Small Business Trends Radio has outdone themselves once again.  Each year they bring their readers the ultimate in small business podcast lists.  They give readers the opportunity to discover 100 of the best business podcasts found online.

We realize that many people don’t have the time to do the footwork and sift through all of the resources out there, so we’ve done that for you and categorized them as well.

The majority of the podcasts listed have a focus on small business while others have a bit more of a broader focus. Nonetheless, the focus of all of the podcasts listed is on business. And that’s what we’re all here for, right?

Neatly organized and with nice descriptions of each podcast, this year’s list is tops.  Take a few moments to explore the list.  You may be surprised just how much new information you can within these audio resources.

Visit Small Business Trends Radio’s ultimate guide to the top 100 small business podcasts of 2010…

Small business owners have a higher risk of identity fraud than other adults according to a recent study co-sponsored by ITAC, the Identity Theft Assistance Center, and The Financial Services Roundtable.

The Javelin Strategy & Research 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report found that overall identity fraud grew by 14% in 2009 to 11.1 million adults, in part due to the economic downturn. Small business owners are one-and-a-half more times likely to be a victim than other adults

“The higher incidence of identity fraud among small business owners is probably due to the fact that they have more accounts and conduct more transactions,” said ITAC President Anne Wallace.

Wallace suggests small business owners treat their personal information like cash -  protect it and be stingy.

• Be suspicious of requests for your Employer Identification Number (EIN)or your social security number
• Install and update computer anti-virus software, operating system and applications updated
• Store personal records - like tax and mortgage records - outside the workplace, limiting access to parties
• Monitor internal bookkeeping for unauthorized withdrawals and purchases
• Monitor accounts online instead of waiting for a paper statement, or consider an identity management service, like ITAC Sentinel®, to alert you to suspicious activity

For more information on identity theft prevention, detection and recovery, visit www.bbb.org/data-security/.

About the Guest Author:  Anne Wallace is President of ITAC, the Identity Theft Assistance Corporation and has provided leadership since it’s inception in 2004. Ms. Wallace is a nationally recognized expert on privacy, financial services and payments law. She began her legal career with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board where she served as Assistant Director of the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs and implemented key consumer credit laws including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Next Monday, March 15th, starts the beginning of the “SugarTone Small Business Blogging Contest”.

Are you a busy professional who wants to create a strong online presence?  Do you write articles to share your expertise, establish credibility and gain online visibility?  Do you blog for your business?  Do you read business articles online?

How would you like to win a few cool prizes for business professionals online?

Bloggertone is teaming up with BizSugar to bring you the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest. This contest helps give your articles extra online visibility and rewards your social networking. The Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest is an opportunity for you to win prizes to help you promote your business.

This contest will run the entire week up until March 19th, 2010.   There are 2 different ways to participate in this contest.  You can either submit your small business articles to Bloggertone from March 15th to March 17th or you can simply vote for the submitted SugarTone articles on BizSugar.com.

Prizes will be awarded to 10 of the submitted articles with the best titles and the top 10 BizSugar members who vote the most and leave the most insightful comments.  Be sure to read the entire contest rules and guidelines before participating.

Learn more about “SugarTone” here…

Through recent advances in technology, the number of individuals working from home offices has greatly increased in the past decade.  When individuals have taken the proper steps, home offices allow one to work from the comfort and convenience of home without sacrificing productivity.  There are a variety of reasons why individuals would choose to work from home.

Those who own and operate their own small business may choose to work from home because they do not have the necessary funds to afford a lease on a commercial property.  Many corporations now allow their employees to telecommute because it cuts down on expenses and the amount of office space needed.

Regardless of the situation, those working from home could benefit from 5 helpful tips to make their time spent on the job more productive.

Adhere to a schedule: Individuals working from home have the luxury of creating their own schedule, but it is still important to treat your day like a regular work day.  That means, waking up early, allotting a reasonable amount of time for lunch, and making yourself available to coworkers and clients at the same hours each day.  This not only helps make you more productive, but it also ensures that you aren’t wasting your coworker’s or client’s time.

Eliminate Distractions: A home office is an easy place to get distracted.  Televisions, the Internet, spouses, and children can all contribute to a decrease in work productivity.  While computers and the Internet are almost essential to perform any job in this digital age and therefore impossible to do without, utmost care should be taken to remove all other distractions from the working environment.  You should choose an environment that is most relaxing to you.  This could mean the peace and quiet of a basement or the beauty and radiance of a sun room.

Keep in touch: The modern employee uses a variety of technologies to stay in touch with coworkers.  Email, instant messengers, text messages, and phone calls are absolutely vital to communicate effectively with coworkers and clients.  Keeping them up-to-date with progress on projects will help both parties work at an optimal level.  As mentioned previously, making yourself available between predefined hours is a great way to stay productive.

