Business Success Tips

1. Too often, small business owners get so caught up in day-to-day operations that they neglect long-range planning. If you have a business plan, update it to reflect your current goals. If youve never written a business plan, do soit will force you to think about what you want to achieve in 2013 and beyond. .....

Take action

2. Dont put that business plan in a drawer and forget about it. No matter how busy you are, set aside at least one hour a week to assess your progress toward the goals youve set. Together with your partners and key employees, create action steps and set deadlines for accomplishing them. .....

Give your website a makeover

3. Does your businesss website reflect what you do, or is the information outdated? Does it look current, or is it sporting a design template from 1999. Does it load easily on mobile devices so customers can access your business wherever they are? Make the necessary changes to modernize your website. .....

Take charge of your finances

4. If youre not already using accounting software, make 2013 the year you upgrade. A program such as QuickBooks is inexpensive, easy to learn and makes budgeting and forecasting simple. .....

Plan ahead for financing

5. How will you finance your business growth plans for 2013? If you cant fund growth from profits, investigate options for outside financing, whether from bank loans, private investors such as angel capital groups, or your friends and family. .....

Start socializing

6. No matter what your industry, almost any business can benefit from social media. If you arent currently using social media, resolve to try at least one social network in 2013. If you are active on social media, step it up a notch by learning more about your favorite social network, posting more often or adding more videos and photos to your mix. .....

Delegate

7. Its tough for small business owners to give up control, but delegation is essential for business growth. Give employees more autonomy so you dont become a bottleneck in your organization. Try to structure operations so you can focus on your strengths and delegate the rest. .....

Assess your HR needs

8. Do your employees have the skills your business needs to grow in 2013? Whether you need to provide additional training, hire new employees or outsource to independent contractors, think about how you will fill the gaps. .....

Upgrade your equipment

9. Whether its technology tools like tablets and smartphones or a new pizza oven for your restaurant, small changes can make a big difference to your bottom line. Decide what investment would have the biggest impact on your productivity and profits, and figure out a way to make it happen. .....

Celebrate success

10. No matter how busy you are, be sure to celebrate when you, your employees and your business achieve important goals. Taking time out to recognize results will re-energize you and your team for the next challenge. .....

Get Organized

11. To be successful in business you need to be organized. Organization will help you complete tasks and stay on top of things to be done. A good way to do this is to create a to-do list each day - as you complete each item, check it off your list. This will ensure that youre not forgetting anything and youre completing all the tasks that are essential to the survival of your business. .....

Keep Detailed Records

12. All successful businesses keep detailed records. By keeping detailed records, youll know where the business stands financially and what potential challenges you could be facing. Just knowing this gives you time to create strategies to overcome the obstacles that can prevent you from being successful and growing your business. .....

Analyze Your Competition

13. Competition breeds the best results. To be successful, you cant be afraid to study and learn from your competitors. After all, they may be doing something right that you can implement in your business to make more money. .....

Understand the Risks and Rewards

14. The key to being successful is taking calculated risks to help your business grow. A good question to ask is Whats the downside? If you can answer this question, then you know what the worst-case scenario is. This knowledge will allow you to take the kinds of calculated risks that can generate tremendous rewards for your business. .....

Be Creative

15. Always be looking for ways to improve your business and to make it stand out from the competition. Recognize that you dont know everything and be open to new ideas and new approaches to your business. .....

Stay Focused

16. The old saying that Rome was not built in a day applies here. Just because you open a business doesnt mean that youre going to immediately start making money. It takes time to let people know who you are, so stay focused on achieving your short-term goals and give the rest time to come together on its own. .....

Prepare to Make Sacrifices

17. The lead-up to starting a business is hard work, but after you open your doors, your work has just begun. In many cases, you have to put in more time than you would if you were working for someone else. In turn, you have to make sacrifices, such as spending less time with family and friends in order to be successful. .....

Provide Great Service

18. There are many successful businesses that forget that providing great customer service is important. If you provide better service for your customers, theyll be more inclined to come to you the next time they need something instead of going to your competition. .....

Be Consistent

19. Consistency is key component to making money in business. You have to consistently keep doing the things necessary to be successful day in and day out. This will create long-term positive habits that will help you make money over the long term. .....

Target

20. You are not all things to all people. Decide on your niche narrow your focus and broaden your appeal. .....

Pay taxes if you must

21. The way you structure your business will provide guidance as to how soon you need to begin paying taxes on your earnings. Though there can be twists, the general rule is that if you operate as a sole proprietorship, you dont need to begin immediately paying taxes. Going by the letter of the law, if you make more than the de minimus amount of $400, youre supposed to file taxes quarterly, says Williams. But there are no penalties if during the year .....

