An entrepreneur these days needs to be able to move. That means having the tools that they need to conduct their business with them at all times. If you are a business owner, then you need a Smartphone that allows you access to what you need in order to grow your business even when you are not in the office or at your computer.

Take your pick. Everyone has their favorite line of Smartphones, but you can choose the one that offers the memory, ease of use and speed that you desire. And, with the large market of applications available today, most are available to more than one line of phones.

So let’s explore the essential apps that you will need if you want to perform as many functions as possible while staying mobile.

Essential Apps for Your Smartphone

* Square – This app is free to use. It allows you to process credit card payments right from your phone. You don’t have to wait until you get to the office and your PC to do this anymore. Use the card reader to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

* Evernote – They say that elephants never forget and neither does this app. Whenever you have an idea, capture it in picture, voice recording or words with this virtual memo system. With cloud computing, updates to your Evernote lists are synced across all of your electronic devices. This app is free to download.

* LinkedIn – This is by far the most popular social networking site for professionals. Just like with Facebook or Twitter, keep abreast of what fellow peers are doing using this app. Network, share information and update your profile – all from your phone. This app is free to download.

* Google Docs – Want to share information quickly with your team? You can update and send files back and forth with this application. Also, Google offers other cloud computing apps that allow you to talk with clients, invoice customers and create sync information across your devices and Google calendars. This app is free.

* Documents to Go – There is a cost for this app but it is well worth the payment. You can create MS Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint files – all from your Smartphone. Files can be transferred to your desktop also. Send completed files to clients quickly from any location. Now you don’t have to wait until you get back to the office.

* Dropbox or SugarSync – Now you can share files between computers and your phone with your team and clients. This app, which is free, allows you to make your information available to whoever needs it, when they need it.

As a business owner, it is important to have tools that make your business as mobile as you sometimes are. The apps above are examples of some of the more essential Smartphone tools.

What’s Your Shtick?

A shtick is a Yiddish word that means your gimmick or unique talent. In the business world they call this your USP, Unique Selling Proposition. Essentially, what makes you different from your competition? What do you have to offer that they don’t? For example, a freelance writer might differentiate themselves by delivering any article or blog post project in 24 hours – the 24-Hour Article Service.

Narrow Your Focus

Trying to be all things to all people does one thing – it increases your competition. Specializing, on the other hand, narrows your competition. It also helps you become the best at what you do. For example, instead of offering information products on how to care for your pet, you might specialize in how to care for your aging dog. Or how to care for your aging Pomeranian. Specialization can virtually eliminate your competition.

Become Invaluable

Offer products, information, and resources that make you invaluable to your audience. When planning your business, ask yourself this single question – what can I do to offer more value to my audience? Of course, you have to know your audience well to answer this question.

Be Memorable

You cannot be boring in this competitive market and survive. Now that doesn’t mean you have to be over the top either. Instead, be yourself. Capture the interest of your audience and customers by sharing your personality with them in your content, interactions, and even in your products or services.

Pay Attention to Your Customers

Chances are you already have some very valuable information regarding what your customers respond to. Take a look at what they buy, when they buy, what emails they open and what links they click. This information will help you hone in on how to offer value and how to be memorable. It may also help you specialize.

Build a Community

Connect with your audience and customers on a regular basis. Invite them to get involved through a number of means. For example, invite them to connect with you on Facebook. Ask questions and invite comments.

Repeat Successes

Pay attention to what works for you and repeat it. For example, if you find that checklists are downloaded more than free reports you know that your audience enjoys checklists. If they buy more during the summer than in the winter then offer them more during the summer.

Staying ahead of your competition doesn’t just mean following their actions online and reacting to them. Instead, create a plan to be proactive. Differentiate yourself and focus on your customer. That’s how you’ll survive and thrive long term.

#1 Review It

Create a review site or category for your blog or website and write reviews. You can review both products and services, as long as they’re related to your niche topic. Reviews are tremendously valuable to people considering a purchase. And when they’re reading reviews it means that they’re already in a buying state of mind.

Most likely they’ve decided they want to make a purchase, they just haven’t settled on a company or specific product. You can help them take that last step by providing an informative review. A note about writing good reviews – make sure they appear unbiased. If your review reads like a sales page then your reader isn’t going to trust it.

#2 Product Demonstrations

If you are an affiliate for one or more products, consider creating videos that offer product demonstrations. These demonstrations work a lot like reviews. They help your prospects and website visitors take that final step from researching to buying. And of course you have the link to help them out! (Don’t forget to put your affiliate link in your video.)

