There’s something to be said for a place where people pay money to play games even less thrilling than pinball and are willing to drop a hundred to thousands of dollars in a night with nothing to show for it (or even a lot to show for it).

A casual visitor of casinos knows what to expect when they walk in and generally have cash that they’re willing to lose, in order to try winning. Every move that the customer makes while they’re in the casino is met with a reward and is followed by the magical machines that run casino loyalty.

Even though not every car dealership is pushy and aggressive, the general population expects to be swindled and haggled by salespeople when they decide to shop for a car.

That’s why customers are pleasantly surprised when they choose a dealership that lets them negotiate price and walk out the door if they’re not interested.

Many businesses suffer from inferiority complexes when it comes to participating in local cooking competitions, never mind national ones. But the truth is that it’s just like karaoke. When that skinny guy with the tight jeans and slicked back Elvis hair is up at the microphone dribbling out the words to Hound Dog, you better believe that he thinks he’s awesome.

Your key to business development is thinking that you’re awesome (without being ignorant of everything you need to learn).

You’ve taken the leap into the world of television advertising. You’ve booked your video production company for the shoot. You’ve contacted your local TV affiliates to discuss your TV ad buy. A lot of work huh? Well there may be one aspect of the TV commercial production that you have overlooked.

Most small businesses don’t pay very much attention to their websites once they’re up and running. After the lengthy process of having it built, developed and launched, you probably need a nap. But if you want your website to do its job (send more customers, online orders, get people to print coupons, attract new people), then you need to know if it’s working how you hoped it would when you drew the blueprints.

What’s so great about the web today versus five years ago is that we have a giant collection of tools at our fingertips that will tell us exactly how well our websites are performing. 

As a small business, you don’t have the luxury of a huge staff, budget or product catalog. What you do have is flexibility, creativity and adaptability. If you have an iPhone or iPad, there are tons of apps that were built with you in mind.

Square for instance, allows you accept credit cards at your place of business, wherever you are. If you are a food truck or heck, a street vendor, you can still accept credit cards.

This (free) little device plugs into your microphone jack and allows you to simply swipe credit cards.

So you have a coffee shop, or a sandwich shop, or a bakery where you sell a substantial amount of one-off items. If a customer comes in, grabs an item and leaves, then you’ve only made one sale. However, if they come, sit down, do something, and decide to buy something else, then you’ve made two sales. Keep them entertained for even longer and they may buy three or four items from you in a day.

How do you increase your sales from one to two, three, four or five?

Every marketing expert in the world will tell you that each individual small business on planet earth has something to gain from joining the small micro-blogging network, Twitter. What they have trouble telling you, except in one-on-one conversation, is how to use Twitter.

First, learn to write better tweets: Twitter is unlike blogging. In fact, it’s nothing like blogging. Actually, it’s a lot like email marketing.

For example, if you want someone to open the email you send them, you have to write a great short subject line.

It can be difficult to understand customer shopping behavior beyond the four walls of your store. Sure, you might know what kind of coffee your ‘regulars’ order every morning or the type of shampoo your best customers use when they get their hair cut, but what do merchants know about their customers’ shopping habits and purchase preferences when they leave the store?

Some of the biggest and most sophisticated companies still struggle to answer this question.

So you think you’re ready to open a cupcake shop, right? Cupcakes practically market themselves, right?

Sure, cupcake marketing seems like a breeze. The focus on one great product at three, four or five dollars a piece sounds like a simple idea. But prospective cupcake shop owners should remember that like any business, there are lots of hard costs and paperwork to account for. It’s no wonder there are so many cupcake trucks out there eliminating the storefront idea and taking their show on the road.