In fact fear of launching that business idea or expanding into that new niche is probably exactly why you should do it. If you weren’t afraid, if there wasn’t risk or hurdles to overcome it probably wouldn’t be worth doing.

Do you think taking the first flight, going into space, climbing Everest for the first time or betting everything to open a business wasn’t scary for others? It is why they became famous for it. They had the courage to do what others didn’t or hadn’t tried.

If you want to build an enterprise that is going to grab attention and inspire others you are going to have to lead the charge.

So be afraid, embrace it, find solutions for the challenges and create an amazing business!

Whatever it is, what you really achieve or don’t will rely a lot on who you associate with during the upcoming holidays and throughout the next 12 months.

There are two parts to this equation.

The first is that who you associate with will influence your own actions and decisions. Will the people you spend time with inspire you to greater things, provide greater insight into challenges you face in your business and become valuable resources or will they drag you down, become distractions and prevent you from achieving your full potential?

The second part is the affect that the perception of you associate with has. This includes the business partners you choose, who you have dinner with or hang out with at happy hour and who your friends are on Facebook. You may not think your associations affect your performance or credibility and you may not share their same principals or style but it can affect your personal brand. It can either make you more attractive to do business with or make it a lot harder to win business and close sales.

So, as you take time to reflect during the holidays, make a list, check it twice and decide who you need to meet in 2012, and who you need some distance from.

As we move into a continuous stream of sales between now and the end of the year and many B2B organizations are feeling the pinch of the focus on retail it is the perfect time for small business owners to grab up deals for themselves. Brick and mortar companies can take advantage of all types of bargains, cutting their regular overhead to free up more cash for marketing or to take as profits. While even online businesses can push to negotiate better deals on the services they need from others looking for more Christmas shopping cash.

What should you be scooping up to help take your business to the next level in the New Year?

Even when it comes to personal gift shopping this year wise entrepreneurs may want to reassess their spending habits. 48% of the population surveyed said they planned to spend less this year according to Fox News. However, it isn’t necessarily how much you spend that is such a big deal but what you buy. Instead of splurging on junk and fad items just because it is the usual thing to do, what about investing in property which will grow in value or gifting something to your other half which will make their lives easier and in turn give you more time to focus on your business?

Everything you choose to do is either taking you closer to your goals or further from them. This includes everything from allowing yourself to be distracted by your inbox every 2 minutes to watching TV while you should be focusing on your screen to agreeing to unnecessary meetings. If you aren’t sure what to do when facing a decision whether it is deciding on your marketing for the month or whether to refund a customer instead of battling with them just ask yourself what will help you reach your real goals faster.

With the holidays coming up many entrepreneurs will find them battling with the need to take time off with family and friends. However, time off isn’t always a bad thing. Professional athletes know that pushing themselves too hard and not giving their bodies time to recover or getting injured will actually set them back further. The same goes for the mind of an entrepreneur. Take the time to recharge and if you must use it to do some networking if that makes you feel better but don’t feel guilty about unplugging for a few minutes.

Of course if your business typically benefits from the Christmas shopping fest then there is no question that it can be the perfect time to kick off a new venture if you want to start with a bang. However, even for other service businesses for which you might imagine consumers or business prospects will be too busy to pay attention to at this time of the year, getting started now has many advantages.

Getting your brand off the ground now and launching your social media during this extra social season will give your business the chance to build up a good following before your prospects really begin hunting for your product or service again after the new year. Plus you could be perfectly timing your launch and initial marketing initiatives to coincide with year end bonuses,  tax season and the mass of individuals flush with cash as we move into 2012.

However, experienced entrepreneurs also know that this is the perfect time to out shine the competition and lock into higher revenues for the coming year. So what should you be doing?

Small business owners should anticipate being put off and getting told that no new business will be done until after the beginning of the year but this doesn’t mean you can’t lay the ground work to swipe up large chunks of market share and grab new accounts. Book solid appointments and take advanced orders for after the first.