#3 Comparison Charts

Have one or more similar products that you represent? Consider creating a comparison chart to help your prospects weigh the features and compare. And of course be sure to include links to all of the products you represent.

#4 Information Marketing

Give away free information like reports, checklists, workbooks, eBooks and even home study courses. Provide a wealth of information on your niche topic and casually promote relevant products within the body of the content. For example, if you have a pet care niche you can create a new puppy safety checklist. Relevant items on that checklist can be hyperlinked to retailers that sell those products. You provide value and earn a commission.

#5 Build an Email List

One of the best ways to earn more as an affiliate marketer is to build a reputation as someone that your prospects like and trust. You can accomplish this by creating an email list and regularly connecting with your subscribers. Share links and information with them. You’ll generate sales and earn the kind of commission you’ve been striving for.

Making money as an affiliate marketer is often about knowing your prospect and providing them with the information and experience they are looking for. It’s about content. The more quality content you can offer your readers, the more commission you’re likely to earn.

There are actually many ways you can reach your potential customers through smartphones and other mobile devices.

#1 Social networking – Social networking isn’t just for the laptop or desktop computer anymore. You can connect with your prospects whether you’re out and about or they are. In fact, consider creating interactions where you encourage your prospects to connect with you from their mobile devices. Ask them to upload photos or to post status updates when they’re out.

#2 Group texting – Instead of, or in addition to, asking people to subscribe to your email list, ask them to sign up to receive text messages. You then have their permission to connect via text. Consider your audience and the type of message subscription service you can create. For example, if you’re a personal coach you might send motivational or inspirational quotes to your subscribers each morning.

#3 Make your website mobile ready – Have you ever noticed that some websites look terrible on your smartphone and others look excellent? This is because of the technology they’re using. You can make a few small changes and have a mobile ready website or blog. Once it’s ready to go, promote it. Ask people to view your site on their mobile device and share their experience.

#4 Blog – You can record video posts from your mobile device and instantly post on your blog and/or YouTube. You can also write blog posts using a blogging application for your smartphone.

#5 Games and downloads – Consider offering mobile technology to your prospects. You can create an application or a game that they can download for free. Ringtones are one type of download. However, you can also offer documents and videos.

In addition to the many ways you can reach your audience through mobile devices and smartphones, there are ways you can monetize the experience too – for example, by using AdSense for Mobile. As the technology continues to grow and improve, there’s no doubt that more opportunities to market via mobile devices will continue too.

These are the critical skills every entrepreneur should have.

1. Leadership (Not Management)

John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Fund, the largest mutual fund in the world, defines leadership as knowing what’s worth doing. Management is knowing how to do it.

A leader needs to be able to decide what’s important and what will actually impact the company’s bottom line. They need to be able to make moral decisions about when to go for profit and when to sacrifice profits for long-term values.

They need to be able to identify what’s really best for everyone involved, including clients, employees and shareholders, and make business decisions for the greater good.

A manager is someone who understands things like time management, project flow, tracking employee performance and such. But they aren’t necessarily the right people to steer a company.

A good entrepreneur needs to be a great leader. It also helps if they’re a good manager.

2. Persistence and Patience

In “Good to Great,” one of the most highly acclaimed business books of the century, Jim Collins studies eleven public companies whose performance consistently beat the market average for 15 years in a row.

One of the key factors he found was persistence and patience. He likened it to a giant spinning metallic flywheel.

If you had to take this giant metallic wheel and make it spin, in the very beginning it won’t budge at all. You can put in immense amounts of effort, only to find it still not moving.

Yet once it does start moving, slow at first then getting faster and faster, it’ll build up momentum until it starts to move on its own. At that point, it would actually be harder to stop the flywheel than to push it faster.

Building a business is like that. In the beginning, you’ll be swimming upstream. But as momentum builds, it’ll get easier and easier. The trick is to have the persistence and patience to stick it through.

3. Team and People Focus

“Take my 20 best people and, virtually overnight, Microsoft becomes a mediocre company.” — Bill Gates

Whether it’s Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, one thing is consistently clear across the most successful companies: a relentless drive to hire the best people.

More than anything else, the success of your company is going to be based on the kind of people you hire.

Aim to hire people who are smarter and more competent than you. Don’t try to hire a team that you can lead, but a team that can lead your company and you to better results than you alone could create.

These are a few of the key skills every entrepreneur needs. These skills aren’t developed overnight, but they’re absolutely skills that anyone who’s committed can learn.

