As a business owner, chances are you’re sitting on the cutting edge of technology, and what could be more cutting edge than an iPhone? The only thing more fun than showing your friends all the cool things your phone can do is actually using it to grow your business. We’re not claiming that all of these applications are going to make your business grow by leaps and bounds, but you might find some interesting ways to use them. And the rest? Well, everyone needs something fun to tinker with every now and then.

1. Facebook. Everyone’s favorite social networking addiction is now compatible with iPhone. The application allows you to take care of a lot of things you typically take care of from…

If you own your own business, you know how difficult it can be to maintain an effective level of productivity. Interruptions are always part of your day, and there are any number of ways to distract yourself from the tasks at hand. Here are 6 keys to improving your productivity.

1. Make Appointments. One of the best ways to improve your productivity is to set specific times for meeting with employees, vendors, etc. Instead of letting people catch you when you “have a minute,” respectfully request that they make an appointment to meet with you. Admittedly, this does feel a little rigid and a little less relaxed than an open door policy, but…

One of the most difficult aspects of small business ownership is delegating some of your responsibility to others. The difficulty lies in the fact that your business is successful because of your strong leadership and your ability to wear many hats at once. If that wasn’t the case, then your business would have failed long ago. So there’s a certain logic in your desire to do all of the work yourself; after all, if you want something done right, you should do it yourself. But doing all of the work and retaining all of the responsibility is the short road to burnout. Here are 3 keys to delegating that will save your business, and your sanity.

Don’t Be Such a Control Freak. Chances are that you’re most comfortable when all decisions come from you. But you can only run your company this way for so long before you become completely overwhelmed. Pick one or two of your key staff and let them make decisions on their own, without your input. That way, if you’re unavailable for a time, business can still continue. It’s certainly in your best interest to…

You’ve been to business school and learned it all, right? Not so fast. Sometimes, the most important lessons come to us via mistakes we’ve made. Here are the top five keys to small business success that you never learned in school.

Don’t Be Such a Control Freak. One of the hardest things any small business owner has to do is learn when to delegate. Of course you want to do it all yourself because that’s the only way it’s going to be done right. But that only results in burnout and a bunch of employees who never learn anything. You’re only doing yourself and your business a favor when you learn to…

You are a small business owner with a vision and a passion. You are engaging and motivating to others and you know exactly how to use social networking sites to engage potential customers and increase the likelihood that you will make a sale. But admit it, you’re not the world’s greatest writer, and you’re not winning any awards for website design. And that’s where the trouble lies. Your website shows the world exactly what kind of professional you are. If it’s sloppy, poorly written, or disorganized, then potential customers will assume that you are sloppy and disorganized. Yes, doing your own internet marketing can feel like quite an accomplishment, but you haven’t accomplished much if visitors to your site leave as quickly as they came. Here are 4 reasons you need professional help.

Your Website. While websites are relatively easy to build, great websites are created by professional designers who have years of experience. And to build a great website you need great design, great copy, outstanding search engine optimization, and a stellar marketing professional. Once that’s in place, your website will do much of your work for you because it will…

If you’re a small business owner, you probably can’t imagine running your business without a website. And if you want to be a successful business owner, you need to have a really great website. This means that before you do anything else, you need to determine your target audience, the website’s purpose, your budget, your design, your navigation, and your content. Just making all of this up as you go along will result in a mediocre website that doesn’t work effectively for you. Follow these 8 keys as you create a great website that becomes the difference between success and failure for your business.

Know Your Purpose. Before you do anything else, you must determine the purpose of your website. The purpose is the basis of everything else, including content, navigation, and design. Is the purpose of your website to educate? To generate leads? To entertain? To make sales? If you neglect to define your purpose at the very beginning, then the rest…

Given all the time you invest in recruiting and hiring the perfect employee, it may feel like the hard part is over once the perfect employee has showed up for his first day on the job. But nothing could be further from the truth. Your perfect employee’s first few days on the job are the days that you should be willing to invest your time and effort anew. After all, to keep the perfect employee, you need to make sure he feels that your business is the perfect environment for him and that he adds value to your company. Here are eight keys to keeping the perfect employee once you’ve hired him.

Balance the Work. One of the most difficult aspects of adding an employee to your team is the fact that work needs to be redistributed. Those training the new employee won’t be able to keep up with their workloads, and that can cause hard feelings and resentment. Make sure you’ve…

When you’re on the edge of burnout, or you’re not sure if you’re leading your business in the right direction, sometimes it helps to think of your business in terms of analogies. Hopefully, as a business owner, you make time to care for your physical health, and maybe you even go to a gym every once in awhile. Here are three reasons, taken straight from the gym, to treat your business like a workout.

Small Adjustments Make a Big Difference. If you’re like many people, you started out trying to teach yourself how to use the gym equipment. Later on, you may have enlisted the help of a personal trainer to give you even more details about how to use the machines most efficiently and effectively. Even just a small adjustment in arm or leg position could result in making you use an entirely different set of muscles altogether. Just a few inches can make a huge difference! And if you had never learned to use the equipment properly, then you would have…

Big corporations have huge budgets. They spend more on marketing in one month than you do on your whole business for an entire year. They have experts and specialists doing all of their branding. So how can you possibly compete? Start by remembering that your small business has some significant advantages over major corporations.

Finances. Let’s face it, the internet has really leveled the internet marketing playing field. There’s not much a huge corporation can do on the internet that you can’t do. You can both optimize your websites, you can both host your website on a web-based content management system, you can both post relevant and high-quality articles to your blog, you can both use social networking sites to connect to potential customers, and you can both optimize your landing pages to ensure more leads. All of those activities are critical to…

If you’re a small business owner, you need to check out the Small Business Administration website. You may have been reticent to visit as the SBA has not always been perceived as the most helpful or efficient agency out there. But they do, in fact, have some really helpful tools for small business owners that you should see. They’re not only for businesses just starting out, but also for businesses that are well-established. Here are 5 tools to help you.

Starting Your Business. This is a helpful section that provides great tips for individuals who are interested in starting their own businesses. The first piece of advice in this section is to find a mentor who can guide you through the many steps involved in starting a small business. SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a great mentoring group that is loosely affiliated with the…