Chicago small business owners suggest their two biggest needs are obtaining capital and social media expertise. This Friday’s One – Hour Mentor features one of our best panels ever. Seats are FREE but filling up fast. Friday, 9:15am- 11:00am.

There is a great line-up to discuss building business – Social Media Secrets and Keys to getting large and small business loans.

(This event is held at Canal and Michigan, West of the River. Be advised NATO starts Saturday, and could cause delays but our event is well positioned away from loop)

Click here for your FREE ticket.

By Stephanie Faris, SmallBizTechnology.com

Legal counsel can be expensive. For many small businesses, the occasional need to draft a legal document or obtain legal advice doesn’t merit full-time legal counsel. With limited funds, many small businesses are turning to the Internet for legal advice. But Googling your questions can be risky, especially if you don’t double-check your results. Several online legal sites are available, but how can you know which one to trust.

NextAdvisor is here to help. The site refers individuals and businesses to the best online services in a variety of categories. Below are the legal services NextAdvisor recommends for small businesses seeking legal advice.

• LegalZoom. If you have a radio or TV set, you’ve heard of LegalZoom. All that advertising is paying off. LegalZoom is one of the most popular online legal services available. Geared toward the legal novice, LegalZoom provides easy-to-understand paperwork for everything from forming an LLC to trademarking or patenting ideas. For just $29.99 a month, businesses can have real advice from legal counsel licensed in the state in which the business is located. But if you’re simply looking to obtain a trademark, you can get away with paying on a per-service basis with this site.
• RocketLawyer. RocketLawyer is based on monthly fees, so it’s designed for businesses that need ongoing legal services. It’s a little higher-priced than LegalZoom at $39.99 per month for business accounts but, according to NextAdvisor, the site has more forms and services than the others, so you may find it well worth it.
• CorpNet. Designed solely for businesses, CorpNet is standing by to help you fill out your paperwork to form an LLC or ask for a patent. Ready to incorporate your business? CorpNet has the forms for it. Packages begin at $49 plus applicable state fees.
• U.S. Legal. This site is not for the newbie. It specializes in do-it-yourself forms for businesses and individuals. Nobody has as many forms as U.S. Legal, but unless you know what you’re looking for and what forms you need, you may get lost in the complicated interface and legalese. The site is rated lower than the others for its difficulty in use, as well as issues like charging extra fees to file forms.

NextAdvisor is only one of many sites that rank legal services. Check out the recommendations of people like you on Comparz or Pricegrabber before purchasing.

So, after seeing all of this, you may wonder why bother paying legal counsel with all this online help. As TacticalIP’s Scott Nyman pointed out, these services provide no guarantee of the services you receive from them. Nyman quotes from LegalZoom’s terms of service.

“[LegalZoom provides] an automated software solution to individuals who choose to prepare their own legal documents,” LegalZoom writes. “At no time do we review your answers for legal sufficiency, draw legal conclusions, provide legal advice, or apply the law to the facts of your particular situation.” The site then goes on to say it is no substitute for the advice of an attorney.

Let those be your words of caution.

From InkByChase.com

Conventional wisdom has it that the first year of running your own business is the hardest. But while those first months are certainly a make-or-break time for many small business owners, entrepreneurs who make it past the one-year mark know that the hard work doesn’t stop there. As your business gains its footing, it’s easy to feel as though your very success is working against you, or that you’ll never be able to stop running in place long enough to achieve your target sales numbers or profit margins.

Every business is different, and the needs of a retail storefront will vary from those of a contractor, a consulting business, or an online merchant, but there are certain challenges that all small businesses face at one time or another: How do you grow your business when you’re bogged down in day-to-day operations? How do you find time for the big tasks when there seem to be fewer hours in every day? How do you maintain efficient communication between yourself and your employees? How do you continue to drive new business (and keep up with your competition) on a tight marketing budget?

Fortunately, solutions to these questions and more may be right at your fingertips. Here are five great tools to help you run – and grow – your small business.

5. Smartphone or tablet

Most of us have been tethered to a mobile phone of one kind or another for more than a decade, and as small business owners, we take it for granted that we’re always “on call,” even on our rare days off. A smartphone or tablet device picks up where cell phones leave off, helping you check in with the office when you’re not there so you can stay abreast of ongoing issues and avoid coming back to an inbox full of emails.