Take Beaks: A Gallup Poll conducted in 2000 showed that 80% of workers feel stress on the job and over half said they need help managing it.  Working from home may help alleviate some of the stresses that come from a regular 9-5, but it may also create some new ones.  After all, it is somewhat hard to escape the stresses of the office when you live in one.  A great way to avoid “burning out” is to pace oneself throughout the work day.  Short breaks every couple of hours can go a long way to reducing stress.  Lastly, don’t be afraid to close your laptop and turn off your work phone when 5pm rolls around.  You obviously need to finish all work-related responsibilities, but you are not obligated to be on call 24/7.

Stay Organized: Clutter kills productivity!  Excess clutter is a distraction and can make it awfully difficult to find what you need amongst a mess of paper.  The solution, go paperless!  Throw away all sticky-notes, calendars, and to-do list and opt for their electronic equivalent.  Removing all non-work related materials from your desk will help you stay focused on the job at hand.  If you aren’t the type to continually maintain a clean working environment, dedicate a day in the week to tidying up.

Using these 5 steps, I have no doubt that you will be able to increase your home office productivity.

About The Guest Author:  Jeff Creech is the internet marketing specialist for Office Suites PLUS, a Leading Provider of Full-Service Office Suites and Virtual Offices.

For many smaller and mid-size companies, the hiring CFO-level talent can be too costly and completely unfeasible.  In addition to searching for the right candidate, you have to offer a highly competitive package - even in today’s economy - to attract the top-level finance talent you need for business success.

In addition to requiring C-level finance talent, smaller- and medium-sized businesses require a dedicated finance department that can handle the entire spectrum of financial support services - from strategic financial business planning to day-to-day accounting.

So, the challenge is posed for any entrepreneur…how can I have a viable finance team without the dedicated resources for hiring talent?

A more cost-effective and sound business approach is to outsource your complete financial needs.   Here are the reasons why this makes complete business sense:

• You Can Get Senior, CFO-Level Support for Strategic Financial Guidance
• All Accounting Can Be Taken Care of Seamlessly
• Outsourced Partners Can Provide an End-to-End Solution
• Outsourced Partners Often Provide On-Site Support (i.e., Can Work in Your Office a Couple Days a Week)

So, rather than making the investment in internal finance talent, outsourcing to the right partner can help bring your business to the next level.  Much like many companies outsource marketing and advertising support, why shouldn’t a company make a similar - and more cost-effective - investment into the right finance team?

About The Guest Author:  Douglas R. Palmer is the founder of Palmer Financial, provide accounting and finance services to small and mid-sized companies.  Palmer Financial helps clients plan, execute and grow through the ongoing evaluation of strategic opportunities.  You can follow Douglas on Twitter @PalmerFinancial.

Here’s the hundred and first time you’ve heard it:  it’s a tough market out there.

Small business owners are flooded with more priorities than they can handle, ranging from raising capital to streamlining processes to everything in between.  Whether a function of not enough time in the day and/or limited know-how, marketing, advertising, and promotional tasks are quick to slip through the cracks.  But they don’t have to.

Luckily, the following four promotional strategies require little time, know-how, or budget.  What’s more, they are proven concepts that will help to increase your business’s recognition, pool of customers, and most importantly, your bottom line.

Forget the Traditional Business Card

Whether you use them to network or get your name out to the market place, guess where the majority of your business cards end up?  Here’s a hint:  not in front of your customers and prospects.  As at least 80% of U.S. households have business card magnets on their refrigerator. You should take advantage of the opportunity and have your name and contact information stick around, literally speaking, for the long run.  Of course, clever and interesting designs stand out from the crowd.

Think Outside the Box

Looking to get people talking about your business?  Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• If you own a pizzeria or restaurant, *cover* your delivery vehicle with branded magnets and encourage passers-by and customers to take one and even photograph you.  Little doubt word will quickly spread about the magnet covered car.
• People love discounts.  If you’re a plumber, contractor, or handyman create a coupon magnet so customers will call you instead of the competitor the next time your services are needed.
• Create several editions of limited run magnet designs with your company information.  You’ll be surprised how quickly people begin collecting, talking about, and trading your magnets both online and off.

Get Online

Creating a Facebook account and a company blog to facilitate two-way dialogue with your customers are easy, free, and often highly productive tools for small businesses.  To drive traffic and get a following include your Facebook and blog information on your business card magnets, letterhead, menus (if applicable) and all other printed materials.

