Small Business Blog from Atlantic Canada

I am "CA" Atreya (PMP, MBA), the author of this blog. I help businesses in Atlantic Canada achieve their BHAG successfully. You may subscribe to this blog using a feed reader (RSS).

I have undergone a transformation of immense proportions over the last five days. But first, welcome to the third edition of the Carnival of Small Business Issues. We continue to receive a number of great posts from new readers. This just goes to show that the carnival is gaining popularity. Thank you for the submissions.

So what has been the transformation you ask? Well, the transformation has been more off-line than on-line. I am now a proud father of a baby girl. She has taken up most of my waking hours leaving precious little time for other activities. But I am back after a mini-sabbatical.

I do find it painful not to include posts submitted after the Sunday deadline - especially if they are good and scream for immediate promotion. Hence I request you to please submit your posts on or before Sunday. I usually post late submissions the following week and this time is no different. Here is the link to the submission page.

You support and link to the carnival is greatly appreciated.

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Finance

“You have credit questions. The Advisor has answers.” This positioning statement at Ask the Advisors is succinct and to the point. Their marketing department deserves a pat. Jimmy Atkinson presents How to avoid being audited when you are self-employed. “If you are self-employed, your risk for audits may be higher because the IRS feels that self-employed individuals are more likely to cheat on their taxes.” I suppose the same holds true for the Canadian counterparts.

Marketing & Sales

Chris created Lead Optimize.com to help “small and medium business owners generate qualified sales leads from their websites.” I am now wondering how many small business owners actually even have a metrics to track their website leads in the first place. Any stats on that Chris? Make Your Site Say, “Can I help you?” “Make yourself available through your website to help your customers and visitors find what they want.”

Sen Ze runs multiple businesses from the comfort of his home. Sen (who for some reason, I think, resembles Jet Li) says, “You don’t need to work harder for more money, only smarter. The Business in Your Pajamas Revolution is all about doing more with less.” Sen dissects the marketing machine that enabled “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” to gross over 128 million and bag 10 Oscar nominations in Overlapping Niche Marketing.

Matt McDonald started a new marketing because he believes that some of the fundamentals of marketing are wrong. Very bold statement Matt (but I think it’s true). The 4C’s - The New Marketing Mix expands (or perhaps junks) the 4 P’s of marketing. Matt introduces “Create, connect, correct and cancel” as the 4 C’s. It does makes sense, but will it stand the test of critics and tests? Discuss it!

Operations

Bill Willard has been “cranking out high-impact writing for over 30 years.” He has also specialized in financial services and works with may top financial advisors. Bill also writes for The Freestyle Entrepreneur. For those who are looking to incorporate, have you considered limited liability company? It works for venture capitalists - it could work for you.

Write to Right is designed to WRITE the words of the great ones in a simplified format to help RIGHT people’s lives. Cade Krueger presents some tips for startup entrepreneurs. Ignore this article at your peril. An idea to start a home business. “Small business owners suffer from some mistakes that are truly silly and can cause them eventual harm down the road … there are many shady people out there [who] will try to use you for money.”

Henry Bagdasarian is a certified expert in corporate auditing and risk management, fraud management, information security and privacy. Congrats Henry for being nominated for the Information Security Executive Award. At identity-theft-awareness.com he shares his expertise and educates people about the risks of identity theft and how to prevent it. A crook employer will do anything to make an extra buck is about employers using employee personal information for personal gain.

Dave Prouhet at Business Advice Daily says, “There is truth to the statement that we learn from our mistakes. As small-business owners who have experienced a degree of success, we have profited from our mistakes, our failures. The following are some of our mistakes, our failures, to spare you from experiencing the same.” Business Failure looks at some of the mistakes/failures they have made to spare you the agony of experiencing the same. Wise men, it is said, learn from others mistakes.

HR

Alexander Tretjkov at Burst Creativity guarantees that any person who made a lot of money used creativity first. “The technology, everything around us makes it easy for us to consume things without thinking … Our life is made for us by someone else…” So true Alex. 10 Steps to Better Efficiency in Your Day to Day Life talks about personal development, self improvement and efficiencies. I do have a question, Alex. Should we aim for being efficient (doing things right) or effective (doing the right things) in our daily activities?

“I may be a learned scholar, a successful businessman or a good father and husband, but until I am all three, I have not succeeded.” I regurgitated Wilson’s (Reflections of a BizDrivenLife) goal and definition of success as an example of what constitutes an excellent positioning statement. “In todays world, the person who knows how will earn good money, but a person that TRULY knows why is the one who will be sought after! Dont’ be content with just skin deep understanding. Go for depth and true mastery! The difference in a small improvement in excellence will translate into big differences for your business and for your career.” If this intrigues you, Deep Understanding is a must read. Daghan salamat, Wilson for this great post.

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Thanks you for your submissions. Happy reading!