It’s the season for giving! No matter what religion, race, or denomination you belong to, if you’re reading this you probably share our belief in the entrepreneurial spirit.

This winter, why not help someone else achieve the same dream? KIVA.org supports entrepreneurs all over the world through a micro-loan system - based on the same idea that Muhammed Yunus, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize created. This concept is based on funding entrepreneurs through the concept of microloans, rather than donations. Since 2009 Kiva has helped raise over $160 million in loans with a 98.90% repayment rate. For as little as $25 you can help fund an entrepreneur’s dream - so please join our CityMax.com giving team.

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At the end of the day, every business is trying to make money. But what is your ultimate purpose - why do you exist?

Before you think we’ve been smoking the patchouli, John Warrillow of the Globe and Mail recently explored this issue with Randy Komisar, venture capitalist and best-selling author of The Monk and the Riddle.

In his interview, Komisar asserts that there are but two types of entrepreneurs: mercenaries and missionaries. According to Komisar:

Mercenary entrepreneurs - are typically younger and ambitious but missing a larger goal. They possess excellent qualities to succeed but may not be focused on delivering any genuine value: “getting a product out… a lot of hype… raise a lot of money and sell out.”

Missionary entrepreneurs - have a bigger cause beyond just making money. They are building “something sustainable to have the kind of impact (they) want and accomplish a greater purpose.”

Komisar goes on to explain this goes beyond black and white - it’s not necessarily a philanthropy vs. profit discussion. Most highly successful companies have clearly outlined missions explaining their greater reason for being.

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Guest post - Andrea Baxter is a senior marketing professional and a co-founder of Smart Cookies, founded in early 2007. Educating women on how to be smart with their money while living fabulously, the Smart Cookies have appeared on CNN, Oprah, MSNBC, and ABC News. They have published two best-selling books and host their own TV show.

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As a businesswoman, more importantly, an entrepreneur, I have come to learn that there are 3 very important people you must surround yourself with in order to help your business grow and make it successful: trendsetters, influencers and connectors. Why? Because these are the people who are going to believe in you, believe in what you are doing and will want to help you grow your business as ferociously as you do.

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What you don’t know about headlines may be hurting you and your small business. No, really.

We’ve talked before about using effective headlines on your website to entice customers and state the value of your business. But they also have another valuable attribute: the H1 (or <h1>) tag.

H1 tags are one of those things that search engines look for in your website when they’re crawling your pages and trying to figure out what your site is all about. The logic behind it is that if you’re emphasizing that information on the page as a headline, it probably means something – which is why you should always include keywords in it.

H1 tags are found in the HTML code that makes up your website. If you’re using a website builder like CityMax.com, the HTML is created automatically for you and there are ways to apply the H1 tag without having to mess with any code – keep reading to find out how.

Here’s the Golden Rule:
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For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Chances are, if you’re really strong in one part of your small business, there’s another area you’re having some trouble with.

According to Entrepreneur.com, these “trouble spots” are causing an increasing number of entrepreneurs to expand their horizons – by going back to school.

While you might not want to invest time and money into an MBA – it’s definitely challenging while running your own business – you can still have a positive impact on your business’ bottom line by taking less daunting, more affordable workshops.

So what kind of things might be worth hitting the books for?
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Do you wake up every morning and check your inbox to see what the latest online deals are? If so, you’re like me – and I’m starting to think I have a problem.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, then you haven’t yet been exposed to the wonder of the Group Discount Site, such as Groupon, TeamBuy, and LivingSocial just to name a few.

These websites work by offering a city-specific, limited-time deal (typically one a day) which must be purchased by a minimum number of people to make it happen. The deals are delivered by email each day and usually offer more than 50% off a product or service, so they almost always sell enough to push the deal through.

What does this mean for your small business? To put it bluntly – a HUGE influx of customers.

Consider this – your business offer gets delivered directly to the inboxes of thousands of people who are looking for great deals. Not only that, but these deal sites encourage their subscribers to refer their friends and reward them for referrals that purchase deals. You get to capitalize on the social nature of the site to expand your reach even further.

The diversity of the types of businesses using this type of promotion is impressive. Through these sites, I’ve bought everything from diving lessons, to house cleaning, to wine making to dining out.

Bottom line – if you’re looking to grab new customers, a group discount site might be a great option for you. Just make sure that you decide how much business you can handle and set a limit on the number of deals you’ll put up for grabs. Some of these businesses are now backed up for months!

Have you promoted your business on a group discount site? Or, have you signed up for one? What kind of deals appeal to you?

Introducing the Mompreneur Series! Every month we’ll be profiling CityMax.com entrepreneurs that manage that perfect balance of running a small business and being a full-time mother.

Mompreneur: Sarah Kaplan - EvyMama.com

Sarah is the owner of EvyMama.com – “Toronto’s only Breastfeeding Boutique.” Her business specializes in fashionable maternity wear that makes new and soon-to-be moms look great. Founded in 2007, her store won an award last year for “Best Lingerie Store” in town.

I caught up with Sarah to find out her story:

“When I started nursing my daughter, it was very hard to find clothing for nursing moms. Toronto has a very high breastfeeding rate, but no one was serving mothers. Baby shops sell plenty of baby gear but nothing more than nursing bras - nothing cute at all - and nothing for the postpartum mother.

I had the idea with my first child and it took me a couple years to organize. Then I started when my second child was 5 months old. My husband and I carefully chose our neighborhood (one with the highest birth rate in the country) and bought a broken down convenience store, renovated it, and moved in upstairs.

