10Apr
It’s a fact of life not every decision you make is going to work out. At some point or another you are going to fail. Maybe you will even fail in a very spectacular fashion. The question is going to be whether you can get back on your feet or not? I for one have in the past failed in spectacular fashion. I often like to describe my failures as going down in flames. And I’ll tell you the first time I ever really thought I’d failed in business I thought the world had ended. At the time I also thought I would never want anything to do with business ever again. But I eventually realized that I wasn’t one to bow out of the game just because something didn’t work out.
Instead I went back to work with the intent of learning from my mistakes. For me business is in my blood. My father was someone that was never any good at holding a “REAL” job working for someone else. And neither am I. I haven’t worked a “REAL” job since I was 19 and I don’t intend to start now. Being an entrepreneur is about controlling ones destiny and I like to stay in charge of mine. So if you ever run into a point in your career that you think you’ve failed at something remember to try to learn from it but get the hell back up. Because crying over it won’t accomplish anything.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Failure, Freelance Work, Getting Back Up, Leadership, Motivational, Success
10Apr
There is a definite difference between an entrepreneur and a would be entrepreneur and that is the willingness to take a chance. Starting a new business or launching a new product is about being willing to take such chances if you want to get over the top. There are a lot of people in the world that come up with some really good ideas but they never act on them. They often take the time to develop a product and a plan but they don’t have what it takes to act. The ability to take action is what separates true entrepreneurs from the wanna be’s. Even if you lack the resources initially there are always ways to push your product forward. Creativity can be a key to building a foundation of success. But if you aren’t willing to take a chance to make things work out you’ll always be a wanna be.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreurship, Freelance Work, Leadership, Motivational, Product Development, Taking Action
10Apr
When someone chooses to become an entrepreneur they choose to follow a very different path than if they were to work for someone else. They have chosen to take the lead in building their own futures instead of allowing someone else dictate what their futures might look like. But business is about the future. Entrepreneurs are palying a game that is going to go on for a long time and because of this they need to be patient.
I know for a fact that having patience can be extrememly difficult. I’ve often been guilty of wishing that everything I was trying to achieve had already been accomplished. I’d get so caught up in looking towards the future that I would neglect the present. As an entrepreneur you have to set goals and be focused on achieving them but you need to be patient about it. Enjoy what you have going for yourself. Yes you may want you business to grow bigger and get better as fast as possible. If you stay focused on the present that will all take care of itself over the long run. So have a little patience because you will achieve your goals in time but for now enjoy the game that you get to play.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Freelance Work, goal setting, Leadership, Management, Motivational, Staying Focused
10Apr
Many times people can get ahead of themselves when it comes to their business. I’ll use a sports example to illustrate what I’m talking about. Often teams will look past a current opponent and become focused on the next team they have to play instead of the team coming up. The Cowboys did that a couple of weeks ago in football. They had the Rams coming up and because the Rams have been getting killed all season the Cowboys figured they’d run right over them. The Cowboys were looking past them because they weren’t seen as a challenge. The end result was that the woeful Rams ran over the Cowboys.
The same thing happens in business. The focus is pulled off of what the core business product or service is because the company starts looking to future products and services instead of focusing on the things that have got them as far as they are. Yes you want to develop new things and being innovative is important but you can’t look beyond today for tomorrow you may accidentally destroy what you have because your focus is diverted. I’ve made that kind of mistake in the past and paid a hefty price for doing so. So remember to stay focused on today more than on tomorrow.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Business Growth, Entrepreneurship, Freelance Work, Leadership, Leading Your Business, Management, Motivational, Staying Focused
30Oct
Lately I’ve been getting some very nice comments about my writing. I just want to say that I appreciate it very much. And also for anyone that has a question they would like to ask me I can be reached at cmiller@smallbusinessdelivered.com.
I would like to respond quickly to 2 questions I’ve recently had. The first was about reposting a blog topic and whether I would allow it. Yes I do allow people to either repost the blog topic or just link directly to that blog page. Just so long as I am credited as the author of the post.
Secondly someone asked if I was a professional writer. I am not although I have had a few print articles published in the past. Most of my writing has been used to develop good content for www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com. Personally I attribute my ability to write fairly well to my love of books. My personal library holds well over 700 books. And I read books on a number of different subjects as well. My first love has always been science fiction which I started reading at the age of 14. At about 22 I expanded into reading about military history. After getting heavily involved in my first small business venture I began reading business books to further educate myself. Lately that has been one of my favorite subjects as I’ve read everything from Peter Druckers books on management to Jack Welch’s books and a number of biographies on both businesses and business leaders. And so that is where I attribute my writing skills as having come from.
