The great news is that we can avoid these pitfalls by taking a few, simple action steps. Implement the following five tips and prepare to be more effective, productive and in control of your day.

1) Make your space a pleasure to work in.

Take a few minutes to look around your workspace.  What about it appeals to your senses?  What about it inspires you?  What do you find distracting?  Is it comfortable and well-lit?

Ultimately, you want your office to be an energizing place where ideas can flow.  While a complete redecoration may not be something you want to tackle at the moment, don’t hesitate to move, eliminate or add furniture, change the paintcolor, add lighting or hang artwork.  We are at our most effective when we are feeling upbeat and positive which is greatly impacted by our immediate surroundings.  Personally, I get an instant pick me up everything is in its place and bright wallcolors add much needed vibrancy to the place where I need to be energized and focused.

2) Create and utilize a task monitoring system.

To keep you on track and focused in your freshly organized space, determine your schedule before the start of the workday.  Choose a method you are comfortable with and that is simple to use.  Prioritize tasks that will directly help you progress in your business or business planning and that align with your overall business goals.  Working independently, particularly when working from home, imposes many potential roadblocks to your productivity.  Having a clear list of items to complete at the start of the day will help you avoid the trap of simply completing busywork that won’t make a big impact on your business, and worse, will drain your energy and stall your momentum.

Speaking of momentum, don’t forget to turn off your email notification.  It never ceases to amaze me how much time so many of us waste on checking email.  Don’t sabotage your efforts to stay focused by utilizing the email pop up notification system. Instead, set two or three times throughout the day to check and respond to email.  In addition, if you don’t need the internet for your current activity, don’t hesitate to use internet blocking software.  You are actually taking an empowering, proactive step to ensure you can complete your day’s work.

3) Separate business from personal.

I operate from a home office where personal bills, paperwork and tasks naturally make their way to my desk.  The resulting stack of unfinished business is distracting, to say the least.  It is important to organize these items separately from your business activities.  Designate a segment of time apart from your workday to address them and a separate filing system to house personal paperwork.  Of course, you will need to spend the bulk of your time focusing on business related efforts so as you handle intermittent or ongoing personal items, be sure to keep clear notes as to status and next steps to avoid later confusion and wasted time.

4) Take the effort out of organization.

Create a simple organization system for your desk and paperwork. Spend some time considering what will work for you; implementing an easy to follow system now will save you time and frustration later.  The key is to make the system perfectly clear and intuitive so that it really takes little to no effort beyond just a few minutes at the end of your day.  Be sure to create a home for every item that comes across your desk and discard anything that is unnecessary or outdated.  Clear labeling and easy access are also important.  I used to file personal financial information in a small, overstuffed cabinet in the closet.  I often found myself piling paperwork on top of the cabinet to avoid having to kneel in the dimly lit closet.  A waste of mental energy!  Instead, make the location as inviting and easy to access as possible.

5) Wrap up your day neatly.

End your workday or work session by taking a few minutes to file paperwork and close out documents or programs that you have been working in.  Conduct a quick status check of your to-do list and remaining projects so you can gauge how well you stuck to your plan, tweak your approach for next time and know where you need to start the next time.

The end of the day is a great time to create your to-do list for your next work session.  (Although I personally prefer to make mine right before I go to sleep when my mind is at its calmest and things are at their quietest.)  If you have pressing things to attend to post workday, say a networking event or activities with your children, stop working a few minutes before your deadline.  You will thank yourself tomorrow when you are able to start immediately on the important work and plow through your tasks.

Implementing the above habits will do a great deal to determine just how effective and productive you are.  Do you have any tips or recommendations for staying focused and optimizing your production?  I would love to hear them!  Please share below.

Rebecca Malik is the President at 17thandRiggs.com, an online source for contemporary furniture and lighting.  Her site has been featured in well-known publications such as Southern Living and online with sites such as the popular Daily Candy. She is a blogger for WomenGrowBusiness.com, where she shares ecommerce and small business management tips.  You can connect with her via Twitter (@rebeccasm) or at her blog, The View from 17^th and Riggs.

