What Makes A Good Website?
Now what constitutes “good” is very subjective, we all have different tastes. But I think we can all agree that certain principals need to be followed when setting up a website to make sure you’re not putting your good time to waste.
Respectfully Disobedient

Export loans rise, SBA reports
The Small Business Administration is making a big push to help small companies who get export loans, and companies in Central Florida are seeing the fruits of those efforts.
Orlando Sentinel

Behind the Brand
In these videos, host Bryan Elliott examines brands, innovators, authors and small businesses by engaging them in conversation about their passions, their challenges and how it is these personalities have achieved such a high level of success.
Get Busy Media

Location can make, break new business
Potential small-business owners are faced with many decisions; from how to obtain capital to which bookkeeping software is right for the business. Choosing the right location should be a priority early on.
San Angelo Standard Times

“Organize Your Home Office” For A Workable Office Space
Many small business owners work from home, but very few of these same owners would be comfortable inviting a prospective client to see their home office.
Small Business Trends (book review)

Insurance for small business in case the unthinkable happens
In addition to disability insurance, other types of coverage for small business owners and partners include life, partnership or buy-sell, critical illness, and key person.
The Tri-City News

Writing a business plan
The prospect of writing a business plan for a new start-up business or a young / small business that is looking to expand is something that sounds daunting. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be a struggle
The Guardian

Bill Would Create New Small Business Tax Break
Two Republican lawmakers are hoping a new bill will give small businesses the same tax deductions as big corporations when they donate excess products to charity and nonprofits.
Inc.com

What is Your Twitter Strategy for Following Someone?
Are you on Twitter? How do you use it? How do you decide who to follow?
Keep Up With The Web

Bring Customers to Your Door with Andromo App Maker for Android
Small business owners can now create Android apps that drive customers right to their door, thanks to the interactive map feature found in Andromo App Maker for Android.
PRWeb (press release)

6 Ways to Improve Your Focus at Work
Staying alert and productive all day, every day seems like an insurmountable task. With instant access to e-mail, YouTube and Facebook, the challenge becomes that much greater.
American Express OPEN Forum

Small Businesses Got $3.5B in Lending from Jobs Act Fund
The Small Business Lending Fund has helped issue $3.5 billion in loans to businesses by providing capital to qualified community lenders, according to the US Treasury.
eCreditDaily.com

Using social media to promote good public relations
Can you prevent bad PR? Jane Jordan-Meier joins Jim Blasingame to talk about why you must include social media in your crisis management plan, plus how to handle negative online comments, aka, user generated content (UGC).
The Small Business Advocate (audio)

Sometimes you are the real obstacles to producing greater results.

We can easily get bogged down in doing things that make no impact on our sales results, even though these tasks feel like they are important to our sales efforts. Some of the tasks are necessary but can steal time, some are unnecessary but feel important, and some indicate deeper avoidance issues.

Identify and determine which of these three productivity killers destroy your results, and take action to reclaim your time—and produce better results.

Source/Read More: The Sales Blog

Optimism among small businesses is rising, according to research from Robert Half’s quarterly Professional Employment Report. Business confidence among companies with 20 to 49 employees has risen 8 points over the past year.¹

To help business leaders position their firms for success in a stronger economy, Robert Half has published a new resource, 20 Ideas for Small Businesses and Pitfalls to Avoid. Part of The Robert Half Small Business Series (http://www.roberthalf.us/smallbusinesscenter), the guide is designed to provide small business owners with advice for recruiting, retaining and motivating their teams, and improving their companies’ productivity and profitability.

20 Ideas for Small Businesses and Pitfalls to Avoid provides practical, real-world strategies small businesses can use to boost retention, hire strategically, enhance corporate culture, build customer relationships online, and update infrastructure and policies. In addition to providing ideas that can help businesses take advantage of new opportunities, it also points out some common mistakes that can derail companies from staying on track.

Source/Read More: PRNewswire

One very important one: know where you’re going.

Have your end goal in mind

Before you even start working, you should have your end goal in mind: Why am I working? What am I trying to achieve? Why do I need to wake up early to work on my business?

Once you have the goal clearly defined (such as earning $3,850/month from the products and services you are providing or quitting your day job before the 1st of September, 2011) and you keep it in mind all the time, it is easier for you to formulate plans at a more detailed level (daily/weekly/monthly).

Source: TimoKiander.com

Small-business owners are known for their do-it-yourself work ethic. Without that type of attitude, running a small business is next to impossible. But there are also times where getting help from outside can help small-business owners use their time more efficiently.

Whether it’s buying a product that can help you do things more efficiently or contracting with someone to conduct a service that they can do more efficiently than you could ever dream, spending a few dollars here and there can end up saving you money in the long run. Here are a few areas of your business where affordable help is available and can take some extra work off your plate.

Source: ReviewJournal.com

You might think that email archiving is only for big companies with thousands of employees and IT legal departments to match. Well, guess again. Small businesses are buried in email and just as prone to lawsuits — and just as liable if they can’t produce electronic documents in court.

An email archiving system adds yet another layer of small business security. But legal concerns and protecting your business data aren’t the only reasons email archiving makes sense. Take a read through the list of reasons complied by our sister site InfoStore to better understand email archiving systems and how they can help your business.

Source: Small Business Computing

People left in high spirits after watching a comedy film were able to work through 12 per cent more questions in timed maths tests.

Conversely, people who reported being in a sour mood were 10 per cent less productive than average.

Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at Warwick Business School, who led the research, said the results showed a clear relationship between mood and work efficiency – a discovery which could have profound implications for business leaders.

“We find that human happiness has large and positive causal affects on productivity,” he told The Observer.

“Positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings, while negative emotions have the opposite effect.”

Click the link below for the complete article!

Happy workers ‘are more productive’

Click here to view the embedded video.

One is to just start the damn thing:

Action precedes motivation. That means you have to start something before you can really get motivated to get into it. You’ve experienced this. You start to clean out a drawer because you couldn’t find something. Before you know it, every drawer around is tidy.

Scott Halford covers five tips for overcoming procrastination in this Entrepreneur.com column.