Running a solopreneur business takes a significant investment of time (and, in some cases, money). And since your time is precious, you need to invest it wisely. If you were to take an honest assessment of your weekly activities, how much time do you spend on research? If you’re like most solopreneurs, your answer is probably, “Not much.”

Research doesn’t rank high on the sexy scale as compared to profit. However, without research, don’t expect a strong ROI on your advance of time and money. All business is a gamble. However, with the proper research, you can minimize your risk, maximize your opportunities for profits, and expedite your success.

By performing your research and analyzing the data, you will have a clearer picture of the lay of the land before you journey forth in pursuit of profits. How can performing market research and reviewing the data benefit your business? Let me answer this question with a few more questions.

Who are your ideal customers … those who you don’t have to hard sell, just simply put your offer in front of them and they can’t wait to buy?

Where do you need to market your business to access the biggest pool of prospects?

What language do you need to use in your marketing to get their attention and get them to take action quickly?

What products and services do you need to create or how do you need modify your current offerings to increase your revenues and your net profit?

How can you get your current customers to buy more, more frequently, and buy more profitable products and services?

Who are your primary competitors and why would your ideal customers choose your offerings over theirs?

Who are potential joint venture partners and other market influencers whom you can connect with to increase your business quicker than operating as a solopreneur?

You spent a significant amount of money and / or time on your marketing campaigns. How are they performing? Why did they work? Why didn’t they work? How should you modify them to increase your results?

Just think of what your business would look like if you had accurate, detailed answers to all of these questions. Running a solopreneur business is like being on a treasure hunt … every day. Imagine if you had the treasure map just how quickly you could find the gold and get on with hunting other treasure.

What’s more, once you have these answers, your marketing research and analysis efforts aren’t over. You need to perform it at regular intervals on an ongoing basis. Markets change. Customer habits and opinions change. Marketing opportunities change. Just look at the explosion of social networks. New competitors enter the market. Current competitors change their marketing message and offerings. The questions to the test change and so do the answers. Without performing your market research, you can make educated decisions on out-dated information leading you to steer your business off course. Confusion, frustration, and a lack of motivation start to set in.

So if you don’t want to take the slow, wandering, profit-depleting approach of hoping to find your market’s sweet spot, contact me. Research is one of my specialties.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

When you hear about a new option for being social on the Internet, do you look at it as an opportunity or something else that you’ll have to do for marketing your business? Google’s betting that they’re going to give you a something so you’ll want to take time away from Facebook to be social on their platform.

If they are going to succeed, they’ll need to do a much better job than simply having Google+ appear while you’re using Google Search like they did with tacking on Google Buzz to Gmail. With Google Buzz not creating much of a … well, buzz … Google says they won’t make the same mistake with their roll out of Google+.

So what is Google offering with Google+ that they’re hoping will have you perceive it as more than just the world’s preeminent search engine? When you bring up Google on your computer, you may notice a black bar across the top with some tabs. Here’s the latest scoop on the features and benefits available to you.

Stream
The Stream is the Google+ equivalent to Facebook’s News Feed. Here you can share content and see what your list of friends are sharing.

Circles
Google looks to differentiate itself from Facebook by allowing users to share different thoughts, photos and other social media with a subset of their total friends list instead of en masse. Their answer is Circles, as in your circles of friends. From the feedback that I’ve received from various regular users on Facebook, this sounds like a big plus. You’ll be able to create circles and drag and drop your friends into those circles.

Hangouts
Do you prefer to have friends invite you to join in to group chats at various hours or do you simply wish to have a system notify you when friends are hanging out in a chatroom so you can pop on in if you want to? Google is betting that you’re likely to choose the latter, hence their creation of Hangouts. Google caps a video chatroom in Hangouts to 10 people. Anyone else that wants to join in the conversation will be put on a waiting list for notification if someone active in the conversation drops out. Plus, Hangouts doesn’t have a small video clip of all participants’ heads up on the screen at the same time; they plan to have only the person talking visible for all to see instead.