With the wide range of apps available for both iPad and Android devices and the emergence of cloud software and services (that is, applications and data that are accessed over the Internet, rather than hosted on your computer), tablets have become true productivity tools, enabling small business owners to get work done on the road, make presentations, demonstrate products, and even complete point-of-sale transactions, all while traveling light.

4. Accounting software…and a great accountant

It’s hard to grow your business if you don’t have a good handle on your finances, beginning with your expenditures, revenues, and profit and loss (P&L) statements. If you’re still shoving your receipts into a shoe box and handing it to your accountant a few weeks before tax time, chances are you’re not watching your inflows and expenses as closely as you should be. While QuickBooks is probably the best-known small business accounting software, there are also dozens of low cost (and even free!) online accounting applications that let you track your finances from anywhere. Many banks and small business credit cards enable you to download your recent transactions directly into your accounting program, and some like Jot from Chase (download at Ink-business-credit-cards/jot) will even categorize your expenses into spending categories to help with record keeping. Your accountant will love you for it, and your business will benefit from your newfound attention to numbers.

3. Time management software

While office workers may sit in their cubicles counting the minutes until 5 PM, small business owners are more likely to look up at the clock and find that they’ve worked straight through closing time, dinner, and half the primetime TV lineup (again). To make sure you finish what you set out to accomplish each day, try using one of the many time management applications available online.

Depending on your needs and work habits, you can find an app that lets you segment tasks (and workdays) into manageable chunks, create employee schedules, collaborate with remote clients or employees, manage virtual to-do lists, or generate custom invoices based on the time spent on a given project. There are even programs that will block you from your favorite time-wasting websites after you reach a pre-determined daily time limit.

2. Social media

If you haven’t yet found a way to make social media work for your business, the prospect can be daunting, and many small business owners simply don’t know where (or how) to start. We could write an entire article about using Facebook to grow your small business, but in the end, marketing your business through any social media network boils down to the same simple concept: Know where your customers are (do they use Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter?), then go there, and read what they have to say. What do they struggle with? What products do they love? What problems might you help them solve?

Social media outlets offer small business owners unprecedented opportunities to connect with and listen in on customers. More than anything, your social media activities should be viewed as a two-way conversation with your customers and prospects. They needn’t (and probably shouldn’t) replace your traditional marketing efforts, but the potential to build brand awareness and form new client relationships is huge, and the cost is extremely low as compared with traditional marketing campaigns.

1. Local Search

Once upon a time, the phone book was the go-to resource for customers in need of a new product or service, and a yellow pages listing (the bigger the better!) was a must-have marketing vehicle for businesses of any type. Now, consumers rely on search engines, smart phones, and GPS devices to tell them where to find the closest plumber, pizza place, or coffee shop.

The good news is that it’s easy (and in most cases free!) to improve your chances of being found by simply creating a local search listing for your business with each of the major search engines. To see how you fare in local search results, go to Google and type in the name of the service you provide along with your zip code. If your search results include a local map with your business indicated by a “pin,” some of your work is already done for you. By clicking on the pin, you should be able to find the local business listing for your company. After completing the free registration (and usually some sort of validation process to verify that you are the business owner), you’ll be able to update the listing with your hours, services, and even pictures and videos. You’ll then want to repeat the process on other major search engines. As with social media, your local business listings do not replace your company website presence; they simply give you another way to be found on the web.

The National Small Business Week Conference, hosted by the Small Business Administration, has been recognizing the special impact made by outstanding American entrepreneurs and small business owners since 1963. This year it is May 20-26, 2012, in Washington DC.

Can’t make the event? Join online!

Connect. Collaborate. Share. Network.

Meet and connect with leaders in the small business community. Grow your business network and get inspired!

By Kim Ann Zimmermann, BusinessNewsDaily

Ready to build a business website? Odds are, if you’re like most people, you’ve given a lot of thought to how it looks, but not as much to its functionality. In order for your website to drive traffic to you, it needs to contain key information and tools to draw in local business. Here are seven tools your website must have.

