competitive analysis - who is in competition with you and what are they offering? Can you perhaps better than offer? Knowing who your competitors are and what they are doing helps you in several ways. It helps determine where you stand in market based on price and quality of your product/service. It helps you to determine how you can better your offer if you need to. It also provides you with a bit of insight as to their marketing tactics and objectives.

marketing and promotions - how do you plan on getting you word out, what options are available to you and of course budget that you have set aside for marketing of your business.

It doesn't matter that you are not trying to secure investors or some other form of financing. Drafting up a business plan keeps you focused on your goals and gives you guidance you need along way. There is a reason that 95% of business fails...it is because people just jumped into something without first plotting their roadmap.

Success Tip #4 - The Learning Curve

Ya know, no one knows all there is to know about business so it stands to reason that you do have quite a learning curve ahead of you. Now you can take this on with two different mindsets, you could:

1. Get totally pumped about fact that you are learning some pretty amazing things and that by end of year you will be totally gobbed- smacked at just how much you have done..."You've come a long way baby!"

2. Fight fact that you need to learn some stuff and tell yourself there is no possible way that you can do it. I will tell you right now, with this kind of attitude you won't get far.

Just keep this in mind, whether you can or can't you are absolutely right. Yup you are going to make mistakes and probably bad ones, but those mistakes are valuable lessons to be learned.

In addition to that you also need to keep up with what is happening within your industry. You need to be "sponge" and stay up to date with latest trends (there's that word again, huh?), advances as they apply to your industry and then of course through that reading you are becoming much more informed and of more value to your customers. There is NOTHING worse than losing a customer to your competitor because they found a new way to do something better for them and you haven't. Why? Because you didn't read and keep up.

We are in "information" age, there is a ton of it out there on anything and everything that you can imagine.

Success Tip #5 - Be Persistent and Consistent

Two words that have much meaning especially when you are trying to start and maintain a viable business. There are going to be peaks and valleys throughout your quest for business success. During highs and lows you need to hang in there and don't give up. Stay your course, adjusting where you need to in order to get over rough spots and above all else be consistent in what you are doing.

Success Tip #6 - Break Out of The Bubble

Sometimes we are working so hard "in" business, we neglect working "on" it. We are best Accountants, Graphic Designers, Independent Distributors that we forget that working "on" business is needed as well. Without working "on" it then we will soon run out of working "in" it...make sense?

Break out and find groups to belong to, your local Chamber, some sort of business association that will allow you chance to meet with like-minded people like yourself.

Breaking out of your bubble can also mean taking in a course that relates to your business in general or perhaps a business related course. Again too you will tend to find like-minded people with which to talk to.

Success Tip #7 - Find a Coach or a Mentor

A coach or mentor can be quite helpful for you. They can help brainstorm ideas, share their experiences with intention of helping you avoid some of expensive pitfalls that they experienced. They are also valuable in that they are on outside of your business looking in and as such can give you a different perspective than you can see on your own.

A Coach or Mentor is a valuable asset to your business.

Success does leave clues and to find them all you really need to do is to find those people who have or are achieving same results that you want to achieve and talk with them. Find out from them what their struggles were and how they overcame them and what it took to get them at point where they are now. On top of that ask them if they had to do it all over again what would they do differently and why. The greatest lessons and insights we can gain are from those who have experienced it and are willing to share those experiences with you.

There you go seven tips that will certainly help and guide you in your quest for success. There are certainly more clues out there, these seven along with your drive and energy will give you a very good solid foundation to start with. After that and as you go along your way, just remember to stay open to ideas and concepts, be a sponge and learn as much as you can about industry you are in and of course learn from others.

Good luck with your quest!!

Here are a few things to consider when getting your cards done.

1. Do not go with black printing on a white card. It screams cheap and newbie. If money is tight, understandable, but go for a coloured card stock with a matching coloured print. It is still inexpensive and it doesn't scream new, or "Herb Tarlick" marketing practices.

2. Include your business name, contact name, phone number, site address, web site address and of course your address. If for security reasons you don't want to include your home address then that's fine. However, make sure you have ALL possible ways for a potential customer to do business with you.

3. USE THE BACK OF THE CARD...what a waste of potential marketing opportunities. So many people forget about this. A business card is a mini- billboard...use it ALL. On back you could have a few tips and then email address to your autoresponder for them to get more info. I had an Accountant use back of her card by providing all applicable phone numbers to all tax offices that a business owner would need. Another client of mine is a travel agent and he included all 1-800 numbers for prime airlines and car rental agencies. The idea is to make your card a keeper ;o)

Business Alliances

Ok, on line we refer to these as Joint Ventures, Business Alliances is same thing, but only name has been changed.

Leverage yourself by finding another business owner off line, where you can set up an alliance and piggy back each other's marketing efforts. This one takes a little time and effort to set up, but, once it is again you are tapping into prospects that would never have found you otherwise.

There you go, five quick tips and in some regards you can use same tactic in both on and off line marketing...so why not???