There are a ton of us in the world who are “Service Business” owners. Some large, some small, some tiny. And for each of us there are helpful guidelines we can use to be successful.
Jeffrey Moses says “sole proprietors who operate a service-based business inevitably find that there are only a handful of fundamentals that are essential for success. By focusing on these fundamentals and making sure that they are incorporated throughout your business, you have the best chance for growing and sustaining a successful, profitable small company.”
The key fundamentals he lists are:
- Stand Out From The Rest
- Be On Time
- Finish A Job Once It’s Started
- Stick To Your Guns
- Don’t Overwork
Update 1/13/10: This post originally referenced Jeffrey’s article, but it has disappeared from the web. You might want to take a minute and check out my Small Business Tips. There are a lot of great articles in the archive.











If you would like a tool to manage your small business activities and Projects, you can use this web aplication:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your Goals (for business but also in other areas of your life), Projects and Tasks. It has a Checklists section, for the routines and repetitive activities that any business has to do. Also, it features a Schedules section and a Calendar, for scheduling you time and activities.
Some features from GTD are also present, like Contexts and Next Actions.
And it’s available on the mobile phone too, so you can access it from anywhere.