A clean and concise home page. “You have only a few seconds to make a first impression on your home page, so make sure you showcase your products and services, a call to action such as subscribe, donate, free gift with purchase and ‘share it’ buttons, etc.,” said Mike Samson, co-founder of crowdSPRING, a marketplace for crowdsourcing creative content such as websites. “Do not make it content-heavy— only 28 percent of visitors actually read homepage content.”

The address of your business, including ZIP code and city. Phone number and store hours are also helpful. “Do this in actual text and not an image, as the search engines can’t read the images that well yet,” said Katie Hellmuth Martin, founding partner of ‘PRENEUR, a member-based community and education center for entrepreneurs. “Get this on every page of your website if possible, but at the very least, the home page and contact page. If you are a service business, use the address of your office or shared workspace. If these are in text, a potential customer is searching on their phone, the number and address will automatically be live numbers on smartphones.”

A store locator by ZIP code. If you have a retail site, customers need to find you, but this is also important if you are selling a product, Samson said. “Customers should be able to find your products locally and there should be a corresponding map,” he said.

Details about your services. “If you’re a restaurant, post your menu; If you’re a hair salon, list your services,” Hellmuth Martin said.

Facebook and Twitter icons that link to your accounts, which you are keeping active. “Recently, a grocery store executive opening a new store in a new market asked me: ‘Is Twitter toast?’” Hellmuth Martin said. “Nice headline, but no.”

Video and rich media. While the need for media depends on the type of business, visitors now expect more than just text when they go to a website. “It is becoming more affordable to incorporate video and much of the complexity has been taken out of the process of adding video to your site,” said David Simon, vice president of ad solutions for at Local Corp., an online media company. The site should include Flash and HTML5 so that the media can be viewed on a variety of devices, he said.

Lori Chavez, Local Corp.’s vice president of marketing, said that posting video on sites such as YouTube in addition to your own website can help boost your company’s digital presence. “It is like a spiderweb,” she said. “The more places that link appears and links back to your site, the better your search rankings.”

Meta tags that are plentiful and meaningful. “They should provide a good description when they come up in a search,” Chavez said.

Necessary to take extra steps

By James O’Brien, OpenForum.com

Recent news suggests employers are finally adding jobs. If you’re among those small business owners either hiring for the first time or looking to increase staff, it’s necessary to take extra steps to make sure you get new hires on board without complications.

“For many small businesses, especially those that started as result of the Great Recession, hiring can be a new thing,” says Charley Moore, founder and executive chairman of Rocket Lawyer, a free online legal document service that seeks to coach small businesses away from potentially expensive mistakes. “Doing it wrong and not following the right legal process can expose businesses to significant liability.”

These key tips will guide you through the process.

1. Know the interview rules

Asking a prospective employee about an accent, or whether they prefer “Ms., Mrs. or Miss” might seem to some like simple small talk, but it’s actually illegal in most cases. Make sure everyone involved in the hiring process knows the rules, not just the owner of the business.

“Businesses run into trouble when interviews are conducted by multiple members of a team who might not all be on same page,” Moore says. “Have a process and policies that really get your whole staff trained about what’s in and out of bounds. It’s situational and should be specific to the job description.”

2. Create an employment agreement

Make sure you get an employment agreement in writing. A recent Rocket Lawyer survey found that lack of written contracts ranked high on the list of small businesses mistakes.

3. Develop an employee handbook

Set your policies for employees. Hand them something in hard copy that defines expectations and consequences when it comes to responsibilities and performance. Outline payroll, promotion and day-to-day procedures.

4. Define clear anti-discrimination policies

Clearly define and prohibit discrimination in the workplace. Establish a no-tolerance policy for racist, sexist and classist actions and/or language.

5. Implement a no-tolerance sexual harassment policy

Prohibit any unwelcome conduct or advance that is intimidating, hostile or offensive.

6. Learn the employee-leave rules

Familiarize yourself with the legal requirements of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Family and Medical Leave Act.

7. Provide a worker’s comp program

A worker’s comp program can help you avoid costly lawsuits and expenses in the event of an employee having an accident on the job.

All of this, according to Moore, is about taking a step back, understanding the needs, scale, scope and ground rules of your small business, and then expressing those to new employees in a way that’s clear and legal.

