Josh Gerben

As a business owner, you have to be able to compartmentalize. After 16 years of running a small business, I have experienced a number of personal issues that could have taken me away from work (emergency surgeries, family deaths, and other health scares). Ultimately, a business owner doesn't have the luxury of checking out for a month to handle a personal problem. Very few small businesses can actually operate without the owner being fully engaged. I have found working through challenging times to be good therapy. It lets you take a break from the intensity of something going on in your personal life. This helps you get through the tough times a little quicker since you are unable to sit and worry about them all day when focused on work.

I am not always sure that automation is a good word to use in connection with a sales process. While some simple automations may help you follow-up with leads, if you are truly having difficulty keeping up with sales related tasks, you should hire more people for your sales team. A fully built out and trained sales team will do wonders for your ability to grow a company (much more than any automation can accomplish). As a small business owner myself, I understand how hiring more people can be scary. But if you are having this issue, then you likely have the revenue to support a bigger team :).

I like a program called Streak. If you are a GMAIL user it integrates with your GMAIL and let's you see all a customer's information as you are drafting and responding to emails.

One of the best online collaboration tools we use for our small business is called Gather (gather.town). The program enables you to create a virtual office for your company. Each team member gets an office that they can decorate. You can move your avatar around the office, going in to talk to anyone that is available (just like you would walk into their office in real life). It is an amazing collaboration tool for small teams since it simulates a real world office setting.

One important point on brand position is to make sure your brand is unique and legally protected. There are many companies that struggle to create unique names, logos and slogans that can differentiate themselves from competitors. Once you have developed these brand assets, they should then be protected with trademark filings. This will ensure that as your business grows, you can defend your brand from those that might attempt to infringe on your trademark and potentially damage your brand by offering subpar goods and/or services. The bottom line: A unique and well protected brand is critical to positioning the brand in the marketplace.

When developing a brand, one of the most valuable assets you can own is a trademark registration for your brand elements (such as names, logos, or even product packaging.) Owning a trademark portfolio for your brand is one of the most underrated tools to help support company growth, as it gives the company intangible assets. This can help when trying to acquire investors, or if you ever decide to sell the business in the future. Additionally, owning these trademarks affords you federal brand protection and the ability to prevent competitors from taking elements of your branding for their own gain.