Again if anyone has a question that they would like addressed on this blog please contact me at cmiller@smallbusinessdelivered.com
Thanks Again,
Cash
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Books, Contact Me, Linking to this Blog, Thank You, Writing
07Dec
Early on when I first envisioned what www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com could become I started to do my homework on what was already out there. It was only a couple of years ago that I didn’t know what an ezine was. I wasn’t much into social networking either. I had always been a brick and mortar business owner. I knew how to surf the web like everyone else and I’d struggled through many fruitless hours searching for what I needed but I didn’t know much about SEO and article writing, or how Google and the other search engines came up with the results that they do. Of course that has all changed for me now. But I still had the question of what I wanted www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com to be.
I finally think I know the answer to that question. You see ezines of which there are more than enough have many things in common with each other. First and foremost they have a lot of articles. They have thousands upon thousands of them in fact. But many of these sites use a cookie cutter approach to their websites. In fact you can download a premade template or dashboard that many of them use. The owners of these sites hope they can make a few buck on Google advertising but there is no real focus to the sites themselves. They publish just about anything whether the writing is good or bad.
On the other side you have the big boys such as Entrepreneur.com and Inc.com that cater to entrepreneurs and small business owners. These sites of course have the money and the muscle. And while they are very well done sites and magazines I feel like they are lacking something. Many of their writers are business owners but often their businesses are past the small stage of business. I think sometimes they lose touch when it come to the issues that small business owners need information about.
So what do I want www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com to become. Well I think the Subtitle sends the message that I want to send. Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs. Not only should the site provide the resources that small business owners need but it needs the focused information that entrepreneurs are always searching for. To that end I decided to go searching for the authors that could provide strong focused information. Instead of letting just anyone post articles and be an author.
I want to find writers that are entrepreneurs as well. Dan Boudreau is a great example of the kind of expert in a field that I want to find. He’s published a book called “Business Plan or Bust” that you can find on Amazon.com and his website www.Riskbuster.com. His expertise is of course on how to write a business plan. And his writing is focused. Roger Ingbretsen is a business coach that has written two e-books that he offers through his website www.Inbretsen.com. Shirley Fine Lee our newest author is an expert on how to hold business meetings and she too has written a book that you can find on her website www.shirleyfinelee.com and Amazon.com as well. Her book is titled “R.A! R.A! A Meeting Wizard’s Approach”. And of course I wouldn’t wat to forget Steve Smith who is a business Coach from Saddleback Valley and runs www.saddlebackvalley.onecoach.com.
So I’ve ultimately decided that the site needs to help the authors as well as the readers. I hope that the authors will in some small ways be involved with the site and that I can help them network with other professionals to reach new readers and new customers. Sites like Entrepreneur.com and Inc.com while being very good in their own right often fail to see what their readers are truly looking for. And their focus in many cases drifts away from what it originally was. I want to find the diamonds in the rough. The people that are dealing with entrepreneurial issues everyday and have a great deal to offer others. If I can do that then I am confident that www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com will become a bona fide success in its own right as well.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Article Writing, Authors, Entrepreneurship, Freelance Work, Future, Motivational, Uncategorized
04Dec
Well I finally found time to get up a post on this blog. It’s not been on purpose but I haven’t had much time to work on this blog recently. And I’ll try to do better in the future.
But hey let’s talk about what I have been doing instead. Skiing in the Aspens! Yea right I wish. No really I’ve been working on some major improvements to www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com. For quite awhile now I have not been happy with how the site looked or felt. So I felt that changes were needed. In a couple of my own articles I’ve talked about continuing your business education. So I decided to follow my own advice. I started looking more at other websites and how they were laid out for viewers. And after a couple of weeks of research and redesign I finally found a layout I could be happy with. Since then I’ve been working to make the necessary changes to the site. Which because of all the changes I wanted has been a little slow going. But progress is being made. If you’ve checked out the category pages and articles recently you can really see the difference.
Ahhh, but what else have I been doing? I’ve been signing up new authors with new fresh content for everyone to dive into. Entrepreneurs need to have many different points of view and experiences to draw on and that is what I am going to try and provide.
