So when you find out you’re marketing isn’t working like you thought or that your great idea isn’t seen as such a great idea by the people in your market – what do you do?

When the sales slow down and the bills aren’t getting paid – what do you do?

And on those days that you have no motivation, no real desire to grind away at making your business work – what do you?

In other words, what keeps you going?

For me, personally, it’s my vision. Certainly it’s the goals I want to achieve, that’s part of it. But it’s not all of it.

What keeps me going is wanting to live the lifestyle I want. Not just talk about it or dream about it – and not just touch it from time-to-time. But to actually live the lifestyle I want.

For me that means putting time with my wife and kids before anything. It means taking a day off when my wife’s sick or needs some rest. It means making 4 day weekends so my family can enjoy a camping trip. It means being incredibly active and highly available to my kids. It means living a life that’s balanced with some freedom.

You see, I don’t want a life where I’m bogged down by my work. If I did, I could go out and work for any corporation, put in less effort and allow someone else to dictate my lifestyle. Sure, I want – and do – make a nice living. But I don’t want my pursuit of money to become more important than what’s more important to me – quality time with my family, hiking, my spiritual practice, etc. All these things I put above making money.

BUT, I still focus on making money – as a means to the ends I wish to live by. So I work in my business to make money solely so I can have the lifestyle I want. And that’s what keeps me going on the days when it’s just not so easy or comfortable to work for myself.

So that’s me. How about you, what keeps you going when it’s less than easy?

I don’t buy that this election or anything that happens in Washington is really don’t have that much effect on my daily life. Sure, taxes will go up then things will cost more. And I think that’s going to happen regardless. You see, no one is really talking about are inflated dollar, are inflated home prices, and are inflated markets. Since our dollar and our prices are all inflated I expected a correction. And that’s what I think we are seeing with our current economic crisis.

So I’ll watch the larger markets. But truthfully they’re my secondary concern. The market that most matters to me — the market that I’m most focused on — is my niche market.

For me, it’s more important to focus on what I can do to increase my quality of life, pay my bills, and put food on the table for my family. In all reality, I have little control over whether my corporate tax is 36% or 39%. Either one of these is way too high. As Brad Shorr suggests our corporate tax rates are “already uncompetitive on a global basis, and it’s costing us growth and jobs now.”

So I’m not looking for the political process to help my business. Instead, I’m looking for me to help my business; doing so by refining my efforts to position myself effectively within my niche market. Regardless of the economy, solo business owners, service providers and the most small businesses need many of the services we provide. And even an economic downturn many businesses will still continue to do well. So my goal as a business owner and a marketer is to position myself in those business sectors that are still doing well and help them solve the problems they still face within the business.

In other words, I’m being responsible for the health of my business. I’m planning for tight economic times by being even more focused with my marketing. And I’m advising that all of my clients who run service-based companies do the same thing. Not out of fear but out of opportunity. Because it’s in an economic downturn that competition wanes due to the large number of small businesses who will shut down.

Knowing this you can position a business not only to survive but thrive during such times. And even if I’m wrong and we are not heading toward an economic downturn, a recession, or as some are saying even a depression, it is still a good exercise to refine your businesses purpose, positioning and marketing.

So, in a nutshell, I’m looking at myself to solve any financial problems in my life and in my business rather than waiting for a politicians in Washington or investors in New York to solve them for me. What will you do?

She sent me an amusing little note about not knowing what Sparkplugging is all about:

I need to read Sparkplugging more. Somehow I missed the shift from moms stuff to business startup stuff. I am struggling with the challenges of starting [and running] a biz more or less by myself. Some days I rock and some days I’m scattered. Today I am exhausted & staying in bed with NPR & coffee!!!

I immediately recognized where Laura is at in her business – not only because I have been there myself, but because it is one of the most common problems I hear from many of our readers.

Laura is:

• Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes to run a successful business
• Locked into earning a living by billing out her hours, and unable to bill more hours
• Having difficulty delegating any work because even hiring a freelance assistant takes away time and resources from her ability to make money
• Is trapped doing work that she isn’t particularly good at by doing work like bookkeeping, filing, and administrative tasks, because these things have to be done and there is no one else to do it
• And most of all, is getting down on herself because she thinks that in order to be a successful business owner, she should be on top of every task at any given moment

While the last one might seem like a simple bothersome symptom, in fact, it is THE most frequently mentioned challenge with every business owner I have heard from in the 2 and a half years I have run this site. Some call it self-doubt, others call it fear – I call it the Impostor Syndrome:

From Wikipedia:

Regardless of what level of success they may have achieved in their chosen field of work or study or what external proof they may have of their competence, those with the Impostor Syndrome remain convinced internally they do not deserve the success they have achieved and are actually frauds. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they were more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.

