101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers

I follow a couple blogs about developing small businesses, increasing productivity, and just generally doing what you do better, and came across this list of tips for small business owners. I found it useful.

Here are a few:

7. "Don't give up. Most people who are self-employed went through a time when they had no money. And they worried they would lose everything they own, and their career. And they kept going. The people who succeed are people who refuse to quit. If you keep trying to make money from your business, you will eventually succeed so that you don't starve. Really. Just don't quit."
— Penelope Trunk, Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist

I especially liked this one:

8. "Count up your successes regularly. One person I know put a marble in a fishbowl each time she got a compliment or a bit of good press for her business or a nice note from a customer or a big order. Then every time she looked at the fishbowl she was reminded of all the good things in her business. Her employees could see it, too. This is invaluable on days when everything seems to go wrong. It keeps self-doubt from building up – and tearing you down. It also helps employees feel good."
— Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends

12. "Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love."
— Mark Cuban, Blog Maverick

23. "Embrace constraints. Constraints and limitations are wonderful allies and lead to enhanced creativity and ingenious solutions that without constraints never would have been discovered or created."
— Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen

42. "Focus on generating attention. The Web has liberated us from the tyranny of paying for attention! Small business entrepreneurs can generate attention for their business in four main ways: You can BUY attention (this is called advertising); you can BEG for attention (this is called Public Relations); you can BUG people one at a time to get attention (this is called sales) or you can EARN attention online by creating great information that your buyers want to consume such as YouTube videos, blogs, Twitter feeds, photographs, charts, graphs, and ebooks—and it is all free. How are YOU generating attention?"
— David Meerman Scott, Web Ink Now

Read them all here: http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/money/article/101-tips-from-50-small-business-bloggers-gregory-go