Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?

This post from Generation-Y Start Up walks you through some of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and illustrates some of them by giving examples of real people who have those characteristics.

Are you a leader? A visionary? Are you confident? Disciplined?

For more information on just what it takes to be an entrepreneur, visit the Entrepreneur 101 page at your-small-business-guide.com.

Time Management Tips from Zenhabits

This guest post on zenhabits focuses on 3 Ways to Get More Done with the Power of Less.

We all know that focus is a key to high productivity, time management, and excellence. This interesting post gives some specific tips on how to get there.

Choosing How You Spend Your Time

I just read an interesting post on ShoeMoney about being more productive by cutting the dead weight in your schedule so you can be more productive. O.K., "dead weight" wasn't the word used by ShoeMoney, but this is a G-rated blog, so you'll have to go with it.

The problem is that he defines "dead weight" as including watching sporting events, playing video games, and spending time with friends. I was with him on the TV and video game part, but he kind of lost me on the spending times with friends issue.

Life is all about relationships. Our happiness is dependent often on the quality of those relationships. Time with family and friends is critical for personal, as well as business success.

Don't get me wrong. I totally agree with the spirit of the ShoeMoney post - if you're going to get anywhere in business you need to prioritize your time and manage it well. I have heard lots of people who are not successful whine about not having enough time only to notice that they waste a lot of it by thoughtlessly spending it on frivolous things.

The key here is thoughtlessly. The same sporting event can be a waste of time for one person and well-spent time for another. For example, if you're watching the ball game by yourself instead of taking care of a business-related task, it may be a waste of time for you. On the other hand, if you are sitting with your teenager and using that as an opportunity to talk with him and develop that relationship a bit, that's a very well-spent use of the time for you.

Successful people, and those on their way to success, have to make tough judgments about how to use their time. It is possible to choose people and relationships and still be successful in business. Without having the first, the second is meaningless.

Marketing Your Small Business

Marketing your small business can be very confusing.

Here are some quick tips about some things that work and some things that don't.

Tips for Staying Motivated When Working from Home

Sometimes the hardest thing about working from home is staying motivated and on-task.

Here are some great tips for staying motivated (and on task!) when working from home.

Staying Out of Trouble with the IRS

This article discusses 10 Ways Small Business Owners Get in Trouble with the IRS and how you can avoid getting in trouble with the IRS. It's worth reading.

When Does Marketing Become Unattractive Self-Promotion?

There's a guy I see on Facebook who is on my "friends" list. Actually, he's a friend of a friend of a friend, and that's how he got on my list. He's constantly posting self-promotional posts about upcoming events he's holding or posts that pitch his services. It's ok. It's unfortunate that he's just pitching, pitching, pitching and never sharing anything about who he really is (because he would get so much more business out of Facebook if he would), but that's his business.

Then he jumped on the bandwagon of this new Facebook fad - creating a fan page for yourself, signing up as your first fan, and then trying to get others to sign up as your fan. I guess he thinks it will be more prestigeous to have a bunch for fans than to have a bunch of friends. Maybe it is. Who knows?

The problem is that his annoying approach of constantly marketing himself in that medium (Facebook) crossed the line to a really unattractive form of self-promotion. Creating a fan page for yourself and then signing up as your first fan - really? You think that's a good marketing approach?

Really good marketing is about establishing relationships. You establish a relationship between yourself and prospective customers or clients. It's not about becoming a celebrity. It's about developing trust.

It's true that name recognition is really good. And it's also true that celebrities can sell a lot of stuff. But there has to be some substance behind it. I don't care what the world of reality TV and overnight celebrity says. Real and sustainable success in business is not about over-the-top self promotion. It's about offering something of value and developing positive and long term relationships with those who can benefit from what you offer.

The number of people who sign up on the fan page you created for yourself really has nothing to do with it.

Making Success Happen

I run across people all the time who have a long list of reasons why they aren't successful with their business....or their life. It's the economy. It's lack of time. It's the high cost of marketing. It's the lack of balance in their life.

I suppose it would be great if we could just hit a single button and become successful, but then again, if it were that easy, everyone would do it....or would they?

We humans tend to get pretty comfortable with the life we know, even if we say it's not the life we want. We fall into a comfortable routine of doing what we have always done, day in and day out. Sometimes we look at others who have been successful and ask, "Why not me?" And we attribute their success to luck, or who they know, or where they live, or...or....or.... without ever really considering what they are doing differently than we are.

While it's true that they are people who work very hard and never find success (for many reasons), the most common scenario is that if we want success, we need to work for it. We need to do something different. We need to stretch ourselves. We need to look at others who have been successful, and do what they did.

We need to take action.

There are many different actions to take, but the first and most important thing is to do something.

Do something different.

Push the success button. Start with a decision to take action...and then take action.

Now.

Today.