“I’ve run my own business since 1997,” says Cox. “I just love the freedom and flexibility that it offers and I relish being the creator of my own destiny.”

Both Cox’s instincts as an entrepreneur and his yen for work/life balance come from his parents.

“As a child I grew up in a pub run by my mum and dad,” Cox remembers. “Quality family time was very scarce and I know my mum now has regrets about the things she missed out on when I was growing up.”

When Cox began his own family, he knew the time he was putting in on his current business would be incompatible with his evolving home life.

“So it was goodbye to the stupid hours I’d previously clocked up in my business, and hello to a model based around residual income,” he said.

The business he created, SpinLessPlates, provides a more flexible business opportunity for him and does the same for his clients.

“SpinLessPlates is a complete small business management software solution for multi-tasking business owners,” he says. “It’s flexible, affordable and very easy to use. Spin users finish boring admin tasks more efficiently, increase productivity by accurately tracking and billing their time and know their numbers by generating and analyzing reports.”

Cox says the software gives small businesses the facts they need make the right decisions about their businesses.

“Spin’s philosophy hinges on my drive to work less and earn more (which incidentally is the theme of my blog),” he adds. “And the feedback I’ve received from my growing network of users is proof that the principles work.”

An important goal was to make the tools simple and intuitive for his customers, including stay-at-home moms balancing childcare with a business and other work-at-home entrepreneurs.

But Cox also focused on making his business easy for him to operate…from just about anywhere.

“Since becoming a parent my ambition was to be able to put my business in a bag and have the capability to work from anywhere with an internet connection,” he says.

A resident of Buxton, Derbyshire in the U.K., Cox says he’ll be able to run his business just fine with only his iPad, the Spin App, a Moleskine notebook and his favorite pen while on a family vacation in Florida later this month.

So, how and why does Cox use BizSugar?

“For me self-education is the key to success,” he explains. “The freedom to learn from the masters, study proven success blueprints and design my own curriculum beats any college course! I’m an avid blog reader and I love dipping into BizSugar articles because there’s always a new bite sized nugget to discover. I’m always on the lookout for an idea for my next productivity blog post or that snippet of information that’s going to benefit my business and BizSugar frequently delivers that little gem. It’s a must-visit on my reading list and I highly recommend getting involved in its active, supportive community.”

Would you like the opportunity to be recognized as a BizSugar Contributor of the Week, just like Paul Cox, and have your business featured right here on the BizSugar blog? Just join the BizSugar community (it’s free) and “like” our BizSugar Facebook page, then start contributing regularly with news and tips, comments and votes. We can’t wait to hear from you!

The post Paul Cox @SpinLessPlates Offers Business in a Bag appeared first on BizSugar blog.

Herman works for a San Diego Aerospace maintenance company.

“So, I do social media as much as possible at work all day and then I come home and blog and network on multiple social media sites after work,” she explains.

She started her own blog, Jenn’s Trends, just five months ago in January, and spends her weekends writing blog posts for the following week.

On her blog, Herman writes simple to understand posts about trends in social media management for small businesses or businesses new to social media.

“I have made amazing connections with other bloggers and through social media sites that have been invaluable to my growth in this venture,” she ads.

Herman gives several reasons for starting up a blog in her spare time.

First, she says she likes helping others learn.

“It’s kind of a passion for me to see other people learn something that they maybe thought was complicated and realize that they can understand it in simpler terms,” she adds.

This is why Herman works to write blog posts using easy to understand examples rather than complicated technical jargon.

Her posts have included titles like “Grow Your Social Media Strategy Like a Garden” and “If Every Social Media Site Was a Martini…”

Second, Herman says working to gain buy-in from upper management in her day job for use of social media has inspired her to help other business owners understand the benefits too.

“Beyond just my blog, I’m a creative problem solver by nature and I love the challenge of helping others find new ways to improve their social media strategies,” she says. “Whether it’s finding new ways to use Pinterest or finding new types of posts to add to Facebook, I always enjoy working with businesses to find these new tactics.”

Herman says she found the BizSugar community through her online connections too.

“I started using BizSugar because all of the bloggers I followed were there. I figured if they were there, I needed to be there too!” she said.

Like other social sites, Herman uses BizSugar in a variety of ways.

“I use BizSugar to share my blog postings and direct traffic back to my blog. It’s a great platform and easy to use,” she says. “I also use it to find other great articles that both teach me new things and that I can share with my audience. I have regularly shared an article I found on BizSugar on my Top 5 Must Read Posts of the Week on my Facebook page. The content is just that good!”

