Having helped thousands of entrepreneurs start, grow and sell their businesses, I’ve found many misconceptions regarding what a business plan is, why you need to create one, and what are the elements of a great plan. 

So, in this post, I will clarify the keys to business planning so you can be more successful.

The statistics may say that the U.S. economy is out of recession, but many small and mid-sized business owners will tell you that they’re not seeing a particularly robust recovery, at least not yet.

There are various reasons for the slow pace of recovery among small businesses, but one is becoming increasingly apparent: A lack of cash flow caused by longer payment terms instituted by their vendors. Dealing with slow-paying customers is nothing new for many small businesses, but the problem is exacerbated in today’s sluggish economy and tight credit environment.

Editor Note: As a rule, all Idea Cafe grant winners provide monthly reports on how their business is doing since winning Idea Cafe's Grant. Here is the first update from Correda Rizer, the owner of Custom Flipz. Enjoy reading, and don't miss out on the opportunity to be inspired by her entrepreneurial spirit and business wisdom.

Over the last couple of years Google, and to a lesser degree Bing, have shared the spotlight when it comes to search.  In fact, Yahoo! who above all other brands brought search to the masses has found itself slowly in a death spiral that it finds hard to get out of.  Recently, Yahoo! has signed an agreement with Microsoft's Bing to provide search results, however on this innovation Yahoo!

When it comes to live help software it is almost an indisputable fact within the ecommerce community that helpdesk software will help you increase your sales by twofold. This is due to the fact that you can really reach out to your customers after installing the valuable software that will help expand your company sales forward.

Small business budgeting is crucial, especially in this slow economy. Because budgeting affects both the income and expenses of a company, it is necessary for the survival of today's small business. The obvious and biggest mistake made is not to have a budget at all-this is business suicide!

It is often implied that, in any walk of life, it is those with big ideas who go on to yield big results. Take Richard Branson, for example, who started his Virgin empire by travelling back and forth across the English channel to pick up discounted records. He would then sell them out of the boot of his car to larger retail outlets in London.

Many of the people think they are not meant for regular employment and do not want to work under any boss. It is very much possible that these people may not be of sound financial background and they may want to get ahead with Small business and gradually want to reach at medium level and then big. But do you know most of the business people do not get sufficient revenue to get onto the next step and some- times results into shut down of the firm.

Many people have identified that social network marketing takes time and patience since building relationships is required. On the other hand once relationships are established there very few ways to achieve marketing success as fast than using social networking for business! 

Here are 3 ways in which using social networking for business can dramatically increase your marketing effectiveness literally overnight.

"Deal-of-the-Day" promotions, such as those offered by Groupon, LivingSocial and others, are gaining momentum among small and mid-sized businesses. It's not unrealistic for them to see hundreds or even thousands of individuals taking advantage of their deal. And this immediate blast of new customers, products and services purchased is what appeal to businesses. In just a few minutes or hours, they can boost profits and get the word out on their business and its offerings. 

Besides, the process looks relatively simple. All is done for you, because the deal-of-the-day providers usually handle most of the things involved in the process: distributing the deals to subscribers, managing and processing the purchases, and providing the appropriate coupons for customers to redeem.