And while it is frequently cited as more common among women, I can’t say that I’ve noticed that as much. Plenty of men have mentioned they struggle with this too. But one thing that nearly all of these people have in common is this: they think they are the only one facing this issue, and that they are alone as they find a way to struggle to overcome it.

Laura and I had an amazing conversation-turned-coaching-session last week because I didn’t want to see my dear friend beating herself up over something that is much less of a problem than it seems to be. There are some very specific things that any business owner can do to get out of this trap which is so incredibly common that I think we could call it the Solo Business Owner Syndrome – and oh, my gosh, I think I just came across a book idea that I should pitch.

On Friday, I’ll put up part two of this post with the specific solutions she and I talked about – but I want to hear from you!

Can you relate to the challenges that Laura is facing?

What other challenges do you think are related to this constellation of problems that face solo business owners?

And what things have any of you done to work through them?

I started to understand when one of the Representatives being interviewed said, “I got a call today from the owner of the largest car dealership in my district. He told me that he didn’t have enough cash to make payroll this week, and that this was the first time in his life that he was unable to get a credit line to cover his cash flow shortage.”

I hadn’t realized that the trickle effect of these banking problems were flowing so far ‘down the pipeline’, so to speak. I’d heard the phrase ‘banks hoarding cash’ for as long as I can remember in relation to the Great Depression, but I never stopped to think about what something like this could do to my life or my business today. I’m no economic or finance wizard – I’d go so far to say it’s one of my weaker traits as a business owner. But this credit crisis has forced me to take a crash course in understanding just what all of these economic factors mean to me.

I decided to ask a few people I really respect for their thoughts on the issue, and their answers were both varied and extremely helpful:

Anita Campbell is the Founder & Editor in Chief of SmallBusinessTrends and host of Small Business Trends Radio, and is @smallbiztrends on Twitter.

How is the bailout affecting ‘real’ small businesses?

Present Wall Street crisis aside (I’ll get to that in a moment), the U.S. economy during 2008 has been weak, and growth has slowed.  But although the ‘R’ word has been thrown around a lot, not everyone agrees we are in a recession.

Some sectors have done poorly but others hardly seem to have been touched – so far.  I’ve lived through several recessions and the current times are not as bad as others were.  Still, I’d hardly call this a robust economy.

Small businesses in real estate-related sectors seem to have been hit the most:  realtors; home builders; construction companies; mortgage originators.  And of course there’s a ripple effect among small businesses:  lawyers who do real estate work; suppliers to new home builders; and so.  But again, other sectors of the economy have not been hit hard.  For instance, some technology companies report  doing better than ever.

How do you think this bailout plan will affect us in the future?

The bailout is something that would have a much much bigger impact on us if it were NOT done.

The bailout for the current Wall Street crisis looks to be necessary to protect our entire financial and banking system.  The system needs liquidity — banks and corporations need money to operate.  If we don’t have that, then the entire financial system collapses – we could have bank runs, a tremendous tightening of credit leading to job losses, and other actions that put a chokehold on business expansion and the economy. And there are dire predictions that the stock market would crash.  If any of that were to occur, then everyone gets hurt.  For instance, small business owners and staff who have retirement funds invested in IRAs, SEPs, 401Ks could see their retirement funds disappear.  Also, credit card companies may start pulling back, REDUCING credit limits.  I don’t know about you, but I rely heavily on credit cards as a kind of credit line for my business.  So I would hate to be rudely surprised by having my credit limit cut drastically.

Jamila White runs eCommerce Diva and her firm Jamila White and Associates, Inc., as well as an online bath products site jblossom.com, and is @EcommerceDiva on Twitter.

How is this bailout/economy already affecting small businesses?

The current financial crisis is already affecting small business owners’ access to capital. A few months ago, the US Small Business Administration put a freeze on backing SOHO loans (”Small Office Home Office”) — loans aimed at the smallest of the small businesses, which usually are less than $20,000.

