My father, who worked for himself all his life, either alone or running his small business, said to anyone thinking of going for it (me included) that it would take ten years to get established. I couldn’t see that at the time but I now fully under…
- 2 days ago, 16 May 12, 4:44pm -

Top 5 Tips posts from the SME Blog are always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. 1. Using a credit card is actually a sensible thing for a business to do, provided they are going to be paying it off in full each month. Do…
- 5 days ago, 14 May 12, 7:00am -

A colleague of mine, Barclay Thompson of Clear Business Development, shared the following link (from Nigel Botterill called Networking – The Surest Way to Stay Poor?) with me the other day. Following that we met up for coffee earlier today to talk…
- 7 days ago, 11 May 12, 2:43pm -

- 8 days ago, 10 May 12, 3:50pm -

This is something I’m very curious about: if you had a “do-over” for your career, what would you choose to do? Would it be different from what you’re doing now? Is it too late for you to take a do-over? I’d Be a Football Coach Being a footb…
- 2 days ago, 17 May 12, 5:09am -

In his book Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, author Harry Beckwith offers two examples that he believes illustrate a curious truth. He’s “Difficult” In the mid-1980s, researchers at Cleveland State University created tw…
- 2 days ago, 16 May 12, 2:46pm -

If you ever have doubts about your ability to make a difference in the world, remember this quote: “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and ve…
- 3 days ago, 16 May 12, 4:26am -

The solopreneur life — it’s so, so glamorous! The home on the beach, the 4-hour work weeks, the world travel, the wealth and riches! If you’re a regular reader of my columns, you know that I’m kidding. This week our dog Griffin had, ahem, bow…
- 7 days ago, 12 May 12, 5:13am -

This is The Solopreneur Life’s “Featured Soloist,” the purpose of which is to give all of us a glimpse at how other solopreneurs operate their small businesses. Today we meet Derek Peterson. If you would like to be the “Featured Soloist,” p…
- 11 days ago, 8 May 12, 6:13am -

Through working with solopreneurs and being a solopreneur, I’ve learned that sometimes — oftentimes! — we need a person who will listen, a person who understands this wacky, wonderful life we’ve chosen. Oftentimes we don’t need advice. We d…
- 11 days ago, 8 May 12, 6:09am -

“All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.” — Brian Tracy “I saw the angel in the marble and…
- 16 days ago, 2 May 12, 6:38pm -

Since the early days of TheSolopreneurLife.com, we’ve had a rallying cry (and even a t-shirt): “There’s no plan B!” The cry expresses my belief that you can’t dip your toe into the solopreneurial pool; you need to do a cannonball. Bellyflop…
- 17 days ago, 2 May 12, 3:21am -

I want to share a passage from Laurence G. Boldt’s book, Zen and the Art of Making a Living: Imagine that in approaching the Quest for life’s work, you view, consider, and experience yourself as a hero or heroine tracking a great treasure which,…
- 19 days ago, 30 Apr 12, 1:44am -

When evaluating a business idea, I measure three areas: • The market’s wants and needs • The ability to meet the market’s wants and needs • The level of passion for the work But I’ve learned that I shouldn’t be measuring passion at all.…
- 23 days ago, 25 Apr 12, 3:56pm -

SEO (search engine optimization) is a critical component to any online marketing strategy. Its purpose is to help companies attract their ideal customers to their website and incentivize them to take a specific action or actions. When you create your…
- 4 hours ago, 18 May 12, 5:00pm -

It was just a little more than a year ago when I reported about the roll out of the Google Panda algorithm version 2.2 as Google further attempted to measure user response to the quality of their SERPs. Since then, they’ve made dozens of tweaks to…
- 3 days ago, 15 May 12, 4:27pm -

“The only thing constant is change” appears to be the tagline for Facebook. Seems the ever-changing and might FB has decided to do it again. This time, they are altering the dimensions of the profile picture from the 125 x 125 to 160 x 160. Here…
- 22 days ago, 26 Apr 12, 1:00pm -

When I say, “social media,” you say … “Facebook” “Twitter” “YouTube” “LinkedIn” Maybe you threw in Pinterest and Google+, too. Unfortunately, many solopreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses have been drawn by the buzz of th…
- 23 days ago, 25 Apr 12, 1:00pm -

Sure, you’ve watched ‘em on YouTube. You’ve shared other people’s videos on Facebook. But have you let your business star in its own online videos as part of your SEO strategy? If you still question whether online videos are right for your bu…
- 30 days ago, 19 Apr 12, 1:32am -

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is used in all aspects of web marketing. You need to understand as much as you can about how SEO works in order to get the proper marketing of your website online. When you use SEO in all of your content – both text…
- 9 hours ago, 18 May 12, 11:53am -

Convinced you need an iPad to make your life complete? You’re not the only one! The latest estimates say that there are some 7.5 million iPads already being put to use by rabid consumers world-wide, and those numbers are bound to rise even further…
- 2 days ago, 16 May 12, 11:13am -

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that if you do any part of your business on the internet (even if it’s just a simple website or blog), then you’re at risk of an attack from hackers. While we tend to read about the large corporate hacking targe…
- 4 days ago, 14 May 12, 2:17pm -

The term “guerrilla marketing” was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984, the same year he released a book with the same title. The term refers to performing marketing and promotional activities on a low budget. The unconventional tactics are des…
- 7 days ago, 11 May 12, 4:54pm -

Everyone has times when they lack motivation. On the other hand, you may be so motivated and full of ideas that you lose your focus because you are trying to juggle too many tasks at once. However, multi-tasking may do more harm than good. When your…
- 9 days ago, 9 May 12, 1:33pm -

What would you do if you lost everything in your Gmail account? It’s happened to some people – some Gmail users recently suffered a data loss. Gmail was able to get everything back for them eventually. However, it woke many people up to the possi…
- 11 days ago, 7 May 12, 11:55pm -

There are almost 800 million members on Facebook today. With this vast web of interconnectivity, Facebook is fast becoming the leading way for ideas and content to spread on the internet. If you want to go viral, Facebook is one of the main platforms…
- 14 days ago, 4 May 12, 4:17pm -

Is your small business massively successful despite everything – the economy and even your own doubts? Are you working less and earning more? Is your life filled with joyful prosperity? Do you know how to set MAGNETIC goals AND achieve them? There…
- 17 days ago, 1 May 12, 2:08pm -

Do you have to psych yourself up to make a sales call? Have you left ‘money on the table’ because you are paralyzed with fear? Do you sometimes miss seeing the opportunities that exist right in front of you? Why is it so difficult for you to ‘a…
- 18 days ago, 30 Apr 12, 5:02pm -

Some people are natural-born writers. They hold a pen up to paper and words start flowing. On the other hand, there are people who struggle to write a few paragraphs. Having a unique writing style will help set your writing apart from others, even if…
- 21 days ago, 27 Apr 12, 1:46pm -