If you would like to be member of the BizSugar community and perhaps even someday be featured here on the BizSugar blog as Contributor of the Week, getting involved is simple.

Just sign up for a free BizSugar account, “like” our BizSugar Facebook account and start contributing small business news and tips and voting and commenting on the contributions of others. We look forward to meeting you!

The post Jenn Herman @jennherman31 is All About Social Media appeared first on BizSugar blog.

Striking out on his own, he founded Straight River Media with just a computer, a laser printer and a book on Quark Express.

“The term content marketing didn’t exist in 1993, but it was the company’s foundation — in the form of print newsletters that I created for clients,” Keltto recalls.

Later, in the 2000′s while doing contract work for publishers, Keltto witnessed the slow disintegration of the traditional publishing industry.

With so many writers, editors, designers and sales people from the traditional media seeking to reinvent themselves as small business people, Keltto realized he had the experience to serve this niche. As a result, in 2010, Solopreneur was born.

The site shares resources, Keltto’s “coachsulting” and content marketing services, a blog with tips and news important to the solopreneur community, and copies of two books Keltto had a hand in producing.

He says the site’s philosophy exemplifies what friend Bob Andelman (aka Mr. Media) describes as Keltto’s mindset:

“If the world’s self-employed entrepreneurs came together to share their victories and woes, their challenges and innovations, the result would eventually uplift them all.”

The site also serves another purpose.

“The Solopreneur Life also has been a laboratory, a place to test what works and what doesn’t; I take what I learn and put it to use for my Straight River Media clients,” he explains.

Many other things have changed since Keltto launched his business back in the early 90′s; the explosion of social media, for one thing.

He says he’s used many of the most popular social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram.

He claims to have gotten the best return on investment from Twitter and his show on Blog Talk Radio, now in its second season of weekly programs.

Keltto is also an enthusiastic member of the BizSugar community, of course.

“I enjoy using BizSugar as a listening post. It’s an efficient tool for understanding the challenges that solopreneurs and small business owners are facing,” he says.

If you’d like to be a featured Contributor of the Week on BizSugar, simply sign up for a free account, “like” our Facebook page, and start contributing news and information on a regular basis, while voting and commenting on the content shared by others. We can’t wait to see you here at the BizSugar community!

The post Larry Keltto @Larry_Keltto Flies Solo in Entrepreneur Life appeared first on BizSugar blog.

Byron’s first job out of college was working with small business owners to help them increase sales. Witnessing firsthand the freedom entrepreneurs enjoyed in their businesses and the influence they had in the community made a powerful impression.

Since then, Byron has created her own business helping other entrepreneurs exert that influence and become more sought after for their skills and expertise.

“After learning marketing from soup-to-nuts over the course of three marketing director positions in three different industries, I found that what I loved best was making someone a business superstar,” says Byron. “Not some crazy, ego-filled CEO you see being indicted on the nightly news – working with small business owners and professionals who have a big vision for the work they’re doing and gifts to share with the world.”

Byron’s company, Famous in Your Field, helps clients develop a strong personal brand combining ideas from corporate marketing, PR, consulting, internet marketing, psychology and the entertainment industry.

She also writes regularly for ASPIRE Magazine where she interviews and profiles entrepreneurs like Lewis Howes (the magazine’s March cover story), Derek Halpern, and the founders of Food Matters, learning more about how successful entrepreneurs separate themselves from the crowd.

Lori and her team apply these ideas to the help clients build reputation and recognition as authorities in their fields using coaching, workshops, VIP days and done-with-you services.

She says she uses the BizSugar community as a way to both learn and share the best information in small business.

“I found BizSugar through Twitter and once I visited, I was hooked! Each week, there’s loads of fresh content to read and business building ideas to put into action,” Byron says. “I publish my own blog posts there, too – it helps me gauge what topics are popular in my niche. Plus, I get to share the love by posting links to my favorites via Twitter.”

If you would like to be featured as one of our contributors of the week here on BizSugar, simply sign up for a free BizSugar account, “like” our BizSugar Facebook page and begin voting and commenting on your favorite content while submitting news and tips you’ve found helpful as a small business owner. We’d love to hear from you!

The post Lori Byron @LoriByron Turns Clients Into Superstars appeared first on BizSugar blog.

They are all subjects Allton knows well as the owner and operator of a small business that provides Web development, Internet consulting, social media management, blogging and online advertising services for clients.

“I can tell them exactly what they need to do, or just do it for them, depending on how involved they wish to be,” he explains.

In most cases, Allton’s services begin with design of a Website using the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) platform. Each site includes a blog and other content including FAQs and testimonial pages, all allowing the client to log in and make changes at any time.

Along with this, Allton also includes SEO and social media integration, meaning new blog entries are automatically shared with search engines like Google and Bing, and can also be posted easily to sites like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

“Once we have a great new website in place, I provide my business clients with ongoing marketing advice and assistance,” Allton says.

Those services can include creating ongoing content for the company’s blog. They can also include creating and updating social media profiles on Facebook, Google+, Twitter or other sites.

“My goal is to ensure that businesses are able to leverage the power and connectivity of the Internet to promote and grow their business,” he says.

For Allton, his full-time, full-service business sprang from years of experience providing part-time Web design services. He made his part-time gig into a full-time profession after moving to St. Louis in 2007.

Allton discovered BizSugar after noticing the community mentioned several times on another service.

“I was really impressed right from the start,” Allton says. “It was easy to get started and I immediately identified some great articles from people I didn’t previously know. I now share my own posts there and use it to curate content for myself.”

If you would like to be featured as a Contributor of the Week in the future here on the BizSugar blog, nothing could be simpler. Just sign up for a free account on BizSugar and “like” our BizSugar Facebook page. You can then begin submitting your own small business news and tips while voting and commenting on the submissions of others. We can’t wait for you to join our community!

The post Mike Allton @mike_allton Wears Many Hats in Business appeared first on BizSugar blog.

And you can also probably understand why Mangen, following the particularly harsh winter of 2007 to 2008, marched into her boss’s office and told him he would need to find someone to replace her by Thanksgiving.

No, Mangen was not just another angry employee who had decided she just couldn’t take it anymore. She was a woman with a plan and an entrepreneur at heart who already had in mind an idea to reinvent herself and her work. It was an idea that would eventually have her touching the lives of others like her too, talented professionals seeking to take greater control of their lives without the need for crazy commutes and insane working conditions, but who perhaps lacked as clear an idea of how to get started.

Fortunately, Mangen was hardly bereft of talents and already possessed the tools needed to build her new business. As early as July, she began laying plans to create a company offering support services to business owners in need of her abilities but without the resources to hire full-time or part-time help.

“In December 2008, I officially opened my doors as a virtual assistant offering bookkeeping and administrative support to small business owners and solopreneurs,” she says.

Her marketing approach for bringing in clients has been fairly simple and straight forward.

“Most of my clients have come as a direct result of relationships I’ve built on Twitter and word of mouth,” she explains.

She says she’s met and worked with many fascinating people and businesses since launching her virtual assistant service and is constantly inspired to help others interested in entering the virtual assistance industry. She believes that industry will continue to grow and diversify, thanks to technologies that allow people with skills to serve and connect with businesses in need of those skills around the globe.

“I’ve experienced somewhat unusual success, earning six figures and was approached in late 2012 by Tess Strand, founder of Virtual Assistant Forums, to be an instructor for her Virtual Assistant Business Jumpstart class,” Mangen says. “Ten wonderful women just finished my first six-week online class in March 2013 and I will be teaching another starting in June 2013.”

Mangen has also been a longtime member and contributor of the BizSugar community, joining way back in March of 2010.

“As an information sponge and someone who loves to learn and help others, I find that BizSugar allows me to accomplish both,” Mangen says. “I primarily use BizSugar to share interesting small business posts from the blogs I regularly read, as well as find new sources of content to add to my RSS subscriptions. The digital world changes so quickly, and I find the BizSugar community is a great place to find current and timely information on changes and trends.”

Would you like to be a BizSugar Contributor of the Week like Mangen and have your business featured here, on the BizSugar blog? Just join our  free community and “like” our BizSugar Facebook page. Then start contributing by sharing small business news and information while voting and commenting on the contributions of others. We can’t wait to meet you!

The post Michelle Mangen @mmangen Beats Commuting Blues appeared first on BizSugar blog.

The Stamford, Conn. resident and College of Westchester graduate is two years in to a five year plan to create a sustainable business online.

“After graduation I knew the corporate world was not something that I wanted to pursue right away, so I gave myself a 5 year deadline to start and run an online business,” Fabius says.