We decided to compile a list of the top ten entrepreneurial mistakes we see students make as they learn the ins and outs of what it takes to survive as entrepreneurs in today’s complex society.

1.  Not having a clear focus. The most important—and often most difficult—part of starting a business comes down to knowing how to prioritize and understanding the tasks involved.

2.  Hiring the first person they interview. Venture Capitalists invest in teams, not just business ideas. It is crucial to put the time and energy into bringing the right people on board.

3.  Being too repetitive in their Business Plan. Keep in mind that while repetition can be good, too much repetition is a turn-off to potential investors.

4.  Not being open to constructive criticism. Entrepreneurs sometimes fail to realize that constructive criticism is an invaluable tool for them as they develop their businesses. Learning to see it as positive feedback can be largely beneficial.

5.  Rushing into funding. Entrepreneurs often pursue any and all sources of money before they have thought through their venture.  Planning always leads to more intelligent use of funds.

6.  Getting publicity too fast. Publicity is all about timing.  Waiting until your business has stories to tell and not just dreams to share will yield more effective coverage.

7.  Not communicating with customers. Entrepreneurs sometimes love products more than customers. Doing adequate market research will help you understand if you are actually meeting the needs of your customers.

8.  Not taking it step-by-step. Entrepreneurs often don’t know where to start and how to set milestones, so they try to do everything at once. Remember that there is a great deal ofvalue in milestones. What tasks are more important than others? How do you select milestones?

9.  Incorporating too soon. First-timers will often rush to incorporate their businesses before they should. It is beneficial to actually start business ventures before fronting the costs of incorporating to ensure that everything goes according to plan.

10.  Forgetting that entrepreneurs need to eat, too. Many entrepreneurs, particularly students, will draw up a three to five year plan in which they will not pay themselves a salary that allows them to survive after they graduate. Remember that entrepreneurs have needs too (like eating!) that simply cannot be ignored when planning a venture.

Dan Gregory, Chris Wolfel and Evan Stein contributed to this article.

When you’re launching a brand new e-commerce site, how do you get noticed when giant online retailers like Amazon, Zappos, and Overstock – not to mention the online stores from well-established bricks-and-mortar mega-chains – are casting such long shadows?

We all know e-commerce is big business – according the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly $965M was spent online in January – a 9.4% increase from January 2011.  Boston-based Karmaloop, an online retailer that specializes in edgy, underground brands, launched a new site last week called Brick Harbor.  I spoke with Chase Whitaker, Brick Harbor’s Director of Operations, about how to stand out from the crowd and build a community around your e-commerce site.  Here are 5 takeaways from our conversation:

1. Go niche: Brick Harbor is a site created and run by skateboarders for skateboarders.  (Whitaker has been skateboarding for more than 20 years.)  They specialize in hard-to-find, international, and emerging brands.  You can’t get more niche than that!

2. Give ‘em what they want: “Brick Harbor was launched because there was so much success with skate-specific brands on Karmaloop,” Whitaker said.  “The response from the skateboard community has been exceptional, especially considering that there is lots of encouragement to shop locally.  People have posted on message boards the suggestion that if you can’t shop locally, shop at Brick Harbor.”

3. Get personal: Brick Harbor delves into the stories behind the products they care, including the history of the company and why the brand or product is a good fit for Brick Harbor.  Making those connections are important to establishing trust.

4. Make shopping easy: There is a big emphasis on integrating editorials with e-commerce.  So on Brick Harbor, you’ll read about an event and there will be links from the brands or products mentioned to where you can buy it on the site.  This reduces clicks and keeps consumers from shopping elsewhere.

5. Involve the your customers: Brick Harbor is a community-driven site.  Feedback and reviews are highly encouraged everywhere – on the site, on social media, etc. – so they can constantly improve the site, the experience, and their product mix.

