Work.com Small Business Community Blog

6 Ways to Make Your Website a Web Solution

Ilene Rosoff has done it again. Not content to rest on her laurels as author of The Right IT Stuff (about how small businesses can partner with an IT services partner), Ilene has now enlightened the Work.com community about why small businesses need a web solution, not a website. Did you get a domain name, throw up a design, and wonder why your site has not magically appeared on page one of Google and fulfilled its promise? If so, Ilene advises you how to create an effective web presence:

• Make sure your site is well-orchestrated and your branding is cohesive
• Make sure your site is maintained and updated
• Create and finetune your site's marketing plan
• Choose a good email management system
• Expand your web presence by participating in social media
• Integrate your website with your business processes

Ilene links to a variety of helpful resources, including this article on business process interaction, a web marketing checklist and more web marketing tips, or these tips for web analytics success for small business. You can also check out her own company, The Launchpad, which focuses on small business web design and development.

Tags: internet marketing, ecommerce, web analytics

5 Tips to Take Your Business From Idea to Reality

Carmina Perez, management consultant and Mogulettes-in-the-Making blogger, just published her Guide to Overcoming Your Fears of Launching a Business. Carmina, who worked in the corporate world for years, says she got tired of helping corporations to achieve their visions as employee, so she decided to place all her energy and creativity in the service of her own dreams. But she very wisely realized that she couldn't do it all on her own, and decided to meet with other women entrepreneurs to motivate herself to take the actions she needed to achieve her goals. Carmina's top 5 tips for startup motivation?

• Join or start an entrepreneurs' club
• Attend a course about the product or service you'd like to bring to market
• Find a mentor
• Get a business coach
• Break your actions into tiny steps

Also remember, as Carmina says, to let go of your perfectionism - making mistakes is a normal part of the process.

Tags: startup, entrepreneurs

What Entrepreneurs Most Want to Know: May 2007's Most Popular Work.com How-to Guides

Do you know what entrepreneurs and business owners most wanted to know about in May 2007? I just checked the Work.com stats, and last month, entrepreneurs and business owners most wanted to know about the new postage rate changes, creating a great business plan, and low-cost business you can start. Guides new on the list include Starting a Real Estate Business and Finding Wholesale Food and Beverage Distributors.

Here are the top 20 most visited Work.com business how-to guides in May 2007:

1. The 2007 Postage Rate Changes (same ranking as April)
2. Creating a Great Business Plan (same ranking as April)
3. Low Cost Businesses You Can Start (+1)
4. Getting the Most Out of Linked In (+1)
5. Resources for Starting a Business (-2)
6. Making Money on CafePress (same ranking as April)
7. Doing Business in Second Life (same ranking as April)
8. Finding Free Business Cards (+3)
9. Sample Business Plans (+6)
10. Finding New Business Ideas (+6)
11. Getting a Business Line of Credit (-2)
12. Business Logo Design (-2)
13. Building an Online Community (not in April top 20)
14. Point-of-Sale (POS) Software and Systems (not in April top 20)
15. Learning Search Engine Optimization (-1)
16. Starting a Real Estate Business (not in April top 20)
17. Finding Wholesale Food and Beverage Distributors (not in April top 20)
18. Starting a Pool Hall (not in April top 20)
19. Employee Evaluation (not in April top 20)
20. Using SCORE Counseling Services (not in April top 20)

* means new on the most visited list. # in parentheses is ranking compared with last month's.

Also see April 2007's most visited guides to see what was hot last month, or you can always check the Most Popular Guides page on Work.com to see which business how-to guides have been most popular over time. Is your guide in the top 20? Hints on how to get it there: link to your guide from a variety of sites, put it in your online profiles, put your URL in your signature, email it, blog about it -- there are many ways to spread the Work. More hints in the guide to increasing your online visibility using Work.com.

Tags: work.com, entrepreneurs

Mogulettes-in-the-Making

I love discovering new blogs devoted to supporting people who are starting or running their own businesses! I was in Technorati today checking out new links to Work.com, which is how I find out about many interesting business blogs I didn't know about before.

Mogulettes-in-the-Making is a blog for women who give each other feedback and support in "launching their own business empires, no matter the size."

"What Would you Try If You Could Not Fail?" reads the blog tagline. I have seen that trait over and over in the entrepreneurs I encounter - a strong sense of bravery, which fuels their determination to implement their vision.

P.S. Check out Mogulette-in-the-Making author Carmina Perez's Work.com profile.

Tags: entrepreneur, startup

Work.com on del.icio.us

As of today, Work.com has 794 saves on del.icio.us for the URL http://www.work.com. Here’s how we compare to other business sites: 

• 794 Work.com 
• 773 Score.org
• 678 SBA.gov
• 485 Allbusiness.com

We're saved under tags including business, entrepreneur, howto, reference, and startup. Check our URL here: http://del.icio.us/url/3370dcaa574783b07c2ee2ab555a700e or here: http://del.icio.us/popular/smallbusiness.