The store has a nursing lounge in the back, and lots of women in the neighborhood will stop by to change their baby’s diaper. They relax on our back patio garden and we serve tea. Plenty of moms will come to take a break and leave with a purchase.

We usually have three people working at all times – my staff are all mothers, who will either bring their children to work in a sling, or they work short shifts to accommodate their parenting.

I was drawn to CityMax.com to build our website because it’s very affordable and user-friendly – the ability to add and remove products easily was crucial. Also being web-based my employees can work on the site from anywhere.

For the future, we will be opening another store in the East End (another baby boom area) this year. I’m going to keep growing the business until it won’t grow - maybe another store every 2 years?”

How I drive traffic to my website:

• Organic Search
• Our blog
• Twitter/Facebook
• Links from our suppliers
• Trade shows

Tips:

Hiring
“Don’t be afraid to hire people, especially when your business is based on customer service. Being short staffed can cost you sales. Also don’t be afraid of hiring people who are smarter than you!”

Customer Service
“We pay attention to the details, like holding the door for our customers and serving tea. The store has a cooler with hot and cold drinks, and our staff really knows the product. These little things make the difference, and it’s how a boutique can beat the big box stores.

For online orders, we send our customers a few extra identical products close to their order size, to make sure they find the right size and solve fitting issues. We bill them for the extras and refund the product they return.”

Sarah has built EvyMama.com into quite a community and her business has hit some major milestones. Congratulations on all of your success Sarah, we’re proud to call you a CityMaxer!!
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If you’d like to be featured in the Mompreneur Series, send a short description of yourself and your business to Patrick (at) citymax (dot) com.

Ever feel like your brain is stuck in a rut? Looking for some business or personal inspiration?

It happens to the best of us, so chin up! Try out some of these tips to get back in the game:

James Smejlis explains a very interesting method of finding solutions that was created by mathematicians and astronomers, which should help you find your creativity in a hurry.

Mike Michalowicz (aka the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur) recently asked 91 entrepreneurs for their top tips on thinking out-of-the-box and finding inspiration.

Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media gets specific and explores what happens when your blog/web content gets stale and how you can revitalize your audience.

What’s your best way of digging your way out of a personal / business rut?

When you’re trying to optimize your small business website for keywords, you sometimes end up with phrases that just don’t fit in to the flow of the page.

Strange word combinations, odd plurality and missing articles can make writing for exact keyword phrases a pretty difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be impossible - you just need to start thinking of it like a puzzle.

Here are a few suggestions for fitting in those challenging keywords:

1.    Break them up
Although punctuation means a lot to me and you, search engines aren’t that fussy about it. If you’re having trouble fitting the words of a keyword phrase in one sentence, break it up into two separate sentences.

Keyword phrase: San Francisco Real Estate

Looking for a new home in San Francisco? Real Estate can be hard to come by without enlisting the help of an expert.

2.    Use bulleted lists
Not only can bulleted lists be used to simplify information for your visitor, but they can also help you use keywords less awkwardly.

Keyword Phrase: Dog Training Articles

Looking for more information? See the following:

• “Max’s Guide to Dog Training” Articles about teaching your dog the basics.
• “Penelope’s Puppies: All about dog training” Articles for owners of puppies under the age of 6 months.
• “Jane and her Litter” Everything you need to know about dog training.

Articles can help you get a lot of the information you need as a new dog owner.

3.    Quotes
Some keywords just can’t sound natural when written from the third person perspective. In that case, try including them in a quote.

Keyword Phrase: Make my own wine

See what our customers have to say about our services!

“I wanted to make my own wine, but didn’t want to spend a fortune. Grapestompers was affordable AND my wine is fantastic!”

Fitting keywords into your small business website is often a challenge, and these are just a few ways you can do it. Try to be creative and flexible without sacrificing readability – it’s important to remember that your visitor is just as important as the search engines, so be careful not to ruin their experience for the sake of fitting in your keywords.

[image by liza31337]

Let’s face it, not everyone can love you. I am one of those personality types that tries to please everyone, so it usually bothers me if someone has a bone to pick with me or my ideas. However, I’ve gradually learned that detractors can be as valuable as fans.

If you are doing something truly great, unique, or exciting in your small business – there are bound to be people who will have a problem with it. When someone takes a shot at you or your brand in a public/online space, you quickly learn who your evangelists are as they jump to your defense.

Consider this: whether they love you or hate you, they’re talking about you. So why play it safe and shoot for the middle?

There’s nothing that convinces the undecided like passionate supporters, and these fans are key to spreading your message.

I recently heard a story about the owner of a small pizza parlor long ago. This owner, let’s call him Hank, had a very small budget compared with the large Pizza Huts and Dominos of his neighbourhood.

This happened years ago, when businesses still advertised in phone books. The big chains, of course, could afford huge, full page ads which Hank could not compete with. He decided instead to run a small promotion of his own: for every competitors’ ad that customers ripped out of the phone book and brought to his store, Hank would give away an order of wings.

The customers came swarming, and Hank quickly saw that the cost of the wing giveaway was more than absorbed by the increased spike in business. His competitors understandably hated what he was doing: complaining, cajoling and even leaving him threats. However, his customers understood a great offer when they saw one, spread the word, and Hank’s business boomed because of his somewhat controversial move.

So the takeaway is this: don’t be afraid to polarize people. Ask yourself how you can stick your thumb in your competitors’ eye. Chances are, it will make your customers love you even more.

What moves could you make in your business that might tick off a few competitors?

For more, one of Apple’s original marketers, Guy Kawasaki wrote an excellent post on innovation.