Sparks
What sparks your interest from articles, to videos, music, movies and more? Google plans to include this in its Google+ Sparks. Google created an algorithm to gather and rank data based upon results from its Google Search, what’s being shared on Google+ and through its new +1 buttons. With Sparks, Google is trying to make it easy for you to share info and make it easier for you to find what sparks your interests, too.

Mobile
As of January 2011, there were more than 200 million active users (or 40%) of the then active Facebook population using their mobile devices to access the social platform. Facebook also claimed that those using their mobile devices were twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users. Google is betting that those numbers will continue to increase. This isn’t big news, right? What is big news is that Google’s mobile app will auto-upload any photo or video you take on your phone to your computer. It doesn’t make the uploads public. Instead, Google’s app will keep them on your computer for eight hours after upload for you to decide if you want to share them or not.

It will be launching the mobile app for Google+ starting with Android with plans to include apps for other platforms in the future.

Multimedia
Google+ has a section specifically for viewing, managing and editing your multimedia. This includes all photos you’ve shared or have been tagged in. In addition to tagging, Google ups the ante by giving you an image editor, and included privacy and sharing options.

By checking out some of the early comments from some early testers, there seems to be some mixed reviews. Some love the new features and layouts, some are frustrated that Google hasn’t created an app for their platform yet, while others are questioning whether they really need a new social media network.

With hundreds of millions already investing time on a daily basis to activities on Facebook, and with a dismal roll out of Buzz, Google has its work cut out for it to create interest and desire to attract users to its Google+. Some of their initial statements and capabilities seem promising. Let’s see if they can rise to the challenge this time.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Did you catch country crooner, John Rich, hear The Donald proclaim him the winner of the most recent season of Celebrity Apprentice last night? I love watching the pressure cooker situations that Donald Trump and Executive Producer, Mark Burnett, create for celebrities to fight for exposure and big donation dollars for their favorite charities. The show treaches tremendous lessons on how to be a successful entrepreneur including time management, project management, marketing, sales, and

If you missed, I’m sorry if I spoiled the surprise. John Rich and actress, Marlee Matlin were the final two contestants. While I felt that Marlee had the stronger final task, it looks like John Rich may have pulled of the win for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital based upon overall season performance.

While Entertainment Weekly claims this season’s finale had the lowest ratings, this season overall was my favorite season. I did miss a couple of TV airings, but I caught the missed episodes on NBC’s web site.

Here are my top 4 reasons why this season was the best:

1. Gary Busey.
‘Nuff said. Not sure why? Catch an episode on replay, especially how he handled Meatloaf coming at him like a bat out of hell.

2. Meatloaf’s passion.
I am passionate about helping people maximize their passions for a more fulfilling business and life overall. From Day 1 through helping Marlee try to achieve the big prize for her charity, The Starkey Hearing Foundation, Meatloaf was pure passion … which some took as a sign of craziness or weakness. I loved his passion.

3. Marlee Matlain’s focus.
While there was some question whether she was delegating responsibility appropriately during the finale, overall, I thought she shined. Plus, she raised $1 million for her charity in one episode. Even with Hollywood friends, this is no small feat.

4. John Rich’s entrepreneurial move.
While the final task didn’t include raising money for their charities, John Rich figured he might as well take the opportunity to leverage the exposure for some extra dollars for St. Jude’s. Marlee was taken aback when John announced he raised over $250k for his charity during the finale. She said if it were part of the task to raise more money, she could have. I give it to John for not playing by the rules and just doing what he was told he could and going for what was really important to him, raising money for his charity.

Congrats, John Rich. And congrats St. Jude’s.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Some solopreneurs find themselves plagued by procrastination, confusion, frustration and overwhelm. It’s easy to do. I understand. I’ve been there!


If you’re one of them, you might spend your time focusing on how to write a better tweet on Twitter, or how to be a better “friend” on Facebook. Again, I understand.


There’s so much hype from The Gurus that you can make good money in a bad market and have adoring fans if you can master social media and network. Guess, what? They’re right!


But, that’s only part of the story.


