Business Alone

Why would you want to do that? Why is it important to become an expert in your niche? Let me explain.

Compared to face-to-face sales at a brick and mortar store, the Internet environment is a pretty cold and impersonal place to be doing business.

How do you know that the seller you're dealing with is honest? What if I give him my money and he takes off without sending me the product?

How do I get my money back? What if I don't like the product or it isn't what I thought it was? Who can I call or talk to?

Trust is a very important and critical key to success in online selling.

If the customer has reason to trust his merchant, he will be more apt to buy the product. If there is a reason why the customer is hesitant, the sale will surely fail.

It seems that when most folks think about starting a new business, they consider what product or service they might sell to the consumer.

Everyone is familiar with consumer goods and most of us relate to them because we use them in our everyday lives.

We see and hear about these products in TV ads, radio spots, in the newspaper, and on signs and billboards.

We naturally begin to think about the products we use and how we might be able to come up with a better version or maybe we think we can sell consumer goods in a more effective way than they are being offered to us.

It might pay for you to change your thinking slightly and begin to contemplate what you might have to offer other businesses.

There are some advantages to avoiding consumers and simply dealing with businesses in your niche.

Owning a small business is the new American Dream. A recent national survey found that nearly 60% of Americans listed owning a business as high on their wish list of things to accomplish, even higher than owning a home.

But how many of those same folks are going to see their dream happen this year, or next, or the next . . .?

If you have this same dream of creating and owning a small business, there's a very high probability that no one in your lifetime is going to step up and hand you your own business.

If you're waiting for the right opportunity to come knocking, I doubt that you'll recognize it.

You see, that opportunity is standing in front of you right now, staring you right in the face.

I believe that every business has the opportunity to "make a difference" in the world today, even if only in a small way.

There are lots of ways of doing that besides merely providing valuable and useful products and services that help people and make their lives better.

By being productive and profitable, a company has the opportunity to contribute to the economic stability of the city and region in which it operates.

Small businesses will also have a number of opportunities to become socially responsible.

Here are a few ideas for the small business owner:

It seems somewhat incredible that many entrepreneurs go into business without knowing exactly their true business purpose.

Have you ever taken the opportunity to boil down your purpose to its very essence?

"What is my business?" Try to find an answer that covers all the bases in just a word or two. Usually that's a very challenging task.

Your company may sell a number of different products and services and it's purpose may be multi-faceted. Here's maybe a different way of defining what it is that you do.

One of the things that small business owners often forget is the fact that customers come to a small business often for the experience, not just for the products or services that are offered.

Yet many small businesses don't capitalize on that fact. Instead, they try to act like large sterile non-personal corporations. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.

I was recently in Park City, Utah with my wife and family. We had made the one hour drive from home specifically to walk Main Street. For those of you unfamiliar with the place . . .

Nothing grabs a prospects attention like seeing his own name printed in a hand-written letter from a friend.

When a business customer feels like he is appreciated, singled out by the owner for some personal attention, and given the opportunity to join in the membership of a group of "insiders," he will likely commit to being personally involved in the niche with this business.

Personal involvement invites activity in forums, registration as a member of a community of serious like-minded folks (either free or paid), and status as a preferred customer (one most likely to buy products from the business.)

Over the years I've been watching and participating in small business development, I've noticed that the successful businesses tend to be the ones that are driven by an owner that knows how to execute a plan.

The successful owner may not be overly intelligent, have a cutting edge business idea, or the latest technology infused in his business.

The successful owner doesn't have to be too creative or even a great writer.

Often, this is simply the guy that knows where he wants his business to go and he executes the plan consistently over time without a lot of distraction.

Here are ten not very creative ideas to try in your business if you want to be noticed as standing apart from the crowd.