When you look at the big picture, the hypocrisy is unbelievable. Here you have small businesses, which are *creating* jobs in this bad ecomony when big businesses are not, getting shut down on access to capital, and then you have the SBA essentially out of money to back loans for small businesses. You have Congress drafting legislation, the FDA Globalization Act of 2008, that would shut down thousands of small, honest, hardworking, mom and pop beauty businesses by levying annual fees of $12,000 per year. If passed, this would have a huge negative impact on my business, j.blossom, which makes natural bath and body products for young girls. Tiny one- and two-person businesses are fighting for their right to exist, yet our government can find $700 Billion to bail out corporate behemoths whose own greed is the primary cause of their downfall? It’s not right, and it makes me angry.

How do you see the bailout changing things for us in the future?

I think people underestimate the cutbacks that will come as a result of the $700 billion bailout. Budgets are going to get slashed when citizens need services the most. I think the SBA is going to have further cutbacks on services to small businesses, and access to capital is going to continue to get even tighter, both SBA-backed loans and other financial resources.

Donna Maria Coles Johnson founder and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network and host of The Indie Business Radio Show, and is @indiebusiness on Twitter.

How is the bailout affecting ‘real’ small businesses? (Donna has defined them mostly as solo businesses that are doing less than $1M a year in revenue).

Credit is already nearly impossible to come by for small businesses. Members of the Indie trade organization I lead (700+ members) are telling me, for example, that their attempts to purchase manufacturing supplies using their Wachovia credit cards are being declined even though they have credit on the card, are not even close to maxing it out and have not missed any payments. I’m sure that will continue. How can they run their businesses if they can’t purchase supplies?

How do you think this bailout plan will affect us in the future?

The biggest problems are not that my and your business will be affected, but that our children’s businesses will be affected. It’s hard enough to start a business even with adequate assets and good credit. My children and theirs will be saddled with this one way or another, but I find it inexcusable that the rush to “solve” the problem is going to send my descendants the message that, no matter how hard they work to build a lasting business legacy, it will constantly be at risk of being demolished at worst and undercut at best, by the very government that is assigned the task of promoting it.

Donna has written more on of her thoughts on the “Bad Bailout” on her Indie Business Blog.

While all of these small business experts have sometimes highly contrasting opinions, I see that all of them make some very valid points. In the end, I honestly think we won’t know the real truth about what this bailout plan will do for Americans and American businesses until after we do it, or don’t do it [scratch that, it just passed]. It will be interesting to see what happens both in the upcoming days as this legislation moves through Congress, and in the months down the road, as we have time to see the plan in action.

But being the ‘glass half full’ person that I tend to be, even if the worst happened, at some point, we will recover. The Great Depression ended – so will this recession someday.

It’s an interesting thing to contemplate. Am I just running my business to make money or am I running my business to make other people’s lives better.

It’s a question, actually, I ask myself often. As a business advisor and web developer, I have plenty of opportunity to make money. That’s never an issue. Prospective clients contact me constantly asking how I can help them.

And there lies the purpose – helping the coaches, consultants, therapists, healers and other small business owners who contact me. That’s where my business makes a difference.

I understand that when people contact me it’s because they need help solving the problems that get in the way of their business making more money and running more smoothly. They call me because they know or they’ve heard that I can make a difference in how they reach their business goals. And that’s, truly, why I’m in business – not just to make money, but to make a difference in the lives and businesses of other small business professionals.

Author David Maister once wrote that making a difference means sometimes struggling “to do what’s meaningful and not just what’s pragmatic.” This means not always doing what’s easy to turn a quick buck. Rather it’s about choosing the path that’s not only going to make you successful, but fill that need inside you to do good for others.

Whatever you do in your business it’s likely you’re changing lives. The question is, are you honoring that process? Do you consider how what you do is of personal and professional benefit to the people you work with?

Are you making a difference with your business or just making a living?

This article began from a section of Michael Levine’s book, Guerrilla PR 2.0. In the book Michael has a section about perception being reality.  He gives some really great examples about perception and how it can craft the overall idea of something being either good or bad.

Then I started thinking, does perception always equal the reality? My answer was no. But the operative word in the question is always. Some of the time the perceived value does equate to the actual value. Some of the time the perceived value is more and some of the time the perceived value is less than the reality.

My personal example:

I am a 36 year old Caucasian women (will be 37 on Tuesday) married to a 57 year old African American man. Now, the perception for some (including my family at first) may be of full of questions on how this marriage could be a good one for a few different reasons. Yes, we are different races and that has had its share of perceived responses. We are also 21 years a part and that has had its share of perceived responses.

However, I will tell you that our relationship the perceived value does NOT at all equal the reality. I will tell you being married to my husband Eddie is the best relationship I have ever had and probably will ever have. We have known each other for almost a decade. Been together for 7 of those years and we will celebrate our 4 year anniversary in a few weeks as well.