But in order to gain that success, Fabius also knew he would need a way to make a living while affording him the time he needed to work on his business.

“In order to do that, I wanted to be free on the weekdays, and I knew that wouldn’t be possible working a regular 9 to 5,” he explains.

He found the perfect position to fit his needs, taking a job as an overnight security officer.

“It’s not a glamorous job but it gave me the one thing I wanted and that’s freedom to work on my business,” he explains.

The next thing he needed was a way to increase his learning curve and gain the valuable knowledge and insight required to make his business a success. He launched a blog Billion Success as a way to achieve this.

“This blog was a way to connect with other entrepreneurs and learn from their mistakes,” he says.

Through his blog, Fabius interviews other entrepreneurs, asks them questions about how they got started, and shares that information with the world.

“This approach was a fast-track learning system for me in order to learn as much as I can in a very short period of time,” Fabius says. “By interviewing entrepreneurs I learned how they work, what they did wrong and what tools they used to get the job done.”

He says approaching others and asking them about their success also helped him address another important issue in his development as an entrepreneur.

“I am a very shy person so these interviews also gave me a way to break out of my shell and start conversations easily,” he says.

Fabius has also spent his time networking and immersing himself in the tech startup world.

He began attending tech startup events with other like-minded prospective entrepreneurs last April, and became hooked after experiencing the enthusiasm and excitement of the groups.

“I knew instantly that I wanted to have my own startup or better yet, I wanted to partner up with someone who’s willing to teach me the ropes,” he says.

He says the experience led him to his current business partner Mike Morris, a software engineer who brings the technical expertise needed to the team.

In January, the pair launched Triplefy, a website allowing business owners to create their own daily deals and online gift cards.

The business currently has customers in three countries including Canada, the U.K. and Australia.

It was also through one of his interviews that Fabius learned about the BizSugar community and became an active member.

The interview with BizSugar CEO Anita Campbell gave Fabius greater confidence and showed him the potential of the BizSugar community.

“The interview was then published on Bizsugar and the next day I saw my very first traffic spike,” says Fabius. “Almost 90 percent of the traffic was from Bizsugar and that’s when I realized that I was missing out by not utilizing it. Ever since that day I’ve been contributing regularly and I couldn’t be happier.”

Would you like to be a BizSugar Contributor of the Week like Herby? Just sign up for a free BizSugar account, “like” our Facebook page, and start sharing small business news and information with our community while voting and commenting on the submissions of others. We can’t wait to meet you!

The post Herby Fabius @BillionSuccess Puts Business Advice to Work appeared first on BizSugar blog.

It didn’t take long for Needham to realize running a drug store was not for him, but his interest in business didn’t stop there.

After receiving his degree in accounting and finance, Needham worked his way up through the ranks, first at Rolls-Royce, then at Experian.

Then in 2008, Needham decided to leave the corporate world behind for a chance to focus on his first love, helping small business owners build their companies and find success.

His resume is an impressive one.

During his career, Needham has served as a business mentor for the Prince’s Trust, a UK-based charity created by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales; a business adviser to the Chief Executive of Ice Skating GB; has served as a consultant for businesses and organizations ranging from Fortune 100 multinationals to governments, non-profits to solopreneurs, and small businesses of 10 employees or less in the IT, design, and commerce fields.

His financial acumen extends beyond the simple nuts and bolts of operating a business, too. In 2012, Needham was instrumental in assisting De Montfort University with its issuance of a a ￡110 million Public bond on the London Stock Exchange, the first such issue of a public bond by a British University since 1998.

That same year, Needham moved his family to Wellington, New Zealand, where he continues to dispense wisdom from his business blog The Big Red Tomato Company.

Still the owner of a multi-million pound property business with his wife, Needham combines his lifetime business experience with his background in small business to advise established business on changes they can make in their operations to boost overall profitability and realize long-term growth.

Needham, our latest BizSugar Contributor of the Week, has been a member of the BizSugar community since 2011. He says what he likes best about the BizSugar community is its focus.

“Many sites offer the opportunity to share content, but BizSugar focuses entirely on business, which means that I’m always going to find useful and relevant stuff that will help my business or my clients businesses grow,” he explains.

Would you like to be a BizSugar Contributor of the Week and have your business or Website featured here on the BizSugar blog. It’s easy. Just sign up for a free BizSugar account, if you haven’t already, “like” our BizSugar Facebook page, and start sharing small business news and information with our community while voting and commenting on the submissions of others.