Clients are the backbone of a business. They are the ones who search and find you and eventually convert from viewers to buyers. But, it takes a constant infusion of new clients to keep the business growing.

Ways to Find New Clients

Here are some tips to help you begin to make a change right now, today, that will benefit your business.

* Re-evaluate your marketing plan – Every few years it is necessary to take a look at your marketing plan with new eyes. For online businesses, you may want to re-evaluate each year. What are you doing now? How can you revamp those marketing tools and employ some new ones?

* Become a social networker – Twitter and Facebook are becoming valuable tools for those who want to take their business to the next level. Use your account in two ways. If you don’t have an account with either or both, now is the perfect time to get involved.

* Advertise your business on your personal Facebook page – Post links to new content on your website and other promotional links that friends and family can view and share. Also, create a fan page for your business. Encourage current clients to sign up and tune in for special information or offers that they won’t find anywhere else.

* Use offline tools – Just because you are operating an online business, doesn’t mean that your local market won’t also benefit. In fact, with local clients, you can give them a personal touch that online clients may not be able to take advantage of. Some offline tools include direct marketing, flyers and promotional items.

* Video marketing – People love to watch informative videos online. You can take what you know and turn it into a visual presentation that immediately gives new clients a picture of who you are and what you do.

* Create a press release – Are you about to offer a new service or product? Create a press release that will attract new clients to your business. Use a press release service and be sure that your content is SEO optimized.

* Create links throughout your website – There are always links on the first page because that is the one that every visitor is introduced to first. But, other pages are visited as well. Most people won’t navigate their way back to the homepage to click on a link they saw there. You can increase your client base by making it easier for them to take advantage of your offers.

Are you looking for new clients? Here are a few ways that you can get the ball rolling.

1. How Passionate and Interested Are You?

Spend some time honestly contemplating your actual interest in the potential business idea. Just because it’s a good idea doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for you. In order for any business to be successful long term you want to be able to be interested and passionate about the topic for years to come. So is this new business idea something you could be excited about ten years from now? If so, it deserves further examination.

2. Is There a Legitimate Demand for Your New Idea?

How much demand actually exists for your new business idea? Use keyword tools to begin your research. If it seems like there is potential, consider also using a flycatcher page to evaluate demand. Create a quick product or publish a quiz to evaluate demand for your idea and to learn more about your potential audience.

3. Who Is Your Competition?

Once you’ve established demand, consider your competition. Again, use those keyword research tools to first determine how much competition is present. Then use keyword searching and competitive analysis tools to evaluate who your competition is and how well they’re doing. You may have a lot of competition, but if you can differentiate yourself then it may still be a good idea.

4. Time versus Money

Next, if the idea still has merit then it’s time to consider the time versus money equation. How long will it take you to reach your financial goals? If there is a lot of competition then it can take some time to reach your goals. Also, how much money will it take you to start and grow this business? Is this money you have on hand or will you need to find a way to raise the funds? Consider your budget.

5. Is It Realistic?

Finally, is this business complimentary to any business you already own? For example, if you own a service-based business then an information marketing business in the same industry might make sense. If the business is an entirely new endeavor then it might not realistically fit into your lifestyle. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a business idea to pursue. It is simply something to weigh when you’re evaluating the idea.

You’re an entrepreneur. You’re bound to have a lot of business ideas. Some of them will be gone ones. Some not so much. Use this five-step process to determine whether it is the right new business idea for you.

Here’s how.

1. Change Your Industry

One reason profits might be down is if the entire industry has been hit. If everyone else in your industry is having a hard time as well, what can you do? The answer is – change industries.

Of course, you can’t very well switch to a completely foreign industry and abandon all your contacts and clients. Instead, try switching to a related industry.

When the economy crashed in 2008, many of the “help men get dates” businesses took a huge hit. Many businesses that used to be bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a month were suddenly struggling.

What did one successful entrepreneur do? He moved into the “help women get dates” industry. The move turned out brilliantly and helped him save his business.

No matter what industry you’re in, there are probably half a dozen side industries you could move into. If your main industry is having trouble, try expanding to a different industry.

2. Launch a New Product

Nothing brings in new energy like the launching of a new product.

Apple had been struggling for some time before the iPod came out. The Apple 3 was a colossal failure, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The drama of Steve Jobs leaving and then coming back cost the company dearly in bad PR.

But the iPod, and eventually the iPhone, changed all that. The launch of a new product brought a lot of new excitement to the table.

The same applies to smaller businesses. What new products or projects can you announce that would get people excited?