Now, had I allowed the perceived value or perception of what this relationship might look like to others and taint my own feelings and thoughts about him, I would never have the blessed life to experience the deep true sense of love and compassion I have with my husband.

And that is another thing; can you change the perception to a new reality?

At first my parents and other family members were not okay with this relationship because of their own perceived value they placed on it before meeting him. However, once they met him, they realized what a wonderful caring person he is and now my family embraces having him a part of the family.

So, have you experienced situations were the perception was not the reality, either good or bad?

I read another great blog post this morning that brought up a similar thought process from Gina Marks at TouchLifeSpirit with her blog post http://www.touchlifespirit.com/home/2008/8/27/thinking-outside-the-box.html.

Also, another friend of mine Katherine Reschke made this statement about perception, “Brain science explains how what we perceive becomes our reality. We have a filter that only allows through to our conscious brain that which accords with our world views. Thus if perceive, for example, that the world is hostile, we are going to interpret actions and body language as hostile and we are going to notice and remember hostile actions more than friendly gestures.”

And what does this all of this have to do with promotion – Well, is the perception of what you see promoted really the reality? I think most of the time it is, but sometimes it isn’t. And how do we get past the others who are putting something out there that isn’t a reality. I think we just need to continue to be ourselves and not try to be something we aren’t.

In my true example, the perception others had about our relationship is it can’t work and be successful. However, the reality is the complete opposite and when people see us together, it is clear to see because we are happy and you can’t fake true happiness for an extended period of time. Eddie and I don’t try to convince others to change their perception; we just continue to live our happy lives with each other.

So I would love to hear from others about perception and promotion? When you see something promoted, is it reality as you perceive it?

Teresa Morrow is on Board of Advisors with The WECAI Network ^TM (http://www.wecai.org) and Editor at Large at WE Magazine for Women ^TM (http://www.wemagazineforwomen). She has over 15 years working with various industries to include property management, landscape architecture and financial planning firms in executive administrative positions. In 2007, Teresa started Key Business Partners, a virtual assistance & online promotional company for coaches, speakers and writers. She cares about her clients and is available for 20 minute free consultation. You can contact her via email at keybusinesspartners@verizon.net or visit her website at http://www.keybusinesspartners.com.

Nikon CoolPix 8 Megapixel Camera

I’ve talked with a lot of people in the last few days, and several of them suggested that I conduct a SparkplugU survey to expand our course offerings based on your input.

I thought this was a fab idea.

So I’d like to request that you take a few minutes to fill out our very short 9 question survey. As a thank you, we’ll be doing a drawing for a Nikon CoolPix 8 Megapixel digital camera!

I usually like to tie up my posts in a nice, neat little bow, and I wasn’t able to do that on this one. I’ve been thinking about this for months, wondering how to articulate both my uncertainty about the sustainability of our industry, as well as my belief that work with a purpose will triumph over all. But the more I wrote about it, more questions came up than answers.

I’ve been blogging now for just over two years. In that time, I’ve read some of the most brilliant work ever written on the subjects of internet business, social media, marketing & making money online. I’ve even written a couple of those.

But I’m having a hard time lately finding anything really new & innovative to read on the subjects. I mean, what can you say about making money blogging that Darren hasn’t already said? Or on WordPress that Lorelle hasn’t already said? Or on social media that Chris Brogan hasn’t already said? Or on community that Liz Strauss hasn’t already said? And I could add 50 more names and topics in that paragraph.

Granted, there is some value in putting your own voice and spin on existing information. Hollywood makes most of their movies that way – and most of their money that way. But at that point people aren’t buying content, they are buying an experience. People go to see Disney movies not because they think they will hear a story that they have never heard before. They go because they know that Disney, no matter what story they tell, knows how to make that story entertaining.

But I’m beginning to feel like I’m hitting a saturation point lately. There’s only so many ways to spin a story before you recognize the material.

Boy meets Girl.
Boy and Girl fall in love.
Boy pisses off Girl.
Boy works hard and gets Girl back.
The End.

Ultimately, we will go out of business unless we continue to provide value to our readers & clients. But in an information-saturated age, it’s getting harder and harder to provide more value than other people in your niche.

I Really Want to Know What’s Next for Business and Marketing Bloggers

• How can you and I continue to stay one step ahead when the web 2.0 market already got to web 4.0 yesterday?
• How can we prevent becoming one big echo chamber?
• What are you doing to stand out from the crowd and offer more value than the next person or company?