Always Remember: People Love Free Things

Who doesn’t like getting free stuff?  In the eyes of the small business owner, the best free item is one that has a long shelf life, is inexpensive, and useful.  Think baseball schedule magnets of your local team and even calendar magnets.  Simply add your contact information and company logo and you have yourself a useful, inexpensive promotional product that will be seen (not to mention used) by your customers for the foreseeable future.

Needless to say, all it takes is a bit of time and know-how for the small business owner to develop a cost effective, well thought out strategy to grow their business and bottom line, tough market or not.

About The Guest Author:  Eric Warren is a Client Consultant at Magnets.com, a leading provider of promotional refrigerator magnets for small businesses and multinational corporations alike. Eric regularly interacts with clients in an effort to help them develop a lasting presence within their markets.

Q. I’ve seen you point out the question “Anything else?” as one of your “really good sales questions”. I see it as a close-ended question. Is “What else can I do?” as effective, or more or less effective?

A. What a great question. Let me applaud you for thinking this deeply about the language in the questions that you use. This “thinking about it before you do it” is one of my key commandments for success in sales. And this kind of thoughtful discussion brings out the best in all of us.

I’m sticking with “Anything else?” as a “Really Good Sales Question.” Yes, it is a close-ended question, but that doesn’t make it bad. There is a time and place for close-ended questions. Remember, “Anything else?” is always used to follow up on some piece of information the customer has given you. Typically, it follows an open-ended question, as in, “Tell me what you look for in a vendor.” You generally get one of two answers: Either some more explanation or information from the customer, or the answer, “no.” Either of those two answers is good. More explanation gives you more information, and that’s good. “No” tells you there is no more, that you have acquired all the pertinent information, and that’s good.

The real difference between “Anything Else?” and “What else can I do?” is the purpose to the question. “Anything else?” solicits information, and can be used in a broader set of circumstances. See the example above. “What else can I do?” is a more specific question, probing deeper into a more narrow range of possibilities. For example, you couldn’t use “What else can I do?” to follow up on the “Tell me what you look for in a vendor” lead.

There is also an implied commitment to the “What else can I do?” question. The implication is that you will do what he/she asks you to do. Since you are asking, “What else can I do,” it implies that you are willing and able to do more. And that may not be the case. Asking this question may force you into the uncomfortable position of saying “No” to the customer. For example, suppose you say, “What else can I do?” and the customer says, “Drop your price by 10% and deliver twice a week.” You know you can’t do that, so you say, “I can’t do that…” thereby interjecting a negative into the conversation. You would have been better off not bringing it up.

Once again, thanks for bringing this up. This is the kind of dialogue about the specifics of our job that makes us all better.

About The Guest Author:  Dave Kahle is one of the world’s premier sales training educators.  Since 1988, Dave has worked with over 400 companies, helping them to increase their sales and develop their sales people. He’s been published over 1,000 times, writes a weekly Ezine, and has authored seven books.  He has a gift for creating powerful training events and sales seminars that get audiences thinking differently about sales.

Susan Oakes of M4B Marketing brought up a really good point today.  Responding to comment forms and emails is essential to your business’ reputation.  The reason - nobody likes feeling like they are being ignored.

It isn’t a good feeling being ignored and you just never know if the ones you ignored might be the ones you need in the future.

I have had negative experiences like this before.  You contact someone via their own custom contact form and then you never hear back from them.  At that point, they’ve lost my business instantly.

Ignoring emails and correspondence gives the impression that if they can’t handle contact requests, then how do they handle customer orders?  It immediately puts a sour taste in people’s mouths.  I don’t want to give a business my money when they can’t even answer one email.

So my question is, how do you tackle all of the emails in your inbox in a timely manner without giving the impression that you can’t be bothered?

Being a small fry in an ocean of much larger fish is certainly not anyone’s idea of fun. And when you’re a small company who’s not only worried about the competition but also trying your best to just stay afloat amidst the strong currents of the business world, you feel overwhelmed and find it hard to cope.

Rather than being a drawback all the time, being small in a world of giants does have its advantages, so if you’re looking to compete with the big boys in the game, here are a few ways to do so:

• Know that personalization pays: Probably the biggest advantage that small businesses have over their larger counterparts is that they’re able to offer personalized services to their customers. People like being made to feel important when they shop for products or services, and when you remember their names and preferences, they want to come back and also refer their friends and family to you. Rather than feel like an anonymous person among a million customers of larger companies, they would prefer to go where they receive service that makes them feel good about the entire shopping experience.
• Make the buying experience convenient for your customers: The easier and more convenient it is for your customers to shop with you, the more likely they are to stick with you even when bigger companies enter the competitive fray. For example, allowing them to shop and pay their bills online, providing them with home delivery, responding to customer service requests promptly and responsibly, and keeping them informed of deals and bargains are a few ways to make their shopping experience with you more convenient and making them less inclined to move to the competition just because they are bigger companies with better reputations.
• Concentrate on quality: At the end of the day, it all boils down to the quality of the goods and services you offer and the kind of customer service you provide. When you concentrate on expanding your operations and in the process forgo on quality and customer service, you’re going to experience a drop in profits and goodwill even if you’re a multi-million dollar corporation who enjoys immense popularity. So no matter what you do or how small or big the size of your operations, ensure that your quality does not suffer.

