Get Closer To That Pot Of Gold

We all want to make more money. The real question is, how will we do it? In order to make things more manageable we have to simplify. Here are 3 SIMPLE things you can do to get closer to that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow:

Bother people. I mean be persistent, not annoying. People are busy, including your prospects. Even if they want to buy from you, they may forget you. So stay in touch repeatedly.

Figure out what makes you money. Sounds strange to name this as a way to make it, but most people skip this step and spend too much time on pointless things. Businesses have two kinds of money, cash and profits. Cash comes from making sales. Profits come from selling products or services for more than they cost you to produce. Small businesses generally focus on bringing in cash, and that's OK because cash keeps the doors open. But to get ahead, you need to focus on the parts of your business that bring you the most profits.

Get listed for FREE. Take 30 minutes -- right after you finish reading this column -- and list your business, free, on search engine local listings.

This helps your company show up when a prospective customer searches for a business like yours on the Web or a mobile device. No technical expertise is needed. Get started with Bing business portal, bing.com/businessportal; Foursquare, foursquare.com/business; Google Places, google.com/places; Yahoo Local, local.yahoo.com; and Yelp, biz.yelp.com/claiming. For more go to: usatoday.com

What do you think about sites like Yelp, Google Places, and Yahoo Local? Have they been helpful to you and your biz? What other free business listings can you recommend? Leave us a comment below!

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