It’s a lot of questions, and I only have one answer for you – Love. Work without passion, voice without inspiration and action without heart can be the nails in your coffin.

But before you accuse me of getting all kumbayah on you, I have to add that I don’t think that Love is the answer to everything. You can’t pay the bills with a hug, you can’t buy your groceries with a love note. There has to be some practical action & application to how we work, how we move forward as entrepreneurs, consultants and professionals as our markets continue to evolve.

What do you think?

• Is blogging about blogging, making money online, and business strategy dead?
• How can we innovate when innovation has become normal, expected, even a little boring?
• How do we pour more love and passion into our work while tempering that balance with practical business strategy?
• Is our work really all about conversation and connection? How do you translate that to dollars?

And I think most importantly:

What can we do to continue to make a measurable difference with what we are saying, writing, or speaking?

But that’s just it, I have so many ideas about what we could do next, I’m not sure which one to go with. Do I finally write that book proposal? Develop a training program? Put together a business coaching/consulting program with our authors? Do a Podcast? Video blog? Forum? Do a Sparkplugging Conference? Put together a tutorial section?

So This is Where You Get to Make a Wish

Everyone around here knows I’m always putting you first. So let’s celebrate the wrap up of a big expansion so you can tell us what we can do for you. Weigh in by Friday, May 17th at 2:00pm CST, and you can win a NEAT Receipts Scanner with organizing software worth $250.

NEAT Receipts’ reads receipts, business cards and documents and places the information in a spreadsheet format. It lets you scan and process multiple documents, and automatically organizes them for you. You can even export to TurboTax®. (Read more about it on the Home Office Organizer blog).

This is like, heaven, to someone so extraordinarily paper-challenged like me. Seriously, give me a little piece of paper and I can lose it faster than your server will crash on the front page of Digg.

Entering the Contest is Surprisingly Easy :: Choose ANY of the Following

Simply leave a comment letting us know what else we can do to help you as you work at home. Need help increasing profits? Driving traffic? Need more technical help? Want more how-to’s? Need specific information or advice that we aren’t providing yet? Need help breaking free from your day job?
Let us know!

-OR-

Subscribe to one of the Sparkplugging RSS feeds Via Email. You can find the link at the top of all of our blogs, and subscribing to any blog on this site qualifies you for an entry. All current Email RSS subscribers are automatically entered!

Here, we’ll make it easy for you

Sparkplug CEO		CraftBoom!		Freelance Parent
Simply Green		WAHM 2.0		Celebrity Business
The Man Page		Believer in Balance		Momsational Contests
Marketing Eggspert		eCommerce & eBay		Ask the Coach
Home Office Organizer		SOHO Tools, News & Tech		Kids Activities

-OR-

Link to us (any which way that works for you) and let us know about it.

We’ll have one winner that will be drawn with the random number integer chooser on Friday afternoon.

May 2008 Update :: This list has gone so unpredictably viral I can’t keep up with all of the additions (Yay Moms!). So please feel free to leave a comment with your Twitter ID/URL if you are a mom on Twitter. And please scroll (and scroll… and scroll…) through the comments below to meet all of the amazing moms that I didn’t know about when I first put up the Ultimate Twittering Moms List!

Yesterday, Derek Semmler posted a fantastic list of Dads & Husbands on Twitter. As I was talking about it with Mona on Twitter yesterday, she mentioned that I should put together a list of Twittering Moms. Little did I realize the mayhem that would ensue as nearly 250 tweets were sent my way in the next 24 hours from my Twittering maternal kindred spirits.

Let me throw out my disclaimer upfront. I know I missed people, and Twitter was kind of acting up yesterday and not saving all of my favorites so that I could collect the responses in one place. So please don’t be offended if I missed you, and PLEASE leave a comment with your Twitter name so that I can add you.

I didn’t even think about the unintended consequences of my actions until later in the day when I added about 100+ more people to my following list… realizing that Twitter + This List = My Undoing.

There are some seriously fascinating women below – I suggest you get to know them!

This turned into a pretty popular meme in which both Wendy and I participated.

As I wrote then, I know the things I’d like to accomplish with my life. What was insightful at the time was why.

