I’m excited to announce the May 2025 selection for the Indie Business Book Club: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin. I selected this book because I’m more convinced than ever that the success of your business depends on your ability to build, nurture, and lead a strong community around your brand.…
I’m excited to announce the April 2025 Indie Business Book Club selection: The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue by Robbie Kellman Baxter. I personally chose this book because one of my favorite things to do is help people turn connections into cash by showing them how…
Now that I’ve been a successful entrepreneur for over a quarter century, I can speak with great confidence about the good, the bad and the ugly of leading a business. Like I always say, I don’t have advice, but I do have experience, and in my experience, it’s easy to start a business, but it’s…
One of the questions I receive most often from clients and members is, “How can I market my business more efficiently and effectively?” This is just a fancy way to ask for tips on ways to be seen and found by more people who will buy your products and services. While there are a million…
If you’re anything like me, each new year begins feeling like it will be the best one yet. But as the weeks roll by, my excitement sometimes begins to fade. By the time I’m a quarter of the way through the year, I can feel like I’m falling short of the progress I’d hoped to…
One of the important issues business owners face is how to select, secure, and protect their brand names. Of course, you want a brand name that makes you personally happy and satisfied. On the other hand, the fact that you like a certain name does not mean you can own, secure, and protect it as…
As you may know, August is one of the most popular vacation months of the year. That’s why our theme for this month is Rest and Rejuvenation, and our book is Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity. In it, author Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, teaches us that it’s possible to overcome…
As maker entrepreneurs, we often feel crazy amounts of pressure to make more stuff and check off boxes, often without considering the enduring significance and long-term impact of what we are creating. Sure, it’s great to have sales every day, but they really don’t matter unless they are tied to outcomes that make a long-term…
A thrilling moment is on the horizon for the Indie Business Network as we eagerly anticipate the arrival of our 25th year of continuous service! Thanks to the unwavering support of our extraordinary members, we’re gearing up to commemorate a quarter-century of dedicated service to small business owners across North America. Save the date: January…
If you’ve ever struggled with self-doubt or generally felt like you don’t have what it takes to truly achieve your highest dreams and aspirations, then our March 2024 Indie Business Book Club pick just may be the super catalyst you need right now. Authored by Jamie Kern Lima, co-founder with her husband of It Cosmetics,…
Hospitality is defined as “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.” The benefits of offering high degrees of hospitality in your business become obvious when you consider how important it is to make every effort to receive your customers and clients in ways that reflect how much you value and…
If you’re like me, every year starts off as my best year ever. The trouble is that about a quarter of the way through the year, my motivation can begin to wane and I can start to feel like I am not making the progress I should be making. If that feeling continues for too…
Nearly 24 years ago, I left a fantastic career track in corporate America to launch the Indie Business Network. Everyone I knew thought I had lost my mind. At the time, it was a disaster of epic proportions to be fired or laid off, and no one was quitting their job — even if they…
As entrepreneurs, we are understandably concerned with how we invest our limited financial resources. As it turns out, we should be at least as concerned with how we invest our limited hourly resources. After all, we can make more money. But we cannot make more time. Our next Indie Business Book Club pick takes this…
At the Indie Business Network, we help you design a business around the kind of life you want to live. It’s not easy, but it is absolutely exciting and so freeing to do the work associated with building a business that suits your life, complete with only those things that make your heart sing. We…
At the Indie Business Network, we help you design a business around the kind of life you want to live. It’s so freeing to be able to build a business that suits your life, complete with only those things that make your heart sing. Nothing more and nothing less. That’s why we’re so excited about…
One of the greatest things about being in business today is that success is no longer defined mainly by the financial bottom line. While profitability continues to be important, other definitions of success have taken center stage as more founders reject the notion of growth for growth’s sake in favor of a lifelong experience of…
When it comes to growing and nurturing an online business today, the hot button phrase that describes you as the CEO is “content creator.” That is — you must create and share information that attracts a specific type of person to the corner(s) of the internet where your content lives, and give them opportunities to…
As an entrepreneur, you know that a little voice lives inside your head. You also know that the little voice does not always tell stories that work in your favor. In fact, the little voice often works overtime to insert gobs of fear, uncertainty and doubt into your everyday life. If the little voice roams…
Very early on in my entrepreneurial journey, I learned that the only thing about my business that cannot be copied is me. The same is true for you. Whether it’s a product or a service, it can be duplicated. But there is only one you, and when the one and only you is integrated into…
Our January 2023 Indie Business Book Club selection is The Self-Employed Life: Business and Personal Development Strategies That Create Sustainable Success by Jeffrey Shaw. I have been self-employed for near a quarter of a century. Those of you who know me well will not be surprised at the selection of this book, which highlights and…