When competing with larger companies, you must be wise enough to realize when and where to compete instead of going ahead blindly. If you don’t take your budget and other limitations into consideration and expand your operations or promise your customers offers that you cannot hope to deliver or sustain on a long term basis, you’re going to end up with nothing but debt and a bad reputation. So compete wisely, by knowing your strengths limitations, and playing to one while acting within the boundaries of the other.

About The Guest Author: Brenda Harris writes on the topic of online executive mba programs . She can be reached at her email id: brenda.harris91@gmail.com.

Have the requirements for leadership changed?

Is it true that “The time of the great leaders like Churchill, JFK, FDR, and Golda Meir, is over because the world is too complex for one individual to know everything”?

Is it true that “One of the things that people need to master now is… not only to be like Reagan and Martin Luther King who were great speakers, but also to be a great listener”?

In a recent video my colleague, Thomas Zweifel, argues “yes” to all these questions.  I disagree.

The Dangerous Myth of the “New.”

“Man does not live by bread alone, but also by the catch word.”
–R. L. Stevenson.

How many times do we need to fall for the myth of the “New?”  A New World Order.  A New Economy.   A New Middle East. And now “New requirements for great leadership.” In centuries past there were the snake oil salesmen and their “new” magic ointments and today we have spammers and their new magic pills.

But, as King Solomon noted some 3,000 years ago, none of this is new.

No, King Solomon didn’t have an iPhone or a Blackberry.  (At least, I don’t think he did.) He didn’t have the Internet or a nuclear war head. And he certainly didn’t tweet.  But changes like these are superficial.

Then as Now, Great Leaders See Beneath the Surface.

“For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there’s one hacking at the root.”

– Henry David Thoreau

In the days following World War One, Woodrow Wilson spoke of “A New World Order.” We all know how that turned out.

It’s human nature to be deceived by the superficial. We see things change and we want to believe it will all be good now. (Well, except for those who want to believe it will all be bad.)

We want to believe that the candidate across the desk will be a great employee. We want to believe this big deal will come through. We want to believe… Heck we want to believe a lot of things that just aren’t true. And so we tell ourselves and each other all kinds of stories.

But when you pull back the curtain and look at the mechanics, you see that the complex forces motivating human behavior are what they’ve always been.

Legendary leaders see patterns, forces and the big picture. And they live accordingly, even in the face of ridicule and fierce opposition. Eventually, we see it too and realize their greatness.

It’s unfair to Reagan, Martin Luther King and the others singled out, to suggest it was their oratory skill that made them great leaders.

Reagan was great because he saw what others didn’t. Communism was inching around the globe and many leaders resigned themselves to a “new reality.”

But Reagan saw communism’s evil and recognized that one day it would collapse under its own weight. Despite ridicule, opposition and threats, he lived true to what he saw.  The whole world is better off as result.

Leaders DON’T Need to Know Everything, and They Never Did

The world has always been too complex for one individual to know everything.

Great leaders simplify. They looked beneath the cacophony and asked “What’s really going on underneath?” “Where are the points of highest leverage?”

Warren Buffett was ridiculed during the early days of the “New Economy.” Many laughed, believing new technology meant things have changed.

Buffett guides himself with disciplined adherence to unchanging fundamentals and has become a legend in his own lifetime. But Buffett understood that the underlying mechanics never change.  And look who had the last laugh.

How to Build Your Competitive Advantage

And so, you can use this to your advantage. Notice how your competitors get excited about what’s new.  But you - you just smile and ask “How will these superficial development be influenced by that which never changes?” Help your customers see the unseen and they’ll never leave you.

It’s powerful to remember that in our complex world, we need people who can see what most don’t.  We need people like Reagan, Martin Luther King, Churchill and Lincoln. And people like you.

About The Guest Author:  Dov Gordon helps small company CEOs build such loyal employees and life-long customers, that even their competitors enviously spread their renown. His blog is at http://DovGordon.net. You may also enjoy his free, practical .mp3 on “The Critical 10% of Management Skills that Make You Look Brilliant 90% of the Time.”