If you are a small business owner and you think that going to seminars and conferences is a waste of your time, you may want to think again. While speakers are discussing advances in your field or how to manage your employees, there is also something else important going on. Conference attendees are networking with each other. In fact, many people attend conferences solely for all the networking opportunities they provide. To successfully network at a conference, there are a few things you should be sure to do:

* Dress neatly and professionally, but be sure you aren’t overdressed. Most people attending a conference wear casual business attire. If you aren’t sure whether you should wear a suit, ask someone who has attended the conference a previous year.

* Take along a nice supply of fresh, crisp business cards. Scribbling contact information on a napkin is a great way to make sure other attendees don’t call you.

* Make sure you have a small notebook and a pen to jot down notes. Its amazing how fast you can forget that Joe Smith wanted you to call him after the conference because his friend’s brother needs your services.

* If you usually are in a hurry and aggressive, approach people in a more laid back, casual manner. For most people, a conference is a bit like a mini vacation.

* Take advantage of opportunities that seem to have nothing to do with business, like the line dancing class being offered after dinner that evening, but be sure you don’t have so much fun that you leave people with an unprofessional image of you.

John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing has an interesting post on the real competition that small businesses face – perception:

One of the most critical marketing chores your small business has is to find something that makes you unique, something that a market values, something that no one else offers and make it your defining marketing element.

He has a great point. Making your business stand out from all of the rest is the most important thing you can do. That’s why a business with a wonderful product can fail, while a business with an inferior product and a great marketing angle can do well.

Consummating deals, providing discounts, pricing packages and to ensure faster product or service movement and endorsement is a tenure that will surely be mind boggling. Most of these may entail proper cost allocation after which the proper marketing strategies formulated to be executed shall be next in line. Most of the time, the dilemma lies on whether to choose product movement over profit gains. Whichever the case may be, it will all depend on the purpose of the company and what it wants to achieve.

There are many factors to consider in such. Assessing the entire asset and labor force, operating overhead, financial position and the stature of the market and the consumers are most of the things that are crucial for any business plan. Varied opinions coming from the various managers of every department and the stakeholders will also play a vital role in undertaking such endeavors. Whoever may be caught in such a situation will truly have their work cut out for them.

Truly, being caught in the middle of all of this seems like a big mess. But then again, this is the challenge given to most people who are placed in such a situation, and finding ways on how to handle them is surely something that people in this spot will embrace for the task at hand. Maturity as far as working environment factors and at the same time molding them into enhancing their decision making prowess is something that makes people distinct from one another and in the course of their career, becomes assets for better managerial roles for the present and future companies that lie ahead for them.

To manage their time, many business professionals try making a to do list. However, if you are like me, the list just keeps on growing and growing until you feel overwhelmed. Recently, I attended a seminar on balancing work and family by Chris Sopa. (By the way, if you get a chance to hear her talk, take advantage of it. She does a terrific job.) Chris suggests a modified version of the to do list that is working out much better for me:

* Make your mile long to do list on the bottom half of a sheet of paper.
* Write the numbers 1-6 on the top half of the paper.
* Transfer the 6 items you must get done today, in order of their importance, to the top of the page.
* If you get those top 6 done, you can always do some of the other chores on your master list.

I was watching two guys digging a hole to locate a pipe in my yard this morning. They were tossing the dirt out of the hole and directly onto the ground beside it. They went four feet down and dug a hole that was about 8 feet long by three feet across. Then, one of them found a pipe…and the elbow joining it to the pipe they really wanted to find. Anyone want to guess where the new pipe was? Under that massive pile of dirt. This brings me to a great business principle:

Don’t move the same dirt twice.

When you start a new task, take some time to plan things out so you can do the job right the first time. You don’t want to find that you’ve gone in the wrong direction and will have to re-do hours of work. I’m sure the guys in my side yard are wishing they would have tossed their dirt into a few wheelbarrows right about now. Then, they could have just dumped those wheelbarrows back into the old hole instead of slowly shoveling it back in.

In any endeavor, time is the most important thing to consider in any undertaking. People perform better when they are given a deadline, a coverage period to work on and accomplish a task. In most cases, people tend to dilly dally and tend to let their thoughts wander at something else, not having the necessary focus to be able to put their efficient minds to work.

For the better part of the professionals who live daily lives and play crucial roles in organizations, time management is essential. With the various demands that most organizations are facing, developing strategies, analyzing current economic trends and mapping our marketing guidelines to maximize their operating efforts, improper time management will usually create havoc and problems, further causing stress and eventually lead to a less efficient output over the expected ones.

The better part of successful people have developed ways to manage their time and maximize it in a proper way to be able to attain best results and allow their minds and wits to function to its fullest. For sure, the road to finding the right antidote and mixture in being able to properly manage time is no easy task. But then again, it is never too late nor harmful to try.

