Small Business Tips: Top 25

Could you use some helpful tips to grow your business?

I’m sure you can, and what better way to help small business owners like you then to share some of my favorite tips from our country’s top industry experts in their respective fields.  

Below you will find a personal collection of some of my favorite golden nuggets from the country’s brightest minds in the areas of startups, small business, corporate finance, credit, internet marketing, social media marketing, blogging, working online, selling online, branding, and much more.

Now, without further ado, here they are:

#1. Lisa Barone. “If you want people to talk about you, you got to listen to something nine-time Grammy-winner Bonnie Raitt told us way back in 1991. People want to talk and you gotta give ‘em something to talk about.”

#2. Chris Brogan. “I continue to believe that affiliate marketing is the best possible method of extending your salesforce on the web. I think that finding passionate people with applicable communities and audiences and then enabling their ability to profit from selling a product they support into their community is the gold standard of marketing on the web.”

#3. Tim Berry. “Remember that your business plan should be only as big as what you need to run your business. While everybody should have planning to help run a business, not everyone needs to develop a complete formal business plan suitable for submitting to a potential investor, or bank, or venture contest.”

#4. Jim Blasingame. “We sometimes get so wrapped up in our business that we risk losing our grip on the things that really matter:  health, happiness and those who love us. Life is short! Enjoy every sandwich!”

#5. Anita Campbell. “When competition is tough as it is today, you have to have more arrows in your quiver. What’s the answer? Today it’s 2 things. Search is one. I’d add social media as the other. If you don’t at least know the basics of SEO and social media, you’ll have a harder time growing your website and your business”

#6. Marco Carbajo. “Avoid putting your personal credit and personal assets at risk and start establishing business credit under your corporate entity. By doing so you will have the ability to obtain 10 to 100 times greater credit capacity.”

#7. Brian Clark. “People want compelling content, so compelling content is your advertising. And using the right words in the right persuasive way determines not only how well your site converts visitors into sales, but also how much traffic you get and how well you rank in search engines.”

#8. Gerri Detweiler. “If you actually do own a business, keeping your business and personal purchases separate can be crucial for tax purposes.”

#9. Melinda Emerson. “You must do something every day to tell the world you are open for business.  Even if you just make one sales call a day, send out one helpful tweet a day, write one article to promote your expertise, or send one follow-up email a day.”

#10. Tim Ferris. “One of the most valuable exercises an entrepreneur can perform is to take a step back, not looking at what’s popular, not consider what everyone is doing or what people are expected to do, and really ask what rules you need to set for your own business, from a process standpoint and a cash flow standpoint, so that it can be successful.”

#11. Seth Godin. “You have to go where the other guys can’t. Take advantage of what you have so that you can beat the competition with what they don’t.”

#12. Brian Halligan. “Change the mode of your web site from a one-way sales message to a collaborative, living, breathing hub for your marketplace.”

#13. John Jantsch. “Craft a strategy that compels customers and partners to voluntarily participate in your marketing, to create positive buzz about your products and services to friends, neighbors, and colleagues.”

#14. Guy Kawasaki. “Don’t wait to develop the perfect product or service. Good enough is good enough. There will be plenty of time for refinement later. It’s not how great you start—it’s how great you end up.”

#15. Diane Kennedy. “Each product and product line must stand on its own merit. There is no room for dogs in a company that is bootstrapping.”

#16. Rieva Lesonsky. “Whether your business is just starting out, or whether you’re a seasoned veteran, marketing is a must. And during an economic downturn, marketing matters more than ever. Smart marketing can give you the edge you need to succeed–in any economy.”

#17. Joel Libava. “The entire business world is learning that transparency is really the way to do business. Not many industries will be able to escape this fact in the near future.”

#18. Mike Michalowicz. “Success is not determined by your background or your cash on hand. It is exclusively dictated by your beliefs. If you truly, emphatically believe you will succeed, you will. If you don’t, you won’t.”

#19. Barry Moltz. “Investors put their money in people not a business. The better team you have, the more money you will be able to attract. Get people on your team that have industry expertise and that have been there before. Investors want track records.”

#20. Darren Rowse. “Aim to be unique, remarkable, compelling, and most of all, useful, and your blog will have success long after many other bloggers have given up.”

#21. David Meerman Scott. “On the web you are what you publish”

#22. Brian Solis. “Create a space in the online ecosystem that truly represents your business and cultivates your customers’ loyalty and trust.”

#23. Steve Strauss. “Often untapped sources of funding are your own suppliers, wholesales, and distributors. These are large businesses that want your business and may be willing to lend you some money or inventory, provided they believe in your vision and plan.”

#24. John Warrillow. “So how do you know if you have a scalable business? Here are the three criteria: Teachable, valuable and repeatable—that’s your valuation trifecta.”

#25. Ken Yancey. “Test your marketing message on a mentor, adviser, coach or someone who you believe represents your customer base. Ask them specific questions about whether or not the message gets across.”

Once last tip that I just have to mention even though it’s so simple yet so powerful is from none other than Pete Cashmore which is “Do what you love.”

So there you have it: 25 of my favorite small business tips from our country’s leading industry experts, all sharing their insights on how you can succeed in business today.

Do you have any special tips that you would like to add to this list?

Looking for business credit tips? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to vendor lines of credit, fleet cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

 About the author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He is a business credit blogger for AllBusiness.com, a subsidiary of Dun and Bradstreet and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in American Express Small Business, Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain.