tools and ideas that could easily catapult you to
a healthy 6 figures a year? Some people say they’re ready, but they don’t have that burning desire to do the hard work.

If you’re truly motivated and looking for help, I’d like to give you a boost by introducing
you to some of the best proven strategies I know of that will help you reach 6 figures in personal income as soon as possible. It’s time to feel energizedand motivated.

Time to change and shake things up.

I’m opening the vault to release 5 audios that cover these topics:

==> Bootstrapping: What You Need to Know to Save Money on Marketing and Advertising

==> How to Promote and Market Your Small Business Websit to Make 6 Figures a Year

==> How to Build Your Expert Status So Ideal Clients Come to You

==> How to Move from Self-Employed to Financially Independent Entrepreneur 

==> How to Dramatically Increase Sales by Re-Purposing and Re-Packaging Your Products and Services   

This 5 audio package along with the written versions of each is available for download to my subscribers and blog readers for a short time only .

http://smallbusiness-bigresults.com/6-figure-audios.htm

BONUS: The first 50 people will also get a copy of 

**Create Your Own E-book Without Ever Writing a Word**

This 80 page e-book, written by a very successful Internet Marketer, will show you how to quickly create a revenue-generating e-book, even if you hate to write.

http://smallbusiness-bigresults.com/6-figure-audios.htm

Warmly,
Janis

If you are a small business start up, a micro or solo entrepreneur, you’re probably wondering where to find the money that will allow you to grow your business. Most likely, angel investors or venture funding are not a possibility. Actually most businesses start up by bootstrapping. They self-fund and find ways to ramp up with a minimal amount of money.There’s often a misperception that you can grow your business with no money. That’s not entirely true. There is a good deal of marketing you can do cost free, but you can also learn how to conserve cash and only spend on what is necessary. Think of it as a game. Make a list of the essentials that you need and go shopping.  I’ll give you an easy example of what I’m talking about. If you’re a woman, do you pay full price for designer clothes at the mall? Please! We shop around, look for sales and feel triumphant when we get a good deal. Think the same way about your business.

Here are some bootstrapping tips;

Start with a home office.

Even if you know you’ll eventually need more space, start out by creating a quiet, bright space at home until your revenues can pay for your rent. I tell business owners that when they can afford to invest 25% of their yearly revenues in rent, they can think about renting.

Phones

You can save a bundle by bootstrapping your phone equipment and service. With services like Vonnage and Skype you can get a full menu of services, including free long distance, relatively inexpensively. Also with a voice mail system, you don’t really need an answering machine. Make a list of the bells and whistles you need and find the company that will provide them at one low monthly price. Also realize that you don’t need to buy a fancy phone system either. Refurbished systems are available on the web, or you can start off with a simple phone from a local retail chain.

It also costs more if you register your phone number as a company rather than a personal line. To start out, list it in your name unless you have the type of business that potential clients look for in the phone book.

Branding

I’ve seen people spend weeks agonizing over the color or exact look of their logo and spend lots of money on endless revisions, when it would make little difference to their business growth. Shop around for both a graphic designer and web designer who have already done work that you like and who are reasonably priced. Online services like Logoworks can be a good bootstrapping resource.

Make sure your web designer can help you with search engine optimization and that they will design your site in a Content Management System, so you can easily make simple changes yourself rather than paying them to do it for you. You can save lots by learning about SEO, good copywriting and how to quickly generate traffic to your website for little or no money. That was the reason I developed this e-course, Maximize Your Website Now

Marketing

In Maximize Your Website Now I’ve introduced many ways to market cost free on the Internet. But offline you can also trade advertising for services or a percentage of sales revenues. Maybe you’re good at speaking. Find organizations whose members are in your target market and offer an information filled presentation. Be creative and you can cut your marketing dollars significantly while still getting a great ROI

Outsourcing

Rather than hire, outsource specific tasks. Outsourcing will save you from paying for underutilized employee hours. Need administrative assistants, hire a Virtual Assistant. Need someone to build links to your website, submit articles online, write press releases? Go to http://www.elance.com/ and let qualified professionals bid on your job. A great place to find outsourced help with your website is http://www.digitalpoint.com/. Go to the forums.

Sales

Rather than hire a sales person, find  joint venture partners who have already attained clients in your target market and see if they will endorse your service to their clients for a percentage of sales. Save yourself the struggle of want ads, interviews, training, monitoring, and payroll taxes.

These are just a few bootstrapping suggestions. Where else can you save money but still achieve the results you want?

Janis

This “12 Days of Christmas” giveaway always amazes me. This was the very first giveaway and each year it gets better. I keep saying I won’t download too many goodies, then I see stuff that I was interested in during the year; stuff that I know can help me in my business or help my clients, and now it’s free.

Here’s a short video that will explain how it all works so you can sign up. If you check back here periodically during the month, I’ll be reviewing  and recommending some of the offerings

Enjoy,
Janis

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