From this, I listed my most important goals, no necessarily in order of importance. They were…

1. As I take my last few breaths of life – whenever that is – I want to be able to look back at my life with no regrets. No regrets for things I ’should have done’ or done better. No regrets for things I ’shouldn’t have done.’ No regrets for how thing turned out. Right now I know everything is in its proper place and the events of my life have/are unfolding exactly as they need too. So I want to remember that and live that and take care of anything that isn’t ‘finished.’
2. I want to reach the deepest levels of understanding of myself, my heart, my spirit and my relationship to my Creator. This means, living as fully as I can, my spirituality. Always deepening in knowledge, belief, faith, understanding and surrender.
3. As I live I want to be the best husband for my wife. I want to give everything from inside me to her and live a life of gentleness, beauty, love and peace with her. I want to be the salve for her wounds, the cradle for her troubles and the place of rest for her worries. And every day I want to renew my love, my commitment and my promise to her.
4. There is nothing more dear to me in this world than being a dad. I find it the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. Yet the rewards for my efforts are beyond anything tangible on this earth. I think of being a parent as being more like a very loving guide for my kids. My job, I feel, is not to mold them into something, but to guide them as they develop and grow in their own, unique way. There’s much I (and my wife) can write about this (we’ve thought of having another blog about parenting). Yet, the bottom line is that I make it my responsibility to raise good citizens for this world. Adults who think for themselves, trust in their inner guidance, are kind and loving to people and are just overall good human beings. This goal is my legacy – regardless of what ever else I do.

Okay, so I’m showing my soul a little bit. Yet these things are more important to me than business or worldly success. To me, they are the foundations that make all other success possible.

So what about my worldly goals? My business goals? My goals to change the world? Boy, there’s a lot of things I’ve done and so much more I’d like to do.

Let’s start with my ultimate goal…To aid people, from every walk of life and every faith, to open the door to the truth of their existence. Not to my beliefs or existence, but to find it within themselves and authentically live their truth in their daily life. I’m not talking new age mumbo-jumbo. I’m talking the ancient truth of who each of us are as we were made before we were placed in our mom’s bellies.

One criteria…I don’t want to be anyone’s guru or teacher. I only wish to offer knowledge, assistance and help for people to make their own inner journey without making it about me.

My other goals…

• To always help bring people together instead of pushing them apart.
• To help people who are sick, needy, poor and homeless. Not just with money, but through caring, love and action.
• To help bridge the gap between religions, belief systems, and faiths so that they can see their similarities rather than fight about their differences.

Of course there’s more I could add to these. Much more, really. Yet the ‘much more’ side of it is really the details of my life and business as I travel the path toward these overall life goals. More money? Sure – and what will I do with it? Larger, more stable business? Absolutely – and yet will I retain my life/business balance? Health, body, mountains to climb, trails to hike, waves to surfing – on a board an in a kayak, fish to catch, I could go on.

Yet my life has always been and continues to remain about serving people – no different if I consider my goals. It’s what I do for a living in helping businesses reach their goals. It’s what I do as a friend, husband, father and son. God Willing, it’s what I’ll do with the rest of my life.

The rest, as I’ve said, are the details; the ever-changing scenes one witness while hiking the path of life.

So, without this becoming another meme, what are your ‘gotta get’ goals?

While the ten lessons are interesting – and oft written – I was most moved by number 5:

Fail your way forward. Recognize that Ready, fire, aim is superior to ready, aim, aim, aim. Straightforward trial and error produces better results than endless vacillating. If you’re afraid to make decisions and act on them in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty, get a job. Failure’s lessons are essential to success.

In my opinion, failure should be a the top of any list around running a business. How else do you learn and grow if you don’t make mistakes? Sure, business plans, mission statements and marketing strategies are all important. But without failure, how can you possibly find success?

Sounds odd, huh? Yet the truth is we discover what works – what’s successful – by failing.

Kids get this clearly because it’s how they learn. They try to do something a certain way only to learn that it’s not the way to do it. Ever try to do something for a four year-old? They’re simply not going to let you. They want to do it all themselves. And if you try to show them the ‘right way’ before they have a chance to figure it out, often they get upset.

Business is no different. Except that most often, we’re different. Somewhere along the way we create ideas in ourselves that we can’t fail. So we stumble around, learning to walk never wanting to fall down. Yet, as with a child, how do you ever learn to walk if you don’t fall.

The key isn’t falling, per se. The key is in getting up and trying again. And that’s the gift of failure. When something doesn’t work, you have an opportunity to try something new. In other words, you have the chance to learn, to change and to grow. And with business, that’s all important. And that’s why I call it – failing your way to success.

So how have you failed your way to success?

Quite honestly, I’ve never been able to do it – and I don’t think I ever will.

There is something simply unexplainable as to why the relationships we make online are made infinitely stronger when we take these relationships to the next level offline. I have some dang strong relationships with people I have never met. At the same time, I have stronger relationships now with people I talked with for 10 minutes than I do with some readers who have been hanging around here for months.