Mastering social media and networking is critical, especially if you’re a service professional … a business coach or consultant. However, social media and networking are tools to help you accomplish your goals IF you can:

1. Think big
2. Find your “Why”
3. Research your market
4. Plan your business
5. Take massive action
6. Leverage those around you
7. Review, Re-educate, Revise, & Repeat

If these terms are a little too dry for you, I’ll make them more pleasing:

1. Change your thinking to achieve bigger results (think big) 

2. Avoid procrastination, a lack of confidence and burn out while keeping focused on specific actions to achieve your desired success (find your “why”)

3. Attract more of the right customers (research your market)

4. Avoid multiple false starts (plan your business)

5. Replace your busy work with results producing action (take massive action)

6. Rally others to your cause to achieve greater success faster (leverage those around you)

7. Capitalize on your current achievements for greater future success (The 4Rs: review, re-educate, revise, & repeat)


If you skip any of these 7 essentials, you’re going to create opportunities for procrastination, confusion, frustration and overwhelm. It can leave you feeling like one of the masses wondering why a few lucky solopreneurs get to play in the big game while you have to watch from the sidelines trying to figure out how they make the big plays seem so easy. I don’t want that for you. I am passionate about helping you maximize your solopreneur potential.


So I have a gift for you.


If you go to my Small Biz Break site, you will see on the right side of the page, an opt-in form where you can access the recent webinar my partner and I recorded titled, “Discover the 7 Essential for Going from Cruise Control to Crushing It in Your Business”. There you’ll find the recording, plus two bonus downloads.


If you feel like you’re watching the big game being played while you sit on the sidelines, get out of the crowds and get in the game! You can do it. Give the webinar a listen. Take action with the bonus handouts.


What’s stopping you? Don’t you deserve your big break?


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Sounds like a bold title, doesn’t it? Is this just catchy copy or is it truly possible that there are just seven essential actions solopreneurs master for breakthrough success?


The truth is many of these top small business pros worked very hard to get where they are today. Their success didn’t happen overnight. The honest ones will tell you that they struggled and made mistakes along the way. Some big mistakes. Costly mistakes. I sure have. More than once … and in multiple industries.


These are all talented people that have the entrepreneurial DNA, but before they achieved their breakthrough success, they had certain patterns or habits that kept them just on the other side of success. They fought through frustration, confusion, procrastination, small results and some degree of self-doubt … all at a cost of tremendous effort, personal pride, loss of money and cashing in a few favors with the people that supported them most.


Does this sound like your current situation?


If so, we want to help you.


My Small Biz Break partner, Maria, and I are hosting a live webinar on Tuesday March 1^st at 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST titled, “Discover the 7 Essentials for Going from Cruise Control to Crushing It in Your Business”. In this no-cost webinar, we’ll talk about the seven key actions that successful entrepreneurs mastered for breakthrough success.


You’ll discover the primary secrets of:

1. How to change your thinking to achieve bigger results

2. How to avoid procrastination, a lack of confidence and burn out while keeping focused on specific actions to achieve your desired success

3. How to attract more of the right customers

4. How to avoid multiple false starts

5. How to replace your busy work with results producing action

6. How to rally others to your cause to achieve greater success faster

… and …

7. How you can capitalize on your current achievements for greater future success


We don’t believe in taking up your time with fluff and only talking about theories. We are committed to introducing you to new ideas so you can see new possibilities. We will discuss why they’re important and we back that with practical, how-to steps so you can start taking action right away.


The first action you need to take is to register for this event. At the bottom of our Small Biz Break Events page, you will see a registration form. When you sign in your name and email address, not only will you reserve one of the limited spots to:


1. Our live 60-minute free webinar on Tuesday, March 1^st

… but for a limited number of take-action entrepreneurs who register early, we will give a complementary bonus  …

2. A one-on-one 30-minute private strategy session. We are only offering this for a limited number of people, so take action now before the other action-oriented entrepreneurs beat you to it!


We’re excited to get the opportunity to help your business reach its full potential!


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide