This is a guest blog post by Austin Gunter.  To read more of Austin’s work, you should check out his blog at AustinGunter.com.

Conquer your enemies. Use your own agility to make your opponent move even slower. The faster you can make decisions and take action, the more deadly you will be when facing your opponent.

There is a business book making the rounds at the Tech Ranch that, similar to the last  paragraph, seems like it’s about military strategy.  But it’s not. The book, Certain to Win, does  talk a whole lot about military strategy.   The first half of the book finally explains how the Nazis used the Blitzkrieg and tore into the French lines.  Turns out, that was a two-week campaign that made all the difference for the Third Reich, and made the war last as long as it did.  The Nazis were far outnumbered, had obsolete technology, and lacked the resources of the Allied troops. Let’s replace the Third Reich and the Allies with small start-up vs. Microsoft, David vs. Goliath.

It’s been said that Bill Gate’s Biggest Fear is, “that some kid will brew up the next killer app in his garage in Kenosha and Microsoft won’t own it.”  What’s the difference between your startup and a behemoth like Microsoft?  The answer should be a cultural.  Since a small start-up lacks the sheer resources of a Microsoft, they have to have a culture of quick decisions, made with an emphasis on agility, not brute strength.  The difference is between a Business Plan and a Business Strategy.

Before I explain this, I want to make sure everyone understands that, just like the rest of you, I’m glad that Good triumphed over Evil in World War II.  I’m not advocating the sickness of Nazi ideology.

What I AM saying, what Certain to Win says, is that the Nazis achieved success against a more powerful opponent because they made decisions faster than their bigger, bureaucratic opponent.  This structure meant that agility won out over far superior numbers AND technology.

I am suggesting that we model aspects of this structure in our respective start-ups.  This structure will make us more agile and enable us to take down giant corporations (at this point, Microsoft is probably more Nazi-like than your start-up I’m sure).  By moving twice as fast as a bigger company, a start-up can release a beta in a few months, while the big guy is still sitting in meetings, waiting for approval.  Google is a notable exception of a billion-dollar company that structures itself like a thousand tiny start-ups.  Google is regularly releasing betas, some of them better than others.  By releasing the beta, Google invites the feedback of millions of users who ultimately decide if the product is hot or not.

This is how structural agility in a start-up should manifest.

Stop making Business Plans.

Business plans are like computer technology.  By the time you get all the figures and graphs printed, your financials, just like your microchips, are obsolete.  Your startup has changed, and your numbers are based on what used to be true.  Following a 20 page business plan inhibits making decisions based on what is true now.   In a start-up, sticking to your original plan is a very reliable way to become obsolete yourself because you are making decisions according to old information.

What do you do when your carefully made plans go astray?  Hint: the right answer isn’t panic.

Rely on Business Strategy.

Instead of making a step-by-step plan of how to drive from Los Angeles to New York, ask yourself a few questions and develop a strategy that will enable everyone in your company to make quick decisions.  Why are you making this trip?  If the goal is to arrive as quickly as possible, then fill the tank up and hit the gas.  Or if the goal is to get the most out of the trip itself, then you can spend time enjoying the scenery.  Either strategy will get you to your destination

The only way to make it as a startup is to create a culture that encourages innovation and independent thinking by your employees.  Let’s go back to the analogy of traveling from Los Angeles to New York.  If you’re the CEO and you’ve fallen asleep halfway through the Texas Panhandle, any of your employees that happen to be behind the wheel MUST be empowered to make a decision without rousing you from your slumber.  If they have to wait for your approval to change lanes, the opportunity will pass you by before you can take advantage of it.

How can you create a culture where strategy is more important than a plan?

I hope this helps.

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I love startups. I love the chaos. I love the insane hours. I love the energy. I love the types of people who are attracted to work on high-risk ideas with long odds. I love the culture that evolves around them. I love it all. I have spent my career hopping from one startup to the next, because there is nothing I love more.

But every startup hits a tipping point, and it’s rarely articulated as clearly and beautifully as Steve Blank does in an article posted to VentureBeat today. The transition from a ’scrappy startup’ to a mid-sized company trying to be more mature is always infinitely more painful a process than anyone seems to think is reasonable.

This surprises me every time I see it. In his story, Steve recounts watching a new CFO to a mid-sized firm implement a ‘no more free soda’ policy and inadvertently spark an exodus of the founding team of engineers. What’s more interesting, though, is that some of the comments posted on the story miss the point: the engineers didn’t leave the company because the company started charging them $.50 for a Coke. The engineers left because being charged $.50 for a Coke was a sign that the company was no longer the same organization that they’d previously been willing to sacrifice for.

That’s a subtle distinction, but a vital one. More than once, I and many of my colleagues, have been willing to take significant pay cuts to work in environments that had a culture (or other intangibles) that made the trade-off worthwhile. Eventually, though, most organizations change enough to where that trade-off ceases to be worth it. The part that is often upsetting, however, is that those changes are frequently sparked by someone coming in the door more intent on shaking things up than on understanding the culture they are walking into.

Steve’s story is one that I can relate to over and over again. It wasn’t until I had a truly remarkable executive come into our organization, and refuse to act precipitously, but instead insist on watching and interviewing the entire staff for his first 60 days, that I had the slightest hope of someone making positive changes without unraveling the cultural elements that held us together, even in the face of the chaos. So now, when I go into startups, many of which are at the transition point between early-stage/founding team, and their second generation, I have a five step approach I follow:

1. Recognize that, for founding teams, everything is personal. The people who build a new organization take on a lot of risk and chaos to do it. They have to believe in it. It’s almost a religious experience, and you can’t come in a year or two later and expect them not to take your changes personally. Because, whether it makes sense to you or not, everything is personal. They’ve sacrificed too much for it not to be.
2. Understand the evolution. You have to be a bit of an archaeologist when you go into a new business. Do not make assumptions about how they got where they are. If you look long and hard enough, talk to enough people, and do your research, you’ll find that even the craziest things you see have a reason for having evolved the way they did. Unless or until you understand that reason, anything you do to try to “fix” the situation runs the risk of alienating people unnecessarily.
3. Respect the sacrifices made by the people who came before you. Unless you know that the people who are there when you walk in the door are dead wood and you want them to quit, make sure you demonstrate some respect to what they were able to accomplish — especially if they did it under tough circumstances. The single biggest source of alienation I have ever seen has been when new people come in, hot-to-trot, making changes and the people who built the company in the first place are treated like morons who simply got lucky.
4. Work on depersonalizing the business. It is reasonable that early stage startups are often personal sacrifices for people — they need to be. But a maturing company has to pass the point where that is no longer true. Not all of the early stage team will be able to handle that transition, but many of them can and will if they do not feel kicked in the teeth by new leadership brought in from the outside. Slowly building in an ethic of, “It’s not personal, but this is where the business needs to go now” is actually often much easier than people assume it to be. Founding teams want the business to be successful. That was the whole point for their sacrifice. If you want or need them to stick around, then help them learn to take a step back and not see the evolution of the business as an emotional affair.
5. Facilitate relationships between the old guard and new guard. Not all of the old guard is (or should) make the transition to the new phase of the business. And not all of the new guard is capable of showing any respect for what the old guard has done. But if you focus on individuals, their talents, and understanding what drives them, it is often possible to help connect people in ways that build strong teams to move the company forward. But you must keep in mind that there is often an automatic lack of trust between both groups, a tendency to point fingers, and a common tradition of resentment that you must work through before you are going to see progress.

Businesses are made up of people. And not every person is right for every business at every stage. Some really do need to move on as an organization grows. But that should be a deliberate, well-considered decision, not a haphazard, expensive mistake spurred by a short-sighted, penny-pinching reason. Unfortunately, that’s the cause I’ve seen most frequently throughout my career. And it’s a bit tragic, because a lot of dynamic organizations have lost a lot of amazing talent that could have helped grow the business and make it successful.

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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Tim Berry has a recent post on MyVenturePad that is highly worth reading.  He takes issue with a VentureBeat post that essentially recommends to entrepreneurs that they sacrifice their life until they get their business successfully built.

Tim hits the nail on the head right out of the gate: the absurdity of that recommendation is the idea that once a business is successful, it is somehow going to miraculously be easier for an entrepreneur to walk away from it to start building a life.  He gives a list of very useful things to do to avoid falling into this trap.

For me, though, the real problem with this advice is the assumption that it is only business that it hard — having a life is easy.  Anyone who says that has never tried to shift gears and go from being a workaholic to being a romantic partner.  As someone who has spent five years working on that transition, I’ll tell you: it’s much harder than it sounds.

If you spend your twenties — and worse yet, also your thirties — focusing on building your business while neglecting your life, why would anyone assume that suddenly starting to focus on having a life at 40 is going to be a cake walk?  There are days when I am convinced the reason we live so long is because that’s how long it takes to practice to even start getting our lives right.  If we don’t even begin until it’s half over, then we’re out of time before we begin.

One of my favorite bloggers, Penelope Trunk, writes about this regularly: as a serial entrepreneur, she moved her family from New York City to Madison, WI for their life.  She founded a tech startup in a city with virtual no tech industry because that was where it made sense for her family to live.  Has it been a struggle?  Sure.  Was there reasoning in her logic?  Absolutely.

Everyone wants to know that their legacy has an impact — for some people having kids is enough.  For others, leaving behind impressive business accomplishments is enough.  But if what you want is both, then you can’t delude yourself into thinking that you can ignore one for half your life and suddenly make up for it in the second half.  Time doesn’t work that way.

So many entrepreneurs I know start their own business because they want a lifestyle that allows them what working for someone else never has: opportunity and flexibility.  And most of the reasons they want those things are because they have, or want to have, a life.

I’m with Tim: waiting until your business is successful to start building a life is asking to have a lop-sided legacy.  And that may be fine for you, but make sure you know that going in.  In business these days we spend so much time discussing how hard it is to build the necessary relationships to be successful.  Does anyone really think it’s easier to build successful relationships in the rest of your life?

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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As a content strategist one of the things I spend a great deal of time discussing with entrepreneurs is SEO.  As I’ve written here before, my first goal in any SEO discussion with someone is to help educate them on what SEO is and isn’t, and what it really can do versus what it really can’t.  (Can: help people who know what they are looking for find you; Can’t: wash your dog, change your oil or solve all of your sales and marketing problems.)  And then from there, we can discuss what a reasonable SEO strategy would look like for a small business.

In the end, though, I always end up advocating one thing: valuable content.   And while I often get a lot of ‘yes ma’am’ head nodding around that topic, there is a single critical reason that I continue to make that point: the world of search is on a roller coaster at the moment, and trying to play the SEO game with the current set of rules is only going to get you a short-term win (if that) without putting your focus on strong, valuable content. This is a great untapped opportunity for entrepreneurs, because they are better equipped to move faster than large businesses, full of teams of people whose job would be in danger if they were not longer perceived as critical.

People who are unfamiliar with the online search space often do not understand what I mean when I talk about the imminent changes to the the industry.  Today I’ll cover a few examples, thanks to some new releases that Google has just made. (Examples from Google’s official blog.)

• Personalized search
• Real time search

What is “personalized search“?

For example, since I always search for [recipes] and often click on results from epicurious.com, Google might rank epicurious.com higher on the results page the next time I look for recipes. Other times, when I’m looking for news about Cornell University’s sports teams, I search for [big red]. Because I frequently click on www.cornellbigred.com, Google might show me this result first, instead of the Big Red soda company or others.

What is “real time search“?

Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.

These are two great examples, because they demonstrate why having relevant content on your website is important.  Focusing your SEO energy (and budget) on building link-backs and fine-tuning your keywords has limited value in the long-term, because search engines are going to increasingly focus on other things to establish relevancy.

Just these two changes alone mean that two different people can type in the same keywords but get different results, depending on their personal search history and when they look.  And, if you factor in the increasingly popular localized search, what city those users are in could also impact their results.

What excites me most about these changes is that it further helps in taking the focus off the means and onto the end: your web presence should be about engaging your customers in a meaningful way, finding new customers and enhancing your existing relationship.  Far too many people focus on jockeying for a good SEO position in spite of their content, instead of focusing on the content first and using it as a foundation for successful SEO.

The tidal wave of changes in the search space is going to make it increasingly hard to duck the real question for all businesses on the web: are you saying anything worth paying attention to?  If you are, then these updated techniques will only help you.  If you are not and have been playing SEO-peek-a-boo, then these changes are going to expose that.

I see far too many entrepreneurs who have been taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous “SEO consultants,” and one of my chief missions is to help prevent that wherever possible. So before you look to hire SEO help, ask yourself if you are prepared to actually create (or pay for) good content for your website.

In the modern web-based business world, there is an updated version to your grandmother’s old saying:  “If you don’t have anything relevant to say, don’t say anything at all.”  These new changes by Google will continue to make that point.

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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One of my favorite things about the information economy is the extent to which a highly commoditized, social web lowers the barrier to entry for prospective entrepreneurs.  While some of us elect to dive into owning our own business head-first with little or no safety net, that’s not the best way for some people.  Many people need to ease their way into entrepreneurship, and one of the ways I most enjoy watching is through their hobbies.

Daniel Kehrer of Business.com recently wrote about the new trends of hobbyists-turned-entrepreneurs, and their increasingly noteworthy impact on the small business space.  In reading the six reasons he lists as catalysts for this phenomenon, it makes me think of three different friends of mine who have spent years dancing on the edges of entrepreneurship with hobbies they enjoy.

The Painter
For years The Painter has paid the bills by being a project manager leading development teams in web application environments (which, naturally, is how we met).  She is smart, creative, a great integrator of complex project solutions and very well-respected by her peers.  But her love is painting.  So, as a side business, she not only sells her paintings, but she also does commission artwork: she paints customized pet portraits.

The Engineer
Ironically, “the engineer” is a double-entendre for my second friend: while we used to work together when he was a system engineer for the ecommerce site I worked on, his hobby is an online model train community that includes an ecommerce business.  What started out strictly as an enjoyable past-time has, over time, become an increasingly viable business in its own right.

The Event Planner
Did you ever have a friend who was the go-to person for something for everyone they knew?  My friend is the go-to person if you want an event planned.  Whether it’s one of her best friend’s weddings, my 30th birthday, or the company Christmas party, if there is an event to be planned, she is the person you want to draft.  Not only does she know how to get it all done, but she can even make sure it comes in on budget.

While all of her friends have spent years telling her that we’d love to see her own her own business to do this professionally, it wasn’t until she got laid off and started volunteering for local non-profits that her decade-old hobby started to morph itself into an actual business.

What I love about each of these three examples is that none of them went out looking to start a business, first and foremost.  What they started with was something they simply loved to do.  Over time, the business aspect evolved.

The six reasons that Dan lists are things that, in essence, amount to much of what “the long tail” is all about, and it’s at the heart of the opportunity that the information economy provides.  So while not everyone is going to see the type of run-away success that passionate entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuck experience, what this trend does is remind us that the age-old saying has a modern day variation: “Where there is a passion, there is a way.”

As entrepreneurs in a new era, that’s an exciting opportunity.

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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In a recent blog post, author Scott Ginsberg recently asked Have You Executed These Ten Essentials of Entrepreneurial Excellence? He then listed off the ten things he highlights as essential for entrepreneurs to be truly successful:

• Prestige requires pandemonium
• Confidence requires congruency
• Fame requires flexibility
• Success requires surrender.
• Creativity requires curiosity
• Originality requires murder
• Serendipity requires strategy
• Dominance requires discomfort
• Matchlessness requires relentlessness
• Remarkability requires reinvention

Scott’s list reminds me of a principle called Open Beats Closed, by an old friend and former colleague, Joshua-Michele Ross.

Much like Scott, Josh posits that in an information economy — particularly that fueld by the social web — the old constructs, objectives and means of accomplishment need to be re-examined and, in many cases, tossed for radically different approaches.  What comes out of these changes are a new set of social guidelines that are based on how our social interactions currently work, instead of how they used to work 5, 10 or 20 years ago.  And while these are most definitely “social” guidelines, they ultimately must also evolve into business guideliness.

Scott’s list is similar, insofar as that most of what he is talking about is the relationship between two seemingly unrelated concepts (in most cases) as being essential to success.  What is great about this list, though, is that it makes you think.  If you read Scott’s entire post (Josh’s, as well), the examples he highlights are all very relatable, and it doesn’t take long before your brain is scrambling for similar memories that make the same point.

To my mind, this begs the following questions:

• What assumptions are you taking for granted today?
• What historical conditions are you still artificially imposing on your life and your business, and can you spot them and let them go?
• And if you do, what does that mean?

One of the biggest ones I see entrepreneurs stuggle with is the “dollars for hours” problem — building a “practice” that is centered around their time, rather than building a business that can run without them.  What assumptions are at the root of this?  And do they still apply?  If no, what is the underlying reality now?

I find both Scott and Josh’s points tremendously valuable because everytime I review them, I am forced to acknowledge that some of the things I spend my time on are not valuable.  While that is frustrating in the moment, calling that out is the only way for me to make both my life and my business better.  And isn’t that why I started my own business in the first place?

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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CNN recently reported that researchers from Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University have just completed a six-year study of more than 3,000 executives and 500 innovative entrepreneurs, and say they have identified five skills that drive innovation:

Associating: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields.

Questioning: Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom. They ask “why?”, “why not?” and “what if?”

Observing: Discovery-driven executives scrutinize common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers.

Experimenting: Innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots.

Networking: innovators go out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives.

I find the results of this study interesting, if not earth-shatteringly shocking.  What’s even more interesting, however, is that CNN’s article also comes with some recommendations about how to develop those skills, even for those of us who don’t consider ourselves tremendous ‘innovators’ to begin with.

Recommendations:

• Teach yourself to think differently by deliberately taking opportunities to act differently
• Identify a problem and writing nothing but questions about it for 10 minutes a day for 30 days
• Identify a business, customer, supplier, or client, and spend a day or two watching how they work so you can better understand their issues
• Build a diverse network, and understand people’s backgrounds, interests and strengths; and then make sure to remain in touch with them regularly

Since most of us are creatures of habit (to one extent or another), taking opportunities to break behavioral patterns and act differently can be hard.  But it is the corollary to the old saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

So, sane or not, if you want different results, then make sure you do something different.

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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One of my favorite parts of the end of any year are the ‘year in review’ and/or ‘next year’s prediction’ lists.  And when it’s a year that ends in a “0,” the lists are usually longer, more interesting and cover a longer window.  So, too, already with this year.  As we head into 2010, we are already starting to see the ‘decade in review’ lists.  My favorite one so far, is Inc.’s Entrepreneur of the Decade list.

Of course, part of the reason that I find this decade’s list so interesting is because almost every company listed has touched my life — some more directly than others.  And, quite rightly, most of the entrepreneur’s Inc. calls out have created brands whose influence has become deeply baked into our culture in ways we never would have predicted in 2000, but which we take for granted today.

1. Steve Jobs of Apple
2. Jeff Bezos of Amazon
3. Jack Ma of Alibaba.com
4. Martha Stewart
5. John Mackey of Whole Foods
6. Leslie Blodgett of Bare Escentuals
7. Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com
8. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook
9. Tony Hsieh of Zappos
10. Peter Theil of PayPal
11. Reed Hastings of Netflix
12. David Neeleman of JetBlue
13. Nick Denton of Gawker Media
14. Stefan Persson of H&M
15. Evan Williams and Biz Stone of Twitter
16. Nandan Nilekani of Infosys Technologies
17. Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google

Aside from some of the more obvious companies that made this list — e.g. PayPal, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Amazon — part of what I love about this list are the non-tech companies that make an appearance: Whole Foods, Bare Escentuals, JetBlue and H&M.

Coming from a tech-centric background, it’s often easy to forget that “innovation” is not synonomous with “technology.”  I think this is something that is often forgotten, particularly when it comes to startups.  The focus is often put on technology, instead of on creating innovative solutions.

Zappos and Netflix are two of my favorite examples, because they are often lumped into the category of “tech companies,” yet in reality, their true market differentiator has almost nothing to do with the actual technology itself.  The technology they use — in both cases ecommerce, and in Netflix case especially, a super-heavy dose of social commerce — is a means to an end, but their real innovation is around service.  Because, let’s face it, there is nothing about either of their core business that is new: Zappos sells apparel items and Netflix rents movies.

Yet in a world where apparel distributors are operating on razor-thin margins while eating enormous costs in real estate and related overhead, Zappos stands out as a customer service example to etailers everywhere.  And while Blockbuster is closing down stores by the hundreds and the movie studios scream about online piracy problems, Netflix continues to demonstrate that there really is money to be made in renting movies. (And we will skip the extent to which both companies continue to be examples of great business cultures with enviable employee engagement levels.)

The greatest thing about this list, though, is how much of it represents massive change to the small business arena itself.  Apple, Amazon, Salesforce, PayPal, Twitter and Google have all been phenomenally disruptive influences that have helped set the stage for the new era of small business opportunity.  Whether they all started out with that intent or not, each of them has helped build a new set of business models and standards that foster more opportunities for small business success.

At what prior point in history would a list like this have included so many amazing influences that have helped entrepreneurs have access to more tools and services, and help make them more successful?  None, really.  So the real reason I love this list is because it continues to show that, even the biggest success stories we can find, are successful because, in large part, they are continuing to fan the flames of entrepreneurship far beyond their own front doors.

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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One of the reasons that I have always loved being in the web business is because things constantly change.  When I first got online in 1993, we used bulletin board systems and monochrome monitors.  When I got my first tech job in 1996, everything was about corporate Windows networks and preparing for Y2K (remember that?).  When I started in ecommerce in 2000, it was all about building tech tools from scratch because very few existed at a price point for small to mid-sized businesses.

Today, the web is about marketing.  And one of the biggest influences in that shift has come from the world of search.  Findability is key, above all else.  And that means the topic of search engine optimization is one that every web professional has to be at least a little familiar with, even if it’s not your core business.

Every single week I have people coming to me to ask for help with their SEO, and the cold hard truth is that most of them have no idea what they really need, and are not prepared for what it’s going to cost (in either time or money) to get what they think they want.  As a result, these entrepreneurs are often tempted by unscrupuoulous parasites who troll the internet looking for hapless victims who can quickly and easily be separated from their money.

In his recent blog article, In SEO, There’s No Such Thing As A Guarantee, Brand5 CEO Mark Faggiano takes these spammers to task and issues a warning to those who might be tempted to bite.  Mark’s point is that, if you get an email from someone “guaranteeing” you top ranked SEO results, it’s junk and don’t buy into their promises.

For anyone (legitimate) who works in this field, this is often the very first conversation we have with prospective clients.  Why?  Because such “guarantees” are not possible.  There is too much outside of any one person’s control to be able to make promises like this.  Things change too rapidly and there is no way to ensure that what worked yesterday will work tomorrow.

Of course, this is also the reason that many people get sticker shock when they talk to a legitimate SEO about doing this type of work:  it’s time consuming, and so it is often very expensive.  Moreso than many entrepreneurs are ready, willing or able to pay.

So when I start working with a client, my first meeting with them is about understanding what truly makes sense, and figuring out a plan forward.  I start with a few basic questions when it comes to developing a plan.

What are your products or services?
Not all businesses need great SEO to get the effect that they need.  In fact, some will be better off putting those resources in other places entirely, because their customers are just not internet-centric.  Another thing to consider is that, the only way people can find you is if your product or service is something that your customers can describe/articulate themselves and would think to look online for a solution.

For some businesses that is obvious, but for innovative products or services, sometimes keyword-based solutions are the wrong way to go because your customers may not have any idea that you’ve even got a solution or what you’ve named it.

Do you have an automated sales process or a hands-on one?
If you have a product that people can find, signup and use without ever having to interact with a live person (such as WorkingPoint), then SEO has great value.  If you are someone who provides a customized service (such as a consultant), where you have to scope the job, do some research, have some meetings and evaluate your potential contribution before setting a price, then there are other areas where your efforts are going to garner better return — starting with some targeted social media.

Your prospective customers need to be able to research you online by name, but that’s probably not the way they are going to find you in the first place.  So, again, heavy investments in getting top tier SEO results are probably better allocated elsewhere.

Who are your customers and where do they spend their time?
This is the final lynchpin in developing a strategy, because you have to be where your customers are.  If your customers are corporate clients who have an internal purchasing department, then you need to spend time using their channels to get on their approved buyer list — their process usually preclude online research until it’s a last resort.

Not all customers are available via the same channels.  You need to know who your customers are to figure out how to find them.  And then figure out what internet marketing channels make the most sense.

What’s the state of your content?
As a content strategist, this is actually my last step once all of the above have been examined.  What kind of content you need on your site will depend on your product/service, your sales process and your customer base.  You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you can’t articulate it in a compelling way on your site, you will never see any conversion.

Conversely, you could have tons of great content, but if it is not organized in an intuitive and meaningful way for your customers, and if it’s not focused enough to have findable keyword value, then you could be wasting your time and effort generating content that is not serving your goal.

I start off most of my content workshops by telling attendees, “Don’t drink the SEO Kool-Aid!”  Too many people think it’s a silver bullet that is going to make or break their business.  And sure, it can be a big help, and when someone comes looking for you, you absolutely need to be findable.  Twenty years ago businesses did that buy being in the phone book.  Today we do it by being online.

But how much time and effort you should really be sinking into your SEO is a different question, and it does not have a straight forward answer.  So beyond Mark’s original warning against those who offer you guarentees, I’ll toss out a second warning: not everyone needs to be #1 on the search engines.  And the truth is, not everyone can be.  Developing an appropriate web presence is unique to every business.  Don’t let anyone sell you on the one-size-fits all fantasy.