Create the right legal structure

22. One of the first questions every small-busines owner must consider is whether to operate as a sole proprietorship or as a corporate entity. You automatically start out as a sole proprietorship, says Certified Financial Planner David M. Williams, founding director of Business Enhancement Associates LLC in Cordova, Tenn.Operating as a sole proprietor costs no money because you dont have to pay to create corporate documents and tax returns. Whether .....

Set aside self employment taxes

23. When youre an employee, your employer withholds roughly 15.3 percent of your income to fund Social Security. You pay half out of your pocket, and your employer covers the other half. When youre self-employed, you shoulder the entire amount. You dont have to make quarterly payments to cover the tax, but you can avoid getting stung at tax time by setting aside funds to cover those taxes. .....

Think hard about whether insurance is necessary

24. Few startups have extra capital to spend on insurance they dont really need. Can you save a buck by going without? In general, you dont need insurance until you hire your first employee, and then youll need a lot of insurance, says Mazzella. If youre working out of your home and your only liability is someone tripping and falling during a visit or losing your office equipment in a fire, you can make sure your homeowners insurance covers that. If .....

Make sure you get paid

25. What good is being your own boss if you dont get paid for your work? Wherever possible, collect 10 (percent), 15 (percent) or 25 percent of your fee upfront, says Bostrom. Your clients reaction to that request will tell you a lot about whether theyre capable of paying you.Always use contracts, recommends Alan Siege, president and CEO of Small Business Management Consulting in Brooklyn, N.Y. Specify clearly what the deliverables are and what and w .....

Offer what people want to buy

26. Too often, people jump into a business built around a product or service they think will be successful, rather than one that is already proven to have a market.What do I mean?Instead of creating and selling a new sports shoe with the latest trendy design and materials, youd be much better off from a business perspective to focus on shoe category generally (a proven category because which people buy shoes every day) and then focus more specificall .....

Get cash flowing ASAP

27. Cash flow is the lifeblood of business, and is absolutely essential to feed bottom-line profits. So you need to find ways to jump start cash flow immediately.How do you do that? In a professional services business, you can ask for deposits on work up-front, with balances due on delivery.You can do the same in retail, especially on high-ticket or specialty item and position it as an added value and a way to insure delivery by a specific date.You c .....

Always find new ways to keep costs low

28. All the cash flow in the world is worthless if its not positive cash flow, which means you have to bring in more cash than you pay out.To do this, you need to keep your costs and expenses low. Weve touched on this before, especially in terms of outfitting a startup. The main idea is to never pay retail , and look for used or gently used items to furnish your office or your retail space.Paying vendors up front also gives you leverage for negotiati .....

Focus on sales and marketing manically

29. In business, nothing happens until a sale is made. From the jump, youll need to find a good way to get leads, convert leads into sales, and make sure you keep getting repeat sales from your customers.The way to do this is to find or create a marketing and sales funnel system that you can work, test, measure; one that anyone in your company can utilize.Too many entrepreneurs focus on getting their brand right before they start to generate leads. T .....

Find ways to exponentially increase profits

30. In business, there are five drivers that impact profits. If you can master them while keeping your costs in check, you will run a successful business.Its as simple as getting more leads, converting more leads into customers, increasing the number of times those customers buy from you, increasing the average price point of your sales and increasing your profit margins.Do any one of those, while also keeping costs down, you will see more profits. D .....

Test and measure everything

31. You cant change what you dont measure, and you cant tell if a program or strategy is working if you are not faithfully testing, measuring and tracking your results.Another way to look at this is to think in terms of doctors. Most like to get baseline stats of your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing before they delve into identifying symptoms or recommending corrective courses of action.The same is true in your business. Why keep literally t .....

Accept that learning more equals earning more

32. If youve never run a million dollar business, you dont know how to start a business simple as that.But you can learn to run one, even if it is your million dollar business you are building from the ground up.However, you need to accept right now that learning always comes before earning (except in the dictionary). Youll need to be committed to learning as much as you can about sales and marketing and operations if you want to have a truly success .....

Dont discount add value

33. Whenever you discount, you are taking money directly out of your pocket and directly from your bottom-line profit. So dont do it. Instead, create added value propositions all the way up and down your product or service line.Whatever the industry is, look to hold your price points, increase your margins with the low-cost or no-cost extras and any kind of freemium offerings.In the end, those little things wont cost you a lot, but will build up trem .....

Get a coach

34. Even if you dont get a business coach at first to help you and guide you in your planning and operation, get someone who is objective and outside of your business you can rely on for nitty gritty business advice and to hold you accountable to getting results.Too often, we think we have all the answers and are the only people who can really get things done. The reality is that another set of eyes can work wonders for how you operate both on and in .....