What’s the secret?  What’s the magic trick that gets all the balls rolling in the right direction?  The secret is, there is no secret.  The trick is, there are no tricks.  No magic pill.  No puff of green smoke.  If you want success, you’re going to have to work for it.  There are, however, a few tips that keep popping up –over and over and over.  I can either whack you over the head with a wooden mallet to get your attention –or you can start listening to the advice that’s been there all along.  Up to you.  It’s your headache; it’s your choice.  Since people these days are in a hurry and heck –maybe you’ve got an awful memory; I’ll just go ahead and make a nice neat list for you.  Pin this to your computer, your desk, or your forehead.  I won’t judge.  Successful small businesses are made up of a little bit of sweat, a dash of tears, a heap of stress, and a whole ‘lotta determination.

Hootsuite saves my life, sanity, the happiness and well-being of those around me on a daily basis.  Dramatic much?  Perhaps, but I’ll tell you this - anything on this planet that saves both time and money on a consistent basis is a win in my book.  So how does Hootsuite save me?  How does this delectable tool keep me coming back for more?  Well, I’ll tell you.

Adding to the list of “things I didn’t know about before, but now I do –and so should you” is a little HTML something that goes by the name of “ ”.  It is what’s called a “non-breakable space” in HTML.  As a very wise man explained to me –they appear automatically in text when you double space after a period (like we were all taught to do in typing class).  In your text, they will display as spaces and that is all well and good, except for one thing: they are non-breakable. What does this mean to you, you ask?  It means that the text cannot wrap or be broken up into separate lines.  You may be wondering, “Why do these “ ” even exist?” They exist to irritate me I think.

There comes a time in every person’s life when they’ve got to ask themselves –is it time to redesign my website?  That may not actually be true.  The truth is, however, that if you DO have a website and if you ARE invested in it –it is worth a second look every now and then to see if there is actually need to shake things up a bit.  This could be anything from swapping out colors, to changing your whole theme.  Maybe your little spokesperson is a brunette, but you heard blondes have more fun.  Whatever your reasoning, if you are asking yourself if it’s time to redesign, here are a few pieces to look at that may need a little tweaking, moving, and shaking.

We’ve already discussed Facebook’s Graph Search’s plot to take over the world: here.  Now, lets dive a little deeper into how your business should be rearranging itself a bit to get the most out of those search results.  If you want to be noticed, you have to stand out a bit.

I read blog articles, news stories, and other random web nonsense every day of the week.  Some are memorable; some not so memorable.  Do you know what I don’t read?  That news story you never shared.  That blog post that you never put on your Twitter or Facebook?  I’ve never read it.  Between checking my email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, and EZines on ten minute rotations –I don’t have time to go searching the darkest corners of the internet for your recipe on the world’s largest soufflé.

More networking?! Yes my friends… more networking.  Unfortunately for you anti-socials out there, contacts don’t generally fall out of the sky.  And we’ve talked about putting yourself out there and NetWORKing… but where are you going?  Where are these connections being made these days?  The answers might surprise you.

So, you’re a big bad blogger now?  Well good for you!  Sort of… Hey, people are always looking for ways to improve. For all I know, you’re perfect and you’ve already enacted all of these tips I’m about to share.  If that’s the case, you’re just going to force me to make another list folks.  And if you haven’t noticed from any past posts… like: here, here, and here.  I like my lists.

For the real people of the world, for the we're not exactly what you'd call millionaires, for the small business owners, for the just starting out-ers: Get Your Money’s Worth!  If you only have $20 to bring to the grocery store, don’t walk in and grab a box of $20 gourmet cookies and walk out.  You don’t have any milk to dip those cookies in, the cookies have nuts and you don’t even like nuts, and for the record –they don’t even taste good.  Your mission was not a success.  On the flip side of that coin, don’t walk in and grab 20 items from the dollar section either.  You don’t need a tiny rubber spatula or mini slinky that will get tangled before you leave the store.  Get what you need.