All of this only covers meeting people I consider my peers. This is where ‘Rawking’ SXSW kicks in – because not everyone at SXSW is someone I consider a peer. Honestly, I had more than one ten fangirl moments as I got to meet and connect with people I consider role models and leaders in our industry.  I swooned over Heather Armstrong (she’s amazingly sweet and approachable), dined with Shel Israel, lunched with Brian Clark (recently named as one of the 50th most powerful blogs on the internet), and hooked up with Hugh MacLeod via Twitter as we were waiting in the Austin airport at 5:00am. Plus I got to hang out with friends like Tamar Weinberg, Shoemoney, ProBlogger, Liz Strauss, Sheila Scarborough, Rick Calvert, Aruni, Laura from Sk-rt and ‘Queen of Spain’ Erin Kotecki Vest (among so many others).

You may think I am name dropping at this point – and I am. But I’m not claiming to be anyone special by saying I got to hang out with these superstars – I’m saying it because if you were there you would have been able to do the exact same thing. And connecting with these people that are so incredibly intelligent, talented, influential and friendly quite honestly brings out the best in me as well.

You may have noticed by now that I haven’t even mentioned speaking on my Online Advertising for Newbies panel yet with Darren Rowse. Honestly, it was a fantastic session, and when SXSW releases the podcast I’ll make a permanent place for it around here – it was an excellent primer in moving your blog beyond AdSense and Amazon.

Photo by Tris Hussy – see the rest of his most excellent SXSW photo set.

And you’d think that speaking at SXSW was a highlight of the conference. It was great, don’t get me wrong, but the true highlight of the conference happened not in the sessions or in the keynotes, but in the hallways.

Our business – social media & blogging – is all about the conversation, business and personal. And I wish I could describe what it is like to move the conversation off of the internet and into a room with real people you can hug, laugh with, and connect with on an emotional level. The conversations we have online together are amazing – but if you aren’t going to conferences, you’re missing out on half of the experience of social media.

I guess it boils down to this :: “Social” comes before “Media” for a reason. And as much as we love to talk tech, it’s the people that make this industry amazing – the technology is just our platform. It was an honor to hang with everyone at SXSW this week – I hope I can pay forward the awesomeness that rubbed off on me.

My friend Karen Putz AKA DeafMom was denied service at Steak & Shake because they refused to take her order at a take out window. She explained to them she couldn’t give her order at the drive-thru speaker… because she was deaf.

Honestly, I can’t believe people like this exist on our planet.

I’m not one to usually blog about things unrelated to business, but when a business defies both logic and ethics, I think we need to make our voice be heard.

I refuse to eat at Steak and Shake until Karen Putz gets an apology from the CEO of the company himself, Alan B Gilman.
Please join me in spreading the word & standing up for Karen and everyone else with a disability who wants a goddamn shake.

I didn’t really set out for this blog to be a how to make money online blog, though it has kind of evolved into covering that niche much of the time. It has evolved that way for three reasons :: Reason one, you asked for it.  Reason two, I love helping people work from home. Reason three, there is a ton of $hit information out there, and I work my a$$ off to help make sure that OUR readers don’t lose money on these garbage programs.

Thinking of new ways to help you be more successful and profitable keeps me up at night. Seriously, it does. So what better way to help you more, than by asking you what you need.

So what is your biggest challenge regarding making money online? Whether you have a blog, an eCommerce site, an eBay store, or even a service based business that you market online. What is the hardest thing for you? Driving traffic? Finding good paying advertising? Converting leads into clients? Converting affiliate traffic into sales? Something completely different than any of these?

Please let me and the rest of the authors on this site know how we can help you better.

First up – The Goodz

All of these books are fantastic resources to help you start or grow your business!

Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin (his latest!)

Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz

Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port

93.3 Random Acts of Marketing by Drew McLellan

Award Winning Customer Service by Renee Evenson

The Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business by Cameron Foote

Digital Design Business Practices by Liane Sebastian

Fresh Ideas in Limited Budget Design by Betsy Newberry

Meet & Grow Rich by Joe Vitale & Bill Hibbler (2 copies)

Plus a BONUS PRIZE – whoever puts the most thought into their answer will also get a copy of Business Forms Software CD from Socrates.com (judged totally subjectively by your truly).