By Brad McCarty, Verizon Small Business Center

For the past few years, businesses have been hearing all about Facebook when it comes to having an online presence where they can meet their customers. But a few months ago, Google came into the picture with Google+ and there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that perhaps it’s the better way to go for companies looking to establish themselves online.

It wasn’t so very long ago that Google really started pushing for businesses on its social network, introducing Pages and Direct Connect. What’s probably most interesting about Google’s approach to social business is not so much what happens inside of Google+ itself, but rather what users of Google.com are likely to see.

Established companies, within different fields, are going to be able to take advantage of Google’s heavy use of keywords related to their respective areas of business. For instance, if your customers have been talking about your chimney sweep business on Google+, their friends are very likely to see your company name show up in search results, in Google’s “Search + Your World” initiative.

Google is relying on customers talking about brands in order to bring more relevant search results to all users. For businesses, this is a potential boon that Facebook simply can’t offer. It’s almost impossible for your company’s Facebook page to show up in search results unless someone is specifically looking for it. The prioritized, highly-visible results offer a powerful potential to the brands that are choosing to engage on Google services.

But it’s not just a matter of being found, it’s also highly important that your company is taking the right steps once that connection is made. Google+ offers a suite of tools to help you do just that. From live video chats to the ability to have customized information for different locations, there are huge possibilities with the service.

I took a closer look at the numerous aspects of Google+ for small business in my free webinar, presented by the Verizon Small Business Center. I spent about an hour discussing them and took questions throughout the webinar. So watch this webinar when you have some time to learn what Google+ can do for small businesses.  Click here to watch the replay or go to http://www.brighttalk.com/r/rxD. 

SEO isn’t a one time thing

By Chrisanne Sternal, UnderstandingMarketing.com
Search Engine Optimization or SEO isn’t a one time thing. Many companies hire someone to design a website for their business and then have the site added to the search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Some may even make sure to be listed with directories, like DMOZ. Possibly they’ll create a profile on Google Places, to describe their business for people in their area. Then they stop.

If this sounds like what you have done, then you are probably wondering where is all the traffic? Why didn’t it work. Just having your information included within the search engines or directories doesn’t mean you are going to be listed on the top of Google search. It could mean you are 20 pages back. Have you ever searched for something on Google and gone through 20 pages to find the right company? Probably not. The first three pages are usually the only ones that get viewed and most of the time just the first. So you want to be ranked on the top of the page one in the search queries.

You have two options to start increasing your page ranks and drive traffic:

• Pay someone to do it for you ongoing.

OR

• Do it yourself (or have someone in your company, do it)

I’ve worked with several small businesses that don’t understand search engine optimization and they don’t want learn about it. They just want results. Reality is that the world has changed since the introduction of the internet and the way people find things or services, make purchase decisions and the way they buy.

The majority of business owners out there realize that they need the internet to get customers and want FREE organic search to deliver those customers to them. What many don’t realize is just how complicated SEO is and that if someone says they can come in and make you rank quickly, you should probably stay away from them. The saying “if it sounds to good to be true, then it probably isn’t true” is VERY TRUE when it comes to SEO. Ranking and increasing traffic organically (without pay-per-click ads) takes time and ongoing effort. Don’t be fooled or taken.

So, whether you intend to manage your SEO internally or to hire someone, I recommend that you dedicate some time every week to learn more about search engine optimization for small businesses and do something to promote your website and build traffic. Take the time to understand what your is being done to increase your traffic, ask questions to your team or consultant. SEO is complicated but you don’t need to stay in the dark as a business owner or manager.

I’ll be sharing some tips and providing instruction on how to do the following things to help build more traffic over the next few weeks. So sign up for our UnderstandingMarketing.com Newslettero r subscribe to our rss feed so you don’t miss out on Small Business Search Engine Optimization posts to come. Here’s what you can expect to learn about in the next two or three weeks:

1. Understanding keywords and search engine ranking
2. Link building (From social media profiles and from other relevant sites)
3. Writing content  – keeping it relevant and fresh
4. Analyzing SEO results and making tweeks
5. Beyond SEO – focus on CRO (conversion rate optimization)

By Sonia Simone, CopyBlogger.com

You’ve heard all the advice about how to be more productive. Stay focused, be motivated, get your exercise, floss twice a day and eat your veggies.