You’ll be helping the other members of BizSugar find the best and most useful small business news and information on the Web, and will have the chance to be recognized for the content that you share. We look forward to meeting you!

The post Matthew Needham @bigredtomato Has Business in His Blood appeared first on BizSugar blog.

Author of Fulfilling the Potential of Your Business: Big Company Thinking for the Mighty Small Business, which won the Small Business Book Awards for Management in 2012, Smith has dedicated his professional life to helping small business owners create remarkable businesses of their own with an infusion of management expertise.

To that end, in 2010 Smith founded The Portfolio Partnership to help small business CEO’s fulfill the potentials of their businesses.

“The Portfolio Partnership offers successful Chief Operating Officers to aggressively scale businesses safely, deploying our simple but effective Playbooks,” Smith explains.

Smith describes his company’s way of working with clients as a unique partnership in which senior talent works with business owners in an effort to address the key issues of a small business.

“In practice this means a TPP partner embedded in your business one day per week working on the right stuff, leading to a rich combination of discovery, diagnosis, and action,” Smith explains.

He describes the company’s activities as a bit different than the more advisory approach with which many business owners are probably familiar.

“This is not a consultancy model. We actually do stuff!” Smith explains.

As an ex-CFO, investment banker, venture capitalist, and CEO, who realized more than $400 million for shareholders over the past 25 years, Smith also shares his tips on business from his blog The Smith Report, and has been a regular member of BizSugar.com since June 2012.

So, what makes BizSugar special in Smith’s estimation?

“In a word – usage,” Smith explains. “Many sites offer an opportunity to share content, but BizSugar makes it so easy to use and upload new material and distribute it to a relevant SMB audience. Secondly the quality of content is high, which is great both for writers and their audience.”

Like to be featured as a Contributor of the Week here at BizSugar.com just like Ian Smith? Sign up for a free BizSugar account, “like” the BizSugar Facebook fan page, and start sharing news and information with the community here at BizSugar. You’ll be glad you did!

The post Ian Smith @IanDSmith Builds a Remarkable Business appeared first on BizSugar blog.

However, in Sharkov’s case, both he and the business were quite young.

A 19 year old student from Bulgaria, Sharkov began blogging four years ago and has been running his latest blog business for the past two.

His site Reviewz n’ Tips: Make a Head Start in Blogging and Social Media, is a simple, easy-to-understand account of his personal experiences in online marketing with some affiliate links to products and services which serve his readers while generating revenue for his business.

“The idea of my blog is straight-forward—I share every bit of my personal experience with generating traffic, building a loyal readership, and getting people to take action, and as an end result making a few extra bucks every month,” Sharkov explains.

Though it may be a small business now, in the beginning Sharkov’s blogging was nothing more than a hobby.

In his online bio, Sharkov says he was immersed in another such hobby, creating Photoshop and 3-D animation designs, when an article he stumbled upon about SEO for blogs changed his life.

“It was really by accident that I came across the whole Internet marketing industry and decided to try my luck,” he recalls.

Sharkov started with a blog about another of his passions, mountain bikes, but with mediocre results. Another attempt focused on reviews of various products.

“So then one day I decided to take everything a step further,” Sharkov explains. “I basically wanted to create a popular marketing blog that people would find beneficial. Additionally, while achieving that goal, I set out to actually monetize my online presence.”

And so Reviewz n’ News was born.

On his blog, Sharkov covers topics like What to Do and What not to When Promoting Your Blog with Social and Why Working (Blogging) from Home Sounds Easier than It Actually Is and has accumulated more than 1,000 “likes” on his Facebook page and more than 63,000 followers on Twitter.

One of the social tools Sharkov uses both to share his content and to learn new things about the online business world he has entered is BizSugar.com.

“I discovered BizSugar back in 2011 by accident, as I was looking for a way to spread the word about the content I was publishing,” he says. “After taking a look at how it all worked, I decided to give it a go.”

Even though he says he hasn’t had that many of his posts go hot on BizSugar’s front page, he says he’s very pleased with the traffic he receives. He also finds the posts of other members helpful and informative in growing his own business.

Want to be a BizSugar Contributor of the Week like Sharkov? Simply sign up for a free BizSugar account, “like” our Facebook page, and start sharing, voting for, and commenting on content here on the site. We can’t wait to meet you!

The post Daniel Sharkov @DanielSharkov Grows Up Blogging appeared first on BizSugar blog.