So… how do you get your hands on one of these fine books? Leave a comment answering one (or both) of the following questions. I will pick the ten best answers to win. But if your answer turns into a lengthy response, you are definitely encouraged to write up your answer on your own blog instead. Especially if you think your readers would benefit from your thoughts:

How do you use Social Media (social networking, social bookmarking, forums, communities, blogs, comments, groups, listservs, etc.) to promote yourself and your business?

AND / OR

Are there ways you would like to promote yourself or your business online that you aren’t doing, and why? (Lack of knowledge, fears, time constraints, etc.)

Although I can’t promise that you will win the book of your choice, feel free to let me know which book you prefer to win so that I can try to accommodate your request.

And thank you in advance for participating!

Thanksgiving, though primarily a U.S. based holiday, is really just a celebration of all that we have. And all of you international folk can celebrate that with us this week, right?

So, if you are in the United States, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?

And no matter where you are, what are you grateful for in 2007?

I have a really interesting holiday planned – My Aunt, cousins and their children from Salt Lake City will be here for the first time in about 10 years. We will be getting up extra early to go for a hike by my parents house, then we will be having brunch here for 17 people (that sounds so much more intimidating now that I can see that in print! Yikes!). Then it’s back to my parent’s house for dinner.

The interesting part is that I am getting up at 2:30am the next morning to go live blog at Best Buy for Black Friday… Watch Momsational to win any goodies they throw our way!

So, how are you celebrating Thanksgiving or gratitude this week?

Thanks to Nick Schmidt, Maura , Jim Durbin, Lornadoone, Stephanie, alli, Des Walsh, Mother Earth, nextSTEPH, Christina, Denise, Tony Berkman, Easton Ellsworth, Busy Mom, and Derek for chiming in two weeks ago about BlogWorld!

In fact, probably one of the most frequently asked questions I receive is ‘how did I build up such a strong community around this blog’? Although I can tell you some of the things I have done, my first answer is always:

It wasn’t me. It was you.

I have always put readers before my own agenda, I have always taken your feedback and used it to drive the direction of the site, and I have worked daily to add value to your experience, both on this blog and in your own businesses and lives.

You spoke, I listened.

In the very early stages of this blog, I had to face a decision – do I drop my other business to work on eMoms full time, or stay with something that obviously wasn’t working as well as this site was? At the time it was a truly heart-wrenching decision (today it would be a no-brainer ).

So today, I want to reach out to you again. I have some really big plans for this site, and I have my hunches about what you want and need, based on your feedback in the past. But I like to live by the phrase, “Ask and Ye Shall Receive”.

So I am asking for your input. Because this isn’t my site. It’s OUR site.

As a work at home mom or dad, what more could this site offer you to really impact the bottom line of your business and your life?

Is there content that you want more of?

Is there more community building we could do?

Is there a way we can help spotlight you and your businesses more effectively?

How can we support your business offline?

Our businesses aren’t just about money – we are all here to make a difference and live an extraordinary life along the way. How can we support you in your personal goals?

If you don’t want to leave a comment, please shoot me a note via my contact form. I will read each and every one of your thoughts before I go to bed tonight.

Lots of other people are posting photos and videos, if I don’t have a mention for yours here, please leave a link to your own in the comments below.

BlogWorld tag on Flickr

BlogWorldExpo tag on Flickr

BlogWorld photos on Technorati

BlogWorld videos on Technorati

Blog World Expo – Video From The Show Floor & Blog World Expo – The Party
from John Chow

Lots of posts & photos from Instapundit (too many to link to easily)

Jim Kukral has a whole set of mini interviews on Blip.tv

BlogWorld Expo – Day 1 Photos & Recap & BlogWorld Day 2 – Photos & Recap
from Zac Johnson

Again – leave a comment or shoot me an email if you have a post or media to add to the list.

NEW:

Ms. Danielle posts her thoughts and photos – great meeting you, lady!

So I want to know – any of you going to be in Vegas next week? If so, drop me a note here so that we can make sure we connect!

What presentations are a ‘must attend’ for you? I’m particularly looking forward to Raising Capital for Your New Media Business in case I ever want to go that route.

If you aren’t going, I’m curious – why not? Is it time, cost, travel? Did you already go to SOBCon, BlogHer, or the B4B conference this year? Or are you planning on doing other in-person networking instead?

And if you are last minute like me, you can still buy your ticket and get a discount via the eMoms discount code – just enter the code EMHVIP.

Thanks to Tom, Lisa, Lornadoone, Laura, Naomi Dunford, bAngela, Mother Earth, Maura, & Karen for sounding off last week about their biggest successes as an entrepreneur!