Even if you, as the owner plan to take time off make sure you keep your organization operating. Be one of the few in your field to provide good and consistent service when others are slacking, hit those customers who are obviously in need of extra assistance but remember not to burn your staff out completely.

Finally, recognize that there is no better time of year to build personal relationships that can withstand price competition and attempts to poach your clients. In addition to the usual adult get-togethers, dinner and cocktail parties consider family events and giving game tickets to prized clients that will ingrain you and your brand in their memories.

Building on its Caffeine web indexing system which rolled out last year, Google just announced further changes to its ranking algorithm which will affect around 35% of all searches. These new changes are aimed at delivering even better results, based on the freshness and most recent content. Depending on the topic, the most relevant search results could be considered those posted this week, today or seconds ago.

The last change aimed at weeding out content farms posting junk articles, blogs and web content was expected to hit 12% of searches. Clearly this latest move will have an even bigger impact, further separating businesses who post more frequently as the biggest winners and recipients of the most web traffic.

Additionally this may have an effect of the value of certain keywords, especially long tail keywords which include dates. On the upside, this likely means more content can be written in a timeless format which will remain relevant for longer. However, it is definitely time for those serious about their online marketing to step up, reevaluate their posting frequency and quality of their content.

1. Promote Through Affiliates

Having your affiliates and strategic partners sending out a personal message recommending your webinar is far more powerful than any self promotion you can do yourself, not to mention a lot more cost effective.

2. Make Getting Tickets A Contest

Add more perceived value and capture more subscribers for your opt-in list by having prospects enter to win tickets instead of just giving them away.

3. Charge For Your Webinar

Unfortunately the plethora of free webinars being promoted today has dramatically decreased their perceived value. Regardless of how great the content of your webinar is, there are so many today that your prospects just can’t afford to take the time to attend them all. Make yours stand out by charging for attendance. It can be $1,000 or just a few bucks as a token payment to capture the most serious leads. Plus this can give you the extra funds you want to do more promotion and buy more traffic.

Small businesses will find Thanksgiving an excellent chance to increase staff loyalty, job satisfaction and productivity. Giving out turkeys to your staff to ensure they have a great day with their families or at least throwing a dinner to help them bond and feel appreciated can go a long way and is certainly more cost effective than having to give them a raise.

On this note you may also want to use this holiday to do something for charity and this in need in your local community. It could be donating food or getting your team together to donate a few hours on Thanksgiving to work in a soup kitchen. Yes, this can do a lot for your brand but do it with the right heart.

While Thanksgiving is traditionally a time to get together with family, families are more spread out than ever. Plus with fewer people cooking for themselves this is a great chance to host a lunch or dinner and do some extra networking. Who are people going to refer their business to for 2012, the competition charging 5% less than you or the person they had Thanksgiving dinner with.

Have you really thought out your pricing? Not just that you can cut costs by doing everything yourself and undercut the competition on price. What happens if the industry changes and an incredible new low becomes the standard like in the publishing industry with ebooks? What if your overhead increases or you have to pay out commissions for others to promote or sell for you?

2. Structure

Is your business model really scalable? You may have a great business idea, product or service but if you don’t have the right structure which can easily be scaled then your ability to grow and even meet the organic demand that comes in restricted by your capabilities to deliver.

3. Brand Image

As we have seen from a number of huge business blunders lately, entering the market on the low end and then trying to put a premium on your service or product doesn’t go down too well with consumers. Just ask Netflix or Bank of America. In contrast building a high quality versus cheap brand from the beginning can offer larger profit margins and more dollars per unit moved meaning less sales are needed to meet your goals.

4. Poor Cash Flow Planning

You can’t just project profits, you need to be intimately aware of your cash flow needs and potential. Besides the threat of running dry on cash just before you make it big, you also won’t be able to take advantage of discounts or jump on opportunities as they arise.