3. Try New Marketing Channels

What are two or three kinds of marketing channels you’ve never tried before, that are completely outside the scope of what you’ve done in the past?

For example, if you’ve done SEO and PPC, why not try advertising in a college newspaper? Or buy remnant radio ad space?

If you’ve only tried buying advertising in the past, why not try partnering for a big joint venture deal? Or try guest blogging on a few big sites?

One reason for declining profits might be that your marketing “formula” just isn’t working out right. Instead of making tweaks, try making big changes to see what works and what doesn’t.

Changing these three things – your industry, your product and your marketing – can really help get both the excitement and cashflow up again.

However, some squeeze pages work better than others. If you’re looking to build an email list or your existing sign-up form isn’t meeting expectations, here are a few tips and strategies to build a killer squeeze page.

#1 Keywords

Visitors have arrived at your squeeze page because they searched for your information. They’ve used keywords to find you. Make sure those same keywords are represented in the content on your squeeze page.

For example, if you are using PPC to drive traffic to a squeeze page, make sure the keywords represented in your ad are also in your page’s contents. A PPC ad advertising fat loss for teens should lead to a squeeze page offering a report on fat loss for teens. This may mean that you have to create several squeeze pages. Each page will address a unique keyword and/or target audience.

Test and track your keywords for conversion rates. Chances are, the more targeted your squeeze page, the better your opt-in results.

#2 Benefits

Just like a good sales page, your squeeze page needs to offer value. Prospects want to know what’s in it for them. What are the benefits of signing up? If you’re offering a free report, then stress the value they’ll receive from the free report. If you’re offering a weekly newsletter, then let them know why it’s such a great newsletter.

Remember, features are different from benefits. The fact that your newsletter is sent daily isn’t a benefit. It’s a feature. The benefit is that they’ll receive the latest news in their email box every morning. They’ll be able to break the news to their colleagues and be “in the know.”

#3 Your call to action

Remember to tell them what to do. It may be obvious they need to provide their email. However, it’s important to tell them. Include a call to action. Also include a privacy statement. For example, “We never sell, rent or lend your email address to anyone.” This extra bit instills confidence in prospects that may be leery.

Make sure your squeeze page isn’t too long. Don’t ask for more than a simple email address. You can also ask for a first name but keep it simple. Your squeeze page should ideally fit above the fold. This means that all of the copy should be on your prospect’s screen. They shouldn’t need to scroll to read more.

Keep it simple, attractive and to the point. And of course, with any sales and marketing efforts, test and track. Find out what works best for your prospects. Test and track headlines. Test and track your call to action. Test and track design elements, too. With a little time and attention you can have a killer squeeze page. You can meet your email list goals.

This involves people coming to your website. What you want to count are your unique visitors. These are people who visit for the first time. Repeat visitors are great for sales but to gain interest, the more people who come, the better.

In order for a business to make money it needs traffic. These people will do something for you on your site that will enhance their life and make money for you. There are a variety of ways to do it but for any method you use to be cost effective, you will need traffic.

One way to gain traffic is to have a focus. This is your niche. This will determine which traffic comes your way and if they are going to buy whatever you decide to offer on your site.

Now, turn your attention to your content. That is why your traffic is there in the first place. If you haven’t already, optimize it for a wider readership. This involves targeting certain keywords in your articles, blog posts, headers and picture text. Not only will your content get ranked higher for those keywords, but also your website. If you haven’t done so already, register your website with the major search engines.

Monetizing Your Website

Now that you have made a few tweaks to gain more focused traffic, you are ready to start making money with your website. Here are some ways that you can use to get the job done.

* PPC – This basically means that you are posting ads that people will click on. Whenever someone clicks on that ad, you get paid. Depending on who you are using for your service, there are other ways to do this besides just the click-through rate. One you can start with is Google AdSense.

* Banner Advertising – This is a way to get noticed. If you have a good fan base and have networked with others in your business niche, this can work for you. Sell advertising space on the top of your website. You can also sell on the sides, but keep in mind that the top half of your web page is where people’s eyes tend to gravitate.

* Affiliate Marketing – You not only advertise for others and sponsor their products, but you also get access to lots of helpful tools so you can do just that. Earn commissions on your click rate as well as sale rate depending on how the affiliate program is set up.

* Paid surveys – Companies will pay you to offer surveys to your visitors. Each time one of them takes the survey you get paid.

There are many other ways to monetize your website but this is just the beginning. Once you have started, try other ways to make your expertise work for you.