For far too many years in my business, I struggled with narrowing my specialty and choosing a niche. I believed that fine tuning my niche would keep away much needed business and clients.

I have found the opposite to be true. Now my niche has become more like a beacon that attracts just the right clients without as much effort on my part.

What is a niche? My definition of a niche is a target market plus a specialty.

We hear a lot these days about think tanks. Ever consider one for your own business?

No business is too small to benefit from having its own sounding board . . . call it an Advisory Board, a Mastermind Group or a Success Team. Call it whatever you wish but understand that this concept can be a tremendous catalyst for growth.

Think about the last time you met with other business people and had an open discussion sharing your ideas and concerns about business challenges.

If you are a service provider charging by the hour for your services, you may be trapped in a cycle of under-earning. Charging an hourly or even monthly rate for your time puts a ceiling on the amount of income you can earn.

Your profits are limited to how much time you have available to actively work with your clients. And that time is restricted because of all the other activities you are doing to run your business: marketing, sales calls, speaking, networking, writing a newsletter.

Home-based secretaries are also known as virtual assistants or personal assistants. The function of secretarial services is similar to that of personal assistants. Secretarial services have been around many years before the Internet created the terms virtual assistants and virtual assisting.

Secretarial services and virtual assistants are independent contractors doing contract work.

Many small business owners feel overwhelmed when they face the daunting prospect of getting their online presence going. Everywhere you turn there's an "expert" trying to tell you what you ought to do.

As a coach and consultant to entrepreneurs, I've watched too many of you go astray, so I've assembled my Top Ten List of Mistakes so you can avoid them!

1.

Small or startup businesses are at a maximum risk during a period of credit crunch or recession. This is mostly attributed to some factors, which are simply out of their control. The cash flow is important for any business, whether big or small. Startup businesses do not have huge capital in hand or any assets that they could use. Starting anew, their credit scores are also low.

One of the keys to living a life of passion and purpose is discovering your unique brilliance and living it. Many of us have wondered 'what is the meaning of my life' and 'what am I here to do'.

One of the skills I have developed as a business coach is to ask provocative questions that challenge people to think beyond the ordinary and discover their own personal vision for how they can make a difference in the world.

Let's face it, when you look at it on paper, SEO is an expensive endeavor. Whether you do it yourself, use the services of a consultant, or hire someone else to do it for you, the cost can be overwhelming.

In fact, some SEO experts charge as much as $500-$1000 per hour. It is such an involved process that the price tag is understandably pretty significant.