We’ve chimed in with our own thoughts on the habits of highly effective bloggers.

Twice, in fact.

And the truth is, I’ve gotten a lot out of productivity advice. If it weren’t for David Allen and Tony Schwartz, my life would consist of eating cupcakes and checking Netflix to see if there’s a new Phineas & Ferb out.

But as a business owner, when you start to see a certain level of success — and to meet other people who have attained some success — you sometimes find the reality of building a business doesn’t always match the pretty pictures painted in productivity manuals.

Today I’m going to talk about 7 “bad” habits that crop up a lot in successful people.

You may not want to actually adopt all of these habits and traits. But if you have one or two (or more) of them, you can probably stop using that as an excuse for not trying to create something epic.

And who knows, we just might convince you to be a little more distractible, greedy, or arrogant.

Let’s get to it.

Bad Habit #1: Being thin-skinned

When you first start a business, everyone and his know-it-all uncle tells you that “you have to develop a thick skin.”

What I’ve observed is that quite often, this advice comes from people who are praising themselves for being utterly oblivious.

Most of the successful people I know are sensitive and perceptive. And yes, when they get criticized, they feel like shit.

Do they let trolls and whiners stop them from doing something great? No.

But it’s not because they don’t feel the insults … it’s because their passion for what they do is stronger than the discomfort.

The more progress you make, the thicker your emotional skin will naturally get, because you’ll start to realize that you’re actually doing something that matters, and the peanut gallery isn’t.

But you don’t have to try to rush that process … and anyway, I’ve never known anyone who could. Sensitivity is an asset, don’t try to beat it out of yourself.

Bad Habit #2: Flakiness

We all know we shouldn’t let things slip through the cracks.

We should answer every email. Reply to every comment. Get back to all of those @ messages on Twitter. Wish our customers a happy birthday on Facebook. Get our taxes done before 11 PM on tax day.

If you can actually do all of this, that is awesome. Don’t stop.

But if you sometimes flake out — flake out on things that are important and worth your while — welcome to the club.

The truth is, if you’re building something epic, you’re going to be juggling a lot of pieces. They don’t always go together neatly. Sometimes they don’t go together at all.

When I was a 22-year-old administrative assistant, I never blew anything off. I was impeccable in how I handled all of my responsibilities. Because my responsibilities were essentially uncomplicated.

That’s exactly why I didn’t remain an administrative assistant.

In my life now, sometimes I miss stuff. And since everything I do revolves around connecting with people, it’s all important — because every human is important.

I don’t like dropping the ball and failing to email a friend back … or that scramble I had the night before last to get my tax checks mailed, for that matter.

Believe it or not, flakes can accomplish amazing things. And if you’ve never been a flake before, you may find this less-than-lovely trait comes out when things start to get really interesting.

If you’re stretching yourself, you’ll drop the ball sometimes. Try to figure out the circumstances in which you should never let yourself drop the ball, Make sure the “A” tasks get done.

Do your best, and say sorry when you screw up. But don’t stop just because things get messy.

Bad Habit #3: Selfishness

Rather closely aligned with Bad Habit #2, if you aren’t able to be at least somewhat selfish, you’re never going to survive this.

You’ve got to selfishly draw some lines — around how you’re going to take care of yourself, around how much time you’ll give to your project, around getting enough sleep and taking some time off.

The sad fact is, unless you’re under ten years old, if you don’t take care of yourself, no one else is going to show up and do it for you.

It’s ridiculous to burn down your life to create a successful company. Ridiculous and unnecessary and antithetical to success. So don’t.

And if the “rules” of your industry say you have to destroy yourself to become successful, change industries or rewrite the rules.

Bad Habit #4: Greed

I hate almost all rich people, but I think I’d be darling at it.

~Dorothy Parker

This is going to freak some people out. I can see the anti-marketing haters rubbing their hands together even as I type this.

But that’s not helping you, so screw them.

Here’s the straight dope: If you think money is the root of all evil, you’re unlikely to ever get your hands on any.

I don’t know why this is, but money can tell when you’re allergic to it, and it stays away. (Proof positive that money is not a domestic house cat.)

Please note that by telling you to “be greedy” I do not mean “be an unfeeling, unethical ratbag.”

