In a recent post on Duct Tape Marketing, small business expert John Jansh argues:

Many of the traits that make up the entrepreneur are ingrained as habits, I suspect, knowingly or unknowingly, by our well intentioned parents and caregivers.

So this raises an interesting question.  If you didn’t grow up in an entrepreneurial environment, can you be a successful entrepreneur?  I think you can, but you have to recognize the skills and traits you didn’t see modeled when you are young, and find a way to model them now.

For example – i come from a family of teachers and social workers.  I know how to tell a good story, and break down complex ideas into manageable bites, but I still wrestle with skills which come easily to the natural entrepreneur.  So how do I compensate?  I hang out with entrepreneurs who do have that background, and hang out with the, observe how they approach their business.

Read the rest of John’s post

Building a great website is only the beginning. Once built, you need to drive traffic and measure performance.  Fortunately there are a number of web tools which can help.  Check out this list of thirty sites which can put more power in your eMarketing strategy.

Go to the list of tools!

Not sure how to use these tools?  Roundpeg can help!

Also check out www.websitegrader.com to give you feedback on how good your site is now

Everyone is talking about Social networking and it’s applications for business owners. Unlike general networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, there are a number of smaller networks that focus on professionals and businesses which are an excellent place to gain exposure, make connections, and trade ideas and information with other entrepreneurs.

Here is a quick look at 10 networking sites worth investigating.

Read further.

The author did however, leave off a few of my personal favorites:

Locally I really like  Smaller Indiana

Friend Feed as a way of consolidating content from a number of locations.