Starting a business and keeping it is not the same thing. Oftentimes, it is easy to start a business but hard to keep it alive. One reason why 90% of small business owners fail within the first two years of starting their business is: they fail to stay in business. In this article, I will tell you the six skills you must master if you want to stay in business for a long time. Hopefully, after reading this article, you will understand whether your business has any weak spots and how to fix them.

Always keep books of records detailing your income and expenditure. You don't need to be an accounting expert to do this. There are a lot of accounting software packages available for internet marketers. Invest in one of these softwares. Or, if you don't want to invest in software, buying a good old cash book would do. Check your income and expenditures diligently and record them all; then at the end of the month, make an assessment of your business. Have you made a profit or a loss? Which areas do you need to improve? Where to invest money and where not to? These are the questions you should be able to answer in you keep a detailed financial record of your business.

Make a plan of what you want to achieve from your business, and how? Planning is important in order to prevent yourself from losing sight of your purpose. Without effective planning, you won't be able to run a successful business.

Internet is changing rapidly. What works today may not work tomorrow. You really need to keep your ears and eyes glued to the changing market. See what your competitors are doing? Ask your customers to take s small survey. In that survey, ask them what is it that they want from you? There is nothing worse than making mistakes and not being aware of it. Identify your unique selling point. Why would your people purchase from you instead of someone else? Are you cheaper, more reliable, and do you give better service? Never take anything for granted. Just because one thing worked well yesterday doesn't mean it will work over and over again. Also, when you choose to try a new marketing tactic, test and track results on a small scale. There is nothing worse than spending a lot of money on a marketing tactic only to realize that it doesn't work.

Always provide quality service to your customers. Do your best and try to delight them whenever you can. Take your customer's complaint seriously and try to work out a solution and make sure that the complaint doesn't come up again. Make sure you have all the details about your customers on file.

A business can grow only so much as its owner. You should always try to learn new skills and new ideas which would enhance the profitability of your business. Investing money in acquiring knowledge is really a good investment made. Also, don't try to do everything yourself. Smart marketers know both their strengths and weaknesses. Don't do things which are not your specialty. You will only cause yourself more trouble and stress. Instead outsource these tasks to skilled professionals and use that time to work out on areas where you think you are an expert.

Last but not the least; never lose sight of your purpose and vision. Even with all these knowledge, there will be days when things won't go right. When that happens you should ask yourself: Why am I doing this? Why is it that you are in this business in the first place? There will come times when you will start to doubt yourself and your sanity, but if you have a strong vision, you will never lose focus of the purpose of your business.

If you master these six skills you will have a much better chance of turning your business into a profitable venture. What you may not know, however, is where and how you can find profitable business opportunities. For more details on lucrative home business opportunities, and to learn how can you can start earning money from home the easy way, simply visit our website.