Starting a small business signals many significant changes in the business owners life: 1) the financial freedom that he/she wont worry about lay-off again; 2) the flexibility of working on his/her own schedule; 3) the fulfillment of making a difference in the life whether to grow the business into a major player in a competitive industry or just do what he likes to do and meanwhile making good money.

Parallel to the excitement of doing interesting things is the challenge of wearing too many hats strategic planning, marketing, sales, production, customer support, accounting and financing. The business is small, but the job is huge.

Regardless the industry youre in, the ingredients of successful small businesses are the same 1) an idea that works; 2) a marketing plan that wont cost a arm and leg, but still does the job; and 3) operation efficiency.

Ideas

A right business idea is crucial to the success and growth of your new venture. First of all, the business you are in should be the things you're passionate about. Secondly, you have enough knowledge, experience and talent to compete in the industry. Finally, it's best to choose a business that can generate small and steady income without heavy initial investment while having the potential to grow to eventually support you and your family. Freelance writing, Web design, online marketing, freelance programming, bookkeeping are just a few ideas to consider.

Promotion

Distributing business cards is one of the most popular and inexpensive ways to market or advertise your products or services. Though you can do business card printing yourself using many different business card templates, it's wise to spend a little money to order professional designed business cards. For as little as $20, you can order 500 business cards. Color business cards will cost a little bit more. A professional Web site is next thing you may want to have to promote your service so that the prospects can obtain information about your business 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Affordable Web hosting costs as little as $50 or less a year. For another $80, you can have one or two simple Web pages. If the prospects are likely looking for the service on the Internet, spend $50 on Pay-Per-Click (PPC) online ads. $50 on PPC will actually bring you a few customers and generate reasonable revenues.

Operation Efficiency

Most small business owners are often 100 percent occupied by running the business marketing, sales, production, customer support, accounting and financing. They often dont have time (if not the broad range of knowledge) to think strategically and to allocate resources and time to thinking of growing the business. The result is simple and devastating. They will stay as small businesses if theyre lucky, or theyll be out of the businesses when market condition changes drastically. Operation efficiency is even more important for running s small business than operating an established business.

Therere many ways to improve the operation efficiency 1) streamlining business processes, 2) utilizing productivity software, 3) outsourcing and etc. Its common for small businesses to outsource many business support services hiring a accountant for bookkeeping and tax return, a collection agency (or collection agencies) for debt collection, and work as an affiliate of a major play for group promotion and advertising. No matter how busy youre, small business owners should always spend 10-20% of their on growing businesses.