I’ve recently signed up Dan Boudreau the writer of Business Plan or Bust! from www.Riskbuster.com. As well as Roger Ingbretsen of Inbretsen Consulting LLC. www.Inbretsen.com. And Steve Smith of OneCoach www.saddlebackvalley.onecoach.com. Each of these Authors, Entrepreneurs and Coaches brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table. And I am happy to help them share that knowledge with you.
Ok well time to get back to the site for some further changes. I’ll make sure to post as often as possible to keep everyone up to date.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Article Writing, Authors, Business Coaching, Business Plans, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, Freelance Work, Ingbretsen Consulting, Motivational, OneCoach, Riskbuster.com
09Nov
I’m pleased to announce that SmallBusinessDelivered.com is launching a new business directory this week. This directory has been in the works for a little while and it is finally ready for its initial rollout. To get it started I’ve put together ten categories for people to use to find what they need. Each category contains outbound links to useful business related websites. And each link comes with a paragraph long description of the website to make choosing the best website for your needs that much easier. And as a final touch we’ve included the Google page rank for each website to help indicate popularity.
But just in case your wondering why we’ve put together a directory I’ll explain. For starters search engines like Google and Yahoo are great but they do have flaws. Often what you are searching for will not be included in the results. Or not within the first couple of pages at least. You get stuck searching through website after website trying to find exactly what it is you need. This can be time consuming and frustrating as well. With the paragraph description instead of one line I’m hoping to make it easier to find what you need. Each website is actually visited and reviewed so that the description is relatively accurate.
I also wanted to make sure that people that use the directories have an easy time navigating the pages. We’ve started with ten categories but it will be expanding rather quickly. we’ve started each category with the 5 most relavent websites that we could find for each category. But we will also be expanding the listings in each category as well. I’m hoping that 50 links now will become 250 or more before the end of the year.
Each category is of course business related. Here our initial list of 10 categories.
1. Bartering Excanges
2. Business Brokers
3. Business Franchises
4. Business Incubators
5. Chambers of Commerce
6. Ezine Article Sites
7. Factoring Companies
8. Freelance Opportunities
9. Inventory Liquidators
10. Traffic Exchanges
So look for the directory to launch before the end of the week. And if you have a topic to suggest please let me know.
Cash
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Article Writing, Bartering Exchanges, Business Brokers, Business Directory, Business Franchises, Business Incubators, Chambers of Commerce, Entrepreneurship, Ezine Article Sites, Factoring Companies, Freelance Opportunities, Freelance Work, Inventory Liquidators, Motivational, Traffic Exchanges
20Oct
I just finished reading “The Google Story” and no I haven’t finished Jack Welch’s “Winning” but I saw this book on the bookshelves and it grabbed my attention. Once I started to read it I could barely put it down. Anyway it really is an amazing story about how two guys took an idea to improve a service already being offered on the internet and once they’d topped everyone with a better search engine they were off and running.
Of course the money that they make comes from their advertising. Their Adwords service has become a license to print money for them. The proof of that is in the sales and profits they have managed to reap in the last 10 years. They’ve become the dominant player in the technology field. And they are constantly creating new innovative products that tend to trump their competition. The amazing thing is Google essentially started in a business incubator program st Stanford and after it left there it actually spent about four months in a garage. But the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were committed to the concept. So much so that they both dropped out of the Stanford Graduate program. Obviosley it all worked out well. For aspiring entrepreneurs and just about everyone else this book is a really good read and I highly recommend it.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Business Opportunities, Entrepreneurship, Freelance Work, Google, Leadership, Management, Motivational
16Oct
There is one big difference I have found when it comes to writing articles for a site like www.Suite11.com and writing for my own site www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com and that is first person and third person writing. With this blog and my own website I like the fact that I can just write. I can use these forums to relate personal experiences that over the years have impacted my career and the way I personally view the business world. Sometimes I think my view is kind of upside down. But often the best way to inform a reader of what they may encounter working in the same field is by relating your own experience to them.
In the third person it can be hard to keep personal experiences out of it or to relate them in a manner that can teach them the same lesson. This can be difficult. Some of the articles I write for www.Suite101.com will be of my own experiences but they can’t be told that way. So for my own satisfaction I rewrite them in the first person. Often relating a story is the best teacher of all.
Bookmark this post on all your favorite bookmark websites
Tags: Article Writing, Entrepreneurship, First Person Writing, Freelance Work, Motivational, Third Person Writing, Writing
![[Ask]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/ask.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Mixx]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/mixx.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[OnlyWire]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/onlywire.png)
![[Sphinn]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/sphinn.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Twitter]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com/cash-millers-blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
Recent Comments