As a solo-professional or small business owner, you have many responsibilities. Not only do you have to run your business and manage all the tasks associated with that, you also have to market that business. But just how should you divvy up your day? How much time should you spend on marketing? I believe you need to spend at least half of your time on marketing. In fact, as a business owner, I believe you really only have two main responsibilities:

1) Spending your time on revenue-producing activities

2) Marketing your business

Your time is valuable, so you shouldn’t waste it on mundane tasks that someone else could easily do.

You should be spending half your time generating income for your business. This might include things like servicing your clients and creating products.

The other half of your time should be spent on marketing to grow your business. That might include activities like writing articles and press releases, doing speaking engagements, writing and publishing an ezine or newsletter, advertising, relationship marketing, networking or Internet marketing. Any activity that is designed to bring you more clients or more sales.

But what about “all those other things” that have to get done?

All those administrative business tasks like paying bills, invoicing clients, going to the bank, picking up office supplies, fulfilling orders, monthly bookkeeping and clerical tasks like filing?

Or all of those household tasks like grocery shopping, cleaning your house, and doing laundry?

Find a way to delegate “all those other things”

…so you can focus your time on your top two priorities. If your time is worth $50 an hour or $150 an hour and you are spending it on $10 an hour tasks, it just doesn’t make sense.

What if you can’t afford to hire help?

I was in this boat for a long time myself. My mentors kept telling me to create a team and delegate. But I thought I couldn’t afford to. When I finally took the leap of faith and began assembling a team, my entire business and life changed.

I went from being a lone ranger doing everything in my businesses (yes, it was very tiring!) to a team that includes a bookkeeper, CPA, attorney, virtual assistant, writer, art director and production artist, media buyer, web developer, product manufacturer, fulfillment house, computer technician, real estate partners, property management company and others I’m sure I’m forgetting about right now.

No, I don’t have an office with all these people on staff.

I am still a “company of one.” These people are partners that I pay for specific services when I need them.

And I’ve enlisted the help of my family with the household tasks and hired housekeepers so I don’t have to spend my valuable work hours or my precious free time on these activities.

Yes, I still do some things I probably shouldn’t.

But the point is, over the past two years, I’ve learned to find experts and utilize their services to help me grow my business.

And even though I thought I couldn’t afford to hire a team…

Now I can’t imagine running my business (or my life) any other way. And paying for this help has never been an issue. Because the time they have freed up allows me to focus on my top two priorities, which has grown my businesses.

Your Marketing Step

Look around. Are you trying to do it all yourself? Are you running your business as a lone ranger? Are you spending time on activities that someone else could be doing?

If you are, I encourage you to step back and re-evaluate how your business is structured. And create a structure and a team that will allow you to spend your time on marketing and revenue-producing activities. And then watch your business grow!

Want to see how I spend my time? Visit my blog to find out!

Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to make marketing your own business as simple as answering 10 questions. Learn more about this unique, step-by-step system and get a free Marketing E-Course when you subscribe to the free, weekly 10stepmarketing Ezine at http://www.10stepmarketing.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debbie_LaChusa

The web has made all forms of communication more informal. People have forged relationships with others that they never see, through a constant stream of messages. The decreased formality of the language used was a natural progression, as more people gained access to e-mail and used it as a casual method of staying in contact with family far away.

According to a report I’ve just glanced over, 9 out of 10 websites are “sitting ducks”. The article lists a whole range of problems that websites ranging from Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) exploits to Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF). With such a range of issues most websites seem to have, it’s a wonder there’s any sites still around on the Internet!

Obviously, White Hat Security, the company who came up with the report recommends taking action as quickly as possible.

It’s reports like that that give security companies a bad name. It’s preposterous to claim that it’s only a matter of time before most websites will be run over by vermin and spontaneously combust. And if you don’t have alarm system monitoring you’d never even know about!

I agree with their assement, it would be good advice to follow:

.. finding and prioritizing all Web site properties by designating their importance to the business and a party responsible for their security; finding and fixing Web site vulnerabilities by assessing them for weaknesses with each code change; remediation of vulnerabilities done on a schedule based on severity; implementing a secure software development process using an organizational standard development framework; and implementing an in-depth Web site vulnerability management strategy.

But if I had to choose a company to supply my security services White Hat Security would be the last company I hire!

A survey from design and marketing company Netflare has revealed some shocking results. Small businesses across 19 different sectors were surveyed and: - 23% said their sites hadn’t been updated since their launch leading to inaccurate and obsolete content - Only 8% even had an eCommerce element to their site - 25% had no way of tracking online sales - 38% didn’t have a budget at all for updating their sites

These are obviously big obstacles to making money online. You would think any of these things would be a given, but clearly they are not, and are being overlooked by many businesses.

We can work in conjunction with your website, and other advertising mediums to help get your business message effectively across. The Work Connexions community of web sites can help your business by directing and increasing traffic to your website. Contact us today for a detailed quote info at workconneixons dot com
Tel: +44 (0)1212 889051 Fax: +44 (0)8700 635134

Read our blog:  Look out for our new site coming soon.

Seth Godin recently posted this comment on is blog ‘Most fast-growing organizations are looking for people who can get stuff done. There is a fundamental shift in rules from manual-based work (where you follow instructions and an increase in productivity means doing the steps faster) to project-based work (where the instructions are unknown, and visualizing outcomes and then getting things done is what counts.) And yet, we’re still trying to hire people who have shown an ability to follow instructions.

almost done with my (sold out) book tour, and the biggest pleasure of the project was working with people who totally understand what it is to get things done.

Derek in Ann Arbor, Rajesh, Edith and Deepika in Silicon Valley, Matt in Tempe and Phil in Salt Lake each led huge teams of people (with no infrastructure.) They invented, described, networked, wheedled and most of all, organized. They didn’t do it because it was their job, and they didn’t have organizational authority. They just did it.

That’s who I would hire.’

This fits in to our own line of thought. We have provide the platform for people to do whatever it is, Whether that being advertising or writing about their work. The people that use and have built Work Connexions have just gone and done it, and that’s what we suggest you do to

Work Connexions can get your organisation on the internet quickly, just by Registering your Organisation. Once you Register, your Organisation will get it’s own profile page, your very own corner of the world-wide-web. Link to this page from your emails, your own web site, display the URL on your company stationary, such as your business cards and letter-heads. Your Organisation Profile will also be Search Engine accessible by virtue of our Search Engine friendly site. Your Organisation Profile not only gives you a great opportunity to publish details of your organisation it also allows other users to leave feedback for your Organisation and give your potential customers further proof that you offer a quality service. That’s not all, if you have any promotional material you have already prepared, just upload it it your file area in your profile and get it on line too.

We at Work Connexions are committed to bring you the best work related content on the internet. We are very near completion of our forums. Where topics will be able to be freely discussed. We are busy trying to recruit the top industry professional bloggers who are at the forefront of development in Business. Which we hope will give all your business’s the cutting edge in new resources and technology.