Way back at the beginning of the month, Zamp was a showcased startup at our SXSW #StartupLife Celebration Founder Sam Zebarjadi was gracious enough to sit down for an interview, which became part of our SXSW video series (you can watch the interview here).  He talked about his really cool social travel service that connects travelerswhile they are traveling, as well as how to get through the tough days, why the startup life is all about networking, and how the idea of stealth mode is dying.

Because we could only cover so much in the video interview, I circled back with him to learn more about what it’s like to co-found a company with your brother and learn more about the burgeoning startup scene in Atlanta.

Here are excerpts from our interview:

Tech Cocktail: What are the best and worst things about working with your brother?

Sam Zebarjadi: For me, the only thing better than working on something fun and exciting is to do it with your best friend.  We’ve worked at 5 companies together, and this is the 3rd startup that we’ve launched.  Our work chemistry is amazing and we complement each other’s skills in a lot of ways.  We also feel a deeper level of accountability with each other, which brings better results at the end of the day.  The biggest issue we face is that work discussions find their way into family time!

Tech Cocktail: What do you like about starting up in a city that is not known as a startup hub?  How do you see the startup community in Atlanta evolving?

Zebarjadi: One of the great advantages of being a startup in Atlanta is that startups can operate with longer runway with less capital.  Due to the nascent nature of the ‘new’ startup scene, there is also less competition for quality talent and the fear of losing employees in a bidding war to a large, well-established technology company is significantly less than it would be in Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston.

There are a small (but growing) number of entrepreneurs, advisors, and investors, who are all aiming to grow the city’s brand and recognition as an up-and-coming hub for startup activity.  There are some big names like ATDC, Venture Atlanta, and Georgia Tech who breed great innovation and are at the forefront of some of this work.

Tech Cocktail: Are there other startups in Atlanta you are excited about?

Zebarjadi: Another great startup who also attended SXSW is a company called Mowgli Games, and they have recently raised some funding and built a really cool social game which is gaining some traction.  Another startup, SportsCrunch, is one that some former colleagues have started and they have just graduated out of the FlashPoint accelerator program here in Atlanta.

Tech Cocktail: Has Zamp been used in any unusual ways so far?

Zebarjadi: It’s always fascinating to see how people use technology, especially a service like ours that is focused on social travel and helping people discover and connect with others.  While not necessarily unusual, one of the ways that some notable individuals are using the service is to help arrange and coordinate office hours while traveling–for startup advice, travel advice, and anything else that they have subject matter expertise in.

Tech Cocktail: So, what is your favorite feature of Zamp?

Zebarjadi: Being a travel snob, I love the dashboard!  It’s great to not only keep track of my own travel stats, but to see info about others I follow and see where they are and where their travels have taken them.

Having just returned from the 2012 festival, I feel a bit like a battle-tested SXSW veteran. Sure our team is a little bruised and battered from the 24×7 wear and tear of the festivities – but we’ve come back a stronger, more cohesive, more focused and committed team than ever before. And that’s the best ROI that any startup can hope to achieve.

Having “done” SXSW for the past two years in a row now, we’ve learned a thing or two about what it takes to succeed. While we definitely don’t have it all figured out (yet!) –here are a few tips — from our startup to yours — about what it takes to get noticed and make an impact amidst all the craziness and hoopla known as SXSW!

In the sea of people, make a splash

There are so many things going on over the time span of SXSW. Focus your efforts on a few main events (or even just one big juicy one) where you believe it is most important to have a major presence. You can’t be everywhere at once, but by selecting the events that are most important to your audience, you can be sure to make your presence felt. Do your best to make sure that the key people attending your key events know exactly who you are and what your startup is all about before they walk out the door! Work on forming great partnerships before you get to SXSW so that you and your partners can co-promote one another for maximum impact.

SXSW is a team sport, play hard

SXSW is big, messy and hard to figure out. There are several hundred events, happening all day long, every single day, at the same time. If you can afford to send more than one person on your team — do it. (If you can’t afford it, the previous point becomes even more crucial). If you do have multiple team members (or a gang of them, like we did) have a game plan in advance so you know exactly who is going to cover each event, and what everyone is expected to achieve while “on the ground” in Austin. With fabulous parties and exciting product launches everywhere you turn, it can be easy for people to get carried away with all the fun and excitement in the air. As long as your team is totally focused on getting business done, while they’re having fun – you’re golden!

Give schwag that’ll make it into their bag

Most SXSW-ers experience schwag overload and let’s face it, most of that branded shwag isn’t making it home with them. Instead of giving out lots of meaningless or poor quality items, get your name out there by giving people something useful to them. You may not have a generous budget so don’t spend what you do have on things that will never live beyond Austin. This year, we opted for .CO umbrellas to keep people dry during all the rainy days at the festival (Thank you weather.com for the advanced notice!). We also invested in .CO UX design notebooks and stencils, which were not only a unique giveaway but were greatly appreciated by all the buspreneurs on the Startup Bus and participants in Janice Fraser’s Lean UX presentation as part of the Lean Startup track. Give out schwag that people will want to take home with them, not items that they’ll ditch before they even get back to their hotel. Imagine all the places your brand will go if it can live beyond SXSW!

Make time for serendipity

If you’re in your hotel room, you’re in the wrong place. You should be out and about at SXSW because you never know who you’ll meet at any given moment. Avoid overscheduling yourself; you need to make the time for the unexpected to happen. All of the people you’ve been eager to mix and mingle with – the thought leaders, tech influencers, startup founders you’ve been reading about – are all likely to be at SXSW. So are the behind-the-scenes creative and technical geniuses who could potentially change your company’s destiny and the people who will one day create the “next big thing…” You never know just who you’re sitting next to at an event or standing in front of in line to get your Nike Fuel Band. Approach everyone with curiosity and an open mind, and you’ll be amazed by the opportunities you will create for your company.

If you’ve never been to SXSW, you’re in for quite an experience. Get ready to have your mind blown. I promise you that after your first SXSW, you will quickly come to realize the ways you can improve your presence for the following year – and there’s no other way to know that except for to just give it your best the first year and be prepared to “pivot” the next. Hopefully you can use some of what I’ve learned over the past two years to make your involvement in SXSW that much more beneficial to your business. See you in Austin next year! Oh… one last thing: if you haven’t already made hotel reservations for your team for 2013, do it today! I promise, you’ll thank me later.

Raj Malik is CEO & Co-Founder of KikScore, an exciting startup that helps small online businesses use their own track record of reliability and trustworthiness to increase sales and close more leads. Raj is a contributor to his company’s blog at blog.kikscore.com, a past speaker at SXSW and is passionate about helping small business and entrepreneurs succeed.

In life, we select vendors and partners all the time.  There are vendors for your banking, there are partners that will help you with your 401k and of course your life partner that is your husband or wife.  There are also an entire host of vendors and partners that we as businesses owners and operators must work with, seek out and in some ways even court so that they will work with our companies.  Small businesses are often inundated with these vendors and partners that range from marketing/integration partners, telecommunication vendors or freelancers to support our business, using consultants to advise on company strategy and using website designers or software developers for our businesses.

These vendors and partners can really make or a break a business.  That is especially the case with partners that your business must rely on to distribute and/or market your product.  Many times we fall into the trap of being dazzled by a sales pitch from these vendors and partners and we just sign on the dotted line without doing the diligence because after all who has time to do that diligence?  Well here are 6 tips to take into account while selecting and then working with a vendor or a partner.

1. Prior Performance is Indicative of How They Will Treat You: Small businesses need to be meticulous in seeking out information about a company’s previous track record because that may be one of the most reliable predictors of whether a vendor/partner will live up to expectations.  Today, it is relatively easy to get references or find other companies that have worked with a prospective partner/vendor that you may be considering by looking at LinkedIn or even asking directly for a client list.  A simple call to a few clients or contacts that have used a prospective partner/vendor before can give you a tremendous amount of intelligence on how that company conducts itself.  Small businesses cannot afford to ignore information about a partner, vendor, consultant etc. where others have experienced some past issues in an area such as meeting timelines, deliverables or performing sub-standard work.  Those are red flags that can be uncovered from these types of discussions.

2. Do Research & Diligence Upfront: Building on #1 above, in this day, with internet resources that are available to small business each of us must take the time to conduct background research on potential vendors, consultants, partners or even employees that may be hired.  This is all easily accessible information that can be gathered and reviewed by often time conducting some Google searches on the name of the business and through searches of the key employees and the company (and their customers) on blogs.  You would be surprised the amount of information that is available on blogs and in the comments sections of these blogs.  Small businesses just need to make it a priority to conduct the research prior to selecting a vendor/partner.  Doing the upfront research can really help avoid making poor decisions, wasting critical time and resources, and minimizing the risk of potential damage to your own small businesses’ brand by avoiding certain businesses all together.

3. Keep Monitoring Even After Relationship/Engagement/Partnership Starts: Often times after a small business selects a partner/vendor, we just put all of our trust into these companies.  That is a path to getting burned.  Instead small businesses should now track these partners/vendors in an automated fashion during the relationships. Small businesses should use tools like Google Alerts to monitor and track what other people are saying about companies that they do businesses with during an engagement.   What does this do?  If a blog post from an angry customer is posted saying that there are problems with a company you have selected, you can be on notice and attempt to proactively verify that information and act on it.  Google Alerts are a great tool also for finding out news reports about companies. Using tools like Google Alerts is a way you can be ahead of the game and avoid finding out this information when it is too late.

4. Post-Engagement Cut Your Losses If Needed: If you uncover damaging or worrisome information or about a vendor, partner or contractor that you are currently in business with, do not sit on it.  You must be proactive to protect your business.  In the event you feel your business or brand is at risk, quickly make efforts to avoid further damage. That could very well mean terminating a relationship.  That way you can avoid being stuck in a bad relationship and we all know where that ends up! Check out Toilet Paper Entrepreneur’s 81 Strategies to Fix a Bad, Falling Apart Business Partnership as a way to gauge whether you should stay in a business relationship.

5. Your Brand Must Be Protected At All Costs: In the unfortunate event that your business is victimized by a partner or a vendor, make every effort to avoid getting pulled into someone else’s negative and potentially inappropriate behavior.  Instead take steps to protect your brand and take the necessary actions to preserve your brand.  Make it your own priority to act in a way that reflects your brand.  Try to avoid the ugliness that may arise from your partner/vendor’s conduct or statements.  If you are in a PR crisis, try to take the high road, make sure your customers are protected and if necessary, rally your own supporters to protect your company.  If necessary, take to your own blog to tell your story, but avoid those bitter back and forths that only lead to tarnishing your business too.

6. Trust Your Gut If You Have Concerns: For company owners, a strong and honed BS meter is important to have and nurture.   When you see even the smallest hint of an issue on the front end with potential business partner/vendor you should move on.  If that is a potential issue that you see now, chances are that issue is a lot larger and that is how it came up during the courting process when partners/vendors are even more sensitized to be on their best behavior.   Always remember there are other options.  Your business will be better off going with another company. Something to think about is if you have to convince yourself that “red flags” (even if they are small) should be ignored immediately catch yourself.  Stop there and instead protect your business by moving on to another option.  The partner/vendor that you say “No” to may be your best decision that you make more so than the partner/vendor that you do pick!

Expecting ROI right away

Ashley Ranger sees this often. As founder of /excelamktg, a social media marketing company based in Los Angeles, potential clients frequently voice frustrations when not attracting a target number of followers or sales captures. Ranger’s advice is always the same: It takes time.

“If you are actively posting and commenting, I’d say it could take you six months to one year to see ROI out of a social media campaign,” she says.

Low on “likes?” Get creative. Ranger recommends that online businesses offer an additional 10 percent off purchases if customers “like” them on Facebook. Another way to engage: Give back. One of Ranger’s fashion clients will post a “look of the day” on Facebook and interviews with designers—both, activities that will help generate traffic.

Failing to plan

A social media campaign is like any other business campaign; it needs a well-laid-out plan before execution. Stephanie Derry, a social media consultant in Richmond, Va., recommends plotting out goals.

“Do you want to use social media as a customer service tool? A way to link to your website?” she asks. “It all comes down to market research. If you know what your target market wants, you can plan accordingly.”

Talk to your customers about the sites they use most, visit competitor’s social media pages and join conversations around your industry before firing up your own campaign, Derry adds. Once you’ve finished researching, assign one person in your company to be the director of your social media program.

“If you don’t have someone responsible, your customers will be talking to no one,” she says. “People want a personality to attach to the brand, they don’t want to feel like they are talking to a robot.”

Automating

Tools such as Hootsuite allow users to write one message and then simultaneously broadcast it to a number of social media sites. While this can be a time saver, Ranger guards her clients against the practice.

“When you automate, it starts to sound robotic,” she says. “You want your posts to have a personal feel, so take time to write different posts on each platform, even if they are similar in content.”

Hard selling

Think of your words on a social media network like the words you’d say to a customer walking into your brick and mortar store. You wouldn’t spam an in-person customer with sale promo after sale promo; you’d first focus on establishing a nice conversation and a relationship. The same goes for customers visiting your social media site, says Ranger.

Try asking your followers questions about personal topics (think holiday decorating ideas, best holiday memories) or quizzing them about their favorite product in your store. Offering a free gift can always inspire engagement, too.

Not connecting to other marketing platforms

Everyone should know you have a Facebook page, a Twitter page, a Pinterest account. According to Derry, it is important to connect your social media presence to your website, e-mail newsletter, print advertising, broadcast advertising, etc.

She says, “Make sure people who are connecting with your company are able to connect in every way; make your social media presence known for maximum benefit.”

Last week I got a chance to listen to Paul Singh from 500 Startups talk about raising money at The Fort. First of all, I have to say that almost every sentence Paul uttered could have been used as a quote on its own. Below are the best ones, which I broke down into 3 basic steps for raising capital for your startup.

Step 1 – When you are ready to start approaching investors, do not run around knocking on every door. Have a targeted approach.

“Think of investing as phases. Create a hit list of investors and sort them by ranking. Take the people on the bottom and test your pitch on them first. Pay attention to the questions they ask you, because there is a 90% chance you will get those questions again.”

Step 2 – Once you’ve selected your investors, do not cold call them – use referrals.

“Look for mentors who can introduce you. Also, you don’t want to pitch the first time you hang out [with the investor]. Your goal the first time you meet is just not to be weird.”

Step 3 – You got your foot in the door – now it’s time to pitch.

“Stop making decks! Show a demo or use wireframes.  If you have something awesome to share about your startup, do not wait till the last moment to say it.”

One more thing to keep in mind:

“Investors are people too. Their attention span is very short, so you have to be meaningful.”

When you prepare your pitch or create your profile on AngelList or Gust, make sure you share something that makes you stand out, because “there are startups everywhere!”

And finally, a great closing quote:

“Venture capitalism is a business which has to be disrupted.”

Editor’s Note: Author Gulnara Mirzakarimova is the founder of Two-Side Brain, a DC-based organization founded in December 2011 to bring startups, mentors, and investors together.  You can find her on Twitter at @GulnaraDC.

Rebecca Malik is the President at

As a small business owner since 2008, I’ve encountered an array of frustrations and roadblocks in running and growing my company.  I must admit that my response to many of these hiccups has been more reactive than proactive.  However, these hasty actions can be avoided and you can operate more effectively if you start off on solid footing.  To that end, consider the following five fundamentals when in the planning stage of your business.

1. Choose a product or service that solves a problem or fills an existing void.

If you’re manufacturing a unique product or service, you have an obvious advantage when it comes to differentiating your business from similar businesses.  You can also take a common product or service and put a fresh spin on it or in some way provide potential customers with a clear reason why they should choose you over the competition.

For example, there are multiple newsletter services for online businesses, and after trying several of them I have found one that, to me, is completely different from the rest and meets my newsletter needs perfectly. Mailchimp (www.mailchimp.com) has a simple, user-friendly platform that caters to small business owners who handle much of their own marketing.  Simple commands and vivid graphics help you navigate through a straightforward process to create a professional-looking newsletter.  Even though other newsletter companies may have more bells and whistles or perhaps a sophisticated homepage, I choose to do business with Mailchimp.

Having a company that offers something unique means you don’t have to battle with your competitors to attract customers solely on pricing.   Not only will having a unique product, service or approach enable you to plan more effectively, it is a much more promising way to capture the attention of your target market and build coveted buzz.

2. Construct a clear brand image.

A clear brand message – conveniently based upon the unique product or service you’ve already developed – will greatly increase the likelihood that your potential customers will find you interesting.  An interesting brand will be memorable to visitors and make them more likely to recommend your company to friends.  Again I’ll use Mailchimp.com as an example, which is simple, memorable and lighthearted with a cartoon monkey mascot.

If you will be operating solely online, it is important that your website reflects its (your) personality.  Your customers will be more comfortable and inclined to purchase from a person rather than a generic website.  And, of course, a clear brand will give you direction in how you engage and connect with your customers and potential customers (i.e., formally vs. comically, direct marketing vs. articles and blog posts).

3. Have a strategy in place.

In my daily rush to build a business I admit I sometimes haven’t done the best job of stepping back and creating strategy instead of reacting to a situation.  Sure, I created a thorough business plan at the outset but… where did I file that thing anyway?

Strategy is the all-important roadmap you use to reach your business goals.  Assuming you don’t have a built in GPS system, we all know what happens if you lose the map.  While I believe that strategy comes more organically to those with a unique product, service or approach, strategy should be implemented for any business.  I like to set specific milestones with deadlines and create the step-by-step strategy to reach each of these milestones.  This helps me to see the value of each activity in relation to reaching the important milestones and overall goal, and helps keep me motivated to stay on track.

4. Track and review.

I hope this sounds more exciting to you than it does to me because tracking your progress and using it to evaluate your strategy is vital to your success.  Where have your successes stemmed from?  What has caused your failures?  Get specific, including assessing which marketing campaigns were most effective, which keywords brought you the most business, which products performed the best on your home page, which site sent you the most visitors, etc.  Use this information to determine what is working and what is not.  What elements of your strategy should continue to implement?  Which should you tweak and which should you eliminate all together?

Bottom line:  even if tracking and reviewing your efforts doesn’t sound exciting to all of us we can all get excited about the powerful knowledge to be gained from it.

5. Keep up the Momentum.

There are moments when things are going well, customer feedback and sales have boosted my morale and thoroughly amped up my excitement over running my own business.   The excitement drives me to try new marketing ideas, become more interactive with my visitors, and simply act as a more energized and effective business owner.  Then there are the times that I can barely bring myself to open my laptop let alone muster the enthusiasm to post something at all compelling on the blog.  No fun!

Taking full advantage of the ups is key.  Push forward and maximize that energy that it brings to you.  When you do have a downer day, do your best to bring yourself back to that coveted positive zone.  Perhaps read a motivational article, peruse your favorite customer comments, or review your sales from last month …  do whatever it takes to overcome a desire to dwell on the negative.  You are responsible for creating and maintaining the momentum that is critical to achieving your business goals.

I hope these five fundamental elements help you as you prepare to launch your business and would love to hear your strategies and insights.  Please share your thoughts below!