Get some grit.

Stiffen your backbone.

Get out there and take some risks.

Birds of a feather may flock together, but brave eagle soars alone.

Find something that will put a spring in your step. Something that makes you want to hop out of bed in morning and start slaying some dragons.

Get fired up.

Even little Tommy Turtle knows if he wants to move forward, he has to stick his neck out.

Forget free lunch and start sticking your neck out. You may get hit on chin a few times, but you'll know you're alive.

Wishing You Success, John Colanzi Street Smart Marketing http://www.inte

At my website, http://ParentPreneurClub.com , I have other tools I use to assess my visitors' interests and needs. One is our weblog, which offers detailed reports on which pages are most popular and how long visitors view them.

Another is our library of 100 free eBooks. By logging ones which are downloaded most often, I've gleaned a wealth of information on interests of my visitors.

Up until I started tracking, I assumed that our business offerings would be most popular with my audience of work at home parents (mostly moms). However, *the* most popular eBook in Library has nothing to do with making money or running a home business: It's called "Healthy Living for a Busy Family" and it's been downloaded about three times as often as my most popular business eBook. Those stats led me to add more family and lifestyle topics to library, as well as a couple of new cooking pages -- because managing a household and raising healthy kids is as much a concern for my visitors as making a solid profit.

Finally, nothing is as good as actually *asking* your customers what they want. Surveys are an extremely useful tool and several companies offer versions you can place on your website for free. The one we've used is located here: http://webpoll.sparklit.com/

Millard Drexler -- whose vision helped make Gap nation's number one apparel retailer -- is staying on with company until a replacement is found. In meantime, Gap's new old strategy of selling basics (jeans, khakis and white shirts) combined with an ad campaign that includes Boomer icon Dennis Hopper, appears to be working. It's just too bad these guys didn't ask their customers what they wanted before changing their course. Let's hope we home business folk don't make same mistake!