Business Blogs: Trends, tips, and real-life anecdotes from industry experts.

We asked 29 business owners the following question: “If you would have known then what you know now, what would you have done differently and why?” Their answers are not only insightful, but inspiring. Find out what they have to say…

What is the biggest marketing challenge that you have in your business? According to a survey by Marketing Sherpa, 78% of businesses say that their biggest marketing challenge is generating high quality leads. What marketing strategy is the best at accomplishing that goal? The answer is not what you think.

Ever heard of “The Conference Board”? It’s a global, independent business membership and research association. Their mission is to provide organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance, among other things.
They do a study on a quarterly basis that measures CEO confidence, which had increased in the second quarter of 2009, and of [...]

Negativity surrounds us. But now, more than ever, it’s important to stay positive. After all, it can be really easy to spread negative comments and get caught in a downward spiral of hopelessness. Don’t let it happen to you!
Toxic communications and people can be detrimental to your health and hurt your business. Without knowing it, [...]

Do you plan for a crisis? Of course not. But you can plan yourself out of one!
Let me weigh in here with another question: Who do you want to be? The person who goes on a hike  prepared with the Ten Essentials? Or would you rather be the one that blindly walks along and relies [...]

Economists and the media may debate whether we are in a true “recession” or not, but that doesn’t change the fact that sales are down and consumers are pulling back.  I’m certainly not excited about this, but I’m not traumatized either.  The economy is full of ups and downs and we obviously can’t have the [...]

From a post on 37 signals:
A couple of Getting Realish ideas spotted in Best Life magazine:
Greg Gianforte is the author of “Bootstrapping Your Business: Start and Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money.” In Follow Your Dream, he advises throwing out your five-year plan and focusing on building something now instead.
Gianforte describes how to [...]

So you’ve got some ideas, a decent prototype, and a couple customers to boot…now what?  Sadly, many would-be entrepreneurs fail at running a business before they even start.  The complexity of a business plan, lack of funding, and an army of competitors all create a standstill that causes those flames of business freedom to flicker.  [...]