You'll need to know who's doing what you're doing. Check out their Web sites, bookmark their URL, and enter names and contact details into your contact management program.

(Go to Better Whois, at http://www.betterwhois.com/ to get business owner's contact details.)

See whether they offer services or products which are complementary to yours. You might be able to form a loose partnership.

If it's appropriate, you could offer them a link on your Web site in return for a link on theirs. However, be careful with this. Don't go linking here, there and everywhere online for heck of it. Ubiquitous linking makes it look as if you don't know what you're doing.

==> Step Two: In what fields do you want to expand your client base?

When looking for prospective clients, think in terms of industries or professions.

If many of your clients are doctors, perhaps you want to contact more doctors, or perhaps you want to contact dentists or lawyers.

If you're a writer, maybe you've been targeting health and fitness magazines. What other interests and knowledge do you have? Perhaps you once worked for a construction company. Trade magazines pay quite well, so investigate construction magazines. Enter magazines into your database, and send editors a letter or e-mail message introducing yourself.

==> Step Three: Budget time for networking

Networking won't pay off with instantly, and too much networking can eat up a lot of time. So make a networking schedule for yourself.

If you're working in your small business fulltime, budget half an hour or so every couple of days for networking, or put in an hour a week. If you're a part-timer, try to put in a couple of hours a month.

==> Step Four: Don't be put off by a lack of response

If you send an e-mail message, and don't get a response, don't take it badly. Like most other people, I've got a rapid-fire delete finger, and I'm sure that occasionally I delete a valuable message by mistake. Blame it on spam circus that e-mail has become.

Don't badger people, but if you're not getting a response via email, send them a fax or a letter.

Start making online contacts today, and watch your business thrive!

***Resource box: if using, please include***

Veteran multi-published author and copywriter Angela Booth crafts words for your business --- words to sell, educate or persuade. E-books and e-courses for writers on Web site. FREE ezines for writers and small biz: http://www.digital-e.biz/

Do at least one thing that makes you uncomfortable every day. Maybe it's making a dozen cold calls to drum up some business. Maybe it's clearing up clutter in your office. Maybe it's giving a presentation to a new client.

Successful people force themselves to do things unsuccessful people don't do.

(No one said this was supposed to be easy.)

6. Market your business every day: repetition counts

Marketing your business never stops. Your prospects will need to hear your message many times before they remember your name.

You'll need to get in touch with current clients consistently too.

7. Trust your intuition

Always go with your gut instinct. In fact, make it a rule that you never sign an agreement without sleeping on it first.

If you're thinking that you don't have intuition, you do. Everyone does. To access your intuition, start paying more attention to feelings in your body as you go through your day. The tightness in your belly, crick in your neck, and pain at back of your eyeballs are trying to tell you something.

Your intuition lives in your body. It's your (un)common sense. Pay attention to it.

8. Trust your dreams

You can access your intuition about your health, other people, and life situations more easily if you pay attention to your dreams.

You don't need to become a New Age flake, but if your dreams consistently feature floods, fires and earthquakes, it may be wise to pay attention to warnings you're being given.

Consider your dreams your early-warning radar.

9. Don't buy into limitation

How are you limiting yourself?

We all place limits on ourselves. What would you do if you knew, absolutely, without any doubt at all, that you could not fail?

Write down five things you would do if you knew you couldn't fail. Can you turn them into goals and make plans to achieve them?

10. Stay passionate

If you're not passionate about your business, you might as well be working in a regular job.

So if you've lost your passion, get it back. Do some thinking and writing. Write down answers to following questions:

Why are you working in your own business? What do you hope to achieve? Where will your business be next year, and in five years? What are you grateful for? What can you offer others? What do you love?

(The writing part is important.)

***Resource box: if using, please include***

When your words sound good, you sound good. Author and copywriter Angela Booth crafts words for your business --- words to sell, educate or persuade. Free ezines: http://www.digital-e.biz/