The best (and most fun) way to make money is by helping other people … a lot.

I’m also not saying that money will be mystically attracted to you if you change your mindset. “The secret” to financial success tends to involve plenty of work, not magical pseudo-laws.

But there are no accidental millionaires. The closest we have — lottery winners — rarely manage to keep hold of their wealth.

If you want to make money, value money. Not above integrity or your family or your soul’s great passion … but honor money for what it can do, for you and for others.

You can always give it away to someone who needs it more badly than you do. But you’ve got to earn it first.

Bad Habit #5: Distractibility

Creativity is the residue of time wasted.

~Albert Einstein

For reasons that will become obvious, I loved reading about some research results in the new book Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer.

A large sample of undergraduates was given a variety of difficult creative tests. It turned out that students who had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were much better at solving creative problems than other students were.

And when the students were asked about creative accomplishments in the real world (say, winning a prize at a juried art show, or winning an honor at a science fair), the ADHD students had achieved significantly more.

Lehrer goes on to point out similar heightened creativity in people who may not have a particular diagnosis, but for one reason or another, they’re not as traditionally focused as their peers.

From Lehrer’s book:

Although we live in an age that worships attention — when we need to work, we force ourselves to concentrate — this approach can inhibit the imagination. Sometimes it helps to consider irrelevant information, to eavesdrop on all the stray associations unfolding in the far reaches of the brain. Occasionally, focus can backfire and make us fixated on the wrong answers.

Insane focus is highly admirable. And we all know we’ve got to ship.

But some of the people you might envy for their laser focus have a hard time seeing the broader picture. They may be executing the hell out of their strategy today … but watch what they do in the long term.

The more widely you read, look, watch, listen, and think, the more genuinely remarkable ideas you’re going to come up with.

When it’s time to do, do. And when it’s time to daydream, go ahead and daydream.

Bad Habit #6: Self doubt

I know a local business owner who’s always got a story about his idiot business partners, his idiot employees, his idiot customers.

One of his businesses just fell apart. Spectacularly.

Again.

It’s a painful situation for him, and for all of his employees who just lost their jobs. I feel bad for him. But one thing I can be sure of — at no point will he ask himself this important question:

Is it me?

Yes, you need to be able to make decisions, but Jim Collins showed nicely in his book Great by Choice that one marker of a business leader who succeeds over time is what Collins calls “productive paranoia.”

Believing in yourself no matter what is often touted as critical to leadership. And it is effective in getting a leadership position. Blind faith in yourself (also known as narcissism) is a great trait if you want to climb the traditional corporate ladder.

Unfortunately, it’s often associated with leading your organization right off a cliff.

Which means that for an entrepreneur — without a golden parachute or pals on the right boards of directors — a big dose of healthy self-doubt is much more useful.

Question yourself. Question your assumptions. Take action, yes — but inform your action with a dose of productive paranoia.

Bad Habit #7: Arrogance

Sometimes we think good work speaks for itself.

Usually, we’re wrong.

I want you to be incredibly good at what you do. And I want you to get a little bit arrogant about that.

Toot your own horn. Admit that you’re kind of a big deal.

As Amber Naslund said in her post about misguided career beliefs,

The line between savvy and jackwad is indeed a fine one.

Obviously we try to keep off the jackwad side of the fence.

But for your project to become truly epic — to help an epic number of people — you’re going to have to get out there and talk it up. Which will make some people uncomfortable. And since you don’t have a thick skin (see #1), that’s going to kind of suck.

Fortunately, doing something epic takes the sting out.

So get out there and do it.

By Neil Patel, CopyBlogger.com

• Write grammatically correct, compelling content that is at least 300 words long. Make it detailed and support your argument with statistics to add authority.
• Create content landing pages that centralize multiple links to great resources.
• Make the content highly readable, aiming for a 5th-grade reading level.
• Include an appropriate amount of keywords in your content — not too many, not too few — including keywords in your title tags, first paragraph, images if appropriate, and throughout the article.

You don’t need an advanced degree to write SEO copy well. You just need to understand a few basics.

As you practice over time it will become natural to you, driving more and more traffic your way.

What elements of SEO copywriting have you used to help drive more traffic to your site? Let us know in the comments.