If you’ve never taken the time to check out your local library, you may be really missing out. Most public libraries have a business librarian who can answer business related questions and has contacts in the business world. Even if your library system doesn’t have a librarian who is dedicated to business, you can find a selection of popular business books and business databases. While you can find the latest bestsellers, don’t forget to check the shelves for must read classics like Think and Grow Rich.

However, most libraries don’t stop there. Your library may also offer business workshops and networking opportunities. Our local library system even has a librarian who specializes in consulting with small business owners and people who want to start a business. She has helped over a dozen people start their own businesses in the last year.

So, the next time you have a business related question, pick up the phone and contact your local business librarian. If you’re afraid your question is too simple, don’t be. The librarian’s creed is “There is no such thing is a stupid question.”

Have you used your local library as a business resource? I’d love to hear if your business librarian is as useful and helpful as the librarians I’ve contacted.

Your business is having a rough week and so are you. All you want to do is curl up under the bed and hide. If you do have to go out, you tell everyone you meet how terrible things are. You’re just blowing off steam and it doesn’t hurt anything, right? Wrong. One of the most important business principles is to act like your business is doing well no matter what.

After all, if you aren’t doing well and people know it, they’ll be less likely to use your services or buy your products. They’ll wonder if you’ll be around to stand behind your satisfaction guarantee. They’ll ask themselves if you’ll do the best possible work you can do if you are worried about finances.

Instead, put a smile on your face and tell people you are doing great and so is your business. You may just find that after you say this a few dozen times that it’s really true. After all, who wouldn’t want to have such a gung ho, positive person working on their project or selling them the things they need?

If the thought of forming a corporation is overwhelming, but you are concerned about protecting some of your personal assets, you may want to start a limited liability company, affectionately known as a LLC. (When I first looked into starting a LLC, I called my state government to find out what I needed to do and made the mistake of calling it a limited liability corporation. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Apparently, it really upsets some people. The woman I was talking to literally yelled “No!? into the phone. It took me a minute to figure out that her loud response was to the use of the word corporation.)

A LLC requires very little paperwork and, with a bit of patience, you can file it yourself. However, as with anything that has any legal ramifications, you should take a minute to call your lawyer to be sure this is the right thing for you and your business. Most LLC’s can be formed cheaply, but don’t forget to find out about the cost of maintaining the company. In Maryland, you will need to pay three times the amount of your filing fee each year to keep your LLC active. I’d say it’s a good idea to ask for a breakdown of what you will need to pay to establish the company and what fees are required next year so you don’t end up with any nasty surprises.

If you file your own taxes, you’ll really appreciate one benefit of the LLC each April – you can still file as a sole proprietorship using form 1065. Just don’t forget to make your quarterly tax payments, too.

Insurance Ensures Protection

Before you make a final decision, you should be aware that an LLC does not protect you from personal injury lawsuits. If someone falls on the banana peel you tossed by the trash can, they can sue you personally. To protect your property, you should take out business liability insurance.

You’ve got an incredible new business idea and you need financing. It’s as easy as a quick trip to the bank, right? After the bank’s loan officer manages to stop laughing enough to talk, he may suggest you try bootstrapping until your business is more successful.

Before you head for the closet to find that ratty pair of hiking boots from last summer, I’d better tell you that bootstrapping actually has nothing to do with shoes. In business, this term simply means starting a new business and keeping it running without financial backing from a bank or investor. Instead, you fund the business yourself and only buy the things you absolutely most have. (Despite what the guy at the office supply says, an executive leather swivel chair is rarely a must.)

I know what you’re thinking – If I could fund the business myself, I wouldn’t be asking for a loan! Actually, even most wealthy entrepreneurs ask for loans or find other investors when they are starting new businesses, because they don’t want to tie up their money.

How Bootstrapping Works

Many people use credit cards to fund their new business. Some simply pay off one credit card with the other as the monthly bills roll in. (Paying one credit card with another is not a good idea, by the way.) Others try to pay at least part of the monthly balance with household money, which brings up another source of income-friends and family. Sure, finding a big investor is hard, but maybe you can convince good ol’ sis to vacation in her backyard this summer and lend you the three thousand she was going to spend on a luxury cruise. Just don’t overdo the borrowing; you don’t want to create hard feelings.

Once you have a way to purchase the necessities, be creative with the rest of your needs. Comparison shop, ask for specials, or trade services with someone else. For some terrific ideas on how to make your money stretch while bootstrapping, check out Secrets of Bootstrapping.

By the way, I’d love to hear your ideas for starting a new business on next to nothing, and I’m sure everyone else would, too.