I must get 15 junk emails and completed form submissions a day from SEO firms promising to get me on the front page of Google to reach more customers. Reach more customers? What kind of customers? The front page of Google just means front page of Google. Nothing more and nothing less. Is there a prize for getting there?

I will not play in that market place. I'll take a customer or a client that I've built a relationship with - AKA, one that trusts me over one that found me on Google.

The Kicker - these expert SEO companies that spam me to tell me that they can get me on the front page of Google are nowhere to be found on Google.

Business Development – Now there are two business “buzz” words that mean something different to every organization. Developing business is often mistaken for developing sales i.e., hunting for more business, new clients, and increased sales.

Don’t sell business development short. It is easy to focus on an end result of increasing sales – it’s a goal that’s specific, measurable, and achievable – but not remarkable and certainly not visionary. Developing business is about creating a promise and an experience that builds brand momentum. Brand momentum creates clients that become evangelists and evangelists that continue to be loyal brand champions – “clients that keep giving.”

Great business development truly moves into the realm of identifying new ways to look at ways to integrate new business into your core mission. Some of the best business development stems from creating new ways to reach current clients with new ideas. Retention is great business!

It's impossible to have a coin with only one side. You can't have heads without tails. Innovation is like that. Initiative is like that. Art is like that. You can't have success unless you're prepared to have failure.

As soon as you say, "failure is not an option," you've just said, "innovation is not an option."

- Seth Godin