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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For some families, business is just part of the package.  As someone who grew up in a family-owned business, one of the reasons I ducked-and-weaved every time my husband used to bring up the idea of us owning our own business was because I saw a lot of headache (and heartache) as a result of mixing business and family.

Eventually I stopped fighting the inevitable, but I remain constantly aware of the fact that my husband and I have two very different relationships: one as spouses and one as business partners.  And there is no way to avoid the fact that there are times when the needs of one relationship create tension in the other.

A recent post on Forbes, When Siblings Don’t Pull Their Weight by Gene Marks, showcases an example of how one family business found a resolution to some of these challenges: a set of three siblings bought the family business from their parents, and eventually ran into a problem because one of them wasn’t pulling their weight.

The solution Gene discusses is rather clever, but it’s a long-term solution.  In my experience working with family-owned businesses, there are two common challenges that surface in situations like this:

Avoidance. This was, predictably, part of the pattern Gene discussed in his sibling example: the problem festered for quite a while before a solution was found, because no one wanted to rock the boat.  Everyone was afraid of upsetting their parents and generally causing family strife, so the two siblings who were carrying the heaviest burden of the business avoided saying anything for as long as they could stand.

Urgency. Often this becomes an issue because of avoidance — though it can also be a matter of size.  The longer you avoid a problem, the more likely it is that it will get worse until you have no choice but to deal with it.  And usually, by the time that happens, you’ve got a much bigger mess on your hands than you would have had if you’d handled it sooner.

Small businesses in particular are often cursed with tight enough living conditions that too big a crisis can quickly sink the entire ship.  One of my clients owns a business with his wife, and after a few years of growing it, they decided to bring her daughter in to help run the daily logistics.  The idea made sense for all concerned, and so they got started.

Unfortunately, over time, the daughter’s idea of “a full work day” did not jibe with her step-father’s.  Since the point of bringing her on-board was to off-load as much of the burden from the parent’s as possible, the fact that they were shelling out an enormous percentage of their revenue to pay her salary while not seeing any real reduction in the number of hours they were putting in started causing a problem.

It didn’t take long for my client to get very frustrated: his wife was responsible for managing her daughter, but she didn’t want to be the bad guy.  Unfortunately, she didn’t want her husband to do it, either.  Relationships all the way around quickly grew strained, until the point that family events were palably uncomfortable for everyone.  The situation went on for more than two years before outside circumstances intervened, and the daughter left the business of her own accord.

Now, while they still maintain the same workload as they always have, their financial burden has dropped by more than 20% since they no longer have to pay her salary.  In a small family business with extremely narrow operating margins, that 20% has been a huge relief.  But the real problem was avoided, instead of resolved.

Working with family presents a set of challenges over-and-above the normal assortment that comes standard in most small businesses.  Earlier this year at Austin’s South by Southwest Interactive conference, I asked Wine Library’s Gary Vaynerchuck about his experience joining (and ultimately taking over) his family’s business.  My specific question was how they all got through it without hurting each other’s feelings.

His answer, of course, was that they didn’t.  He said they constantly hurt each other’s feeling in the beginning, and it took a long time to make work.  But the important thing was always to remember that, no matter how hard it was to integrate their different styles into a rational working relationship, they were family and they loved each other.  They wanted to work together, so they just kept trying until they got it to work.

The answer is different for every family.  Some businesses are too delicate to withstand the turmoil that comes with family strife; other businesses may be too delicate to withstand replacing a family member.  The only real key is to find a way to be honest and don’t fall into the avoidance trap.  It’s possible to be honest about difficult issues and still be kind.  But the longer you let something fester, the harder that becomes.

The old saying, “Bad news doesn’t get better with age” holds true here: if you keep something bottled up, eventually you’ll explode.  It’s bad enough to have a fight with someone you love.  But the last thing you want is to wait until it’s so bad that your business can’t bounce back.

So remember, bite the bullet, be honest and remember that they are your family.  Working together may not be the solution you had originally hoped for, but I guarantee, your holiday dinners will be much better if you don’t have to rely on the lawyers to intervene when it’s time to pass the cranberry sauce.

(This post is part of my Entrepreneur Evangelist series and was originally published on WorkingPoint’s Small Business Blog.)

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