I believe there are two things that will make a small business successful, but there are 3 things that need to be done in business. And as an online business owner, I know it's often easier to do the one thing that doesn't have to be done and unconsciously avoid the two things that make businesses successful.



The first one is marketing: You should be marketing more. I'm sure you're saying to my, "I already to a lot of marketing." My answer to you is this: If you want to be in business, increase your marketing efforts.

A stunning majority of businesses fail in their first year. Why is this? I believe a major cause is inadequate marketing. Here's why:

So many entrepreneurs get into business because they want to make money, they want to get out of the daily grind, or they simply think they have a better way of doing something. Those are great reasons to become an entrepreneur. But they don't guarantee success. Not by a long-shot.

When people ask me what advice I can give an business owner who is starting up a company, it's this: Market 100% of the time. If ever you're not sure what to do, market! As you become successful and grow your business, other tasks will slowly eat into your marketing time, but it should take up the majority of your time.

The second must-do task I've dubbed "Big Think." This is what makes owning a business fun: it's the creative on-the-fly decision making. Perhaps it's a customer who makes a request and you need to think of a policy on the spot. Or maybe it's an employee who doesn't show up one day for work and you have to fill in for them. Or maybe you've had a great idea to extend your product's lifecycle and you want to look into it. You should spend your time on this. It's important stuff. In the beginning, you shouldn't spend more than 5% or 10% of your time on this "big think" stuff. As you grow, you can do more (after all, that's what a CEO does!) But build your business first!

The third thing is administrative work. It is not the must-do activities that the first two are. This is where most small businesses fall down. Since it's the entrepreneur who has to do this as well as the marketing and the Big Think, it's easy to do this. Why? Big Think doesn't seem productive. Marketing is hard work. Administrative work is easy to do and it's something you can clearly see your progress and accomplishment. And it needs to get done. But doing it during prime marketing time is the biggest small business sin you can commit!

Make sure you put time into your schedule for the administrative work as well as for markeitng and planning. Believe me, if you let your administrative duties fall behind, you're in a world of hurt. It will takes hours, even days to get caught up.

Close your financial books at the end of each month so that you can tell how your business is doing. Are you making a profit? Good. Determine what is helping you to profit and do more of it. Not doing so good? Take a good look at your marketing methods to see where you can improve.

Spend your time wisely when working on your business activities. Put the most time into those things that will help your business succeed. Spend less time on surfing the web and "busy work." Keep your financial books up-to-date so you can get a handle on your profits or losses so that you can improve your business.